Photo by fivedotdesign
What does our food budget look like while trying to eat a real food diet on a budget? Today, I welcome you to take a peak into our food budget. We keep to the basics in our eating habits, nothing fancy. I have come to realize that although real foods can cost more up front, the value is worth every penny. We feel better, we are satisfied longer, and we rarely need the doctor. Truth be told…I have realized you can always afford what you prioritize. When we first started out pursuing a more whole foods diet, Aaron and I sat down to evaluate our overall budget. We concluded that if we wanted to spend more on food, other things would have to go. One of the main reasons I chose to cloth diaper, for example, was so that we could eliminate that monthly expense and use the money for food. Other expenses that we chose to eliminate: we own no television, no magazine subscriptions, own one vehicle, eat out less, etc. I have found that if you have the vision and passion to eat naturally, you can make it work!
Our food budget is $400 per month for four of us. Yes, Titus eats his share! 
Whole foods definitely seem to be more expensive here in the Portland area of Oregon, probably because there is more demand for it. This includes all our food and household products (bath, cleaning, and general household items). Where does it get spent? I have listed out the stores I buy my food from below. These are typically the best sources that we have access to that I have found the best price. As you can see below, I keep pretty much the same list monthly and keep it organized in the Shopper application on my I-phone (which has been very helpful, by the way!). All these ingredients are also based upon my monthly menu plans. This works for our family, but there is always room for flexibility as to the season of life.
Trader Joe’s - I make a monthly grocery trip to TJ’s to pick up various staples. I found they have some of the best prices on good, organic, and preservative free items.
Here is what I buy monthly or as needed, spending around $125 per month:
All Beef, Nitrate Free Hot Dogs – 1 pack
Nitrate Free Ham (lunchmeat) – 1 lb
Chicken Italian Sausage (2 lbs)
Organic Spinach (for smoothies) – 3 bags
Bananas (about 20 – freeze for smoothies)
Avacados (2 packs – mainly for Titus)
Raw Parmesan Cheese (in the bulk form)
Canned Wild Salmon
Organic Ketchup
Organic Mustard
Mayonnaise (sometimes I buy, sometimes I make my own)
Kerrygold Butter (2 pounds)
Olives (2 cans)
Organic Sour Cream (1 container)
Salsa
Peanut Butter (2 jars)
Brown Rice Pasta (1 pack of spaghetti, 1 pack penne, as needed)
Chicken Breasts (1 bag)
Frozen Organic Peas (1 pack)
Frozen Organic Corn (1 pack)
Frozen Wild Salmon (2 lb = 2 packs)
Olive Oil (32 oz container -every two months)
Pure Maple Syrup (every two months)
Organic Quinoa
Organic Raisins
Toothpaste (every two months)
Shampoo (every two months)
Soap Bars
Toilet Paper
Coffee & Beer (for the hubby)
Occasionally, we will get a few treats…such as Jo-Jo’s, (yes, those yummy oreo alternatives), raw bleu cheese, feta cheese, etc.
Azure Standard (whole foods co-op) – $50 per month – most of these items are purchased on an as needed basis
Raw Cheddar (5 lbs) – every two months – grate and freeze it
Mozzarella (5 lbs – every 2 months – also grate and freeze)
Organic Whole Grains, Legumes: Wheat, Kamut, Spelt, Oats, Millet, Lentils, Brown Rice, Black Beans (purchased in 5 lb quantities, oats and wheat in 25 lb bags)
Spices
Organic Coconut Milk
Chia Seeds
Cocoa Powder
Nuts
Rapadura/Sucanat
Leavenings -baking soda, baking powder, arrowroot powder, sea salt
Goat’s Milk Powder (for baby)
Produce on occasion – Organic Apples, Pears (20 lb box)
Milk & Eggs – local source = $75.00 per month
2 dozen eggs weekly – $3.75 per dozen
1 1/2 gallons of milk weekly- $7.50 per gallon – from which I make kefir, yogurt, and some butter, and occasional ice cream
Vegetables/Fruit- local farms- $15-20 per week – $80 per month
I stick with the frugal vegetables and fruits and whats in season for better prices. I rarely if ever buy cherries, peppers, pineapple, etc. We eat a lot of greens, apples, pears, carrots, broccoli, onions, garlic, squash, potatoes, etc. We typically serve raw veggies and fruit with lunch and dinner includes a fresh salad (even if its just greens sometimes), and usually a steamed or baked veggie.
