Stretching Your Organic Food Budget
I know food is expensive. We spend more on food than our mortgage. But, in the long run, paying for healthier food choices now is preventive medicine for major health concerns later.
It still hurts, though, when you hear the checker say the total.
So how can you stretch your limited organic food budget…..
One way to stretch your organic food budget is to only purchase items from the dirty dozen if they are organic.
The Dirty Dozen
The dirty dozen are food items with a very heavy pesticide load
The list to the right is the current list and the one on the left is from a few years ago. To see the full current list of foods and levels of pesticides click here to get to the Environment Working Group 2011 pesticide levels list.
- peaches
- apples
- bell peppers
- celery
- nectarines
- strawberries
- cherries
- kale
- lettuce
- imported grapes
- carrots
- pears
If you can afford to purchase everything organic, that is best, however, if your food budget is tight, purchase the dirty dozen only if they are organic.
The following are okay to purchase conventional when money is tight as they have the lowest pesticide load.
The Clean Fifteen
- avocado
- sweet corn (but watch out for genetically modified (GMO))
- pineapple
- mango
- asparagus
- sweet peas
- kiwi
- cabbage
- eggplant
- papaya
- onion
- watermelon
- broccoli
- tomato
- sweet potato
This data was compiled by the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C., and it’s based on nearly 87,000 tests for pesticide residue collected between 2000-2007.
Another way to stretch your organic food budget…
is to purchase organic seeds and grow your own food. You obviously know what you have put into your own soil . There is nothing like walking out to your backyard, picking something right off the vine, and popping it into your mouth. It’s such a satisfying feeling . Not quite ready to tackle a garden by yourself? Try looking into volunteering at a local community garden. In my town, volunteers get all they can eat for free. Another option is to purchase a share of food from a local farm co-op.
If you are really organized and have the freezer space, you can freeze some of your bounty for winter and really save a lot.
When I was a kid, we had a huge garden in the alley behind our house. It’s kind of funny that no one every said we couldn’t have it there. We spent many hours canning tomato juice and freezing vegetables. It’s not difficult to freeze vegetables but a few hands working together is helpful.
Also, try hitting the farmer’s markets. Organic certification is expensive and sometimes by asking questions, you can find some vendors that don’t have certification yet don’t use pesticides. If it’s almost closing time, ask for a deal. They don’t want to take produce home and with a limited shelf life, getting something is better than nothing.
Don’t forget to watch the ads. Sometimes grocery stores have amazing prices that will help you stretch your organic food budget. Also, in my town, there is a big difference in organic prices between local stores.
Milk isn’t the only lost leader. Sometimes produce is a lost leader or hasn’t sold well enough and they need to move some before it expires.
Note/Warning
if you are eating the twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetable, you are consuming an average of ten pesticides a day. Those eating from the fifteen least contaminated are ingesting fewer than two pesticides a day. This info was taken from the book Maximized Living Nutrition Plans by Hardick, Roberto, and Lerner
Organic meat can put a big hole in your budget. This is one my family needs real improvement on ourselves. There is no comparison between the nutritional value of a grass fed only cow vs a feed lot or even a grain finished cow. I will write a post on that soon. As for the price of organic beef and chicken compared to conventional, it’s much higher. Making the switch to organic meat would have an even greater positive affect on your family’s health than eliminating conventional foods listed in the dirty dozen .
Stretching your organic food budget
…………………………………….to include organic meat is really important.
Here is what I am looking into and I will let you know what I find out.
Try purchasing a quarter or half an organically raised cow from a local supplier. By buying in bulk, you should save on purchasing it on an as needed basis.
Try having meat a little less often but having a higher quality meat. Or try stretching the meat by making meals where meat isn’t a stand alone dish.
Avoid pork, farm raised sea food, and shell fish. Pork and shell fish are garbage feeders with no way to rid themselves of waste. Farm raised fish are fed grains thus don’t have the nutritional value of ocean caught fish.
Please comment about your experience with organic and how you stretch your organic food budget. If you like this post, I would love for you to share it. The more of us demanding healthier food, the more options we will have.
Imagine what would happen if we all cut the junk out and eat organic. The health care/pharmaceutical industries wouldn’t like it but we would be a happier, healthier bunch.
Take Care,
Sue
p.s. if you have a subject you are passionate about or want to eat healthier but just feel your financial situation is preventing it, click here.
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