Hi all. I have a lot of weight to lose and I was on here a few month when I was giving raw a go. It was good, I felt good and the weight was falling off.

I am a single mom of a young toddler. I was finding it hard to stay raw and feed my daughter cooked food.

I am on a limited budget and can only spend about $40 on groceries for me and my daughter. I am devoted to make this work.

I could use some encouragement and advice on how to be raw on a tight budget. Maybe some ideas on raw recipes my and my daughter could try.

I have a juicer and dehydrater. I grow my own spouts. My daughter's favourite food is soup so she eats a lot of that. She is severly allergic to chicken which has lead to more of a vegan diet.

Thanks. Wish me luck.

just to clarify, is it $40 per week, or $40 per month?

My daughter used to like Campbell's vegetable soup. I had a big wooden mushroom thing I'd just mash it up a little with. Well, if she's a toodler, maybe some grilled cheese too.

Best of luck!

My mom recently dropped some weight using the Weight Watchers guidelines which I think would easily incorporate raw vegan (or some percentage of that). It's very important to make sure you're getting adequate nutrition no matter what you are eating. An online nutrition tracker like fitday.com can help with that. And exerciser, I cannot emphasize how important this aspect of weight-loss and fitness is.

When I started on raw I had tight budget so I went into indoor gardening the cheap way. I would do my own compost from left over foods, soils to grow indoor wheatgrass and sunflower greens, I would buy 10 or 20 pound bag of sunflower seeds from walmart very cheap, less than 10 dollars, not organic, but grown indoor organically.
In the summer life was even easier, going to farmer markets, farms to get produce cheap

Buying the produce that's available for that season would be cheaper. I buy the basics first, staples like apples, bananas, oranges, celery, lettuces, cabbages.

If you cook anything for yourself that you can eat without feeling like you failed at all raw, try things like baked potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes, squashes, brown rice etc.

Try to increase your food budget in some ways so that you aren't skimping on fruits and veggies, but having less money means you have to be more careful about what you buy and sometimes that can keep me from over-eating.

A tip that is helping me to eat less and eat more raw foods is taking psyllium husk drinks 2-3x a day. I always drank lots of water but I've increased my water intake due to the drinks..I drink it then have another glass of just water.

If you can have a garden that would be great. Or maybe a co-op in your area. And or a community garden project. Also you can ask your local market to purchase bulk fruits and veggies for you, or ask for a discount on produce ready to cycle out due to ripeness.

Love,
Prism

Hi thanks.

I have $40 a week for the two of us. The Sunflowers sound like a good idea. I love the way a raw deit makes me feel. I just need to find a way to encorporate it in both mine and my child's diet. When it's just me it's hard to stick with it, when I am making cooked food for here.

Hi, spectrum! I agree with the advice to grow sprouts--nourishing and cheap. Farmer's markets and health food stores that offer a membership discount of some kind(for free) are useful, and produce stores that discount their wares when a new shipment comes in and must be laid out can offer amazing deals; last week at mine, conventional but ripe and good quality bell peppers, two big ones for 99 cents! Lastly, as most children love fruits, focus on buying those in quantity, as well as salad greens, because you two can share them, and they can easily be made into smoothies that both of you will enjoy. Good luck

You might qualify for food stamps.
That could take some of the stress off.
Vinny