Beef – annual local purchase of 1/4 cow – $375 - $31.25 per month
We typically eat beef twice a week, chicken once, fish once, vegetarian once and pizza and leftovers on the weekends.
Chickens – annual local purchase of 12 chickens (one per month) – $180 – $15 per month – I cook up one chicken per month from which we make chicken stock.
Produce stocked up on in the summer for freezer- Strawberries, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes (canned all my own tomatoes for sauce), pickling cucumbers for pickles, berries for homemade jam – I usually set aside $200 for such purchases, but I don’t really include this in our food budget. I just set money aside early in the summer from other earnings.
Other items from different sources:
Organic EV Coconut oil – order from Mountain Rose Herbs (we consume about 1 gallon every 2 months) – buy in quantity and split with friends
Cod liver oil – purchase through Vitacost
Pepperoni – I buy Applegate Farms nitrate free pepperoni from Fred Meyer’s
Bread – I currently buy sprouted bread, hot dog buns, hamburger buns from Dave’s Killer Bread Outlet – I can buy one loaf of sprouted 100% organic bread for $2.10 a loaf in bulk quantities (it’s been one of those seasons when making it from scratch has been a real challenge!)
Raw Honey -from a local farm – Honey House Farms (1/2 gallon every two months)
Vinegar, club soda, hydrogen peroxide, oxygen bleach and a few other cleaning supplies – infrequent purchases at wal-mart or Fred Meyers
Soap nuts – for laundry from NaturOli
What happens when we really need to cut corners? As my husband is self-employed, income is never quite consistent, so there have been times when we really had to cut back. In order to make it work, we cut the following out of our grocery list, and can usually get by with $300 per month:
limit to 1 gallon of milk
1 dozen eggs
no salmon
no lunchmeat
no snacks
make my own ketchup
make my own bread
What products do I make myself?
chicken broth
breakfasts (smoothies, pancakes, oatmeal – meaning that we don’t use packaged products, just use our own homemade recipes)
muffins and other breakfast pastries
tortillas
biscuits
salad dressings
ice cream and other desserts
protein bars for snacks
canned tomato sauce – homemade chili, spaghetti sauce, etc
jams
I may have overlooked something…
What products do we avoid? As you can see, we do really strive to keep to the basics with the ocassional splurge on a special dessert or snack. I try to avoid mixes, cereal, soda, packaged snacks…
You can make it work! You just sometimes have to cut out some of those convenience foods. Alas!
Other Real Food Budgets:
Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home – How My Grocery Budget Works
Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers – Breaking Down the Budget
What does your food budget look like? Do you have any tips to share on how to make it work on a budget?
This was interesting and fun to read, Lindsay. Thanks for sharing it! Our list looks similar, but I have never put it all down in writing.
Why buy microwaveable popcorn when you can air pop your own? You can buy a gigantic bag of organic kernels and pop as much or as little as you want. No matter where you buy from they ALWAYS charge you more for individual servings.
I don’t believe that picture was not a picture of Lindsay’s grocery list. I think it was just a sample grocery list picture.
I have also read this about microwaveable popcorn…scary!
The expert: Olga Naidenko, PhD, a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group:
Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize — and migrate into your popcorn.
Just wanted to thank you for sharing this with everyone. Very helpful. We too try to eat a whole foods diet. I was amazed at what you pay for a quarter of a steer. We live in New York and annualy get a quarter steer from a local farmer and pay $675! Our farm bought eggs cost $2.50 a dozen, just to share a few examples from the northeast! Our entire grocery bill per month is between $800-900 for a family of four. As several ladies already pointed out…God does provide. He is faithful!
Lindsay-
Thank you so much for posting this! I have been trying to get our grocery budget down on paper, and see what we can cut out to include more whole, nutritionally dense foods (like raw milk, which is so expensive here). We are a family of 5 (our 9 month old just started eating solids) and I am going to try and stick to $500/mo. on groceries. We primarily shop at Trader Joe’s, Costco, and get extra things from Whole Foods or Azure (my friend lives near a drop-point). While it is frustrating that healthy food is so expensive, it’s what I know is best for our family.
