If you eat organically, how do you stretch your budget?

[athomemom]

Dh and I are on a mission to eat healthier and buy closer to home and eat organic foods when we can. We have located all natural organic meat raised right here in our area. Yay!

 

I must admit that I toy with being vegetarian and dh is considering more of a raw diet. I don't think he'll ever be on a completely raw diet, but I am happy to accommodate him. I love, love, love my veggies and fruits.

 

After doing a lot of research without me :tongue_smilie: dh has found lots of info for eating healthier and reasons to do so.

 

I would love tips, help, and any advice you can give.

[Geo]

We grow most of our own vegetables, and some fruits. If nothing else, lettuce, spinach, chard, collards and kale are super simple to grow yourself....great for green smoothies.

[athomemom]

Thanks for your blog post. I enjoyed it very much. :001_smile:

 

We are currently renting and are unable to garden like we would like to. :(

[Momof3littles]

Not throwing out stuff (planned leftovers, freeze if we aren't going to use it, meal plan around how quickly various items will go bad or limp).

 

If we are paying for pastured or antibiotic free/humanly raised chicken, we always make stock from the bones. Pretty much always.

 

We don't do a lot of grains or legumes because we eat lower carb for health reasons, but those definitely stretch the budget for many people. I was a vegetarian for almost a decade but due to PCOS and a family history of type 2 on Dh's side, we do not eat grains regularly.

 

We don't buy a lot of prepackaged products at all.

 

Piggy back ingredients-if I am buying certain specialty ingredients, I try to find another dish to make that week with overlapping ingredients, or make something extra to freeze using those same ingredients. That way I'm not buying a bunch of cilantro and only using half of it; instead I try to find two recipes that week that use the cilantro.

 

Freezer cooking, batch cooking, OAMC. I find these minimize waste for us. If I double the ingredients to make two different servings of the same recipe, I'm not throwing out half jars of less often used ingredients. (half a jar of tomato paste, etc.).

 

Combining sale items with coupons at places like WFs

[Soror]

Pricing and searching- always searching!

Buying in season

Buying in bulk

Stretching with less expensive ingredients

Prioritizing organics to worse offenders

Grow your own

Pick your own

Hunting or raising your own

Find farms to help- the chicken farm I buy from offers discounts for many things including helping process

[choirfarm]

We grow most of our own vegetables, and some fruits. If nothing else, lettuce, spinach, chard, collards and kale are super simple to grow yourself....great for green smoothies.

 

Im in East Texas and I've tried to grow lettuce 4 different times. Each time they were inedible. They were REALLY sour. I don't know what we were doing wrong. No luck with spinach either..

[missmoe]

Think outside the grocery store. Research farms and co ops in your area.

 

Figure out something to garden. We have a backyard that is 12x12. I garden in pots and have two plots at a community garden. A pot that looks like this one:

 

http://www.farm-home.com/mn/v11_catalog.mvc?FRGL11+dispCat+FPB+004055+JDISTRIB1433-5475~~~~~~~

 

is great for growing lettuce or other greens. I have two plastic ones in my back yard. I always have lettuce and spinach growing in them.

 

You may want to check out azure standard to see if they deliver in your area. Often I can buy organic grains and beans in bulk for the same price I would buy conventional items at the grocery store.

 

http://www.azurestandard.com/

 

Eat less meat. I buy meat for 2-3 meals a week. Usually a sausage or bacon and then some meat or fish for supper.

 

When you see produce on sell, buy as much as you can and freeze or can it.

 

Cook from scratch.

 

That's what I've got right now!

[missmoe]

Im in East Texas and I've tried to grow lettuce 4 different times. Each time they were inedible. They were REALLY sour. I don't know what we were doing wrong. No luck with spinach either..

 

It might be too hot for lettuce. Look for lettuce specifically breed for summer. Do you have a shady area to grow it in? Also, you want to make sure it stays moist and grows quickly.

[Denisemomof4]

I buy some organics in bulk (right now I have 25 lbs each of organic: lentils, turtle beans, quinoa, millet, popcorn which I grind into cornmeal) and always stock up on the local hfs sale items. I generally know which organics to buy when. Red peppers, a favorite for my family, are $6.99 per lb this time of year so we don't buy to slice up and eat as a snack, and I use them sparingly in cooked and raw dishes.

