Eating healthy, for cheap.

[Sara]

Healthy for dialysis patients, that is.  What do you do to try to keep the food expenses down? 

Around here, we can get a big bag (20# maybe?) of jasmine rice at the Asian store for about 10.00.  That lasts a while.
Bread is cheap, especially if you visit the discount bread store.  I think dialysis patients are supposed to eat white bread rather than whole-wheat, and that works out cheaper.
Canned tuna can be had for less than 0.50 per can if you buy in (relative) bulk at the BJ's or Costco.
Canned veggies I think can be had for around 0.50 per can.  Carrots and green beans are both good choices for dialysis patients, I think.  Especially if you rinse off the can water, get rid of most of the salt they add.  Sometimes you can even find no-salt varieties.
Fresh/frozen catfish (which I read is a good choice for fish) is fairly inexpensive, especially compared to other fish varieties.
Eggs are fairly inexpensive, I usually get 18 for less than 2.00, but I've seen bigger packages with several dozen for around 5.00 I think.
Pasta is usually about 1.00 for a box (maybe a pound in weight?)

Please add on what you've found, and please correct any mistakes I've made here.   

[meadowlandsnj]

I try to buy in bulk if I can at Costco.  I just bought 6 big cans of Kirkland brand white meat for $8.99.  It's pretty low in sodium and I can mix it with noodles or rice or make a chicken salad.  I also use a lot of eggs.  A frittata is pretty good if you're sick of hard boiled or scrambled.  I go to foodnetwork.com and browse through the recipes and convert them to my own dietary needs.  I like eggplant and summer squash, cauliflower, turnips and carrots so I'm pretty lucky in that I like the lower phos and K vegetables.
If you can buy chicken breasts or thighs in bulk and freeze them.  You can buy a peice of beef fairly cheap at Costco if you buy a big peice and bring it home yourself and slice it then freeze it.  My local Shop Rite had a sale on Filet Mignon for $5.99 a pound if it wasn't cut into slices.  I had a 30% coupon of the cost of the whole order so I "invested" and bought it for a treat.  It was great!  Do you do most of the cooking?  I hardly ever eat out, I cook from scratch and it's so much cheaper and you know what you're eating. 

[Sara]

Yes, I do most of the cooking, although for the past 2 months we've been eating out a LOT and that has got to stop.  I've been different foods to stock up the pantry (needed to do that for hurricane season anyway) so I'm trying to do it as cheaply as possible. 

[Panda_9]

Fresh meat and fresh vegetables go a long way here and are probably the cheapest things to buy that are healthy. I buy mostly chicken breast as I dont eat red meat, and my other half gets lean steak as well. If you do your shopping towards closing time you often get some good bargains in the meat and dairy section that have been marked down. When I could be bothered to cook, I usually just do something simple like grilled mexican chicken with whatever vegetables I feel like, or occaisionally Ill make reduced fat mac cheese. If I cook fresh beans (boiled in a little water), its nice to add a clove of chopped garlic to the pot for flavour.
I made a roast chicken dinner at my parents last weekend and it was soooooo nice. It was even dialysis friendly. The pumpkin and sweet potato were caramelised, sooo yummy. I never seem to be able to dupicate it at home, must be something about cooking in mums kitchen!

[Zach]

I never seem to be able to dupicate it at home, must be something about cooking in mums kitchen!

It's always better in mum's kitchen!!