Grocery costs are a bit crazy right now. I was forgiving of it when fuel costs were also outlandish ... after all, food has to be transported so fuel costs directly effect grocery costs. But now the fuel costs are down and grocery costs are staying high. I don't know about you, but I think it's totally unfair.

In these tight economic times, we all have to be penny-pinchers. Since meat is one of the most expensive grocery items to buy, it only makes sense to cut back. Beans and tofu spring to mind as meat-replacements -- they're inexpensive, filling and high in protein. Another great option -- though not high in protein -- is mushrooms.

Swapping mushrooms for meat isn't only economical, it's healthful, lower in calories, filling and completely tasty. Try them in lasagna or grill up a marinated portobello as a burger. A recent study found that when participants ate meals where mushrooms replaced beef, they consumed an average of 420 fewer calories. Great news if you're trying to lose weight!

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With today's economy, most people are feeling a budget crunch. Even though the cost of gas has come down, grocery costs stay as high as ever. But high prices at the check-out counter don't mean you have to eat low-cost, low-nutrition foods. Divine Caroline has a list of 20 healthful foods for under one dollar.

• Oats. High in heart-healthy soluble fiber, oats are a quick and tasty meal. A dollar will get you more than a week's worth of breakfasts.
  
• Eggs. About a dollar for a half dozen, eggs -- once given a bad rap for high cholesterol -- are now back in the good nutrition fold.
  
• Kale. Roughly a dollar a bunch, kale and other dark leafy greens are packed with nutrition.
  
• Potatoes. As long as you don't fry them or slather them in fatty condiments, potatoes can be a part of a nutritious diet. Sweet potatoes have the added benefit of beta carotene.
  
• Apples. Most varieties are very inexpensive and can satisfy a sweet tooth with their crunchy goodness.
  
• Nuts. A great source of healthy fats, nuts might seem expensive, but since their portion size is small, many varieties (such as peanuts, walnuts and almonds) land well under a dollar per serving.
  
• Bananas. High in potassium and fiber, bananas are a nutritious and inexpensive food.
  
• Garbanzo Beans. Beans, in general, are a healthful and ridiculously-cheap food. Plus, they're a great protein-rich replacement for high-cost meat. Garbanzos are a versatile and healthful choice.
  
• Broccoli. Delicious raw or cooked into a wide variety of meals, broccoli is well under a dollar per serving.
  

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My son likes many healthful snacks. Cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, carrots, celery, almost any variety of fruit, cheese sticks and sunflower seeds are his favorites. But if given the choice between any of his favorite healthful snacks and his least favorite type of junk food, he'll pick the junk food every time.

I adopted my son when he was 10 years old, so many of his eating habits were already formed. With time and determination, he's learned to enjoy home-cooked meals (he only liked frozen foods when he first moved in) and understands a lot more about nutrition. But the junk food addiction has remained a problem.

I've tried instituting other rules, such as having healthful "anytime foods" that he can snack on whenever he likes and in any quantity he desires. The treat foods were left for desserts and small treats each day. It's a good idea in theory, but it led to my son trying to sneak those foods up to his room. When they became hands-off foods, they were more desirable than ever.

Spend too many late nights watching CSI and Law & Order? If you're overweight, these shows might be to blame. Over at Fitsugar, they're talking about new research that shows an interesting connection between your TV habits and your eating and spending habits.

The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, found that consumers who had recently been reminded of their own mortality by seeing death on TV spent more money on groceries -- and ate more of those groceries as well. These findings were true of a number of food items, including snack foods like chips and soda, as well as non-snacky groceries like frozen foods, meats and vegetables. For more information on the findings, click here.

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A good friend and I were chatting on the phone the other day and the subject turned to grocery costs. I thought my grocery bills were high, but compared to my friend's bills, mine are chump change. Her grocery costs were literally triple what mine were. Considering we have similarly sized families, it was kind of shocking.

In the end, we determined that the bulk of the savings is because her family eats a lot of meat and mine doesn't. It's not that my son and I eat 100% vegetarian meals every night -- we don't. But our meals have just a little meat, and larger amounts of grains and produce. Some ideas:

• Make meat stretch. Instead of cooking one chicken breast per person, make a package of chicken breasts spread over several meals. For example, one average-sized chicken breast is enough to feed three people if you serve enough veggies and grains with the meal. Use the remaining chicken for other meals such as a stir-fry or a cold chicken salad. You can apply the same principle with other meats as well. For example, a package of ground turkey can stretch into three meals for my family -- usually turkey burgers, lettuce wraps, and turkey chili with beans.