Lindsay, You are doing a great job with your budget. We live here in NW Iowa. It is very hard to get organic, whole foods and they are expensive! But we do eat almost 100% organic whole foods. We are a family of six and they all eat a lot! We budget about $1000/month for food. It is our biggest expensive. People think that sounds terrible. But we do not eat out anymore. That saved a lot of money and I put that towards our food budget. It would cost us at the least $50 to eat out. We also eat what is in season. I have three freezers that we stock up on all of our fruits and vegetables. We put one whole steer in the freezer and several chickens only once a year. We are very healthy and being also self-employed, we let our health insurance go about five years ago. That was an additional $800 plus/month saved. One of the best things we have ever done! My husband is a truck driver making about $34,000/year. I stay at home and home school our four girls 13 down to 7. If we can do this, anyone can do this. It is a matter of priority!
Kudos, Amy! You sound like you are doing great with your budget. We also dropped our health insurance because we would rather do our best to keep ourselves healthy with local food.
Eating out is our biggest problem *cringe*. We live 45 minutes from the nearest city, so when we go out, we’re always out long enough for everyone to get hungry. (And for some reason hubby is hands-down against brown bagging it.) So I’m thinking of cutting down on family outings to help eliminate those expenses. I’d much rather spend that $100 on nourishing food!
Elizabeth, My husband use to be against “brown-bagging” it also. But my youngest daughter has many “food allgeries” and it is not as easy to eat out as it was. That has helped. Also, I have learned to make brown-bag lunches a treat. It takes planning ahead but it has worked for us. I will make jerky or some yummy dessert or special sandwiches. If I can make it work, in the summer I will find a nice park. This gives the girls a chance to run off some excess energy from the car ride.
If I do not feel up to the brown bag, I have learned to leave immediately after a big breakfast and have a few snacks on hand and be back for a late lunch. Now that our diet is fairly pure, we find eating out causing us not to feel so out.
Lindsay,
I have discovered that unpasteurized milk can not be sold legally in my state of Maryland. I guess organic store bought milk is my only option? *sigh* It is expensive.
Have you checked out other options for raw milk? We’re in Alabama, where our raw milk is legally sold as “pet milk” and not for human consumption. But you can still drink it.
Also, many states have cow-share programs where you buy a “share” of a milking cow, worth however many gallons you need per week.
Organic storebought milk is slightly better than non-organic (because of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides). However, it is still pastuerized, and often ultra-pastuerized (they can’t even grow yogurt cultures in ultra-pastuerized milk, it is so dead). Non-homogenized milk is slightly better if you can find it.
Thank you Elisabeth. A loop hole! I like it. I will look into it.
The more I think about it the more upset I get. I should have the right to choose raw milk for my family. I don’t know that much about milk so your post educated me a bit. I had not considered milk to be “dead.” Kind of scary. I will at least look for non-homogenized until I can find raw.Thanks again.
I am so thankful I found this blog! I can’t wait to try the soap nuts!
Thank you, Lindsay;
For this informative site & your honesty in sharing your budget.
We are a family of 8(6 children). Our budget is about $400-500 monthly. We are blessed to buy organic raw milk for our local farmer for $2.00 a gallon. We bought a whole grass fed cow(yearling)for $200 dollars (processing included). It was about 190 lbs. We buy local honey for 1.50 lb. We grow our own chicken for meat(we also sell some for $2.50 lb.) And have hens for eggs. We grow heirloom veggies(tomatoes, celery, peppers, onions, garlic, potaoes, beets, beans, garlic, shallots etc. Everything we raise is non certified organic. I just wanted to add that farmers in our area only get .80 a gallon for their milk at the creamery. Most farmers are getting .70+ lb at the auction for their beef. We raise grass fed Black Angus & are getting closer to a dollar. It’s hard to continue life living off the land, and will the future generations want too. This is what’s going on, at least for us farmers in the Midwest…
I totally know what you mean about those little ones eating their fair share!
Wow.
Here is my “real foods” grocery budget: http://frugalgranola.blogspot.com/2008/12/real-food-grocery-budget.html
Blessings,
Michele
Haven’t read all the comments yet though I plan to but do you guys drink juice?
No, we do not drink juice, beyond using a bit of organic juice concentrate in our green smoothies.
We occasionally buy apple cider during the season, but that’s about it.
Thanks for this real-life glimpse into your budget! I, too, am working on a budget/menu plan that will work for me and my guy. This is relatively new ground for me, so I’m always looking for tips!
I noticed you use organic frozen spinach for a smoothie. I was wondering if you would share that recipe with us?
You can find that under Green Smoothies in my recipe index.
