It's Expensive to be Healthy - Page 3

I'm glad mine isn't the only one with a thing for q-tips. I have to draw the line at playing fetch with those. I will throw his little mousy for him and he can bring it back, but I refuse to throw q-tips around the house.

^^ He sounds really sweet! My fatboy bites like that, love bites we call them. Until you mentioned the breed, I never even heard of it. It sounds like one I would love to have. If I didn't have 5 kids, 3 cats and a dog I would be all over it, well if I could find one anyway. It would be a nice addition to the train of things that follow me around everyday. Can you post a good pic for me?

if you think healthy food is expensive in the US you should see australian prices. if i were to buy top quality, healthy, fresh products it would cost over 100 bucks a week, just for me! fruit and veg prices are insane, meat prices are even more insane. to make matters worse there is no such thing as discount grocery stores, apart from 1 chain in the eastern states. if you live in western australia then tough luck. with all the crap that comes with living in this country, ie EVERYTHING is ridiculously expensive but wages dont compensate for it, no one has anything left for healthy food.

i dont get the governments. they go on and on about the obesity epidemic yet they wont solve this problem about healthy food being too expensive. there has been so many calls for the government to subsidise healthy food. if a struggling family has to make a choice between feeding bad food that they can afford and healthy food that they cant, well duh its easy to see what choice they are going to make. bills and rent have to be paid before people can start picking and choosing what they eat.

When I lived on campus it was close to Chinatown/Kensington market, so it was ridiculously cheaper to get produce there than the supermarket (I actually had 2 that were both within 3 minutes walking distance). The only cons was that it took 15 minutes to walk to and the people in there were very pushy, in the physical way.

It costs a lot more money to grow organic food if that is what you are speaking about. If the government got involved prices would just go even higher. I am only talking about the US govt though so I do not know how it is there.

I do know that here you can get a whole chicken for about $5. Good quality beef costs a lot though. Beans and rice are cheap and not really that bad for you.

Is there a food tax in AU?

I have to say, I lived in Melbourne for almost three years and my experience was very different. The veg there, just at my local safeway or vic market was GREAT and very affordable by contrast to the US. In the US, unless you buy an organic tomato, it barely tastes like a tomato anymore. Not so in Aus. But I can see it would be quite different in WA. Are you in Perth?

I lost about 15 pounds when I lived in Aus. eating very normally. Now I struggle to keep those pounds off.

buahahah lmao!!! perfectly timed! i'm reading all these serious (and great) posts, and bam! lol


anyway, this is a great thread. i've been trying to eat healthy, but it's always a balancing and juggling act with time and money. i used to buy a whole crap load of stuff once it goes on sale, but i've stopped because i've gotten worried about all the radiation from the microwave is doing to the food. unless you guys are saying you all heat up your frozen cooked and UNCOOKED food on the stove/oven?

I unplugged my microwave a year and a half ago and stuck it on top of the fridge. I have plugged it in exactly 4 times since to make popcorn.

It has not been missed.

casey, how do you thaw your frozen meats?

btw, i've only seen casey's cat, but he's the most awesome looking cat ever!

ppb, is v-8 a commonly used ingredient in cooking? i've never heard of it, but it sounds genius! i used to live with an apartmentmate who was thinking about going to culinary school. he was one of those guys who never needed to look up recipes...he just had a natural innate "feel" for things. he'll just make stuff up on the fly and cook along the way. but anyway, this one time he was making mexican food for all of us and one of the ingredients he put in his freshly made salsa was...kiwi? never thought it would work, but it was brilliant! he inspires me to try outrageous new ingredients, but my trial and errors usually end up being mostly errors. not my fault i was cooking brownies with sesame oil though!

yeah im in perth, so more expensive than the east. i wish we had an aldi here. id never shop anywhere else lol! the fruit and veg in supermakets here are awful [like how you described the tomato]. i have to go down to the local fruit and veg shop to get anything decent and its twice the price of the supermarkets. im not sure when you were last in oz but meat prices have gone stupid. i cant find a small piece of fillet steak for less than 6 bucks now. by the time ive bought the side dishes to go with it i may as well go to a restuarant and have someone else cook it.

in regards to non food items i have seen some products that have been marked up by at least 20 bucks just because its perth. some of these items were actually manufactured in perth or shipped directly from the country it was made in [not going through syndey etc] so i dont know how the extra cost was justified.

p.s. sultrysiren, we have the gst in australia, thats 10% and fresh food is exempt. we also have our crazy tax on wages. my dad gets taxed a whopping 40%! and did you say a whole chicken for 5 bucks? WOAH! send some this way!

Frozen meat, put in the fridge 24 hours before you are going to eat it, meal planning is key, as was mentioned earlier.

