The economy sucks right now, and everything seems to be so expensive. Luckily, many restaurants have scaled back their portions or prices to accommodate the difference in the economic environment. These foods may be cheaper. However, they’re still riddled with tons of sugars, salts, and saturated fats that bastardize any healthy benefits they may have had. Once in a while, sure. Just don’t make it a habit.
Even with tough times, there are still foods that are very reasonable in price and yet nutritious. It may take a bit of effort, but most grocery stores have sales every week, so take advantage of those when good products are cheap. Regardless of sales, here are five foods that stay in the affordable range while giving you excellent nutritional value.
1) Peanuts
Ah, the wonderful peanut. Who doesn’t love to grab a handful of these babies and chow down? Peanuts have been an American staple for years and can be found just about anywhere. Go to Aldi’s and pick up a 1-lb package of peanuts for just $2.00. This will give you 16 servings, each serving containing 160 calories, 14 grams of fat (12 grams poly and monounsaturated fats), 200 milligrams of potassium, and 7 grams of protein. A 1-ounce serving of peanuts is pretty small but very calorie dense. This is perfect for in-between big meals when you want a nice snack.
2) Chicken
Cluck, cluck, cluck. Chicken is an excellent source of protein and extremely lean. The great thing about cooking chicken is that it’s very versatile and can cover a wide range of ethnic recipes. For a quick fry, go for the breast, as cooking too long causes it to dry out and taste nasty. For longer barbecuing, go for the legs and thighs, which have a bit more fat on them and give the chicken great flavor. Most grocery stores have sales on chicken breasts for around $2.00 a pound. Pick up a 5-lb package, bake off what you need for the week, and there you have it. You can have chicken sandwiches on the cheap all week! For some flavor to go with your chicken breast, barbecue sauce is man’s best friend.
3) Tuna
For those who love marine life and, more specifically, like eating it, tuna fish is an excellent choice. Tuna is a good source of omega 3 fatty acids, which have been shown to improve heart health, and it’s a fantastic source of protein. Tuna is extremely cheap, especially at Aldi’s where you can buy a can for 49 cents. Get 10 to 12 cans for $5.00 to $6.00, each containing around 30 grams of protein. Now that’s a steal! Tuna isn’t the best tasting food item, but if you doctor it using hot sauce, a touch of mayonnaise, or other condiments, it can improve the texture and taste.
4) Milk
Straight from a cow’s udders, milk is an amazing beverage that does the body good. Milk is loaded with calcium to keep bones strong and it’s easily digestible due to its liquid form (so long as you aren’t lactose intolerant). This is a great product that goes well with protein shakes and is also wonderful for breakfast. If you aren’t a big fan of regular milk or you can’t stomach it well, try soy milk or almond milk as an alternative. As far as regular milk goes, a gallon of two percent milk hovers around $2.50 a gallon. That’s 128 grams of protein for $2.50. Sign me up!
5) Eggs
Who came first—the chicken or the egg? Well, it doesn’t matter because when it comes to protein, eggs are the king of the farm. Protein values are rated from 1–100, and the 100 rating is based off the egg. Egg protein is great for athletes because it’s easily digestible and is a complete protein containing all the essential amino acids that our bodies can’t produce. Each egg contains 4 grams of fat, 0 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of protein, and about 70 calories. They also contain about 200 milligrams of cholesterol per egg as well, which isn’t a worry unless you have genetically bad cholesterol. The dietary cholesterol in eggs is helpful because cholesterol is a precursor to testosterone. Every athlete can benefit from increases in testosterone, and eggs can help you get there. The best part about eggs is that they’re dirt cheap. Aldi’s has a dozen eggs at around $1.00 a piece. There isn’t any way you can go wrong with that deal!
Even in difficult economic times, it’s possible to eat well for a reasonable price. Next time you go shopping, take a look at what you’re buying and ask yourself if it’s beneficial to your nutritional plan. Try to limit snack foods as these can make your food bill and waistline go through the roof. So eat well and chow down!
PDF 
Jason Colenzo is a strength and fitness enthusiast who has competed in powerlifting meets for five years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from SUNY Cortland, where he also held weight lifting records in two weight classes. He is currently pursuing certification as a certified strength and conditioning specialist. If you’d like to read more of Jason’s material, it can be found on his website, 5 Star Strong at http://5starstrong.com. 
