On Saturday morning, my son and I got dressed, packed my bag with a calculator, Seafood Watch’s Pocket Guide and the Environmental Working Group’s Wallet Guide to the Dirty Dozen and the Cleanest Fifteen, my cell phone for last minute customer service calls and a pocket book of cash. We headed thirty miles down the road to the next town over where all the big grocery store chains are located to start shopping.
Week 1: $67.67
- 2 Crowns of Organic BroccoliS: $1.98
- 10 lbs Conventional PotatoesS: $2.99
- 5 lbs Organic Carrots: $2.99
- 2 Dozen Omega-3 Eggs: $5.38
- 2.26 lbs Steel Cut Oats: $3.50
- 1 Quart Stonyfield Farms Organic Plain Creamtop YogurtC: $2.99
- Redbird Fryer ChickenM: $3.05
- 3 lbs ClementinesM: $1.98
- 2 Heads Organic FriséeM: $0.99
- 1 lb Pearl BarleyS: $0.79
- 1.69 lbs Yellow Onions: $1.50
- 3 lbs Organic, Local Jonagold ApplesS: $2.94
- 3 bunches Beets with Greens: $2.97
- 4.45 lbs BananasS: $2.11
- 1 lb PecansS: $3.99
- 1 lb ButterS: $1.99
- 1 head Cabbage: $0.84
- 1 Frozen, Wild-caught Side of Coho SalmonS: $4.99
- 1 lb Coleman’s Natural BaconS, C: $2.99
- 1 lb Frozen Mussels: $4.99
- 1 Small Jar Bear, Unfiltered, Local Honey: $2.49
- Whole Wheat Flour: $1.69
- 1 Cantaloupe: $1.91
- 6 oz. Unrefined Himalayan Sea SaltM: $0.99
- Ground Black PepperM: $0.49
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: $3.79
It’s been ages since I shopped at a grocery store chain. For the most part, we purchase all our vegetables, fruit, meat, honey, dairy products and eggs farmer-direct through our farmers market, CSAs or other share programs. Anything I need beyond that like olive oil, sprouted flour or other pantry staples I buy from our locally owned health food store or online through real food-friendly companies listed on the resources page. Negotiating my way around the grocery store was tough and I couldn’t find many of the items I’d hoped to purchase before my little guy had had enough of the whole shopping business. So dried beans and chicken livers were out for this week, at least.
I didn’t prepare a hard and firm list either. Instead, I calculated the number of fruits and vegetables we’d need to make it rough the week. Fresh vegetables and fruits were the last place I intended to scrimp and save. We’re accustomed to eating around 10 servings or more of fruits and vegetables daily, not the paltry 5-a-day. So, I wanted to make sure we at least hit 5 servings, if not more, of fresh produce. As I added carrots and cabbage and apples to the cart, I ticked off servings until we’d met our goal. Then moved on to other foods from there.
I had to say “no” to a lot of things as well. Not necessarily because they didn’t fit the budget, but because they didn’t fit the goals of this challenge. You see conventional strawberries were on sale for $5.17 for 5 lbs – an awfully good deal. And, as much as strawberries would provide a much loved treat this week, strawberries rank among the most chemically polluted fruits available on the market. If you buy anything organic, strawberries would be one item to strongly consider. Similarly, pears were on sale this week for $0.99 / lb but conventional pears, like strawberries, shoulder a heavy load of chemicals and didn’t make our basket.
Bones were another story altogether. I’d hoped to make a nourishing beef soup this week. I’m accustomed to picking up soup bones for free or very inexpensively, but the price of conventional soup bones hovered at $4.98 a pound. While they may make it into the shopping basket eventually this month, I was already hovering too close to my $75 cut off to include them this week.
It was a time-consuming week too. I spend a lot of time on the phone grilling customer service representatives about how the companies they represent care for and feed their animals. I learned that Lucerne, the Safeway brand, sources its milk from guernsey and holstein cows who aren’t routinely fed antibiotics and who are never given growth hormones and stimulants. The cattle from Laura’s Lean Beef and the cows the contribute the milk Stonyfield Farm’s yogurts get at least some grass in their diets and are, of course, never routinely fed antibiotics or growth stimulants.
One issue that I didn’t consider prior to yesterday morning is that of palatability. I purchased Omega-3 eggs at the store on Saturday knowing that they pack greater nutrition than the standard grocery store eggs, and those extra omega-3 fatty acids are worth it when seeking a nutrient-dense diet. So, on Sunday morning, I whipped up a batch of bacon, beet greens and scrambled eggs. The flavor of the eggs was foul, to say the least. Far from the wonderful flavor of farm fresh eggs, the omega-3 eggs were fishy at best. And I’ve got to tell you fishy eggs don’t combine well with beet greens and bacon. I threw my hands up in the air and sheepishly headed back to my laptop to scratch out all references to egg in the menu for the week. What a waste! While I’ll likely keep them around throughout the month to include in baked goods where other flavors may disguise their industrial nastiness, I gave a lot of consideration to giving them to a friend, the food bank or the dumpster.
