Your health is worth much more than what you can save by eating junk. Cut back on other areas; possessions come and go, but you only have one body. You are buying quality of life, not just apples. Our family of four eats unprocessed, mostly organic foods on $100 a week, mostly by cooking everything ourselves. Give yourself some time to transition to this new lifestyle and mindset, and you'll find yourself actually spending less, not more.
We are blessed with a great grocery store (Winco) that has the best prices/selection I've ever seen! If you read your labels, it is pretty easy (a little time consuming at first, but you'll catch on!) For instance, just switching from bleached enriched flour to an unbleached flour is VERY healthy, and there are organic varieties, or do whole wheat (key is wholegrain). I substitute cookies, cakes, brownies with half unbleached enriched and half whole grain. The whole grain really makes a difference in density.
Quick oats cook in a minute, and are better than instant oatmeal or majority of cold cereals. If you must have cold cereal, try Cheerios or Total w/raisins. They have whole grains, extra vitamins, and no artificial colors/flavors (that's my big thing!) I buy frozen veggies, except carrots, and we eat lots of fresh fruit. If you don't spend money on takeout or convenience food, you can spend it on real food and stretch it out longer. However, I do buy frozen entrees for my DH's lunches, because he works 4 12hr graveyards. Read those ingredients!
Burritos are not too bad, as long as they are once in a while. When it comes to organic, some can be cheaper than others (I found organic soup made in state cheaper than store brand condensed soup!) but if you wash it good, it ain't that bad. I use Shaklee Basic H to wash my produce, because it is organic and gets under the wax and dirt to break it down. It is an all purpose cleaner, and a little goes quite a long way! If you go to my website, www.shaklee.net/healthy_home101 you will see that and under Weight Management you can download the Glycemic Index Diet. It is very well rounded and lists foods by sugar load (to give you an idea, one serving is 15 grams of carbs according to the American Diabetic Association) and similar to the Gestational Diabetes Diet I had to maintain. My DH has been following it (for the most part) and still has a hard time getting used to eating bread and cake! I make all my goodies from scratch, so they get lots of wholegrain and anti-oxident rich dark chocolate! His cholesterol is perfect, and feeling more energy, though he still has the weight.
Are there websites you can recommend to help make the switch? I've been trying to do this for my family also, but find the cost of healthy organic foods in my area to be prohibitive for my budget. My husband says if we can buy 9 frozen burritos for the same price as a bunch of broccoli ($2.99) that we should buy the burritos because that is three meals for him instead of just one side dish. How do I find cheaper healthy alternatives?
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