Grocery Poll ~ for those on a non-processed, non-standard, or special foods diet?

[Ann.without.an.e]

I see grocery polls but your diet determines how much you spend.

 

Are you paleo? SCD? Super whole food healthy/non-processed food? Organic?

 

I am looking for votes from those who can't (or just won't) eat boxes of mac n cheese and hotdogs and other cheap meals.

 

 

 

HERE ARE THE RULES:

 

Vote if you eat 75% or more special or non-standard-western diet.

(If you only occasionally eat healthy or special meals and still eat a good bit of cheaper foods please don't vote).

Don't count eating out at restaurants (but if you eat out frequently please note that or choose not to vote)

Don't count household items ~ food only (but count all food ~ meat from farmers, veggies from the farmer's market, bulk purchases, etc)

Please note if you grow or produce a good portion of your own food.

 

 

THANKS :)

[Parrothead]

We are vegetarians. I avoid processed foods for the most part. Some things like cheese and yogurt I prefer to buy instead of make. I spend roughly $600 per month for a family of three. Oddly enough I spent about the same when we were carnivores.

[GSOchristie]

We are low carb, Atkins, but lots and lots of veggies, not necessarily organic. We hardly eat any processed foods, but my kids still eat grains like oatmeal. I voted 125-130$ per person, but my little two hardly eat anything, so it will be much higher in the future, I'm sure.

[LaxMom]

Wait... What is "SCD"?

[Mnemosyne]

I'm Paleo, we probably spend about $200/person a month.

[Ann.without.an.e]

Wait... What is "SCD"?

 

 

 

Specific Carbohydrate Diet ~ Close to paleo but slightly different.

[amy g.]

We do not eat processed or packaged foods. We do produce our own dairy, eggs, pork, and some of our vegetables.

 

We spend $300 every 3 or 4 days for a family of 7 at the grocery store or farmer's market.

[bobbeym]

We try to follow a primal diet. Lots of organic produce and dairy, grass-fed beef and free-range chicken, non-nitrate sausage, all local as much as possible. Organic pastas, tomato sauces, wheat products, and sugar; natural JIF peanut butter, white corn tortillas, brown rice, dry beans, frozen veggies, organic or homemade chicken stock.

 

DH and DS14 are fluoride-sensitive, DS14 and I have ADD, and we have a variety of food allergies. We don't buy anything stored in cans, try to limit as much processed food and sugar as possible.

[LaxMom]

 

 

 

Specific Carbohydrate Diet ~ Close to paleo but slightly different.

 

Thanks.

(As if it matters in my vote, lol)

Ok so doing the quick math in my head (always suspect), I'm getting about $800 for 5 of us? We eat clean, mostly organic, gluten-free (I'm GF, the others mostly are because I make the food).

[Twinmom]

We are Paleo, to a large extent, though the kiddos are not but are required to eat a relatively clean, natural diet. We spend $200 or more per person, per month. We don't grow our own food but do a CSA and most of our meat shopping from local, grassfed sources.

[Ann.without.an.e]

We do not eat processed or packaged foods. We do produce our own dairy, eggs, pork, and some of our vegetables.

 

We spend $300 every 3 or 4 days for a family of 7 at the grocery store or farmer's market.

 

 

Was this a typo? $300 every 3 or 4 days? Just curious :D

[5wolfcubs]

$126-150 for our family of 8. My dh eats paleo, girls are vegetarians, and boys & I are omnivores.

 

I shop only at Wegmans...which is a cross between Whole Foods and a standard grocery store, both in offerings and cost.

 

I really need to decrease food spending, but we are all happy which how we're currently eating. I almost put the $3.99 peanut butter back for the $1.99 peanut butter at the story yesterday. But I couldn't justify the $2 savings (actually, it would have been $6, since I bought 3 jars) verses the HFCS. :sad:

[amy g.]

No. It is not a typo. Food is what we spend money on. My husband drives beat up truck he was given for free. We don't have cable. My husband fixes everything in the house and cars himself so we don't have to pay anyone else for labor.

 

We spend most of the money we save on high quality, unprocessed food. It is what we value.

[SKL]

Considering that meat and fancy snacks/beverages are among the most expensive groceries, it does not surprise me that the more healthy I eat, the less my food costs. That is, of course, if it's not time to restock my vitamins ;).

[alisonf3]

We are a family of 5 and eat non-processed, mostly organic, and local as much as possible. Due to food additive sensitivities we only eat out every few months. Our budget ranges from $180-200 per person monthly.

