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Let’s face it, organic food can be pricey. Some foods aren’t that big of a price difference like pasta. What’s a few more cents when you are going from non-organic to organic pasta?
However, you move into the meat or dairy and suddenly you feel like you can’t afford anything! Some times you’ll pay double or triple the amount for the organic versions
Buying organic on a budget can be done however! I think I’m proof of that! We have a pretty small grocery budget of just $300 per month for a family of 6! (Read this post if you want to know how we frugally grocery shop!) That amount also includes all our hygiene products, vitamins, and what not.
The crazy thing is that I buy almost everything organic now. Granted there are still a few items that aren’t organic. If it’s not on the dirty dozen (and conventional is way cheaper) then I’ll buy conventional produce.
Cheese is also something that I haven’t switched over to organic yet. Not because I can’t afford it but because I have a hard time finding it! (I’m eventually going to get my act together and just start making my own.
So it can be done. You can learn how to afford organic food! At the very least, you can buy most of your groceries organic.
However, it is a give and take. You might need to change your current grocery habits so that you can afford organic.
Ready to learn how to afford organic food? Here are some ways to help free up more money so that you can afford the good organic stuff.
How to Afford Organic Food
Use Those “Roll Over” Ingredients
Roll over ingredients is a term I use for those random ingredients that you have left in your kitchen because you just never got around to making them or using them all up (much like roll over minutes. Do any phone companies even use roll over minutes now? This term will be completely irrelevant in just a few years, I’m sure!)
So if you have a box of pasta in your pantry, then make sure to have a dinner or two of spaghetti when you make your next grocery list. You already have half the ingredients at home so use them!
Breakfast For Dinner
Breakfast is an incredibly cheap meal so change things up and serve it for dinner sometimes! Your kids will think it’s great, you’ll save a few bucks, and it’s pretty easy to make too.
Make Soup
Soup is a pretty easy meal to just throw random things into. Leftover veggies and protein can simply be tossed into some broth (homemade broth is even cheaper!) and voila, you have a meal. A cheap meal too!
Meatless Mondays and Beyond
If you haven’t heard the term Meatless Mondays yet, it’s the idea of making one dinner (or all three meals) without any meat on…Monday. Meat is the most expensive food item we buy.
Going just one day a week without meat can help save money. If you already go one day without meat then make it two! My family goes about 4 days without meat for dinner! This saves us tons of money!
Cook From Scratch
If you don’t want to cook from scratch for the health benefits then maybe the money saving aspect will sway you. Make your own bread, muffins, broth, yogurt, etc! Cooking from scratch will cost next to nothing as you probably have most of the ingredients already!
Do Without
You do not need special drinks, soda, candy, or snacks. Why not try giving them up? It’s pretty eye opening to think about how much you spend on snacks and then realize how much good food that could buy you instead.
Eat Out Less Often
When you eat out, you spend more than you would if you made that food yourself. Try limiting the number of times you eat out. The less you eat out, the more money you save.
Bring Lunch to Work
This goes along with the Eating Out reason. Bring lunch from home and you’ll save tons! Especially if you can mange to bring leftovers for lunch!
Buy Local
Check out some of your local farms. Many farms can’t afford organic certification but still practice organic principles. For example, I used to buy organic milk for $6.00/gallon. I could afford it but I wanted to get something a bit healthier and closer to raw milk so I started searching around.
I found a local farm (who sells in grocery stores so I don’t even have to go out of my way) that is basically organic but without the label and their milk is non-homogenized (one step closer to raw milk) AND it comes in a returnable glass container. It also happens to be the same price as the organic milk I used to buy!
Grow You Own
If you can get a decent size garden then you can help offset some of your produce costs. Plus if you are the one growing the food then you know exactly what is in/on it!
If you can’t buy all organic then prioritize. Food that comes from higher up on the food chain contains more toxins. This means that meat has more toxins than vegetables.
If you can’t buy all your groceries organic then focus on just one food group. Meat and dairy are the most important to buy organic as they are the highest up on the food chain.
Going organic doesn’t have to be some unattainable goal. You can get there. You just have to change some priorities and methods.
I agree! So many people complain about price of organic but you can make it work. Use what you already have at home, sign up for CSA's, go the farmers market etc. I only eat organic and/or locally sourced foods.
I think it is doable if you really want to. I just think some people do not care where their food comes from or that their foods are stayed with pesticide or the cows they are eating are injected with growth hormones or force-fed corn, so they use the price thing as an excuse. In my opinion, of course 🙂
I'd like to add a tip! Eat less. This doesn't apply to everyone of course, but a lot of Americans eat much more than they should. If you're overeating, cut down your portions to a healthy size and you'll save a lot of money.
Its really true…portion size does matter. And we know that we eat and drink way larger portions than our parents did (especially when eating out)
Thank you so much! I'm loving your site that I just stumbled into while searching for articles "how to's" on uses of coconut oil. I live in the Philippines and we have so much coonuts. I just asked my mom to make some and send to me (she lives in the province). We are a coconut and rice country, and use coconuts to cook rice-based desserts, and coconut oil for our hair. But I love your coconut oild infused with chamomile, I'll try to use your method with other herbs too.
Thank you so much again.
Wowee! I wish I could find even non-organic for that cheap! CT is so expensive! 🙁 I follow most of these tips already and a lot of the thrifty eating "rules" yet somehow end up spending $240 a month on just my son and I. sigh…