You Can Eat Healthy Meals On A Budget

How much do you spend on groceries? The USDA maintains that careful shopping and cooking meals at home from scratch allows families to enjoy a variety of healthy, lower cost foods. I decided to test this theory by spending $38 at a local store for a week’s worth of groceries for myself.

3SquaresVT, formerly known as food stamps, is the federal USDA program administered in Vermont by the Department for Children and Families. Its purpose is to help stretch food dollars, allowing greater access to healthy, nutritious food. The average 3SquaresVT benefit is approximately $1.80 per meal, or $38 for a week of meals for a single person.

My goal was to spend the weekly $38 average 3SquaresVT benefit for a single adult while following the minimum daily nutrition guidelines for a healthy adult:
5 servings of grains 2 cups vegetables 1 cup of fruit 3 cups of dairy products 5 ounce equivalents of protein

I looked for the healthiest, lowest cost foods within each of these categories:
Grains: 100 percent whole grains such as brown rice, whole grain pasta, and…

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