The biggest question I get when people find out we eat organic is "how can you afford that?"
You can afford it, it just takes a little planning, and shopping smart.
Fortunately we have great resources around to be able to continue to eat organic and local foods.
Albany has a community owned Food Co-op called Honest Weight.
They carry meats,dairy, produce, bulk, organic and local products.
The price tag for many things is high.
But they have coupon packets and discounts every month on a lot of products.
Our local Hannaford (supermarket) has graciously invested money into supplying organic fruits and vegetables too, most of it is affordable.
The trick is not buying packaged products like snacks and cereals.
This is where your cost will add up fast.
This has been hard for us to adjust to, when you have kids especially. We do buy snack crackers when they are on sale, but only when they are on sale.
It's become habit to feed them before we go out or do anything and make sure to pack snacks, we learned the hard way.
We also do not buy canned products, due to the overwhelming amount of BPA in the lining of the cans. The only company that has BPA free lining is Eden Organics beans. Which go for $2.20 a can. So we skip out. We buy dry beans and pre-boil them and use that, a much cheaper alternative.
We have saved a lot of money buying bulk foods and is great to have for emergencies.
We have:
Flour
Oats
Rice
Bulgar
Beans
Onion
Potato
Pasta
Our weekly budget is $150.
This is an example of our weekly dinner meal plan. (accompanied with Salad and a vegetable dish)
Monday: Pizza.
( Supplies: One jar of strained tomato-for sauce, Cube of Mozzarella cheese)
Tuesday: Chicken scampi
(Chicken, garlic, ginger, oil, pasta)
Wednesday: Lahmajum (turkish pizza)
(Ground Beef, jar tomato paste, parsley, flour, yeast)
Thursday: Tofu Stir Fry
(Tofu, Brocolli, Carrots, onion)
Friday: Chicken & Rice
(Chicken, Rice, Brocolli, Carrots)
Saturday: Shrimp Scampi
(Shrimp, pasta, garlic, ginger, oil)
Sunday: Spaghetti
(Pasta, ground beef, sauce)
Ali will most likely make a potato stew of some sort for weekly lunches.
Most of the stuff we buy is used in other dishes. We buy one jar of strained tomato's and make sauce that we use for other things like pasta dishes. We also recently started buying a whole chicken to roast and use for lots of other things....and stock. We buy 1 pound of ground beef and divide it into two for different things. And a whole bag of Emril's Frozen shrimp and use that for at least 3 meals, its only 7.99
For breakfast we eat oatmeal, peanut butter & bananas on bread or eggs.
Usual Grocery list.:
Bananas-conventional
Brocolli (head)-organic
Carrots (will last more than 1 week)-local
Onions-organic
Potatos-organic/local
Salad mix-organic
Parsley-conventional
Scallions-conventional
Tomato-local/hydroponoic
Apples-local
Garlic-organic
Ginger- (will last more than 1 week)
Cube of Mozzarella
Whole Chicken
1lb of Ground beef or stew meat
One Jar Strained Tomato
One Jar tomato paste
Tofu
Olive oil (only if on sale)-organic
Frozen veggies
CHECK OUT: http://www.youtube.com/user/CandidMommy for great organic recipes!
Hope this is helpful. :)
You can afford it, it just takes a little planning, and shopping smart.
Fortunately we have great resources around to be able to continue to eat organic and local foods.
Albany has a community owned Food Co-op called Honest Weight.
They carry meats,dairy, produce, bulk, organic and local products.
The price tag for many things is high.
But they have coupon packets and discounts every month on a lot of products.
Our local Hannaford (supermarket) has graciously invested money into supplying organic fruits and vegetables too, most of it is affordable.
The trick is not buying packaged products like snacks and cereals.
This is where your cost will add up fast.
This has been hard for us to adjust to, when you have kids especially. We do buy snack crackers when they are on sale, but only when they are on sale.
It's become habit to feed them before we go out or do anything and make sure to pack snacks, we learned the hard way.
We also do not buy canned products, due to the overwhelming amount of BPA in the lining of the cans. The only company that has BPA free lining is Eden Organics beans. Which go for $2.20 a can. So we skip out. We buy dry beans and pre-boil them and use that, a much cheaper alternative.
We have saved a lot of money buying bulk foods and is great to have for emergencies.
We have:
Flour
Oats
Rice
Bulgar
Beans
Onion
Potato
Pasta
Our weekly budget is $150.
This is an example of our weekly dinner meal plan. (accompanied with Salad and a vegetable dish)
Monday: Pizza.
( Supplies: One jar of strained tomato-for sauce, Cube of Mozzarella cheese)
Tuesday: Chicken scampi
(Chicken, garlic, ginger, oil, pasta)
Wednesday: Lahmajum (turkish pizza)
(Ground Beef, jar tomato paste, parsley, flour, yeast)
Thursday: Tofu Stir Fry
(Tofu, Brocolli, Carrots, onion)
Friday: Chicken & Rice
(Chicken, Rice, Brocolli, Carrots)
Saturday: Shrimp Scampi
(Shrimp, pasta, garlic, ginger, oil)
Sunday: Spaghetti
(Pasta, ground beef, sauce)
Ali will most likely make a potato stew of some sort for weekly lunches.
Most of the stuff we buy is used in other dishes. We buy one jar of strained tomato's and make sauce that we use for other things like pasta dishes. We also recently started buying a whole chicken to roast and use for lots of other things....and stock. We buy 1 pound of ground beef and divide it into two for different things. And a whole bag of Emril's Frozen shrimp and use that for at least 3 meals, its only 7.99
For breakfast we eat oatmeal, peanut butter & bananas on bread or eggs.
Usual Grocery list.:
Bananas-conventional
Brocolli (head)-organic
Carrots (will last more than 1 week)-local
Onions-organic
Potatos-organic/local
Salad mix-organic
Parsley-conventional
Scallions-conventional
Tomato-local/hydroponoic
Apples-local
Garlic-organic
Ginger- (will last more than 1 week)
Cube of Mozzarella
Whole Chicken
1lb of Ground beef or stew meat
One Jar Strained Tomato
One Jar tomato paste
Tofu
Olive oil (only if on sale)-organic
Frozen veggies
CHECK OUT: http://www.youtube.com/user/CandidMommy for great organic recipes!
Hope this is helpful. :)
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