 

I just found out about a list called the The Clean 15. There are a few different versions of this :glare: but I will allow non organic asparagus and eggplant, both on the list, because they are so expensive organic.

 

Visiting farms for meat/eggs generally saves money.

 

Of course you will need your own garden for produce.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Denisemomof4

[Mergath]

We have a few things that we almost always buy organic, like apples and milk, because we consume quite a bit of it, and the non-organic versions are especially toxic. I also keep a mental list of where I can buy cheaper organic versions of things. For example, organic produce is cheaper at the whole foods store, but I can get organic spaghetti sauce and carrots at Walmart for the same price as regular sauce and carrots.

 

I buy the free-range, healthier chickens, and use them for multiple meals. Roasted chicken for dinner the first night, chicken salad sandwiches for the next day's lunch, and then chicken quesadillas for dinner that night. I use the carcass to make stock.

 

We practically live at the farmers market in the summer. I know which sellers have the highest quality produce, which are cheapest, which will give us a little extra if I bring dd. :D And I buy our grains in bulk from our whole foods store. I can get a pound of organic oatmeal for a buck, or a pound of quinoa for like three or four bucks.

 

Really, you just have to do the research for your area. Everywhere is so different. And soup. Eat lots of soup. :tongue_smilie:

[NASDAQ]

We don't eat organic but we do eat kosher.

 

We purchase our meat from Seattle (where it is less expensive) three or four times a year. We drive down with coolers, stock up, and then keep the freezer full the rest of the time.

 

We don't have meat every day and almost never for lunch.

 

We have meals that are relatively low on meat content -- stews, stir fries -- and save whole chicken pieces for Sabbath.

 

I grow our fresh veg -- all of the lettuce, kale, berries, and that sort of thing. It's mild enough in the winter that we're still getting kale and got lettuce up until last week. We purchase a lot of the root vegetables -- carrots, potatoes, onions, leeks, garlic. I grow some of those but not enough, not by a long shot, to keep up eating them.

 

I can jam and tomatoes when they are plentiful. The jam is fine but imho the tomatoes are a vile business.

[HappyGrace]

it takes me a LOT more time to eat organically on a budget.

 

Once/month we go to the big co-op downtown for bulk stuff; the other weeks I am going to three different grocery stores to get best deals on stuff. We go to a farm for milk, a honey guy for honey, etc. It takes quite a bit of time but saves a ton of money. Start shopping around and find your best prices and then soon you'll fall into a routine. I suggest starting out with a little price book to mark what things cost at different places.

 

I actually go to Walmart first because they have some organic items at great prices-canned items (tomatoes, etc), produce (bagged apples, spinach, etc)

 

We don't eat a lot of meat due to expense. Use it as a condiment-one ckn breast in a stir fry w/ lots of veggies, etc. I did find a local source for ground beef and stew beef that isn't too $$, but we can't eat a lot of beef due to dh's health issues.

 

Our ground is too wet for gardening (we do grow kale which we eat a ton of). Our farmer's market is actually quite $$ because we are in a pretty ritzy area.

 

So I don't do canning-wish I could!! You can find organic canned tomatoes for cheap though on sales.

 

Bulk buying and cooking from scratch are your friends (no processed foods).

[GoVanGogh]

Im in East Texas and I've tried to grow lettuce 4 different times. Each time they were inedible. They were REALLY sour. I don't know what we were doing wrong. No luck with spinach either..

When did you plant?

Lettuce/greens are a winter crop in Texas. Plant September/October and harvest through the winter. You may be able to squeeze in a crop if you plant now to mid-February.

Lettuce/greens grow well in containers, which is nice because you can haul them in the garage if we have really cold/icy weather. Otherwise, they can go through our typical winters without problem.

 

We are restarting our organic/mostly raw diets this week. I just got back from the store and was very pleased when our food bill actually came in a little under what it normally does. I bought a couple of higher price items (organic flax oil, raw nuts) but otherwise it was pretty routine things. Probably one big savings was I didn't buy meat... Organic meat can really add up quickly. If you can, reduce your meat intake to save money. (Make it a side, instead of the meal - thinly sliced beef w/loads of stir-fry veggies.) Also, don't buy more than you can reasonably eat! Plan multiple meals around higher price veggies, so you can make sure you use them up before they go bad.

