Extreme Couponing......Healthy Shopping

So lately i've been OBSESSED with watching Extreme Couponing on TLC, now obviously I wouldn't purchase half the things that they do because it seems like a lot of what they purchase is very unhealthy...(Um   a wall of 2-liters????) 500 hundred boxes of  poptarts?? No thank you. Now one thing i'm horrible about is actually having a food budget set up, in the past I never had a grocery budget because I would spend all my money eating out and then just eat whatever was at my house that was quick and easy, But now that i'm older and trying to eat healthier I've determined I need to have a food budget, but how much is enough?? It seems like when I have tried having a food budget I always overspend or I end up buying food and then I eat out and the food goes to waste or I don't buy enough food and I run out of stuff really quickly, I've thought about going shopping weekly as opposed to bi-weekly or monthly. I wish that I could get into extreme couponing so that when I go i'll pay next to nothing for my groceries but lets face it most coupons are for pre-packaged, unhealthy items that I should not be eating, rarely do you see a big coupon for lean turkey or produce. I've thought about trying to find coupons for things like that but so far i've come up short. I personally try to shop mostly at Fred Meyer and Safeway just because of the fuel points, I probably shop at Safeway more though because their Just For U app is just amazing, I love getting special discounts on things that I buy constantly. For example a couple weeks ago I bought 2 packages of Jenny-O ground turkey, normally its $6.99 for a little over a pound of it but it was on sale for $5 Friday, and on top of that I got a digital coupon for another $1 off each package which means I got an amazing deal, I wish I would have bought more than 2 packages but when your on a tight budget you buy what you can. So that brings us back around to couponing and why it's important. Now I don't have the time or the patience to be an extreme couponer but; i'm attemping to try to atleast be somewhat of a couponer because lets face it, I am not a millionaire and I want my money to stretch. So back to the conundrum of me trying to decide if it's better to shop weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. How often do you shop for groceries? I think it's easier for me because well, there is just me i'm feeding. If I was in a larger family I probably would just shop monthly because trying to go to the grocery store weekly might be a hassle. Anyways, one thing I'm super excited for that is coming up next month would be the meal prep party i'm going to on March 8th, this will be the first one i've ever been to and i'm really looking forward to spending an afternoon with some awesome ladies AND making a month of dinners that all I will need to do is re-heat them up in the microwave. Can't beat that! Now one thing that is definitely a challenge while shopping is trying to avoid all of the unhealthy, processed, artery clogging food that is spread throughout the aisles, you really have to look at the labels of what your putting in your shopping cart, i've found soybean oil is in almost everything nowadays, which makes it really really tough to find healthy alternatives unless you head to Market of Choice, New Season's Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, all of which are not exactly down the street for me, If any of these places are close to you I highly suggest shopping at them, are they more expensive? Yes, but you can't put a price on your health. That fact is true. So what is your go-to healthy items that are aways on your grocery list? Personally mine is ground turkey, chicken and salad mix, I would love to just go into the store with an unlimited produce budget so that I could get all of the fruits and veggies that my heart desires...But...thats just me!