"I Can't Afford To Eat Healthy"

I've heard this so many times and, to be frank, it strikes me as a pile of well composted manure in the vast majority of cases.  What always boggles my mind is that some people make this claim of not being able to eat healthy, yet they'll be munching on some chips and drinking a Pepsi while they say it.  Huh?  I feed my whole family a meal for what they probably spent on that snack.  I think three types of people make this kind of claim:

1. People who don't know how to make healthy food
2. People who genuinely can't afford to buy any food
3. People who are too darn lazy to make the effort

If you are in the second category, I'm sincerely sorry and if you send me a private message with your address, I'd be happy to send you some seeds so you can start growing some food.  If you are in the first group, I hope that I'm giving you the skills you need to change that through this blog and if there are any holes in your knowledge that need patched up before you really get going on eating better, please speak up and I'll see about writing some posts to help you out.  If you are in the third group, I hope you start being honest with yourself and shut up about not being able to, since it might be discouraging to people in the first group, since it makes it seem harder if others say they can't.

Since I can't do anything for the people in the second and third groups besides what I mentioned in the last paragraph, the rest of this post is geared toward people in the first group.  Maybe the problem is a lack of understanding of what actually is healthy.  There certainly a lot of different opinions out there about what is healthy and what is not.  To me, healthy is a diet largely composed of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and relatively free of chemicals, either in the growing of the food, or afterwords as added ingredients like preservatives.  Meat and dairy are optional, but to be healthy, these should be from happy animals, not factory farm critters who spend their lives wallowing in their own filth and likely drugged up on antibiotics to keep their infections from killing them before they are harvested for meat.  Yeah, not very appetizing, I know.  That's why our family predominantly eats wild game or chickens from Amish farms where they are well cared for.  Our dairy is also lacking in quality since most of it comes from WIC, and the government doesn't see the benefit of giving people healthy food, so we get what we pay for on that one.  I'm hoping to change that once we upgrade to our own land, since then maybe I can get some goats for milk.  With this model of healthy eating, the meat and dairy are the most expensive parts by far and, if you notice, a lot of my recipes show ways to make that meat go a lot farther than most recipes do, so you still only end up paying a buck or two for meat for the meal for the whole family.

For grains, buying things with the least amount of ingredients as possible is also a plus.  A bag of 100% whole grain flour, for example, opens up a world of possibilities.  Some of these, like wholesome cookies or no-knead breads, are pretty easy, but you can also get quite fancy with baked goods.  A bag of flour gives you a lot of power--and you can get a bunch of things out of one for less than the cost of a single loaf of whole wheat bread!  Pastas and brown rice are easy ways to get whole grains into your diet, if you aren't quite up to making your own baked goods yet. 

Carrots, purple potatoes, onions, and beans from last year's garden

Fruits and vegetables you can get really, really cheaply, since you can grow them!  As I mentioned in my post on gardening in small spaces, you really can garden just about anywhere!  Using the square foot gardening method, you can actually grow enough produce for a year for a family of 4 in 12 4'x4' boxes, probably even less space if you manage it particularly well and grow primarily things that produce a lot in a little space and stay away from space piggies, like broccoli.  If you don't have that much space, you may be able to find space in a community garden or even someone else's yard.  Two years ago, a gentleman at my church offered to let anyone interested use his garden space, since he spends a lot of time away in the summer and didn't want the land to go to waste!  It was an excellent opportunity, but unfortunately not one I could take him up on that year, since I was extremely pregnant at the time and couldn't handle more than my garden boxes at home.

Another way to get lots of free fruits and nuts is gather them yourself.  In the fall, it always amazes me how many fruit and nut trees I see just littering people's yards, since the people have no interest in what they have growing in their yard!  A lot of times, if you ask these people, they'd be happy to let you take what you'd like from their trees, and in the cases of some nuts, they may even be willing to pay you for taking them out of their yards!  Acorns are a good example of this.  A lot of people just think of them as something messing up their yards, but they are good eating, if you know what to do with them (and don't worry, come fall, I'm sure I'll tell you things to do with them.  If I forget, just remind me).

Wild foraging is another way to get lots of free, healthy food, but unless you know what you are doing, it can be risky, so I'm not going to get too much into that here.  If you can find someone to teach you locally, that's best, but there are some really great guides on the market, so it would be a really good idea to look into some of these if you can't find someone in person.  Again, I'll probably be sharing some things to do with some of them here at some point...or ask.

If these ideas don't quite cover your needs, another way to get cheap healthy food is by going to farmers' markets.  A lot of people have the impression that farmers' markets are expensive and elitist, but I've found the opposite to be true.  Yes, if you want some of the first, fresh local tomatoes of the year, you are going to pay a premium for them.  But if you are buying things that will just feed your family and getting them at the peak of the season, you can get a lot for quite a tiny bit of money.  Once, last year, I got seventeen large zucchini for $2 at the close of one farmers' market.  Seventeen zucchini!  For two dollars!!!!  That was a lot of zucchini!  The farmer that I bought them from didn't want to mess with taking them back and trying to sell them at another market when there were plenty more where they came from, so I was able to get an amazing deal.  At another farmers' market I went to a lot last year, there was one lady that was charmed by how much my kids loved vegetables, so she was always throwing in a little extra when I bought from her.  She even took me aside at one point and told me that if I was short of funds sometimes, she'd be happy to give me some food for free.  I never had to take advantage of her offer, but it was comforting to know that it was available if needed!  You don't get that kind of service at Walmart!

The average American family spends something like $150 a week on groceries.  I spend about $30 and eat far healthier than most of the people spending far more.  So, yeah, if I can do it with that little, you can afford to eat healthy too!