[tricia]

I think I made a real thorough post on this once here but not sure how to find old posts. But I can sum it up! We have a large family. Twelve kids in all. And I try to buy organic in EVERYTHING if I can. We don't exactly have an overflowing bank account either. Just the normal. So here goes.

 

We skimp on pretty nearly everything except books and food. We do spend money there. That said, it still isn't real cheap to buy organic when you are feeding so many mouths. We eat very well, but very simple!

 

Homemade bread from my own ground grains. Make all bread stuff, pancakes, muffins, etc. Normally a breakfast is going to be something whole grain and fruit or smoothie from homemade yoghurt. Our yoghurt is organic in a sense because I make it using our milk off the farm.

 

Lunch is usually eggs, boiled, scrambled or fried and made into a sandwich. Also our peanut if doing pbandj sandwiches is also organic. Same with honey or jam that we put on. I buy honey from a local keeper, buy organic raw sugar from my coop in 50 lb bags. For lunch we also do salads with hard boiled eggs in them. (eggs from a farm here too) I get my raw milk cheese from the Amish that we also serve with our salads. I can usually get a huge container of organic spring greens and spinach at our local market.

 

Dinner is more of the same. Lots of veggies thrown on a homemade pizza crust. Smoothies with frozen bananas. We also throw in some soaked oatmeal into our smoothies too to help fill everyone up until lunchtime.

 

I think it helps to have resources where you live and that is possibly the reason I can pull it all off. Between my coop, my garden, the farms near me and by making everything from scratch is how we do it. I rarely buy cereal and if I do it is organic. And that's probably why I never buy it because it can be expensive. But last week, I found Barbara's cereal at our market for 2.00 a box and it is organic. Such a great sale. I think I bought 20 boxes or so of it. I do buy organic butter and that is a cost but because I keep our meals simple I can usually do that. We hardly don't eat meat. Lots of beans, rice, and eggs though. I think that by buying in bulk, growing what you can grow, things like that that it helps to do organic. We don't necessarily love where we are living right now. But it's in the country, and our resources are nearly at our doorstep and since we are still raising children we prefer being here than somewhere else where we may not have the blessings of farms and such.

[OrganicAnn]

We do eat mainly vegetarian. We have bought 1/4 of a grass fed cow and it lasts us a long time.

 

Grow our own fruit and vegetables - freeze or persevere anyway you can.

 

We buy what we don't grow (sweet corn), eggs and some meat from the farmer's market.

 

Also we have the list of the top 10 recommended fruits and vegetables that it is better to eat organic (ie pesticides are worse on these).

 

We are not 100% organic and we are okay with that. Some times you want to cook something and the local stores just don't carry it in organic.

[FishMama]

We are taking baby steps with this. I found an organic produce co-op that we subscribe to for a weekly box. It's awesome! http://abundantharvestorganics.com It's for Calif. only. I am cooking more from scratch, shopping mostly Trader Joe's, Costco, and Sprouts.

 

I just took a few areas to change our diet and to find economical sources (ie produce, dairy). Then I'll move on to the next thing.

 

(I post a lot of it, including the shopping on my blog)

[choirfarm]

It might be too hot for lettuce. Look for lettuce specifically breed for summer. Do you have a shady area to grow it in? Also, you want to make sure it stays moist and grows quickly.

 

Nope, we have a HUGE garden in direct sun. It is normally in the 90's starting in May and last year..I think we had something like 45 days of over 100 degrees in a row!!!! Nothing much grew last year.

[choirfarm]

MMM I don't remember Neil Sperry saying it was a winter crop. I'm going to have to go look. We generally planted it in late Feb/early march along with the rest of our crops.

When did you plant?

Lettuce/greens are a winter crop in Texas. Plant September/October and harvest through the winter. You may be able to squeeze in a crop if you plant now to mid-February.

Lettuce/greens grow well in containers, which is nice because you can haul them in the garage if we have really cold/icy weather. Otherwise, they can go through our typical winters without problem.

