Budget Shopping (was: Re: I have a question)

I truely understand how hard it is to make nutrious well balanced meals without spending alot. One of the things I have found is to buy frozen veggies as a substitution for fresh. Granit they are not the first choice but I think they are a very good second and they beat out the canned ones as you control the salt and additives. I can buy them for about a buck a bag that will give us two meals.
I grow my own tomatoes in my back yard. I know that may not be possible for folks that live in apartments but for that my mom uses 5 gallon buckes and grows a couple on her patio. The apartment manager doesn't mind at all. She can also take them in if the weather might be damaging. I also grow herbs and dry them so I don't have to buy so much.
Chicken is great and can be made in so many way. Tuna is an option. We were told to avoid it by our doctor because of the mercury levels in it. So please be careful. They do have pouches of salmon for about 2.00 or so that could be used. I know that might be a bit much for some (my mom can't afford it as her income is very low and very limited). But just a suggestion to get some good omega-3's in.
There are bakery shops in most towns and usually have some great buys on bread, even whole grained breads.
I cook larger meals and freeze some in single serving container to keep from buying any ready made food. This was the toughtest thing for me to do. I use to buy quick lunches (this was before my husbands diagnosis of diabetes) and keep them around. You know things like pot pies, pasta dishes and things like that. Well now I make healthy lasange. I make one box of noodles to make 3 full pans of lasagne. 2 go the freezer and 1 is for dinner. Last night I made chicken parmesane. 3 went to the freezer and we ate 3 portions (there are three of us in the house) and one went with dh for lunch today.
I buy whole wheat pasta for those occations that we do eat pasta. I also make alot of beans. We have them in alot of different ways. I do buy canned beans sometimes. I try to make sure they are no added salt or sugar which can be hard to find and can be pricey sometimes. When I can't find them I rinse them before using to keep some of the startch out.
Instead of buying sf pop sicles all the time, I buy frozen fruits and we eat them frozen. They make a great treat and we get our fruit servings in. Berries are one of my husbands favorites. I like pretty much any of them.
I also buy plain yogurt and add frozen fruit to it instead of buying the fruit added cups. I know that it's healthier for me to do this. I eat usually 1/2 c. yogurt every other day. I buy Special K cereal with berries as my one consession. That's my little treat to myself and I use ff milk with it.
I search the webpages for free samples of things I might like to try so I get to try before I buy something. There are also web pages dedicated to coupons. I hit those up every once in a while.
I do shop at Sams club to get my meat. It is cheaper for me to do that. We buy alot of chicken and fish. I have found that Walmart carries a very nice Tilapia for 12-13 dollars for a 4 lb box of them. They are individually wrapped so that is really easy to just make what we want at that time. I usually buy one a month.
I also buy whole chickens when they are on sale. I usually get them for about 49 cents per pound. I put them in the freezer as well. I do alot of sale's shopping.
One thing we did when we lived in Texas was to do kinda a co-op shop at the wholesale clubs. We would have 4-5 familys get together and all to to the store. We would buy meat in bulk and then divide it up along with the costs. Everyone was really happy with this. That might be an ideal for those trying to save a buck. They sell chicken breast 1.97 per lb. One package has around 6-8 breast in it. They are boneless skinless so you are really getting all meat. I use one breast per pot for soup or persian foods that aren't kabobs.
These are a few of the things I do to help cut my food budget.
I hope this helps some.