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We can't ignore the fact that the economy is in a bit of a slump. And whether or not we recognize it, this affects nearly every aspect of our lives -- including our eating habits. During times of financial hardship, it's a natural reaction to stock up on foods that are processed and full of preservatives, but our healthy habits shouldn't be the first thing to go when things get a bit tough.

At least that's what nutritionist Jane Clarke says in her weekly column for The Daily Mail. She offers a few tips for reducing waste -- and ultimately cost -- when you're shopping for the family:

• Buy sliced, fresh whole wheat bread and freeze what you don't use right away.
• Add cheap, healthy ingredients like beans to your meat dishes to make the meat go further.
• Buy only as much fresh fruit as you know you can consume, and stock up on frozen fruit instead.
• In fruits do go limp, cook them (or freeze them) right away instead of throwing them out.

How do you stretch your grocery dollars?

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I like to think of myself as a fairly educated shopper when it comes to understanding nutrition labels at the grocery store (because I read so much about it) but I still find myself getting confused or overwhelmed sometimes when trying to keep everything straight. "Make sure there are no trans fats and not too much added sugar or artificial preservatives, go for organic as much as possible, how much fiber is considered enough in a serving? And what does 'low-fat' really mean? ... " The list goes on and the makers of food nutrition labels are looking to capitalize on that mess as best they can. See the gallery below for nine of the most common ways food labels try to mislead and confuse us all.

Which ones are the toughest for you to deal with?

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Have you ever heard the phrase "the whole truth and nothing but?" When it comes to many of the foods marketed to kids, the packaging is anything but the whole truth. As a parent, I know how frustrating it is when my son is bombarded with commercials for sugary or unhealthy treats on TV. Even if he never saw a commercial for anything, the packaging that's geared toward kids rarely holds healthy foods inside. Take fruit juice for example -- packaging for sugary, unnatural ingredient-laden juice boxes tends to be very kid oriented. When my son sees boxes with cool looking surfers riding a fruit juice wave, that's what he wants me to buy. But the 100% juice varieties that I do allow in his lunch box tend to be packaged in boxes with pictures of fruit -- not nearly as cool in my pre-teen son's eyes.

Even when a product is packaged to catch a kid's eye, they often have a claim -- such as low-fat or high in calcium -- that aims to make health-conscious parents feel a bit better about the choice. While the actual claim might be true, the whole truth about the product isn't that pretty. University of Calgary researchers found that 62% of kid-aimed food products that boast of nutritional benefits are actually of poor nutritional quality. Time has a list of nine items that have nutritional claims that might mislead parents into thinking the product is healthier than it actually is.

When it comes to buying food for your kids, stick to natural, unprocessed foods as much as possible. When buying packaged items, read the food label -- it's the only way to know the whole truth about the product you're buying.

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Seven years ago, I found myself unemployed for a while. I tried to trim costs wherever I could -- disconnecting my cable TV, terminating my cell phone service, and doing everything I could to lower my grocery bill. When you're trying to cut costs that $0.79 box of mac n' cheese starts to look awfully good. Unfortunately, my low cost grocery shopping had a price I didn't want to pay -- I gained weight and plenty of it.

With today's grocery costs, everyone has to think of their budget when shopping whether you're in a temporary financial hardship like I was, or at the top of your financial game. Luckily, you can stay within your budget and still feed your family a nutritious meal. Some tips:

• Eat locally and in season. When you visit farmer's markets, you cut out the middle man and cut out some of the cost.
  
• Get a green thumb. Planting your own garden is by far the most cost effective method for fresh produce -- plus you'll get the added perk of physical activity.

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I'm a single mom, so when I go grocery shopping, I have my 11-year-old son in tow. The trip down the grocery store aisles is peppered with calls of "Can we try this?" and "Mom, this looks really good!" Unfortunately, the things that "look good" often aren't terribly good for you. Usually I say yes to one or two treats, but other than that I load our cart up with healthier alternatives. Once we're home, my son doesn't seem to miss the sugary treats at all.