 

We are restarting our organic/mostly raw diets this week. I just got back from the store and was very pleased when our food bill actually came in a little under what it normally does. I bought a couple of higher price items (organic flax oil, raw nuts) but otherwise it was pretty routine things. Probably one big savings was I didn't buy meat... Organic meat can really add up quickly. If you can, reduce your meat intake to save money. (Make it a side, instead of the meal - thinly sliced beef w/loads of stir-fry veggies.) Also, don't buy more than you can reasonably eat! Plan multiple meals around higher price veggies, so you can make sure you use them up before they go bad.

[elfgivas]

we belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture). this is usually a cheaper way to eat organic and in season and local. because we live in the high desert, "our" farms are outside the 100 mile radius, but not by much.

 

this website has a map where you can enter in where you live and it will give you a list of the CSAs available.

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

 

the one we belong to now offers a small box or a large box, once a week which we go to a central location to pick up. it also has add ons that you can purchase in addition to our box. most weeks, the large box is enough for a family of four, and we plan around the fruit and veggies. occasionally we buy add ons for specific things. (eg. organic oats, oranges for juicing, cheeses.). so $36- a week buys us all our fruit and veggies BUT we get no choice. we plant a small garden to supplement, but the high desert is just hard to grow things in. (to the mom in texas. we plant lettuce in september and february in the high desert of SoCal. september works better. in the late spring and summer, it just goes straight to flower and is nasty.)

 

the CSA we belonged to in canada worked where we bought a share of the farm, and each week received an email telling us what was available and we could choose what we wanted and how much. once our number of "units" was gone, it was gone.... but we never got to that point. if our farmer had extra, she would add it to our bags. and each year she sent an email asking us which things we'd like her to plant more of. it was great!

 

we also reduced meat to 4 ounces per person per day, and then 4 ounces per person every other day.

 

we have chickens for their eggs. they become pets, so we don't eat them. my cousin raises all his own meat and that works out really well for them. but he lives somewhere where there is actually water, so that helps a lot.

 

for milk, butter and beef, when we have a canadian option, we buy that as a lower cost way and because bovine growth hormone is illegal there, we are at least spared that part. i believe that's true in australia as well (and trader joe's carries beef from both). but we've cut our beef consumption to almost nothing; the only remnant currently is beef stroganoff, which doesn't use much, and which we love.

 

we buy organic chicken. twice a year, we choose to not buy whole organic turkeys, because they are just too much. the rest of the year when we buy ground turkey, we buy organic and use it for tacos, etc.

 

when you factor in the health costs, i reckon its actually cheaper to eat organic in the long run and a CSA helps make it much more manageable in the short run.

 

hth,

ann

[KristineinKS]

Most of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but I thought I'd go ahead and give them anyway since this is something I'm actively working on at the moment:

 

1) Invest in a chest freezer and buy meat in bulk from local farmers several times a year - utilize every part of the animal (this is a new challenge for me, but I'm finding there are many good books on the subject). Also, only serve meat a few times per week (we have it 3-4 times usually).

 

2) We're renting this year, so cannot garden either. That said, I'm currently strategically planning a container garden for a few things that we can grow (mostly herbs, some veggies).

 

3) To compensate for #2, we're joining a CSA this year & will utilize the farmer's markets as much as possible - buying only what is in season is always cheaper.

 

4) Look into local buying clubs. We belong to Azure Standard, but also the woman who runs our herdshare has a buying club that we belong to. Through the club, we've been able to get great deals on large bulk amounts of things like raw honey, organic vanilla beans, seasonal produce, etc.

 

5) Learn to can & can/preserve as much seasonal produce as possible to last throughout the year. "The Householder's Guide to the Universe" has some useful charts to help you plan this & a few other good bits of info, but overall, the book probably isn't worth owning (see if the library has it?).

 

6) Make as much as possible from scratch - yes it takes more time, but is ultimately much cheaper and healthier than buying ready made. I'm making our own bread, pasta, yogurt, and will be branching out into cheesemaking this week. I've also started to make our own laundry detergent, household cleaners, soaps, lotions, lip balms, shampoos, etc.

[athomemom]

Thank you all for each response. I am looking into our options. I have found a local food store that has organic, natural meat & a co-op.

 

I need to do research on container gardening. Do any of you have recommendations on a good book or website?