Friday, January 9, 2009

Ways to eat organic/natural on a budget

Ways to eat organic/natural on a budget:

~ Plan, plan, plan!!! Make a weekly menu and stick to it!!
~ Bake/make things from scratch. You can do this with few items!! We bake our own bread; it is much cheaper, and tastes SO much better!!
~ Price comparison. We live 25-40 minutes away from the nearest grocery store, so there are many to choose from in the city that we drive to. So, I went to all the stores that I could think of that could possibly save us money and still offer a variety of whole/natural/organic items, and I created a chart. I don't have all of my prices in the chart because I know them mostly in my head now. Then, I created a grocery list planning chart with the knowledge of what was cheaper in different places. I plan my trips so I'm not driving around town all the time (doesn't do any good to spend a ton on gas). There are also some great websites that can save you lots of money (http://www.vitacost.com/ is a good one!).
~ Buy local whenever possible. Farmer's markets have a wonderful variety of foods, and are so much better for you!
~ Don't buy junk!! We don't keep lots of snacks in our house. We buy some Annie's brand snacks, and that's about it. Change what you snack on- fruits and veggies, homemade crackers, etc.
~ Don't eat out! (except every once in a while, as a treat) Not only will this save you money, it is much healthier to eat at home!! This has been a tough one for me because I LOVE eating out. I started looking at how much we spent (when we started the Dave Ramsey plan), and I was disgusted with myself!!!

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