When you eat healthier, with more grains, beans and veggies, you can actually bring down your food bill. These foods fill you up more, while you are eating less. Think of if you eat a snack and reach for some chips or candy. You will either still be hungry after you eat those, or get hungry fairly quickly. Now, if you were to eat a quick bean and cheese burrito on one of those small tortillas, with only 2 tbsp of beans and 1 oz of cheese, you will fill up and it is healthy.

Here's one website with some ideas.
Eating Healthy on a Budget

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Thanks for posting the article. It made a couple of suggestions that I have not yet tried.

It drives me bonkers when people claim that you can not eat healthy on a budet. The only time healthier foods run up a large bill is when they are packaged as convenience foods. For instance, I bought a vegetable tray for around ten dollars. The tray was supposed to feed around 8 people and when I looked at the veggies included, they would have been WAY cheaper for me to purchase on my own and cut it up. My favorite is beans. I can puchase a can of kidney beans for a dollar or two and it is loaded with sodium and preservatives. For 1.25 I can buy a 1kg bag of kidney beans that will stretch 15 meals further than that measly can without all the extra junk. If you are short on time, then eating healthy can be pricey but for an extra ten or 15 minutes out of your day you can prepare healthy inexpensive foods for less than the so called "healthy" foods you can purchase.

It drives me "bonkers" too! At our house, we save money by not buying what many people consider to be "snack foods". I always have a few crackers for my son, but in general we eat fruit for a snack. I'm sorry, but a house does not need chips and soda to be complete. We drink milk and water, ds prefers water to juice.
I do think it is more challenging to eat healthy on a budget because you do need to learn to live without the extra foods. We buy lean meats, fish, fresh veg and fruit and whole grains. I think we eat well and are satisfied for the same amount of money others pay to eat cheap processed food.
It just takes planning and taking the time to educate yourself on the simplicity of healthy eating.

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I think it takes time and planning to figure out how to eat healthier on a budget. We don't eat meat and that has saved money, but the key is not buying tons of meat substitutes like Boca stuff, which can get as pricy as meat. We use that stuff in moderation. We eat tons of beans in all different ways. Also, veggies are cost friendly if you cut them up yourself, but if you buy them done for you they are really expensive. On the other hand ramen noodles are .10 a pack here - not healthy, but what could be cheaper?

I think it depends on the specific items you buy on how cost-effective it is. I try to set time each week to prep all my fruits, etc and it does help my food budget.