Yogurt and melon presented another striking example of palatability issues. The yogurt we usually rely on comes from our cow share and we purchase it in big ½-gallon mason jars. The flavor is unsurpassed: strikingly fresh, sweet and pleasantly tart. The yogurt I purchased from the store, however, tasted sour with an almost bitter aftertaste. No wonder folks prefer sugar and HFCS-sweetened yogurts to the plain varieties found at the store.
Next week, I’m hoping to pick up some hormone- and antibiotic-free red meat and beans, if I can find them before an inevitable meltdown occurs.
Where I Scrimped
We scrimped on organics and red meat, though I’m a big believer in including both in the diet on a regular basis (read my reasons for eating red meat).
While a 5 lb package of ground beef was on sale for a ridiculously low price of $1.50 equating to $0.30 per pound, I’m hoping to avoid the inclusion of conventional beef this month. Conventionally raised beef is littered with problems and while the store simply didn’t stock any grass-finished meat, they did stock hormone- and antibiotic-free meat at a hefty price. Part of the benefit to eating red meat is the inclusion of CLA, or conjugated linoleic acid, found in the fat of grass-fed beef. Of course, that nutritional treasure dwindles the longer the cow has been off grass and on grain. Grocery store meat, with rare exceptions, is primarly grain-fed. Moreoever, it’s heavily treated with antibiotics and hormones neither of which I want in my food or in my body. We’ll see how it all turns out as the pennies start to disappear one by one.
Organics, as you can imagine, was another challenge. We don’t, as a rule, purchase conventionally grown produce. Yet, an all-organic diet would kill our budget in an instant; moreover, many of the organic foods at the market are poor quality, limp and pallid in color. Instead, I relied on simply avoiding the dirty dozen or twelve fruits and vegetables with the highest chemical load and purchased organics when the price point worked out in our favor.
Where I Splurged
Two areas where I’m doubtlessly going to receive comments are our splurges: seafood and premade yogurt.
It may seem strange, no, it will seem strange that I spent a good chunk of our budget on wild-caught frozen salmon and frozen mussels. These foods are highly dense in important nutrients. Wild-caught salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, niacin and potassium while mussels are rich in vitamin b12, riboflavin, selenium, manganese and iron. These are important nutrients and well worth the money.
I can hear you now, “Why buy yogurt when you can make it for so much less!?!” Sure, a gallon of Lucerne’s pastuerized milk was one sale for $2.49 this week. A fantastic deal given that Lucerne eschews the use of routine antibiotics and never treats their cows with hormones or growth stimulants. Here’s the challenge: every gallon of milk in the store was homogenized. Homogenization dramatically changes the nature of the fat molecule, and some researchers have posited that such a change in the fat molecule may contribute to heart diseases and other ills. What it comes down to is this: the less processing, the better.
My Best Find this Week
It’s a toss up this week: the two heads of organic frisée marked down to $0.99 and the unrefined sea salt for $0.99 both were great finds.
Budget Tip of the Week
I’m loving managers specials. Remember those 5 lbs of ground beef for $1.50 that I chose not to buy? Managers special. The $4.99 container of unrefined sea salt marked down to $0.99? Manager’s special. Same with the ground pepper, frisée lettuce and one or two other goodies.
Download the Shopping List and Meal Plan for the week.
S: Purchased on Sale – M: Manager’s Special – C: Coupon Used
Ooh, I’ve been waiting for this post! Off to email it to friends…
Nice job Jenny! It’s hard isn’t it? I have found that I can’t do it without shopping around. I don’t shop at the major grocery weekly, maybe just twice monthly. I have it down now, so it has been quicker for me. I know what we can eat from there and as I go around I look for the sale items.
The homogenized milk thing really makes me sad. We don’t have any creamtop yogurts available to us. In fact, we can’t get full fat (whole) yogurt. I still use dairy as that is a major source of fat for us. Butter/Cheese especially. It makes me sad to think that with all my efforts I’m still in the way of heart disease because of my food.
I do Laura’s Lean Beef too. When pan frying I add some bacon grease, because it is lean. It is good though. I will say that I don’t know if you’ll find livers you’ll be satisfied with. All the livers I’ve bought from the conventional grocery has been obviously diseases and not fresh. Nasty in other words. We don’t do organ meats at all because of this.
Fish… My dad is a fisherman, so we get some catfish from him. Other than that I do salmon. I get some frozen wild caught Keto Salmon (from China) at Save-A-Lot when we want to do filets. Otherwise we do canned wild Alaskan salmon. Yes, the cans have BPA, but we need the fats.
Compromises. What is the worst of the evils? You’ll find yourself asking and re-asking this question. It’s hard.
I’ve been watching for your first post in this series! Thanks for the excellent rundown.