[freesia]

I am low-carb. Dh has allergies to sulfites and some kind of pesticide used on fruit. So, he eats organic food and we cook from scratch. We grow some veg but not a huge amount (and we do a CSA which balances out any gain on the garden. LOL) We only go out to eat once a year or so and don't go to McDonald's, etc. We spend about $155 a person.

[dhudson]

We eat organic and as much of locally grown food as possible. We don't do processed, pre-packaged food. I try to do as much as i can from scratch. We don't have any allergies but we have friends and family with gluten and peanut allergies and have people over a lot so I also have a pantry that can handle their needs as well.

 

 

[Jenny in Florida]

We have three vegans and a vegetarian. We eat most of our meals at home or pack food to take on the road, except for my husband, who buys lunches at work two or three days a week. I spend about $125 most weeks, which usually includes some household cleaning stuff, personal hygeine products and some pet food (although not necessarily all of those things). Deducting a little bit for the non-food items, toughly, it works out to right around $125 per person, per month.

 

I don't grow or produce anything. I do bake about 75% of our bread.

[freeindeed]

I am low carb and hubby is low glycemic index. Dd5 is gluten free. All of us avoid prepackaged and processed foods except my older children, who eat those type things in moderation. We order special flours (almond, coconut) from Amazon, and they typically last for three months. My husband is an avid hunter, so we eat a lot of deer meat. We have friends and family who garden, and we do a bit of that as well. I make a lot of foods from scratch. We are able to spend about $500 on groceries (actual food items, not cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc.) per month. So since we have five people in our house now, I voted for the $100 per person a month.

[Joker]

We spend about $200 per person per month and we're a family of four. The bulk of that is fruit and veggies. I feel like I'm constantly buying them (which I don't mind) but it gets expensive. What's funny is a lot of people say it is cheaper to cook from scratch and eat healthy, but our grocery budget was a lot less when we ate junk. We're happier this way, though.

[Ann.without.an.e]

No. It is not a typo. Food is what we spend money on. My husband drives beat up truck he was given for free. We don't have cable. My husband fixes everything in the house and cars himself so we don't have to pay anyone else for labor.

 

We spend most of the money we save on high quality, unprocessed food. It is what we value.

 

Thanks for clarifying. I thought since you produced so much of your own it must be a typo! I definitely see how someone could spend that much though. If I could spend that much then I would :) We have to live cheap to be able to afford our $700-$800 a month.

[TracyP]

I just did the math and we spend $78 per person per month. We are a family of 7 with kids from age 2-9 so this is going to go up.

 

We aren't on a special diet, but we rarely eat processed foods. I cook from scratch and bake our bread. We garden although that wasn't a significant savings this year. We raise chickens for eggs and meat - I did add in our costs on these. My dad is a beef farmer and gives us a 1/2 of grass fed beef for Christmas every year.

[Orthodox6]

/

[Murmer]

Dairy free due to child with allergies...I make almost everything we eat from "scratch" (basic ingredients) except sandwich bread. I typically only shop the perimeter and got into about 2 aisle when I shop (baking for flour/sugar ext) and bread for sandwich bread. I shop off a list and a preplanned menu. I double recipes for muffins/snacks and freeze them. I would say our most expensive thing is getting soy yogurt from the specialty health store...but it is my dd favorite treat to eat.

[Whereneverever]

We are all Gf because I don't allow gluten in the house. Minimally processed, and the kids eat a ton of fruit and veggies.

 

It's just under $100/ month per person.

 

Things that help our budget- we don't buy a lot of meat. We hunt and process our own, which is the cheapest way to get naturally fed, non caged meat. We garden during the summer. I don't buy a lot of GF fake foods, that seems to drive the cost up.

[HRAAB]

I can't break it down to a per person figure. Looking at receipts doesn't help because it includes all household items. So, this is my best guess, somewhere between $700 to $800 per month for usually 5 people, sometimes 6 because I never know when my college student is going to be home.

 

I don't buy pre packaged/processed anything. I usually shop at Costco, a local discount grocery or a farmers market. During the summer the bill goes down because we have a big garden. I put up our own fruit and some veggies from the garden. For instance, I haven't bought canned tomatoes in 25 years so that brings the bills down. Most of that money goes for fresh (organic when possible) veggies and whole foods. We're not big meat eaters. Dh and I watch are carb intake closely.

[Laura Corin]

I didn't vote because UK prices are not comparable to US ones. I just wanted to mention that I make a lot of cheap meals, but they just don't involve processed foods: lentils, beans, limited amounts of good proteins

 

Laura

[prairiewindmomma]

We are at $90-95/person, not counting the baby. I usually can't swing organic produce or meat with our budget. I don't buy many packaged/processed items.

