25 HEALTHY + CHEAP FOODS to Buy on a Budget | Save Money on Groceries

Hello everyone out there, how's it going? Welcome back to my channel. A while back I made a video on tips for eating healthy on a budget and today I wanted to do a little follow-up on that and share with you 25 foods that are both cheap but also still very healthy and nutritious. A couple quick points though before I get started. One is that I am in the Toronto area of Ontario, Canada, so any prices that I mention will be in Canadian dollars. What is the other thing that I wanted to say? What else did I want to say? Prices are going to vary from place to place, of course, but I've done my best to include foods that are hopefully as relevant as possible to as many of you guys as possible. But do let me know in the comments below where you're from and the foods that you tend to find to be more affordable in your region. It'd be really interesting to hear from you. Let me know in the comments below and I think that's it for this intro. Let's dive right in. Here are 25 foods that are cheap and very healthy. Starting with the vegetable category here, food number one is cabbage. Cabbage is such an affordable food and they're so big usually. I'm talking about green cabbage here, although purple cabbages are also pretty affordable as well. But I can get a big green cabbage for about 89 cents a pound and you get so much out of it. Like when you slice it up, you get a whole lot of it and it adds a lot of bulk to recipes. You can add it to casseroles, stir fries, coleslaws you can make out of it, different salads, all the things. Very versatile, very nutritious as well. Food number two are potatoes. Also pretty affordable. I can get them for as little as 60 cents a pound for a russet or a yellow skinned potato. Sweet potatoes do tend to be a little bit more expensive, but still potatoes are generally a pretty affordable food and so delicious. You can roast them, you can add them to stews, you can mash them, you can do all kinds of things with potatoes. They're magical little vegetables. Food number three is rutabaga, which is a very interesting name choice for a vegetable. It is like a turnip, but it's not a turnip. They're like yay big. They're a root veggie. Rutabaga I can get for about 99 cents a pound and also quite versatile. You can chop it up, you can roast it in the oven, do a little veggie roast medley. Food number four are carrots. Also such a staple. We always have tons of carrots in our fridge and they last a pretty decent amount of time. I can get a big bag of carrots for as little as $1.20 give or take a pound and they're great. Also something that you can do so many different kinds of things with. You can eat them raw, you can shred them in salads, you can bake them, add them to soups. Food number five is spinach. Bagged like mature leaf spinach is pretty cheap. I can get as for as little as 88 cents for 100 grams. Also the frozen blocks of spinach that you sometimes see in the freezer section, those are also pretty cheap as well. Food number six are frozen peas. Also so cost effective and a great freezer food to keep on hand. I can get like a two kilogram bag of frozen peas for six bucks. Anytime I'm making something like let's say a soup or even a stir fry and I'm just like what is a veggie I could use to just add something a little extra? Peas. The answer is peas. You can just add it to so many different kinds of things. And the last food in the veggie category is canned tomatoes. I can get canned tomatoes for as little as 25 cents for 100 milliliters. I mean a good size can of them I can get for a couple of bucks so pretty good. Another one that's great to keep in your pantry that lasts a really long time. Great for making sauces and chilies. Moving on to the fruit category. Number eight we have bananas. Bananas I can get for around 59 cents a pound. We always have bananas on hand each week. We pick them up every single week. Smoothies, snacking, oatmeal, baking. I bake with them. You can do all the things with bananas. Number nine are oranges. I was obsessed with navel oranges when I was pregnant. I used to eat them all the time like right before bed because they were just so satisfying. I've seen oranges for as little as 77 cents a pound up to $1.99 a pound depending on the store or if they're on sale. But oranges are usually fairly affordable as well. Number 10 are apples. Another great choice. I always have lots of apples in my fridge because they make such great snacks. I just love them. My favorite of all time are honeycrisp apples. Arguably the best apple that there is. They are a little bit more expensive though. Depending on the apple you can get them for anywhere from a dollar up to $2.99 a pound depending. Number 11 we've got cantaloupe. I love cantaloupe. Such a delightful melon. Every time I bring it home I chop it up and I store it in a container in the fridge and it just makes for a really easy delicious snacking. I've been able to get cantaloupe for about $3.50 and you get quite a lot out of it. I was even at the grocery store the other day and I saw it for like $2.49 which is excellent. And number 12 we have frozen fruit. So this one will depend on where you're located. Frozen fruit can be more expensive. Where I live it is a pretty cost effective way to have different fruits or especially berries in my freezer. So I always have frozen fruit in the freezer. I can get about a 500 gram bag of frozen like mixed berries for about I want to say $4.50 maybe $4.49. It goes for about $3.39 a pound roughly. So pretty good considering that if I get little individual containers of blueberries or raspberries it tends to be like $5 for one of those which I do still like to have fresh berries on hand as well but frozen fruit is still great to have. And a lot of times the fruit is picked at peak ripeness so still a very nutritious option. Moving on to the protein category we have here number 13 beans and lentils and I did a little bit of research here and I can get different kinds of beans for roughly the same price. Chickpeas, black beans, navy beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, red and green lentils. They go for about 28 