My family has also had to scrimp greatly on organics since reducing our food budget. It depends so much on location. When we lived in Utah, we shopped at Whole Foods, and almost all of our produce and bulk purchases (probably 90% of our consumption) could be organic – for exactly our same budget. Now we’re in Northern California, a small town, and we don’t have a Whole Foods within 2 hours. We have a supremely expensive co-op and grocery stores with their overpriced organic departments. So a very small part of our produce is organic now.
What’s strange about this is that these are the very same foods and brands that we bought in Utah. Now these foods are, by default, “local,” and yet they are much more expensive!
We have been making compromises on foods I wouldn’t consider before – like the “Dirty Dozen” fruits you mentioned. Strawberries were going for $1/pound, last week, and I bought 10 pounds even though they were conventional. I froze them and that’s a huge savings for our morning smoothies. I feel gross about the pesticides, but kind of desperate to save money. I hate having to make that choice.
Anyway, thanks again, so much, for breaking this down!
This is FANTASTIC! Somehow I missed this on my feed yesterday, so I’m very happy to see it now! I’ve printed everything out & am anxious to start planning & better yet implementing my own strategy! Thank you for this!
I love your posts, Jenny. I find your ideas very inspiring. Congrats on your foodbuzz.com award!
Jenny,
I’m curious. What kind of butter did you buy for $1.99? Is that one of the areas that you “skimped”? I ask because butter is always a challenge for me. We use alot and I’d love to buy the organic or cultured, but $5 a pound is way over my budget when we go through 3 pounds a week (I have a very large family.)
Thanks!
Leslie
Runaway Lawyer-
Thank you so much! I’m really excited about being nominated for the Best Green / Sustainable Food Blog. I haven’t won it, yet though. The voting is going on right now and I face some pretty steep competition. (The Nominees: http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/1474529-announcing-the-foodbuzz-blog-awards- and the Vote: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=vyichs3bJrTJrS03_2bx0bMA_3d_3d).
I hope your family’s well.
Take care -
Jenny
Michaela -
Thank you for the warm words! I’m hoping to post recipes next week.
Take Care -
Jenny
Kelli -
It IS hard. Really hard. While the food is wholesome, I really miss my little luxuries like dark chocolate or artisan cheese for after-the-kids-asleep snacks. You addressed a REALLY important issue when it comes to organ meats. If I can find liver or other organ meats at the store, I’m not entirely sure I’ll purchase them afterall. The organs act as filters in the body and the fact that they’re essentially filtering all sorts of weird conventional additives concerns me – really, really concerns me.
The theory that homogenization contributes to heart disease is shaky, so don’t be too hard on yourself, you know? It concerns me, but we’ll see how our budget ends up at the end of the month and we might very well be opting for fat and not being so picky.
Take Care and expect a package any day now -
Jenny
A question about your flour choice. I mill our whole wheat flour, and from the reading I’ve done, I won’t buy whole wheat flour again. So much of the nutrients are lost in the long storage, and there is no standard as to the ratio of bran and germ. It’s not like home milling, but the bran and germ are added back into the refined flour to make it look good.
What have you read on this? I do purchase unbleached all purpose flour to use sometimes, too.
Like many other people, I’m noticing that my grocery costs in NY are substantiallly higher than yours. Well, I’m sure we’ll all pick up a few tips. My question is how your portion sizes run? I have a larger family but that doesn’t look like enough food for even 2 adults and a child. Perhaps you’re just lighter eaters? My toddler and preschooler don’t eat a lot, but my two pre-teens eat like adults. Maybe I’ll go on this “diet” and see if I lose some weight
You can bet that the supermarket beef will not be overly palatable either… We buy 1/4 of a beef from a hobby farmer every year and on occasion we have run out and still thought of having some beef – so we bought the antibiotic/growth hormone free beef from the store, and … yeah, let’s just say it’s not worth it. Maybe it would be just for the soup bones?
I think it’s so very cool that you are doing this! I had actually wanted to do this too! Unfortunately, I decided against it at the moment since I am having to keep up on the most nourishing foods that fit in my regular budget to help with some health issues. But I am glad that you are doing it! Way to go!
Could you speak more to the issue what homogenization does to butterfat? I have been making my own yogurt with milk from grass fed cows, but it’s pastuerized & homogenized.
Though happily today I found milk from grass-fed cows that is not homogenized — so I’ll use that this time.
Thanks for all your inspiration!
The talk about creamline yogurt makes me miss living near a Trader Joes. Their creamline yogurt was so good.
Your comment about the eggs got me thinking, either I cannot tell the difference, or I must get pretty good eggs from the market, because they taste the same to me as the eggs I get from my friend’s pastured hens.
I think after even one week you’ve shown that families can eat, and eat better than most others, on even a tight budget. I certainly don’t condemn your splurges – you found nutritional powerhouses that will make healthful meals. What is unfortunate is that so many people who are on the budgetary restrictions haven’t been educated on how to make the best food choices and how to prepare those food best for their families.