Thank you for all the great suggestions on yesterday’s post, I’ll reply soon!
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about food costs, mostly because I’m trying to balance budgeting with making sure we eat healthy, local, fairtrade food as much as possible. I have never been inspired by bloggers who have drastically low food bills but shop at shops which are unethical, or have a diet which is sorely lacking in what our body needs. For my children, each day they enjoy 3 + fruits, 4 + veg, a variety of protein sources {fish, eggs, lentils, beans etc.}, dairy and plenty of water. They have a glass of milk each day, (as well as cheese and/or yoghurt), but I limit their juice because when they have it they begin giving me more challenge about drinking water {prior to my adoption of them, they had never had a glass of water – one day I’ll tell you just how appalling their diet used to be!}. Yesterday here is what they ate:
Breakfast: A slice of flax seed bread with organic peanut butter, a cut up apple, yoghurt, water
Lunch: Scrambled egg, 1/3rd an avocado, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, a banana, a cheesy baked potato, dried apricots, water
Dinner: Macaroni & Cheese, lima beans, cucumber slices, eggplant in plum sauce, cranberry oat biscuit, clementine, water, milk
When they first arrived my sole goal was to get them onto a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables and healthy proteins. As I’ve commented before, they changed before my eyes – colour entered their cheeks, they no longer had trouble going to the bathroom, they gained weight and their skin improved. My goal now is to continue feeding them a varied and healthy diet, while sticking to a $250 a month food budget {this includes pet supplies and cleaning products – mostly vinegar & baking soda!}. I plan to blog through it all and while I won’t do a daily food diary, I would like to do a monthly synopsis of the budget and admit how easy or challenging it was to stick to!
Are you trying to keep a tight rein on food costs? How do you balance that with making ethical choices?
It’s easier to shop locally & ethically in the spring-fall months. I can buy organic broc. in the summer months for under $2.00, now it’s close to $5.00, so I don’t buy ALL organic 100% of the time. We go through 2-3 heads of broccoli a week, and I can’t afford $15/week on one vegetable. I think either lower your standards in the winter, or up your grocery budget. Shopping “in season” helps too… buying berries in the dead of the winter is going to cost you, whereas clementines are affordable & delicious right now!
I’m struggling with this issue for myself right now, so look forward to seeing what suggestions you get here!
FT, I think you do really well on this. I would grade you at A+ in a second.
Myself I am trying to find my way in this area of healthy, organic and ethical food. I like to do best on this, but I have my limits pricewise. As a rule organic products should not cost more than twice the price of non-organic. Some items are just too expensive.
Some choices I made:
Make my own bread from local organic whole wheat flour using a bread maker: Just get ready at night, and find bread in the morning;
Only use local in season organic vegetables/fruits, my diversity is less than yours. Also kale, cabbage, homemade sauerkraut, beets and carrots are more likely than tomatoes, banana and cucumbers this time of the year.
As a rule, I won’t purchase readymade products like biscuits etc.
Good luck!
If there’s any flexibility in your food budget, and if you have some storage space, here’s what I would do: aim for an AVERAGE monthly food budget of $250 (i.e., it might be $300 one month, but $200 the next). This way, if there are great deals on any non-perishable items, you’ll still have that item when the price goes up. Sometimes even perishable items, if they can be frozen, dried, or otherwise preserved, are a good buy. (Whenever bell peppers go on sale, I stock up and freeze a bunch.)
Sounds like you’ve had some good suggestions already! I’ve been back and forth with some of these issues myself. I know quite a few local producers and farmers who tell me that a lot of produce being grown cannot be labelled organic because it doesn’t exactly fulfil criteria XYZ. However, it is very ‘close’ to being organic. It doesn’t have the organic price tag though! A bit of research might lead you to some local producers that could supply you with good quality fruit and veg even if it isn’t technically organic. I’d rather save money in this sort of area so I can make sure that the meat I buy is ethical and so on. Also, last year I started making a concerted effort to only buy fairtrade tea and coffee. The brand I’ve chosen isn’t cheap but the taste is really fabulous and my conscience rests easy – I just drink it less often to compensate for the increased cost. Good luck with it all FT – I’ll look forward to reading about how you get on.
This is an area I struggle with a bit, but I do try to buy Australian made wherever possible. I guess if I shopped the food markets rather than the supermarkets it would be easier. I think it’s just that I am so used to the convenience of the supermarket that is where I tend to go. Good luck with your budgetting. Cheers Judy
It is a real challenge – especially at this time of year in Canada! Frozen foods have to be in the equation and while I prefer organic I have decided that I can’t justify organic from New Zealand or South Africa when there is good quality local Ontario fruit & veg available. I do eat meat but I do try to buy organic, ethically raised, grass fed etc. which is expensive – but I eat less and I stretch it with veg and lentils/beans. Mostly I would give yourself a break – your children are eating amazingly healthy meals – I just wish all of those who claim to not have the time would prioritize the way that you have! But we all have to live within a budget and balance time constraints etc. so allow for flexibility and remember, there is nothing wrong with just a peanut butter and jam sandwich (with a glass of milk) now and again.
Margie in Toronto
Most organic food products that I can buy are so expensive that if I buy them I have to eat a lot less of them, which is probably a good thing. I do grow a chemical-free garden every year although what with our Hellish heat and drought of the last two summers, that has been a real challenge. But I do think cooking from scratch is my most important thing. Here, everything premade is full of HFCS. We Americans are being fed sugars in almost everything, and I think that’s why one in three of us are overweight. They feed sugar to cows to increase their appetite and make them put on more weight before market time. Can we humans be so far removed from this, being all mammals and all??
I am impressed with your food budget! We are one adult and 3 kids (6 – 9) and our food budget is about $500 when we don’t eat organic and close to $700 when we do. So I don’t have any suggestions for you how to stay in $250 budget. I can bake pretty good bread (major saving at $4.50 for a loaf of mediocre bread at store), I can make yoghurt even though the kids don’t like mine (they like “australian” type – a bit more runny). But just the fruit (only in season), ham, cheese, and milk are sooo very expensive. I buy organic fruit and veggies that you don’t peel (apples, strawberries) and regular with peel (oranges). Only organic milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt (no hormones and antibiotics), and nitrate-free ham.
BUT – I am VERY impressed with your budget.
Good luck with this one! It’s not easy providing nourishing, ethical, frugal, appetising food, day in, day out.
I agree with you that some frugal eaters do so at the expense of ethical issues.
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