Grocery Budgets

The topic of grocery budgets is a hot one for just about everyone! Everyone wants to save money, and cut the budget in any way possible. It's just not easy to do these days. The price of just about everything has gone up ... a lot! Many of you who know our family, may know that both Rich and I are savers. We don't like to spend money. We look for ways to save in every area of life. We have found, however, that saving in the area of groceries is just not the easiest thing to do. We use many specialty items that are just not available at a typical grocery store.  

I get emails and messages often from people who ask me the question:

"How are you able to afford to buy healthy food?"

I am devoting this blog post to answering that question.

First, we use Amazon for items such as organic coffee beans, organic popcorn kernels, unsweetened coconut, baking ingredients (for our homemade bread), organic cereal, organic peanut butter, and a few other misc. items.

We use a local grain co-op or The Grain Mill, Wake Forest to purchase our grain for fresh home milling.  I prefer to support local businesses as much as possible and highly recommend The Grain Mill.  They have excellent customer service and many healthy specialty items.

We are members of the local buying club BJ's located in North Raleigh. From them, we purchase organic butter, eggs (sometimes, we also get eggs from a local farmer), organic ketchup, Rumsford Baking Powder, King Arthur white flour, Organic Sugar, and whole wheat pasta, cheeses, organic vegetables, honey, agave nectar, and a few other misc. items.

We use Vitacost for organic teas, vitamins, herbal supplements, immune boosting supplements, essential oils, probiotics, shampoos, and toothpaste, as well as a few other misc. items.

We also buy many food items from Trader Joes. Trader Joes is not close to us at all, so we have to plan our trips to Trader Joes around other trips that we need to make to Raleigh.  From Trader Joes, we buy produce, tortillas (for the occasions that I don't make them homemade), organic meats, organic sour cream, organic plain yogurt, cereals, granola bars, children's vitamin C, nuts, grape seed oil, olive oil, whole wheat pasta, lunch meats, cheeses, eggs, organic butter, frozen vegetables, frozen fruit, and on occasion a special ice cream snack for the children. Trader Joes is reasonably priced, uses high quality ingredients, and does not use any food items that have been genetically modified. If Trader Joes was closer to home, we would do most of our shopping at that store.

We also use local grocery stores for several items.

We buy our organic milk from a local dairy.  

Our main meat source is deer.

As you can see, in order for us to eat the way we do, we can't just go to one grocery store. We gather our items from several different places. So, how do we afford to eat healthy?

First, we hold to the philosophy that we can't afford not to. Our health depends on excellent nutrition. 

Second, we never eat out at restaurants. Eating out even once a week with a family of 6, significantly increases the food budget. On the occasion that we do go out, it's almost always because we are using a gift card. There may be some healthy choices at some restaurants, but let's be honest:  when we go out, we eat overpriced junk food. Last, (with a few minor exceptions) we avoid highly processed convenience foods. (you would be surprised at how much these foods increase the grocery budget)

Many people have also asked me about coupons. I rarely use coupons. If I can find a coupon for a food item that is on my list of items to buy, I wouldn't hesitate to use it. I have found that it is rare to find a coupon for items that we buy.  On average, for our family of 6 (keeping in mind that we eat every meal at home), we spend between $115-$150 per week on our grocery budget.  We tend to stock up on certain food items, so there are weeks that we spend much less than budget and weeks that we may spend more.  We also use cloth napkins and regular kitchen towels instead of paper napkins and paper towels. It may seem small, but over time, the cost of those items add up. (especially with 4 young and messy children!)

I hope that this post will help dispel the myth that healthy food is just too expensive. It most definitely can be difficult to reach for the $4 per pound organic butter ... when you can get the regular for only $2.50 per pound ... however, when you make cuts in other areas, the healthier options can become attainable.

If you haven't watched the documentary film, Food, Inc., I highly recommend it. If you have netflix for streaming you can watch it right here.