Good ideas. What about beans?
“However, they’re still riddled with tons of sugars, salts, and saturated fats ”
Hold on – author still believes saturated fat is bad for you?
and what about chicken thighs/drumsticks/milk/eggs? health is again bastardized, huh
@ jordan
Have you got too much time on your hands?
Go argue on some childish forum.
Thanks for the comments guys
Jason: Beans are great as well, with this article I seemed to lean toward cheap protein sources moreso than anything else and beans are again a great choice. Were you thinking a specific type of bean or just beans in general?
Jordan: I’ve read back and forth on saturated fats from both camps and it seems that saturated fats still get a bad rap for the most part. I know cholesterol also does from the general public, but I have read up on the benefits of dietary cholesterol and how much genetics does influence serum cholesterol production. So I look at cholesterol more positively now than I did before. I’m not against fat at all, but I believe the high content of fat (especially in things like fast food, along with trans fat and preservatives with all the letters in the alphabet necessary to spell them) in addition to sedentary lifestyles contributes to things like heart disease and cancer. Like most diets you can’t totally avoid saturated fats, but fast foods generally have plenty of that to go around. If you have any literature in regards to how saturated fats are no longer considered bad I would love to read it! I don’t mean that in a smart ass way I would like to read up on that.
Here in Canada food costs much more…
What about oatmeal, lentil beans, low-fat cottage cheese or all-natural peanut butter? All of these are inexpensive and great for ya.
Eat lots of meat and eggs and limit the carbs all day. Eat some CLEAN carbs after working out (sweet potatoes, quinoa, rice). And drink some fast digesting carbs and whey after working out. These 3 rules took me from being a 300lb fat ass to a 250lb formidable male lifter. Looking forward to following these rules until I am a lean and mean machine. It’s that simple. Good article on protein for the price, The path to awesome is hard but SIMPLE.
Thanks,
Andy
Pork shoulder and boneless skinless chicken thighs can each be found for <$1.50/lb without a sale, very delicious. Frozen broccoli spears can be found dirt cheap.
Love reading an article that mirrors my poor university strength athlete shopping list! Readers should throw some other ideas out there!
Ground beef anyone????
I’m going to start my own political party: The Milk is Too Damn High party.
Here one gallon of 2% is ~$3.79, and I don’t even live in NYC or anything.
Hey Jason, doesnt milk have a few bad points such as raising estrogen & mucus levels and being inflammatory? I know you suggested alternativels but do the positives outweigh the negatives? I have read a lot of bad things about milk. Many Thanks
Jason: google Weston A. Price Foundation
I second the Weston A. Price Foundation, great people.
And if your lactose intolerant, try Raw Milk, it’s got lactase in it to help you digest the lactose.
Pretty much my diet at the minute! Perfect article for student athletes on a very tight budget
Shouldn’t we throw away the egg yolks and only eat the whites? The yolks have fat and fat is bad right? Please pass the fat-free Little Debbie’s snack cakes and the fat-free Ice cream. Thanks.
really? soy milk?
thats my current diet…now if i could only find a way to not eat half a can of peanuts and a container of cottage cheese each night
On the tuna: if you add some cottage cheese and mustard, it makes one hell of a protein-packed tuna salad. Works the same way with egg salad. My girlfriend can’t get enough of it. Giggity.
Thanks guy for all the comments.Liking a lot of these ideas so far and I think coming up with a cheap eats that are good for you list would be great. Already saw a couple good ones, and want to add some more to the list:
-Ground beef
-Cottage cheese
-Oatmeal
-Natty PB
-Beans
-Broccoli
-Soba noodles (personal favorite, 3 bundles cost around 2.50, but pair it with a chicken breast and you have a very cheap dinner)
-Green Tea: way too many good things in regards to antioxidants and its dirt cheap everywhere
-Bananas (i have read they can increase testosterone levels, not sure how much, but thats never a bad thing, plus they’re also fairly cheap)
I think a lot of the problems with diets is people are generally too lazy (myself included at times) to cook and prepare meals. Its just simply easier and more efficient to go through a drive thru then it is to make a nutritious meal. Its unfortunate, but its the truth. Plus it can be cheaper than preparing your own. I wanted this article to spark conversation on cheap but healthy eats that everyone can benefit from, and so far I see awesome ideas, especially that tuna salad with the cottage cheese and mustard!
