Whole foods grocery budget

Ducktale · September 2013

Anyone here follow a whole foods or clean eating diet? If you buy foods that are mostly non-processed, organic, local/cage free/grass fed meat, what do you spend on groceries monthly? We've given in to the fact that we'll spend more on groceries now with these diet changes we've made in the last few years, but I do think we need to do a better job. How do YOU save money on whole/clean foods? (No judgements on those who do not eat this way! Just our personal choice!)

moonprincessd · September 2013

Go to Farmer Markets instead, the deals are better and the food is organic. It's more expensive in stores.

LS45 · September 2013

I spend about $250/month when I eat clean exclusively, shopping at our local farmer's market, Whole Foods, and Meijer. Meijer frequently has online coupons for produce and rewards for spending there. I don't eat meat, but eat some seafood. Eating vegetarian several nights a week def cuts down on the grocery spending.

Wulfgar · September 2013

First, don't buy organic since the additional cost doesn't offset the benefits. As for saving money, find a local meat shop that buys from local farmers and not from mass food lots I find you get a better product for about the same price. Also, buy from local farmers markets and if you can buy in bulk then can or freeze the fresh produce.

If you feel like you have to buy 100% organic and "clean" foods then it will cost you a lot more and you might want to find a local farm that raises their livestock this way and join a co-op. If you find one where if you come out and help they give you a discount then it will make you feel even better about the food you are eating since you are helping to grow it. I have a sister and a cousin that both do this, helping a local farm out in return for a portion of the crop all raised in a clean way.

SURFERxGIRL · September 2013

We try to eat clean and whole foods as well, although I am a vegetarian and my husband rarely eats meat (and it's usually dark meat chicken, and maybe once in a blue moon he'll make himself a steak or ribs) so I'm guessing our food bill is probably lower than people who both eat. We also make our own cleaning products so we don't spend much money on that.

If you have a local farmer's market or two, I'd check those out however for us the prices at the farmer's market are much higher than what I can find at our local co-op (where I get 5% off for being a member). Our Co-op also has a program where you only pay a lot less in membership in exchange for working a couple of hours every month. My friend does this and it's pretty cool.

I did find this place locally called "Farmer's Market Baskets" and what they do is work with local farmers and they put together pre-made baskets of fruits and/or veggies. They may have something like that near you. For us. depending on which basket you get it's between $10-25 dollars, and I usually get the large $25 organic basket and it lasts us the week and would probably cost twice that much at the grocery store if I were to buy things individually. You don't get much say in what goes into your baskets, but they do have a swap table you can exchange a couple of items for (like the yams my DH won't go near, lol), and I like that it gets us to try new things that we wouldn't normally buy.

Also, another thing you might want to look into is making a lot of your own stuff, like bread, tortillas, etc. It's much easier than most people think, it tastes better and is really cheap. Plus nothing makes your house smell better than fresh baked bread!

queenofhearts1728 · September 2013

Buy organic for things that matter - strawberries are typically soaked is pesticides, so organic is best there. But if it has a thick skin (melons, bananas, etc.) Don't bother as the chemicals aren't going to affect what you're actually eating.

I spend roughly 200-300 per month on groceries. I buy organic and non organic foods from regular grocery stores, Sam's club (I lovelovelove their produce. Most IS organic and you get large quantities for typically less than standard stores.) I honestly only shop at whole foods for things I cannot get at a regular store or for what is cheaper at WF (I've found Justin's peanut butter, agave nectar, and other items are way more expensive in a regular shop)

moonprincessd · September 2013

Oh, wanted to add, you could always grow your own food. That's what we do. You save tons there since seeds don't cost that much.

Erikan73 · September 2013

One thing I learned while at a class at Whole Foods is that there are many farmers out there that pratice Organic methods, but due to the cost involved of being certified organic, they can't afford it and there for can't sell their stuff as organic even though it was grown/raised with no chemicals, pesticides, etc. See if you can find some farmers/stores in your area that sell these types of products.

Also frozen veggies (and fruits) are a great way to say money & eat good. This can be especially helpful during the winter/spring months when you can't buy local fresh food.

JaysonandKristin · September 2013

Erikan73 said:

One thing I learned while at a class at Whole Foods is that there are many farmers out there that pratice Organic methods, but due to the cost involved of being certified organic, they can't afford it and there for can't sell their stuff as organic even though it was grown/raised with no chemicals, pesticides, etc. See if you can find some farmers/stores in your area that sell these types of products.