I saw a small pic of Artreyu, but I'l LOVE to see a biggie.

I don't use v-8 for anything else, but I probably would use it as a veggie broth for other soups. It MAKES the taste of grammies veggie soup though. Wihtout it the soup would be just blah.

The kiwi in salsa is GENIUS!!! Love that one. Yes, great cooks have that innate ability to taste with their minds. It's the difference between a good cook and a culinary genius.

Microwaves are not all they are cracked up to be. Convection is better, expensive but better. We just added 2 convections to our kitchen and I can tell you enough how great they are. I never use the micorwave, I don't miss it at all. But I love the added space on my counter!

Organic food is expensive but IMO you don't need it. With all the pollution in the air and water, your fruit and veggies are hardly "organic". They certainly don't water with filtered water. Most pesticides can be washed off with a good produce cleaner wash. Except grapes, grapes are bad. They are tiny little chemical bombs. I go organic for grapes. I buy normal produce at a local market, even the grocery store , I grow some and I get some from my neighbors garden. Growing your own is the only way to ensure you have real organic. Plus the soil is so depleted of minerals on most produce farms the fruit and veggies nutritional value of today are very compromised. The greater good is really eliminating the processed foods so that you get every good vitmain and mineral absorbed into the body .

not_a_virus: I don't thaw any frozen meats because I don't eat meat

kitakins: Yeah...I never had to worry much about meat prices because of the above^^ I actually do remember one of my housemates who was from Perth gushing about going to the fresh markets in Melb. for produce and how good the prices were. $20-25 for two big carrybags of fruit and veg....oh how I miss that!

Pooh...Isn't getting rid of the microwave the BEST?!? I really just consider it completely unnecessary now (except for my occasional popcorn craving). It just seems healthier to cook on the stove top or the oven. It is really funny...when Tim asked about that I was thinking "I bet Michelle doesn't use a microwave either!" I was right...hahaha...we would get along so well in real life.

Here are a couple of shots of dear kitty. (so OT in the expensive to be healthy thread, but oh well)

That is an AMAZINGGGGG cat. Holy COW, he's beautiful!!! He looks like fox fur. He also looks like a TON of fun and very athletic. Thanks for posting. Way OT but important just the same.

LOL microwaves...ppppfttttt. We would get along if doing nothing else but eating! Are you trying to line up another suitor??? I was half way ther already, don't dangle any organic carrots in my direction.

Did you catch him in the middle of a stretch in that last pic? Indeed he does look to be very expensive!

argh, casey, your cat makes me go cat crazy! i just wanna reach out and pet him! please fedex him so i can relieve this irrational compulsion to feel his fine catty pelt.

You guys are going to give him a swollen head

Yes Michelle, he is very athletic. He likes to jump on the top of doors and balance there like he is walking on an unstable balance beam. One of his favorite games involves getting up to an alcove above my bedroom closet and then divebombing my stomach as I sleep. Especially when I am hungover.

I have some lovely organic carrots right here for you. I was going to put them in my juicer along with some celery, a green apple, beetroot and ginger. Tempted? There is always room in my eHarem.

Sultry...yes, he was streeeeetttccchhhhing out.

Tim...he is so silky, you wouldn't believe. But there will be no fedexing. He had to be put on a plane from Arizona to get to me and he did NOT enjoy that.

Casey, Tim told me one of my cats looked like an unshaved anus She's an Exotic Shorthair.

Oh I love her sweet little flat face! Not anus like at all...IMO. Actually, that may be Tim's way of saying that he likes it a lot and wants to do dirty things to her.

Thanks, dear! I just needed validation. All my cats have show pics that are f'n awesome but not digi.
Your pics are beauty! Saucer eyes!

You're probably right about Tim! I don't care what anyone says about me, but my animals, grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

OK people no more OT

anus cat is clearly jealous of silky cat.

casey, if fedex is a no go, i am okay with USPS Express with signature confirmation.

I'm just NOT going to respond to 'anus cat' Goodbye.

anyway...



i heard that eating liver is bad for you. true/false

My fatboy does/did the stomach dive as well. All 17 lbs of him at 5AM from a dresser that USED to sit next to my bed.

Skip the beet root and I am there. Wait, better take that back becasue the HF sex police might think I want to hump you. I really just want you to cook for me and I will earn my keep by telling you how smart and beautiful you are.

Begret, your cat is so freaking beautiful! Really, I love that face. She looks like a tortie, calico, persian, very unique!

I found show photos of two of my kitties! Blue Sky is a candid, Tim must see. Movie star photogs took these, they aren't digi.

CHAMPBLUE SKY/HAMBONE


The Crispy

Sorry OT,but I was really excited ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^