The biggest hurdle in making the switch to eating organic and natural—the price tag. As a single mother of two, I am very budget-conscious. Choosing to live an organic and natural lifestyle, I have had to find ways to make cost-effective choices. I do budget the rest of my life around living organic and we eat at home most of the time, saving money on eating out.
If you want to feed your family organic, but don’t want your grocery budget to skyrocket, here are five tips for cutting costs:
- Sign up for the insider club at your grocery stores. If you use the store’s app, you can choose coupons and obtain additional discounts. If you are a member of Amazon Prime, you will see special prices throughout Whole Foods Market. Sprouts has buy one-get one specials all the time and lots of weekly coupons and mark downs.
- Plan your shopping list/weekly menus like farm-to-table restaurants with the seasons in mind. In fall, you will find apples and spaghetti squash at lower prices than in the summer months when they are out of season. But your summer fruits will be sold at lower prices during those months – so load up on strawberries and watermelon while they are plentiful.
- Buy in larger quantities. When your staple items are marked down, buy extra to maximize the savings. You can freeze duplicate items for later or keep dry goods in the fridge to extend their shelf life. You can also find a large number of organic and natural products at Costco where you buy in bulk so you will see a savings on the per product cost.
- Make more from scratch. The priciest items in my basket at the market are usually not the fruits and veggies—they are the snack foods. Gluten free pretzels, cookies, chips, and especially granola bars are costly. One way around this is to buy the organic ingredients separately and make the snack foods yourself. (Look for my upcoming blog on the times I have tried and failed to make the perfect homemade granola.) Another way around this is to skip those items completely and substitute snack foods with nuts, cheese, cut up fruit or veggies, and hummus instead.
- Make two meals at once. This is a tip I learned from my sister. When making dinner, make extra so that a second meal is already prepared. It saves time and it saves money. Instead of having to buy ingredients for multiple dinners a week, if I double up, I am able to create no waste meals. So when I make baked chicken breasts for dinner, I make extra for the next night’s dinner. I use less olive oil, less seasoning, and less utilities as my oven is only on for one night instead of two. The saved chicken breast can be cut up the next night and added to tacos or sprinkled on pasta or a salad. The same works for homemade veggie burgers, quinoa or rice.
Weekly Challenge
This week, see how you can eat organic on a budget. Try one of my five tips or go for one of your own ideas. Challenge yourself to save $5 this week. You can also keep track of how much you save and set new records each week. Don’t forget to share any budget-conscious shopping tips with me!
xo
The Faithful Organic