I am a master coupon clipper too..😅

I get it. I dont do as well as i wish i could. If you made the switch to avocado oil and use less and cook with real butter that will change your health for the better. I switched to dried black eyed peas that are low oxalate and easy to cook and freeze. I am working on this with my daughter who gets government assistance for her family. The restrictions are a joke. We are learning to make pasta.

Hi Robin, I understand what you are saying but there are some mitigating circumstances as to what I said about buying the best quality foods that we can afford. Using the items you listed, a 420 gram can of spaghetti costs $2.20 or a bag of brushed potatoes weighing 2.25 kilos costs between $3.70 to $4.90/kg. A head of broccoli costs $7.90/kg or a 2 kilo bag of apples costs $5.90. These are everyday prices (AUD) from our local supermarket so as you can see they're not that cheap!
Now to get down to basics, as I said our only form of transport is a scooter and there is a local farmer's market but it's only held once a month.
My hubby eats a bowl of porridge for breakfast every day and I usually have a banana (organic @ $6.00/kg), likewise we try to buy fresh as much as possible. We very rarely buy processed foods like spaghetti as we don't care for it. Baked beans are probably a better example of processed food that we might buy but again it's not something we eat very often if at all.
Bearing in mind that we live on approx $1,200/fortnight after paying rent and trying to bank some savings there's not really much left over by the time we pay for food and groceries, internet, phone, fuel or oil for scooter, electricity, water, medications and chemist items or any other expenses that come along like driver's licenses for example. Our financial issues aren't "excuses" they are facts and we do the best that we can under our current situation because we do not have family or anyone else who cares - there's just the two of us and our cats.
And by the way, our preferred cooking oil is sunflower oil (750ml for $3.55), we don't get take out like KFC and once a month we might buy 2 Whoppers (plain burgers) from McDonald's costing $11.95AUD. We also might buy a Domino's pepperoni pizza very occasionally but they have too many calories so we mostly give them a miss!

Love the stuff you write about, so interesting and relevant to how we should live our lives with diet, rest, exercise and holistic care of one's overall wellbeing being key elements.😎🤩😍

So that's the beta carotene and that is very plentiful in butternut and acorn squash. A low oxalate vegetable.
I get dry eye occasionally but fix It with Castor oil which has lots of benefits. The eye discharge is normal and healing when cells replace themselves when there is none for days and days that's a problem. My grit started when I lowered my oxalate intake and is a symptom of dumping as the oxalates leave the area. It can take years but I'd rather it leave than stay and cause more issues.