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Shopping for truly healthy foods isn't cheap or easy. In fact, there can be a lot of difficult choices to make when deciding what to buy. Is it necessary to go all organic? What about meat? In what areas can you compromise?
First, a few resources for you:
What on my Food?
Dirty Dozen
Grass-fed Meat
Raw Milk
I'll expand on some of those links in future posts. But, that's some good starting information. This is some of the stuff I take into account when buying food for my family.
One great way to save money on meat is to buy a large order from a local farm, which we're doing (125 lbs.). I'll detail that in another post. Beyond that, though, my grocery shopping looks like this:
Produce ($30 - $50)
I buy produce for snacks, as well as whatever meals we're planning to have. Here is a general list of what I buy each week:
*Potatoes+
*Onions
*Bananas
*Apples+
*Frozen, mixed vegetables
*Frozen corn
*Carrots+
*Dried garbanzo beans
*Green peppers+
*Spinach+
*Romaine lettuce+
*Iceberg lettuce
*Tomatoes (when my garden is done)
*Zucchini+
*Lemons
*Broccoli+
+Organic
Animal Products ($50 - $75)
*Grass-fed beef+
*Pastured chicken/turkey bones
*Boneless, skinless chicken breast
*Pastured eggs
*Bacon (nitrite and nitrate free)
*Ground turkey (we're moving away from this, towards beef)
*Raw, grass-fed cheese (on occasion; we're trying this with Bekah)
Baking ($20 - $40)
*Coconut flour+
*Gluten-free all purpose flour (we're moving away from this for now)
*Almond flour+
*Coconut oil+
*Olive oil
*Raw honey (local)
*Turbinado sugar
*Coconut milk+
Miscellaneous ($10 - $50)
*Ketchup+
*Mustard
*Salad dressing
*Sliced almonds
*Corn tortillas
*Brown rice
*Toilet paper
*Cleaning supplies
*Anything else we need (fabric, candle wax, mason jars, etc.)
+Organic
It's a big list, and it takes awhile. I shop around a lot to make sure I get the best prices on everything. What I can buy local (at farmer's markets, Whole Foods' selection, etc.) I do. You may notice that everything on these lists is whole, fresh ingredients. There are no processed or pre-cooked foods, not even organic ones. That does save a lot of money. It means a lot more work, of course, because literally EVERYTHING has to be processed in some way (even if it's just rinsing and cutting) before it can be eaten. It doesn't bode well for fast meals, which is why I spend most of the weekend preparing foods for the following week, especially lunches. That way I can grab something fast. But, this is a much healthier and cheaper approach.
On items I would buy non-organic anyway, I will sometimes shop at Walmart or wherever is the cheapest. There's a local health food store, Raisin Rack, that actually has organic produce cheaper than some of Walmart's conventional! So it does pay to shop around. But, I frequent places like Walmart or Sam's Club for purchases like toilet paper or other goods. Coops are also a good money-saver, if you can find them.
What do you buy for your weekly groceries? How do you save money on healthy foods?
Friday, October 16, 2009
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I totally hear you on the buying fresh ingredients as opposed to pre-made stuff. After I moved down here, I discovered a love of cooking - of making something from a whole lot of nothings (well, they aren't nothing, but you get the point). And while not everything has been a success, I've learned a lot, like always try new foods on guests because they'll give you honest opinions. And if it goes wrong, there's always takeout or leftovers.
ReplyDeleteAs for where I shop, I do most of my shopping at Winn-Dixie. I have their (free) rewards card that helps me to save a lot - in the 16 months I've been shopping there, I've saved over $500 on stuff I would've been buying elsewhere anyway. I love buy one get one free meat sales! I don't do organic, at least not yet. The organic food selection in any of the grocery stores around (WD, Walmart, or the on-post grocery store) have an awful selection, and there aren't any Whole Foods or anything like that around. We buy some stuff at Sam's Club, but only if we were going to that town anyway (Sam's is about half an hour to 45 mins away, so we try to lump together all the stuff we needed to do in that town anyway - it's where the Hancock Fabrics is (basically a Joann's), the closest, albeit not-so-great, mall, etc.). We get our taco seasoning there as it's much cheaper - a big thing about 8 inches tall. We get pure Vanilla extract as we use it almost weekly for banana bread (great to have made for early mornings when we're leaving at 4 and don't feel like making food!), Liquid Plumber (my hair gets through the hair catcher in the shower), that sort of stuff. We don't eat produce often enough to consider buying it there (we eat it, but Sam's produce is in bigger packages and we don't eat it that fast) although I'm considering grabbing some fruit as I'm going to try freezer jam in a few weeks after I'm done with this crazy part of school.
That's probably more info than you wanted, but hey - I'm enjoying your blog posts. :)