I'll add to this and say that there are some ranchers who have grass-fed pasture-raised hogs and cattle for slaughter, but will treat with antibiotics for illness (their own brand of "humane" treatment of their animals). So, these animals are treated as we would treat ourselves for illness. These won't be certified, but you can talk to these guys, hopefully, tour their operation and get a feel for whether or not this is something you're comfortable with.

We eat eggs, meats, nuts, fruits and vegetables. We spend anywhere from $800 to $1,000 on food every month. We are a family of four, soon to be a family of five.

We get a quarter cow, a half hog every 8 weeks, and two full shares of both fruits and vegetables every week.

brij2006 · September 2013

We don't necessarily buy Organic or Free Range, but we do not buy from mass produced companies.

What helps is that we will buy 1/4 of a cow once a year from a local farmer, 1 hog/year, and 15 chickens/year. I Youtubed how to break down the chickens into different cuts, and will cut and freeze them for later use. This helps a lot with our meat budget. I found all of these people at a farmers market and with word of mouth.

Then we grow our own vegetables in pots in our backyard (live in town with not much yard space). This allows me to make and can/freeze our own spaghetti sauce, salsa, diced/crushed tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant, zuccini, etc. This way I know exactly what they're coming from. I will also stock up at the Farmers Market at the end of the season and freeze/can many items to use throughout the winter.

There are definitely different ways to cut a "whole food" budget. You just have to take the time and be creative with it. On average we spend $400/month on food & toiletries. Then once a year we spend about $1,000 - $1,200 on our meat.

Ducktale · September 2013

brij2006 said:

We don't necessarily buy Organic or Free Range, but we do not buy from mass produced companies.

What helps is that we will buy 1/4 of a cow once a year from a local farmer, 1 hog/year, and 15 chickens/year. I Youtubed how to break down the chickens into different cuts, and will cut and freeze them for later use. This helps a lot with our meat budget. I found all of these people at a farmers market and with word of mouth.

Then we grow our own vegetables in pots in our backyard (live in town with not much yard space). This allows me to make and can/freeze our own spaghetti sauce, salsa, diced/crushed tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant, zuccini, etc. This way I know exactly what they're coming from. I will also stock up at the Farmers Market at the end of the season and freeze/can many items to use throughout the winter.

There are definitely different ways to cut a "whole food" budget. You just have to take the time and be creative with it. On average we spend $400/month on food & toiletries. Then once a year we spend about $1,000 - $1,200 on our meat.

Thanks for this info, I thought about doing some of this, but I never really knew how much would make sense to buy and we will need to by a freezer. How many people are in your family? We do not eat much meat, but I definitely think buying in bulk like this would help. How big of a freezer do you have? I think we need to pull the trigger and buy one, but also hard to predict the size we will need.

Is there any vegetables that can be grown in almost full shade in a pot? We're in an apartment for another year while on a company move before moving back to our home, and right now we have a small porch that gets almost no direct sun.

Ducktale · September 2013

queenofhearts1728 said:

Buy organic for things that matter - strawberries are typically soaked is pesticides, so organic is best there. But if it has a thick skin (melons, bananas, etc.) Don't bother as the chemicals aren't going to affect what you're actually eating. I spend roughly 200-300 per month on groceries. I buy organic and non organic foods from regular grocery stores, Sam's club (I lovelovelove their produce. Most IS organic and you get large quantities for typically less than standard stores.) I honestly only shop at whole foods for things I cannot get at a regular store or for what is cheaper at WF (I've found Justin's peanut butter, agave nectar, and other items are way more expensive in a regular shop)

Sam's Club sells organic options? I've never really shopped much at Sam's Club, but our Walmart has very little organic produce, so I guess I would have assumed Sam's would be the same. Maybe I have to look into this.

brij2006 · September 2013

There are only 2 people in our family, but we entertain and host family meals a lot (8+ people).

I'm not sure about what plants can be grown in full shade, but I put 2 tomato plants in each pot (descent sized ones) and grow 4 pots worth of those. Then I plant 8 other pots of various items. The only things you may have trouble with on a small patio, would be the vined plants (squash, zuccini, cucumbers), but with those you may be better off buying at the farmers market.

