I was talking to Brian the other day about giving more money to the water project.
“If there was more, we would give it.” He said.
I was scratching my head trying to figure out where all our funds go every month.
“Groceries!” Brian offered.
“Whoa, I think you’re right.”
Groceries are always a problem for us. I will get on little kicks of going to multiple grocery stores to find specific organic items on sale. It just gets to be so much work I end up only shopping at Whole Foods.
Our worst week grocery shopping was when we first got our juicer and I wanted to make one glass of juice every day for all of us. $850 later and almost broke I had barely enough fruits and vegetables to juice for a week and about a week of meals for our family of four.
I cut it in half the following month, but it has gotten out of control.
So I asked Brian, “What if I was able to feed us organic food for $50 a week.”
Brian looked stunned, “That would be amazing, if it was a possibility. I don’t think it can be done.”
I went to Whole Foods with the intention to prove him wrong. I decided we were going to truly stick by meat only once or twice a week, most of us know it is healthier, but more importantly for our plan, it is cheaper.
The boys and I spent almost an hour in just the produce section. Then we filled in here-and-there and made our way to the checkout line.
My cart was full so that I knew we went over….
“$257.78” The checker said.
“I went $207.78 over my budget for the week.” I told her.
“You want to feed your family for a week on $50? Here?!” She exclaimed.
“Well, I guess not with that response.”
So, day one of week one was a bit of a bust.
Considering it was only the first day of this whole thing I am not totally calling it a failure. I tried, that counts for something…Right?
This week I’m going to organize better.
I’m going to scour my favorite food/recipe blogs for inspiration:
As far as where we will go to shop, think we are going to stick with Trader Joes and farmers markets…
I have a love affair with Whole Foods. Unfortunately, our budget isn’t going to allow for much (if any) shopping there. To understand my love and frustration for the store, watch below:
Do any of you have weekly organic meals on a budget? Any tips you would like to share? I would love to know!
I’ll report back next week. Hopefully, with some progress towards meeting our goal!
I can’t wait to see what you find out. My family is moving out of my parents home in a couple of weeks and I want to stay under $100 for mostly organic mostly vegetarian too. Normally I spend about $160 a week. I don’t know if it’s possible!! :/
I have cut down our produce budget significantly by participating in bountiful baskets co-op. You can find all the details here: http://www.bountifulbaskets.org. I only purchase the organic, which is more than the traditional, but when you compare prices with trader joe’s and whole foods – it’s a steal! The produce varies, so you will have to plan your meals around what you receive, but it’s always delicious and I love that we get a variety of different items to try new things.
Funny I just read about a similar Whole Foods Challenge this morning.
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/planning-30-days-meals-whole-foods-poverty-budget-161700503.html
Granted she spent more, but you never know! Good luck….I am having similar meal planning/healthy vs budget issues. It’s tricky!
Jamie, the mom who writes the blog Crazy Adventures In Parenting teamed up with Whole Foods a couple weeks ago to prove that she could feed her family of NINE on $250 or less. I think if you got realllllyyy creative, you could do it!
let me know how it goes! i spend about 140-150 a week for my family of 3. I buy 2 to 3 items of meat for the week as it is. Fruits, veggies,nuts. Raw milk, very good eggs and butter. And I mainly shop at sprouts and a little at Ralphs and I get my orange juice from Fresh and Easy. I know whole foods is highly over priced and you can find a lot of the same stuff else where for cheaper. I would be happy with spending about 70 a week. but it does seem like a challenge.
I think it can be done, but it takes a lot of work. $100 for a family of four is a realistic amount that allows for some healthy snacks and a nice variety of produce. I only cook three or four meals per week and eat the leftovers the rest of the time. That cuts down on food waste and makes for fast prep on my off days.
Looking forward to hearing what you manage on saving on! Here Organic is hard to find (Nevada) and we go to whole foods for our vegan needs that you can’t find anywhere else (rice cheese instead of the soy they have at trader’s) but even without meat I spend way more than $50/week! I have been following this blog that does exactly that, but I haven’t had time to read much between your blog, zen parents, and my own online store (:
Maybe you can find it useful?
http://www.crunchysavings.com/
Do you guys have a Trader Joe’s, perchance? Their organic stuff tends to be a little bit more reasonably priced than Whole Foods.
