Q: What would you suggest someone who is totally broke (like me) do about eating healthier? It's disgusting how much cheaper it is to buy frozen dinners than it is to buy chicken! (The government is so focused on making pills cheaper when they should really focus on making healthy food cheaper...thus eliminating the need for pills! But don't even get me started!) I saw your suggestion for the college student, and the eggs & tuna fish are great suggestions, but I can't have that for every meal every day. Any other suggestions?

A: Eating healthy does not have to be expensive. While things salmon and skinless boneless chicken breasts add up fast, you can still have a very healthy diet with a little creativity:

• Eat lots of legumes. Lentils and beans of all sorts. All legumes are nearly 50/50 protein/carbs and carbs are of the fiberous complex variety that you want. Just don't eat canned -- cook them yourself.
• Eat more veggies in general. They're relatively cheap and are very healthy. Compromise and go with packs of frozen veggies if needed.
• Eat plain old-fashioned oatmeal! It's supercheap and is my favorite which just doesn't get any respect. It's great with cinnamon or some fruits or berries thrown in.
• Consider joining Costco or Sam's Club. You can get very good deals on lean beef, lean turkey, salmon, chicken breasts, eggs, bananas, etc.
• Eat plain-roasted almonds and use olive oil in your salads. Both are very calorie-rich and very good for you in moderation. Just remember that they're nearly 100% fat, so don't overdo them. But they're very cheap per calorie.
• Consider buying whey protein powder. It may look expensive, but it's actually cheaper per gram of protein than almost any meat or fish you can buy. You can get a 5-pound tub of whey which has around 1700 grams of protein for around $25 which works out to 1.5 cents/gram of protein. Contrast that with $3.99/lbs chicken breasts which work out to about 4.0 cents/gram of protein.
• Looks for sales, clip coupons.

If you want to eat only organic foods, than that will really cost you a lot, unfortunately. But otherwise eating healthy on a budget can be done. I personally spend an average of about $10/day on food and that's usually 7 home-made meals and around 3500 calories! Most people wouldn't eat that much so it'd be even cheaper for them. It's not a lot of money considering that just one meal in any place this side of fast food will easily cost you $10.