[Tammyla]

Just food is hard to figure, but I'd like to know myself. This will take a little leg work for me to pin down.

[MyLittleWonders]

We are gluten and dairy free, very low soy, and all natural. We also tend to buy mostly organic (as much as we can). We spend roughly $200 to just over that per person per month for a family of six. That might include some household items (which might only be $50 a month at most), but does not include vitamins/supplements, of which I think dd's are the most expensive. We buy a small amount of pre-processed food as there are mornings I'd rather the kids have a toaster waffle or a bowl of cereal because frankly cooking 3 meals a day gets old sometimes. ;)

[kitten18]

DH and I are LC, the kids are GF (DH and I are 99% of the time too). The kids eat some grains, GF oats, and some GF snack foods.

 

I'm going with a rough guess of $176-200 per month per person.

[momto2Cs]

We eat a whole foods, made-from-scratch kind of diet (100 Days of Real Food blog-like/Michael Pollan). I'm lower carb than the rest of the family. I voted that we spend 101-125 per person per month. I buy bulk foods - organic whole grains, organic beans, etc. Lots of veggies and fruit. We eat a lot of "ethnic" dishes as they help stretch money in a healthy way! I do try to buy good meats - grass fed/free range/etc., and I buy the dirty dozen organic, but don't worry as much about the clean 15 being organic since we have limited money. When it is available, I buy raw milk from a friend as well. We have chickens so we get our own awesome eggs, and we're putting in a veggie garden. We have a couple of fruit trees and an olive tree as well.

[rieshy]

We eat pretty much only whole foods, and there are 9 of us. We do get usually 2-4 deer a year that we butcher ourselves and I buy our weekly 6 gallons of milk from a friend's dairy farm for a good price. I also try to buy half a cow each year. But including the cow and milk we try to stay at $800 a month. That includes detergents and cleaners and toilet paper. I don't buy any paper kitchen products.

 

I used to spend 500-600 more a month and we didn't eat as well as we do now that I'm pinching every penny and planning every meal. I have to stay gluten free- but I stay away from gluten-free packaged products, they are pricey and not very nutritious. The rest of the family enjoys occasional baked breads and pizza. My biggest monthly splurge is quality coffee:)

[Joyofsixreboot]

Whole foods though not exclusively organic. I voted less than $100/person. I get our chicken, beef and pork locally. We eat whole grains so oats and brown rice aren't really expensive. I also have the time and inclination to cook/ bake which keeps things lower. I also feed 8 or 9 people and I think the economy of scale let's me come in at a lower budget level.

[Runningmom80]

We are four vegans and a dairy, soy, egg, wheat, nuts, and many more food allergy boy who eats meat. We spend about 1k a month. We live in low COL area.

[Heart_Mom]

We are almost exclusively plant-based, whole grains eaters here - with healthy appetites. For our family of 7 (with the oldest child being 11) we spend about $600.00 per month.

[mommymilkies]

5 of us are gluten free. We eat mostly primal, but I have a vegetarian/pescetarian oldest dd and a dairy free 5 yo. It's hard for me to answer this. We spend ~$400 on lean months and ~$1000 a month on the months where we have extra money and stock up for lean months. So I'll average $700 a month, so $100 a person for all food for a month.

[beaners]

Thanks for clarifying. I thought since you produced so much of your own it must be a typo! I definitely see how someone could spend that much though. If I could spend that much then I would :) We have to live cheap to be able to afford our $700-$800 a month.

 

What does it look like in your mind? I'm having trouble coming up with what I could serve that would cost $100 a day for 7 people. We have some dietary necessities but I'm not voting here. I serve Hamburger Helper on occasion, which we alternate with healthy, non-processed stuff. Even when we buy expensive fish or meat, even with the added cost for organic produce, I'm having trouble coming up with that cost.

 

I'd really like to see a sample day's menu to see what I'm missing. (I love sample menus anyways, so this is just an excuse to ask for one! :laugh: ) Our local food prices are low and we eat seasonally, so it's probably something obvious that I'm blanking on.

[butterflymommy]

(family of 9) I spend about $200/ week on food, sometimes less. That doesn't include non-food groceries and it does include stuff DH buys for lunch.

 

We eat very little meat, and when we do it's poultry or fish bought as cheap as possible (so not organic). We have LOTS of fresh fruit, veggies, greens, root veggies on hand at all time. I make everything from scratch but we occasionally have sandwich bread or a dessert mix. But 99% of what we eat is prepared from scratch.

 

I buy at discount, remainder, wholesale, and ethnic shops.