Revolution Health has an article with grocery shopping tips including a list of healthy snacks. Veggies, fruits, whole-grain foods, and low-fat dairy are the stars of the list -- they're always healthy, energy-boosting snacks. Take a look at the gallery to see the top picks.

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I don't know about you, but I love flipping through the pages of Cooking Light magazine (or, really, any gourmet food magazine). The pictures are gorgeous and inspiring, and the recipes are well written -- even I haven't managed to botch any of their recipes. However, while the pictures and dishes send me into a state of bliss, there is something I don't like -- the ingredient lists that run the length of my arm and cost that, plus a leg.

For special occasions, I'm willing to spend a bit extra for special ingredients. However, if I'm looking for an everyday recipe that I can make on a weekly basis, I don't want to have to keep purchasing a huge variety of expensive ingredients. I want a recipe that looks and tastes like a fancy dish, doesn't pack a ton of calories, and doesn't blow my budget every time I make it. Is that so much to ask?

I generally try making the recipe as it's written the first time, and remove or substitute something for the expensive ingredients after I've tasted it. It's not a perfect system, but it works for me. Do you have tricks to keep costs down on would-be cost-prohibitive recipes? Or do you just bite the bullet and make the dishes will all ingredients listed? Or, do you just find healthy recipes that are inexpensive to make in the first place?

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For many families one of the largest monthly expenses is the grocery bill. Prices are going up all the time, plus if you're interested in healthy options it doesn't help that companies usually like to charge more for the "organic" and "all-natural" versions of their popular foods. But with the right strategy you can keep that register total to a reasonable amount, and with it make your health and fitness goals that much easier to reach and maintain. Tricks like buying in bulk as much as possible, never shopping on an empty stomach, and buying off-brand products can really make a difference. See more ideas in this article from off-grid, and please share with us if you have any of your own tips on slashing your food bill.

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Low-income and rural Americans continue to have difficulty finding healthy foods that are affordable. One study shows that low-income Americans have to spend up to 70 percent of their food budget on fruits and vegetables to meet the new national dietary guidelines for healthy eating. A second study found that in rural areas, convenience stores far out number supermarkets and grocery stores -- even though the latter carry a much wider choice of affordable, healthy foods.

Both studies appear in the November issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, a themed issue on poverty and human development.

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Grocery shopping can be expensive. And cooking can take up precious time that sometimes isn't always available. So what's someone on a money and time budget to do? Here are some tips from Everyday Health:

• Buy foods that are easy to prepare. Canned tuna, pasta, beans, canned vegetables and rice are all easy to make.
  
• Cook lots of food. That way, you can store some as leftovers for a quick meal later.
  
• Buy fruits and veggies that are in season, and only buy what you're certain you will use -- it goes bad so quickly and you can always go back for more.
  
• If there's not a lot in season, buy canned and frozen veggies. They're cheap and nutritious. Just make sure you get the low-sodium version.
  
• Try canned beans for protein. They're less expensive than meat, and they low-fat, high-protein.
  
• Shop around. You might not be getting the best deal at your nearest grocery store. Scope out some deals elsewhere.

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These days you've really got to have your game face on when you head out to buy groceries. Supermarkets have quite a few tricks they use to get you to buy what they want to sell, to keep you in the store as long as possible, and to encourage impulse purchases. Here are just a few of the methods they use so you can be ready and shop smart:

• Eye candy Tempting impulse items aren't just located by the cash register. Many stores put the candy/sweets aisle directly opposite the cereal aisle so a must-have (cereal) easily leads to a must-avoid (candy), especially if your kids are along.
  
• End-caps People often assume (I'm guilty of this one) that because something is featured and stacked up at the end of the aisle that it must be on sale or new or on some other kind of special. Rarely the case, but then you've already got it in your head that you want one.
  
• Shelf shuffles Supermarkets often rearrange the order and location of basic items in a blatant effort to keep customers looking longer and spending more time in the store shopping.
  
• Cozy spots to relax By incorporating comfortable places to relax like cafes and coffee shops grocery stores make it easy for you to make shopping almost an all-morning or all-afternoon event. The more time you spend the more you're going to buy.
  
• Tantalizing smells Stores often position the bakery or deli near the entrance so the first thing you smell and think of when you walk in is freshly baked sweets and rotisserie chicken.
  

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