Re: peanuts, I cut them out of my diet and eliminated a major amount of gas and bloating.
protein is expensive per gram, compared to the shit they put in snack cakes.
Size costs money — for cattle, homes, pecs, whatever. There isn’t necessarily a ‘cheap’ way to do anything right.
Hi, I was told to back off from too much Tuna, it contains Mecury. Is this right? I always wait for the offers on John West’s Tuna that costs approximately £1 sterling per tin, they sometimes shrink wrap 5 tins together for the offer, but, I’d like to know if a cheaper brand, £0.49 is still as good as named. We tend to shop for “Taste the Difference”, rather than “Basics”. The Difference being Pictures and Words on the wrapper or just Words that tell you what it is. Though usually the Taste the Difference is better, less gristle in mince beef for example. We too have Aldi’s here, but we never shop at discount stores, her indoors is fussy about food. Sometimes we shop at ASDA, Wal Mart to you if I’m correct, not bad although sometimes the quality has been poor. A lot of meat having a short sell by date. Sometimes I’ve had to take meat back thats gone off. Eggs, her indoors likes Free Range from hens that can run freely, where as I will eat eggs from Caged hens, because they’re cheaper. What about your thoughts on quality, please? Do you think a Diet can be had with less quality?
Thanks.
Mike:)
Milk is for babies !!!
that has been my diet for the past 10 yrs, cant afford or believe in supplements, when i was in college or playing football i would get lots of supplements from the sponsors, i had no problem with that, but to pay from my own pocket… thats a different story…it gets boring but who cares,you just have to eat it, poor people developes bargain finder skills, like jason said, ALDI is great, tuna is cheap, they even have 6oz steaks for under 2 bucks, 5 or 6 frozen chicken breasts for under $6, big deal of stew meat for 4 bucks (marinated and seasoned with rice and veggies tastes great)… i dont live to eat,i have kids, they have needs, mine come after if so, i sometimes can afford walmarts whey protein but thats the most “cool” i get…
-bananas
-chicken
-peanut butter
-turkey
-wheat bread
-tuna
-rice
-pasta
-beans
-brocoli
-green beans
http://www.gotmercury.org for a list of fish with mercury issues. Which is most of them. I pretty much only eat canned wild salmon as my fish right now, as that is supposedly mercury free.
As for the rest of your list, I dunno. There is an old saying, More important than the food you eat is the food your food eats. Eating cheap, GM fed, antibiotic filled, feedlot style beef and chicken cannot be that healthy for you in the long run.
That said, it is still better than living off cheetoes and soda, so YMMV.
Lately, I’ve been cooking 96% lean ground meat and portioning it with brown rice. Sometimes I put taco seasoning in it, but usually just chili powder. All pretty cheap.
Well, These are already a part of my everyday staple anyways; because I’m not extremely wealthy, yet! lol
Poor Jordan is such a moron he didn’t list what foods he was yapping about (none of which-by the way have what he was shooting his piehole off about).
@ Andy
You still must have carbs to be a reasonably good lifter. Magnus Sammuelsson said it himself. “The problem with most strength athletes is that they don’t get enough carbs.”
sardines!!!!!!
OMG STOP STOP making it so damn difficult its this simple eat meat even fatty cuts fat dont make you fat veggies nuts seed some fruit little starch (mostly post wod) NO SUGAR take out processed crap even milk! the less ingredients the better this took me from 250 pounds to 115 pounds YUP 135 lost!!!
following this advise!!
also Sleep well at least 7 hours and find out what that sleep sweet spot and stick with it go to bed same time and rise at same time (sleep hygiene)
Stop eating processed shit! thats it i follow this and am packed with muscle and have awesome energy!!
With this follow the KISS method keep it simple stupid!!
Good luck and if you need further help please email me im a Certified personal trainer!
Goats milk is well tolerated by people who have a harder time with cows milk.