Simla Somturk Wickless
Delicious Health LLC - Founder & Principal CoachBoulder, CO
http://www.enjoydelicioushealth.com
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Below are tips 6-10 on how to eat organic on a budget...
[If you haven't read Part I for tips 1-5, check it out by clicking here.]
- Make a shopping list and stick to it. Get real with yourself. Identify how your usual grocery bill adds up - what do you really spend on? Cut down on junk foods (also a type of convenience food), make a weekly menu, make a list, and stick to the plan. Don't forget healthy, unprocessed snacks like fruits and nuts.
- Eat seasonally. Seasonal produce and meats will almost always be cheaper. Or, get frozen organic, again being mindful that there are no added, unnecessary ingredients. For example, if you love blueberries in your smoothie in the winter, it's definitely cheaper and almost just as good to get frozen organic berries for a fraction of the price.
- Buy locally. Lower transportation costs mean lower prices. And you're supporting your local economy and local farmers.
- Ask your farmer. It's expensive for farms to become certified as organic, and many smaller / family farms cannot afford this certification. When you go to a farmer's market, ask the farmers directly about their farming practices: do they use pesticides / herbicides / fungicides? Do they rotate crops? Do they use genetically modified seeds? Do their animals get fed antibiotics? Other animals, or just vegetarian feed? Is the beef grass fed from birth all the way through? Do their chickens get sunlight and get to roam on the range? For how long? You may even find out that their products are better in quality than the baseline organic certification as defined by the USDA.
- Join an organic Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Service or Food Buying Group - This is the best. If you only take me up on one of these ten recommendations, make it this one. Live alone? Share with a friend or a neighbor. Why? You're saving MEGAbucks, eating locally, eating seasonally, you know exactly where your food is coming from and what its quality level is. You can get your veggies OR your meats this way. Cha-ching. That's your savings account going back up. And you think you've got it tough? You'll be supporting your local farmers, who really, really need it. And lest you think there's no such service near you, I urge you to first check out this fantastic resource: Local Harvest, which will point you to CSAs, food buying groups, and all kinds of online resources if indeed there are no resources close to where you live (which is rare in the U.S., given how fortunate we are with our farm-able land and resources): http://www.localharvest.org/
If you are building your healthy pantry from scratch, know that your first couple of food shopping excursions will likely be the most expensive you'll encounter, as you'll be stocking up on dry goods like spices, rice, and legumes that you'll be using for a long time, so don't get discouraged. You pay for these upfront, but they pay you back in the long run.
And don't forget: if you're like I used to be, or like my clients tend to be now, you probably eat out or order in more than you'd like to admit, maybe even 90-100% of the time (yep, that was me in my earlier management consulting life). Even if you buy 100% organic, chances are that you'll still end up saving money as you shift towards cooking more at home.
In Part III, I'll present you with a comparison of organic vs. non-organic pricing to show you that "organic is more expensive" is not always true.
Read Simla's other blog entries >
Eating Organic On a Budget: Tips to Save & Savor (Part II of III)