Good luck with this. It’s sad that the good organic stuff is the most prohibitive for a lot of people.
I used to have a budget of $3 per day per person. This meant we mostly ate veggies, whole grains and beans, with occasional dairy and meat as treats. We bought grains/beans etc as dry bulk and cooked them in big batches. You can do this and freeze it into smaller containers to defrost when you need it.
Consider joining a CSA (community support agriculture) – depending on the farm you’ll get a big box of produce each week for much less than you would at store, and you’re directly supporting the farmer.
Also, co-ops where you can buy in bulk – cases of things that you use a lot of – can save you a lot of money.
You’ll get the most for you money if you stay away from processed foods. You may just need to spend a little more time cooking…
You can make bread for a fraction of the price if you have a bread machine, and it takes less time to throw a loaf together than to drive to the grocery store. Bonus, you can set the timer the night before so the bread is just finished baking when you get up in the morning.
Having a organic produce delivery service really has helped our family cut down our spending. First I think the overall all pricing is better, plus it’s seasonal which is better and it keeps me from buying extra stuff when I’m just going for organic spinach and eggs and I come out with 60$ more worth of shopping. Most of the services send recipes specifically for what is in the box so I am always able to use everything. And most allow you to customize what’s in them and the frequency.
yes! this is one of my favorite WFM recipes! http://sandiegodealsandsteals.com/2012/04/07/quinoa-salad-dinner-4-total-left-overs/ I did a “Whole Foods on a Budget” challenge earlier this year and we couldn’t do it quite that low – but we shopped for our family of five exclusively at WFM – no eating out – for $600 for the whole month – we actually only spent $575 and we had LOTS of stuff left over! We didn’t eat out and we couldnt use anything from our cupboards from before or use anything homegrown – if you are starting with stuff in your pantry to pull from and have a garden – you could probably do it! Even if you can’t do it on $50 a week you could probably do less than that $200+
good luck! Worthy cause for sure!
We are on a similar mission. I am in the UK. We have discovered veggie is cheaper too and when we do eat meat I tend to buy a whole free range chicken and roast it, let it cool, pick the carcass and use the meat in broth, curries, casserole or on home made pizza. Then use the carcass and juices for stock. I’m not sure if you have heard of mindfulness but it has really helped our family change how we eat and I find I am more satisfied after each meal. I also find home made bread more filling and soup is a really cheap healthy meal. Even a window box of fresh growing herbs cuts down spend on that – as we don’t have a garden I can’t grow much else.
Good luck! I will be intrigued to see how you get on.xxx
It’s quite costly to shop solely at Whole Foods. Last December, I found this great series written by Lisa Johnson – she was feeding her family near the poverty line while shopping at Whole Foods. The link is below, you might find it helpful. Or pick up some tips, it’s been a while since I’ve read it (though I should revisit it myself as my food budget has gotten out of hand lately!)
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/whole-story/eating-near-poverty-line%E2%80%A6-whole-foods-market
The cookbook “More with Less” might be helpful
Jamie, you have to try Sprouts! There is one opening on Westwood Blvd just north of Santa Monica, in a few weeks! Meanwhile, the Culver City one is closest. We go on Wednesdays when they have double sale day. Last week they had organic navel oranges for 88 cents a pound. Their fruits, veggies and bulk bin things (like nuts, spices, flours) are really good. Their cheeses are usually pricier than Trader Joe’s, though.
Buying meat from a farm in bulk is a lifesaver for us. We find another family to share with and fill our freezer for about six bucks per pound. We don’t have Trader Joes out here but we do have Natural Grocers so we do that. Everything in season and on sale.
Lentils, rice, and beans are your friend here, they are awesome meal stretchers, filling and inexpensive. You can mix just about anything in with them and get a good meal started. You can get alot of organic dry staples in bulk at a good price from azure standard- more cost up front, but then you arent buying a little bag of rice or lentils every week or whatever. I adore whole foods, but can find really nice organic produce cheaper at sprouts or at the farmers market.
