Natural, Organic Eating on a Budget

I think we all can agree that eating organic foods can be more expensive than buying “regular” groceries. When I quit my good paying job two months ago to be primarily a Work At Home Mom, I knew that I would have to budget even more than I used to since I was hoping our family would be able to continue eating primarily wholesome, organic foods.

I am very conscious of the fact that the income I get now from selling things I make on Etsy is what feeds our family, whereas before I always had enough in my paycheck to easily pay for our groceries, take-out meals and my occasional impulse buys at the bakery down the street from where I worked (I have a serious sweet tooth!) 

Over the last few years I have figured out some ways to make eating natural, organic foods more affordable for our family. I wanted to share a few basic tips to help others be able to make eating organic more affordable and accessible.

1. Make a menu:  This may sound cumbersome, but I have found that if I sit down and list out meals to make over the next 1-2 weeks it helps in a multitude of ways. First off, it helps to then make a complete grocery list based off your menu so all ingredients will be on hand and you don’t have to wonder around the grocery store trying to think of what things you might need to purchase and alleviates the need to do an emergency trip to the store for a last minute ingredient (which for me also results in a number of other impulse buys!)

 Secondly, having a menu has been really helpful to consult when I have a crazy busy day and don’t have enough brain power to plan out what we will eat for supper. All I have to do is look at our menu list and pick something, knowing that we have all the ingredients to make it. 

2. Buy in Bulk: When I say buy in bulk I mean two things: one is buying from the bulk foods section of the grocery store and second is buying in large quantities from a bulk grocery like Costco or Sam’s Club.

For those of you not familiar with buying from the bulk food section, this is where you can typically use a reusable container to scoop out how much of the product you want and the weight of the packaging is deducted from your total cost, thus making it more affordable than purchasing a pre-packaged item where you pay for the packaging. Most health food stores have bulk sections and even some mainstream grocery stores are starting to have bulk food sections like our local Safeway grocery; of course the mainstream grocery stores will not have the variety of bulk items like the health food stores but it makes some more popular items available to folks who may not shop in the health food store.  

Buying large quantities from a bulk grocery can be a great way to save money, especially if you have a larger family. Until last year, I had no idea how much natural, organic food was sold at our local bulk store Costco. I have learned that for our small family of three, we typically cannot eat all of the bulk fresh produce we purchase at our local bulk grocer and end up having to compost some. Due to this, I no longer buy fresh organic produce there but as our family grows and our daughter starts eating more solids, I’m sure that may change!

I get a little overwhelmed with the large crowd in our local bulk store so I do one big shopping trip every quarter. The basics I purchase there: organic milk, organic butter, organic peanut butter, organic coffee, organic chicken breasts and organic whole chickens. We have a chest freezer we are able to store these larger quantities in and use them as we need them. When I first started shopping there, I did price comparisons for these organic products and compared them to the prices at other local grocers to determine which products were truly more affordable. There still are times where the local grocery store has a sale and the cost will be lower than the bulk price at Costco so it is important to pay attention to sales and product prices.

3. Shop the co-op: If your community is lucky enough to have a cooperative grocery store, they are a great place to shop for natural, organic and local foods typically at a lower cost than the larger health food stores. There are many types of cooperative groceries, but the basic premise is that by members paying a membership fee and volunteering time at the store the costs for food can be kept lower since there are lower overhead costs for things like employee wages, benefits, etc. I try to purchase as much as I can at our local Missoula Co-op and rarely shop the local health food store. 

4. Shop the sales: I am not a diehard grocery ad reader or coupon user but I know some people who are. This is one area where I can improve and probably save our family some money. Occasionally I will look up the sale ad for the large chain grocery store I go to but often I just happen to be at the store and see things are on sale and buy extra. My husband will tell you that I am an analyzer when I go grocery shopping; it drives him crazy to the point where he doesn’t like to grocery shop with me! Which is fine since his method drives me crazy: grabbing whatever product off the shelf without comparing prices.

I attribute my analyzing to my days in the Volunteer Service where we were paid a small stipend in exchange for volunteering a year to work at a non-profit organization. I learned how to compare prices in the grocery store to get the most for my money; most grocers these days will post on the price tag on the shelf the cost per weight of the item which makes comparing prices very easy.

When I see a good sale on organic foods we regularly eat, I stock up. For example, I recently made a trip into the large mainstream grocery store that carries a portion of organic foods. They were having a big “buy one get one free” sale so I stocked up on a bunch of items we regularly eat. At times I feel  a little guilty for not supporting our local co-op store when I make purchases like this, but for us it means being able to eat more organic foods on our tight budget so I have to tell myself that supporting a large corporate store is ok sometimes! 

5. Preserve your own foods: I grew up in a family where every summer we preserved a variety of foods to eat throughout the year by freezing and canning. Whether you grow your own produce or purchase it at a local farmer’s market or grocery store, you can easily preserve some of your own food to feed your family.

Since we have a chest freezer, I find it is much easier and less time consuming for me to freeze most of what I preserve by doing a quick blanching process and then freezing the foods in portion sizes that work for our family. The foods I commonly preserve by freezing are green beans, sugar snap peas, corn, spinach, zucchini, applesauce, huckleberries, cherries, homemade freezer jam.

If we are lucky enough to get a bunch of morel mushrooms, we dry them out and store them in an airtight container and just rehydrate them as we use them to cook. If you are lucky enough to have a cool, dark basement or cellar, you can easily store larger quantities of carrots, potatoes, onions, squash, etc to use throughout the winter. 

6. Share bulk quantities with others: This is an idea that was recently shared with me that I’m hoping to be able to incorporate into food purchases. Many communities have local farms that sell shares called Community Supported Agriculture, or more commonly known as a CSA. Basically you sign up at the beginning of the season and pay a fee to cover your share for the growing season. Each CSA is slightly different but most operate where each week there is a new box of fresh produce harvested that you pick up as part of your share.

I never signed up before because it seemed like too much food for just my husband and I. A neighbor recently told me they split one with another family for this reason, an idea I had not thought of before and plan to pursue since we don’t have a large enough veggie garden to grow all that we need.

I also know of some folks who have shared the purchase of a pig or ½ cow or buffalo from a local farm or butcher. We hunt for the majority of the meat we eat so for us this has not been something we needed to pursue but for some folks is a great option to get high quality meat at a lower cost.

7. Buy local: Most communities have farmers markets and you can find farms or even families who sell extra produce and eggs at a roadside stand. Buying food locally grown at places like these typically cost less than purchasing it at the store. I’ve been wanting chickens for a while now but we don’t have a decent set up for them so instead I asked around and was able to find someone we know with chickens. I buy our farm fresh eggs from her and they are much tastier and lower cost than the organic eggs from the grocery store! 

8. Don’t shop hungry! I put this in here as the last tip I will highlight and I’m sure we have all heard it before. I included it because I struggle with this one and know for a fact that my impulse purchases and grocery bill are much higher when I shop hungry. I keep a box of granola bars in my car to snack on and if I find myself hungry before a grocery shopping trip will eat one quickly before I go into the store. I still always treat myself to 1-2 little goodies when I grocery shop (typically it is a bottle of Honestea and a sea salt and almonds dark chocolate bar!) as a little reward to myself for accomplishing the mundane task of grocery shopping!

I would love to hear feedback on other ideas you may have to share about how to eat organic foods on a budget!

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