[LucyStoner]

It used to be around $200-225/per/month but with me not working, we trimmed the budget somewhat. We also have started to all eat far less dairy and meat and not for price considerations. Calorie for calorie, fresh produce is the most expensive outlay so as we have upped veg and decreased meat, we don't spend that much less. We are just starting to do 5ish veggie or vegan nights a week, with 2 split between fish and meat. I spend about $150-175 per person. Usually our monthly outflow varies dramatically. Sometimes it is under $400 but then it will be way more at other times when we buy lamb or beef for the year and stock up on beans, oats, lentils, rice, GF and non GF flour etc. On our reduced budget, I can not afford all organic but we make the best choices we can. We do get some eggs from chickens we share with friends and grow a few odd things in pots on the patio. Also, in the summer I process some of my friends' garden overflow and get to keep some for us in trade for giving them back prepared soups and jam etc.

[dbmamaz]

hmm, i voted the highest level but my grocery bills include non-grocery items and i cant recalculate that. we are gluten free, multiple food allergies, and buy most of our groceries at whole foods. i actually reacted to grocery store meat. we eat a lot of meat and have teens. (this last bill was before dd moved out)

[Lisbeth]

In my family we have severe food allergies., texture issues., vegans., low salt needs and pre~diabetes. It isn't pretty.

[GailV]

I'm not even sure. Is that bad?

 

Same here.

 

Dh is low carb, low tannin (which pretty much rules out the legume family), can't eat most nuts, nothing of cow origin....

 

PLUS, groceries happen to be high in the St. Louis area.

[Truscifi]

We don't follow a strict diet but generally avoid processed or box foods, and have recently cut WAY down (almost out) starches and sugar. We made up the difference with fresh fruits and veggies, started daily green smoothies, etc. We do garden and expanded this year so will hopefully get a lot of produce there soon, and we have chickens for eggs, raise pigs for pork, and eat venison which we only pay processing cost on thanks to my brother being a hunter. We spend right around $100 per person per month for everyone but the baby - though he just started solids and I make his baby food, so we do spend some on his fresh produce too.

[Firefly]

We spend about 150-200 per person per month. We eat pretty simply-- a wide variety of whole foods, local and/or organic. We grow a lot of our own fruits and veggies, have hens for eggs, and bees for honey. Our biggest food expenditure is local, grass-fed meat, but we're not big meat eaters so it doesn't hit the budget that hard.

[Dandelion]

We eat an ~85% whole foods diet. I buy organic meats and a mix of conventional/organic fruits and veggies. I buy very few canned items and boxed foods (those that I do buy are generally organic/specialty items). DS has multiple food sensitivities and is on a diet free of 7 different foods (gluten, dairy, etc.) as well as all artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, HFCS, and MSG. Because of that, I do some of my shopping at our local health food store since that's the only place I can get certain items for DS. I buy the rest at the regular grocery store.

 

I don't keep track of how much we spend, but my guess is that we spend between $800-900 a month on groceries for a family of 4. So between $200-225 per person.

[Liz CA]

We do almost exclusively organic except some of dh's meat comes from TJ's.

We also order from a co-op.

We are not eating gluten free or only paleo.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Honestly, we're pretty new at eating Paleo so I have no idea. Probably too much. We're broke these days. My daughter is GF while son and I get very little for obvious reasons. My little kids and hubby eat less than average, but I most certainly give them some boxed food (I put almond butter on graham crackers the other day. They have Cliff Bars sometimes. That sort of thing.).

 

I did want to share a link for anyone who may be interested. I have found this blog helpful in my journey to eat more cheaply as I do this: http://dirtyfloordiaries.com/

[Mommyfaithe]

I'm Paleo, we probably spend about $200/person a month.

 

 

I eat AI Paleo ( autoimmune protocol) but my family does not. They do data some dairy and some grain products, but I aim to get them the least damaging ( sprouted grain breads, organic oatmeal). It costs me about 1000 per month including dh's juice stuff which can get ridiculous, but it makes him happy.

 

We eat lots of fruit and veggies, some meat and fish, eggs, good fats and some nuts. Kids get treats, but not constantly....cookies or some ice cream.

[TravelingChris]

I voted but it is because we have to eat a specific diet, which is more expensive. My dd is allergic to citric acid, sodium citrate, potassium citrate. Those ingredients are naturally in a number of fruits but also added to many foods. So, for example, mac and cheese which she does like to eat occasionally- we have to buy the 5 dollar frozen kind made by a organic maker. Even with meats it makes a difference. I can't buy anything injected with mystery juices. I have to buy one type of half and half, I always have to buy real cheese, not American cheese. I have to substitute an expensive white Balsamic vinegar in recipes calling for some lemon instead of actually using lemons. There are lots of things I had to change.