I started buying my meat a local butcher and my fruits/veggies from Bountiful Basket that a pp linked. I’m TRYING to spend less time AND money at the grocery store. I also plan to garden this year. My tomato plants are just getting started in my little indoor planters until it warms up more. I also use cloth diapers, cloth wipes and am on the prowl for reusable paper towels. I don’t think i’m gonna talk anyone here into family cloth though. I have a family of 6 …and I’m trying to just make it on 100$ a week.
$50 for a family of 4? Yeah, probably not. I don’t think you could eat healthy NON-organic food for $50 a week. But I do usually manage to do organic for between $100 and $125 a week. Have you looked into Azure Standard? Their prices are amazing, they have every organic product you can imagine, and the shipping fee is super low. I know there are CSA’s around you- I read about them all the time. That can save you $$ and you can turn it into an educational opportunity for the kiddos if the farmer will let you visit (and he/she should!). You could also look for organic produce buying clubs- they’re not easy to find, but I used to belong to one in Riverside. Not close to you, but I don’t see why there wouldn’t be something similar near you. The biggest key for me has been to do the leg work and keep my eyes open. I’ve found awesome deals for good food on Craigslist, of all places (chicken… before I had my own, and raw goat milk). Obviously you want to see where the food originated from if you go that route. And obviously the tips people have probably given 500 times- avoid packaged organic foods (holy $$$ batman), buy in bulk, yada yada yada.
Do you have any space available to you to grow some of your own food? Our city has community garden plots for rent. The cost is $150 for 10×20 for 12 months. A master gardener is available to hlep newbies. Eventhough we just bought our first house last week, we got a plot in the community garden for the added advice and fellowship. With the exception of our grass and some hydrangeas (highly toxic and need a new home asap), all of our bushes and landscaping for our new home is edible ( blueberry bushes, gogi berry trees, lingonberry plants, etc. We will also have some container gardens at our new home for tomatoes, herbs and greens. Next year we hope to have our own container gardens in our yard. We are hoping this will help with our food budget. We also only eat organic, non gmo foods and are looking for ways to save more money for adoption and charities.
$50 a week for all your food? I think that is probably to low a number but there are many ways you can eat organic, whole real foods on a budget (I write about this all the time). Here are 5 tips:
1. Join a CSA (if you are adventurous with food) you can sign up an get lots of fresh fruits and veggies for a manageable cost. Many CSA’s now also offer eggs, milk, cheese and meatI. If you have the ability to do some of the work (sort the delivery from the farm, have pick up at your house…etc.) you can save even more money. Food co-ops are another option but they are not as easy to find.
2. Reduce the meat in your diet. Depending on your food tastes this will could be easy. Adding in beans and other meatless alternatives you can save on budget and still eat great. Be sure to puchase from you bulk bins at Whole Food (not canned version, more expensive and have BPA). You can get these items very cheap and prepare them yourself.
3. Avoid prepackaged foods, they really add up in cost. If you kids like cereal see if you can get them to like steel cut oatmeal (much cheaper and healthier… lots of GMO’s in cereal and the GMO free ones are pricey). Kids like cookies… bake them yourself the ingredients are cheaper than the packaged ones.
4. Cook in bulk, but be good about storing and eating the leftovers. A way to make your budget stretch is to buy food in season when it is cheapest. Example: when eggplants are in season and inexpensive roast them and freeze them so you can use it to make eggplant parm and other great dishes. The week that you dig in the freezer you will be able to maybe get more meat that week or buy more of what is in season to restock the freezer. This only works if you eat your leftovers.
5. Grow what you can. I live in the northeast, I cannot grow oranges but I can grow other foods my family loves. You do not need to have a huge yard or an amazing green thumb container gardens on a patio work great (I have a container strawberry patch that I got as a Mothers Day gift). Grow herbs in kitchen window fresh herbs add up in cost. If you can get your neighbors in on this too you can reduce your food budget even more because you can share!
Good luck… every cost saving step takes more time out of your life so there are trade offs!