cents for 100 milliliters or $1.99 a pound. I usually like to have canned and dried both on hand but they are such a fantastic plant-based protein option. So affordable especially if you get dried because you get quite a lot of them and they expand when you soak them and when you cook them. So beans and lentils are the way to go. Really gut health friendly as well. Very good source of prebiotic fibers so really good for happy healthy gut. Number 14 we have sunflower seeds. This is one of the cheaper seeds out there. I can get for about $3.25 a pound. The very highly scientific mathematical research that I did worked out to $3.25 a pound. By the way I'm not a math whiz. You can top sunflower seeds on salads or on oatmeal. Great in a trail mix and sunflower seed butter is also a really great like nut butter option as well that tends to be not overly expensive as well. Number 15 are peanuts. Peanut butter as well. I don't actually buy peanuts really ever but I do like to have a jar of peanut butter in my fridge. I always get unsweetened unsalted but I can get peanuts go for about $3 a pound roughly speaking or $3.40 a pound for peanut butter. Again highly scientific mathematical research that I did here. That's what I found out. Also good source of plant-based protein. One tablespoon gives you roughly four grams of protein I believe which is pretty good. Number 16 are flax seeds and I've been eating flax seeds for so many years I didn't even quite realize just how you know affordable they really can be. So I can get them for about 55 cents for 100 grams. Flax seeds are such a great source of omega-3 fats. Really really good for your heart health, brain health, skin. Little tip for you here is to actually buy flax seeds whole so that they are kept fresher because of those delicate omega-3 fats that they contain. But to get the benefits of the omega-3s that they contain you do want to grind them up when you're using them. So what I do is I just grind up like a small amount as needed or I keep like a little jar of them in my fridge ground up and that way you can keep them fresher. Just grind them as needed. Number 17 are walnuts. Walnuts are one of the cheaper nuts that you can find comparatively. About $1.80 for 100 grams I have been able to find. I was actually at the bulk store the other day and almonds were slightly cheaper than the walnuts which was a little bit surprising because I always thought almonds were quite a bit more expensive but anyways walnuts do tend to be one of the cheaper nuts that you can get. Number 18 are eggs. Eggs make another great affordable whole food source of protein, good fats, choline. Now of course you know the prices are going to vary here depending on the type of egg that you are getting but even if you are looking to try and grab a free-range egg which I try to do more often, eggs still generally on average will go for about 50 cents an egg. Can be less than that, can be more than that and for what you get I mean there's so many ways you can eat eggs and they are so nutritious. Number 19 is yogurt. Yogurt I can get for about $3.50 for 500 grams on average. I like the brand Siggy's they make really good simple ingredient yogurt and yeah that's pretty good. Very good source of protein, good source of calcium, lots of minerals in there as well. Makes a pretty good satiating snack or with breakfast. Number 20 is canned tuna. I like to have canned tuna in my pantry stocked up just because it can make really you know easy lunches. You can have it with a salad or a tuna sandwich. Good healthy fats in there and protein as well. I can get for about $1.79 up to $2.99 a can roughly. I would recommend opting for a chunk light tuna versus like an albacore tuna. The light tuna is usually a skipjack just because you will have less of any heavy metal content. And lastly in the protein category we have chicken. So really anytime you you are looking for bone-in skin on you will save a little bit of money compared to the boneless skinless counterpart. So chicken legs, chicken thighs, chicken breast as well. Although that does tend to be a little bit more expensive but a whole chicken too will sometimes save you a bit. Okay moving on to the last category here which is grains. Grains! We've got oats. Number 22. Oats are definitely very affordable. Even if you go for a bag of organic oats they still tend to be a pretty affordable food. Quick oats, steel cut oats, rolled oats, many different options there. I can get for on average $1.75 a pound. Great for making oatmeal of course. I bake with them. Sometimes I'll grind them up and make an oat flour out of them. Number 23 we have millet. Similar to quinoa it's a gluten-free grain. Great way to switch around your grains if you're wanting to try something new whether you eat gluten-free or not. Great thing to do and quite affordable. You can get it for about 50 cents for 100 grams so that's pretty good. Number 24 we have whole grain brown rice. Depending on the type of rice that you are getting of course it will vary but I can get for about $2.70 a pound which is about 60 cents for 100 grams. I hope you guys appreciate the hard work I spent doing math for this video. Required lots of extra effort. And lastly number 25 is barley. Barley is another great whole grain. Great option for switching your grains around which like I was saying is a really great thing to do instead of always eating the same grains all the time. Switching things around is great to do. Get slightly different nutrient profiles in different kinds of grains that you can eat. So barley is a great option. You tend to see barley in like stews and soups kind of added into that. You can get for about 55 cents for 100 grams. So that is it for today's video. Thank you so much for watching. Again let me know where you're located and what foods you tend to find to be the most affordable in your area. Let me know in the comments below and don't forget to check out the video that I mentioned that I shared with you guys a while back on tips for healthy eating on a budget. I will leave that linked... I never know what side it's on. I think up here. Yes. Description box below as well and I will see you all in next one.