As far as freezer space, I also make and freeze my own breads, english muffins, etc. So our freezers are filled with those items along with vegetables that I have cut up and froze. But we have one stand up freezer that's probably 16-20cu. ft, and a small deep freezer that's 7cu. ft. We could probably get away with just the stand up freezer if I didn't do all of the breads, or a 17-20cu. ft chest freezer. Honestly, it's an investment that is well worth it. I even had the smaller chest freezer in my apartment when I lived on my own, and did the same thing. One apartment I put it out on the patio, and the 2nd apartment it was in the corner of our dining room.

Wulfgar · September 2013

Our freezer is roughly 14 cubic foot. I can put roughly 130 pounds of meat and misc. in it. When I have the money, I go to the local meat market that buys all of it's animals from local farms raised mainly grass fed with some grain the last 16 weeks. If you are going to freeze a lot of food I would go with a 20 to 25 cubic foot freezer.

My parents had a large freezer while growing up so that they could buy meat in bulk when they had the money. Today I can buy a bulk beef for around $2.80 a pound including T-bone steaks etc.

shortycake · September 2013

We are a family of 3 and about 90% of what we buy is organic. We spend about $700 a month at the grocery.

Ducktale · September 2013

Thanks everyone for the replies, this is good stuff for me to work on and think about.

queenofhearts1728 · September 2013

Ducktale said:

queenofhearts1728 said:

Buy organic for things that matter - strawberries are typically soaked is pesticides, so organic is best there. But if it has a thick skin (melons, bananas, etc.) Don't bother as the chemicals aren't going to affect what you're actually eating. I spend roughly 200-300 per month on groceries. I buy organic and non organic foods from regular grocery stores, Sam's club (I lovelovelove their produce. Most IS organic and you get large quantities for typically less than standard stores.) I honestly only shop at whole foods for things I cannot get at a regular store or for what is cheaper at WF (I've found Justin's peanut butter, agave nectar, and other items are way more expensive in a regular shop)

Sam's Club sells organic options? I've never really shopped much at Sam's Club, but our Walmart has very little organic produce, so I guess I would have assumed Sam's would be the same. Maybe I have to look into this.

I've found that all of the berries I buy from Sam's are organic. Bananas as well. I don't pay attention to melons all that much because of the hard rinds, but I don't think I've seen many non-organic options honestly in regards to fruit. I honestly don't pay attention to the veggies 99% of the time, although a bag of carrots I bought recently are organic

Even though they're the same company, Walmart's produce is not even on the same scale as Sam's. Sam's doesn't always have a wide variety, but I've found they're VERY picky about the quality they will sell. I won't buy produce from Walmart, ever. But I LOVE Sam's club

maple2 · September 2013

We are a family of 4 and we spend anywhere from $600-800 a month for food and toiletries. We are vegetarian, but we do buy almost exclusively whole and/or organic foods. Minimizing our food budget is not our priority (we cut spending elsewhere instead), so we also buy some more expensive items like avacados and almond butter. I'm sure we could cut the bill quite a bit if we we wanted/need to for any reason, so we are probably more towards the upper end of the range in terms of your cost analysis.

I don't know if you have a local option for this, be we are able to buy grocery items in bulk through our local co-op. I look through the catalog and place an order in conjunction with them directly with their supplier and am able to avoid the co-op's mark-up. I get beans, canned tomatoes, frozen fruits and veggies, nut butters, oats, raisins, etc. this way. I can also watch the month sales flyer for the supplier and stock up in bulk when things are on sale.

We have a csa with a local, organic farm. We go to the farm every week to pick up our share of veggies. While I think it's a great family experience, I'm not sure it has actually reduced our costs all that much. We do eat more healthily and enjoy a greater variety of veggies than I might normally buy at the store, so we will continue to do it, but I don't necessarily think its a huge cost savings. I have also not found our local farmers markets to be cheaper than the grocery store. We like to go and buy products there for other reasons, but saving money is not one of them. We also have a garden, but again, I don't think it results in a huge savings in our grocery bill. We do try to go berry picking and apple picking then freeze the berries and can apple sauce and jam. I feel like that is actually what saves us the most at the grocery store relative to gardening, the csa, and shopping the farmers market.

Whole foods grocery budget

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