Thanks, I really appreciate what you do. I’m a mom of two young kid’s too and I know you are probably very busy, but blessed.
Hi! I love reading your blog. Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your food budget. (I think you used the wrong spelling peak. It should be “peek” instead of “peak”.)
Looking forward to reading more!
I’m loving the soap nuts. I’m sure they are the cheapest cleaning agent as well as the best performing. Toxin free and made completely free of commercial processing. Just got started with them and planned to give them as CHristmas gifts for everyone. I use them to do the dishes too. I dont have a dishwasher but I wonder if a bag could go in there? I just throw 4 in the basin of hot dishwater and everything comes out sparkling even the fatty greasy stuff. So simple and no TRASH.
Thank you for sharing this. But what really caught my attention are the things you cut out so you could increase your food budget and I would love to know – how do you manage with one car? Are you near public transportation? I keep flirting with the idea but haven’t made the leap because we live in the country and I couldn’t take the kids anywhere during the day.
Well her husband works from home. It doesn’t work well for most families, where the husband works outside the home. Being somewhere w/o a car w/kids, unless you are in NYC, or Chicago just doesn’t work, IMO. Unless of course, you intend on walking everywhere during the time hubby works.
Or you would get everyone in the car early in the morning and drop off hubby at work, and then pick him up later. or hubby could carpool.
It definitely wouldn’t work for us, we both work outside the home, and we both need cars to get to and from work. The advantage w/us, both our cars are paid off, and are relatively new. (both are 2007)
Do you buy the 1/4 of cow for the whole year? I’m trying to decide how much to buy for our family & how long it will last. We have 6 littles ages 9 and under. That is a great price that you pay!
Yes, 1/4 of a cow lasts us a year. It is about 150+ lbs of meat. We just evaluated how much we normally eat or could afford and then make it stretch. I always calculate how much I have total and divide it over the year.
Wow! Groceries are CHEAP down there in the US!
Hi Lindsay!
I was so excited to see this post! My husband and I have been in a tight place financially for the past few months and are really trying to cut back wherever possible, BUT reading your post has inspired me to take this one step at a time and slowly up our budget over the next year or so as we add more whole food options. I had a couple of questions for you….
You made the comment that whole foods are more expensive in the Portland area…are you living in Portland now? I thought you were in Washington. Anyway, just curious!
If you are in Oregon can you tell me about finding raw milk? I know you cant buy it except on the property of the farmers and it must be a small farm. Do you have a post with more on raw milk? We are thinking about giving it a shot, but I wasn’t sure since I am used to 1% and I know the raw is whole milk….will I just end up drinking less? That seems like a big change in fat intake! Just curious.
Also, do you have multiple freezers? I am thinking that with 12 whole chickens, 1/4 a cow and a ton of cheeses and fruits in your freezer, you must have more than one…I know that buying whole chickens is going to be my best money saver when it comes to good quality chicken, but I am new to it. Do you roast it, cut it up and use/freeze, and then make stock from the carcass?
I have noticed you have some natural sweetners on your list and in your recipes. What do you know about agave nectar? I saw organic blue agave nectar at costco for a fraction of the typical price, but I wasn’t sure if it is actually healthier!
One more (sorry, this is just so interesting)…I saw that you hit TJs once a month and get all your spinach for smoothies….we are BIG fans of the green smoothies…how do you store/keep your spinach for a month? I have been blending the spinach, water,and OJ conc. and freezing when I get a big bag of spinach from Costco and then thawing as needed….just curious what you are doing.
Thank you so much for all your encouragment! You have truly been a blessing to me and you provide a wonderful example of a Godly wife, mother, and woman!
May God continue to bless you and your lovely family!
Lauren,
We are in Portland all the time! I do know many people that get raw milk in Oregon though. You may want to check out my Local Resources page and email Elice from there. There are many drop spots of good raw milk in your area. If you want to learn more about the benefits of raw milk, definitely check out realmilk.com and/or read Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. The amazing thing about raw milk is that that fat/cream is necessary for digestion of the calcium and nutrients in the milk. When they skim that out to make non-fat or 1%, your body is not able to digest it. The cream also helps you digest the fat, so it actually is thought to help you loss weight. It is incredible stuff!
We are in Vancouver, WA…but as you know, that is right on the border, so that is why I say Portland area.
Yes, we have two small chest freezers in our garage. One is for meat and the other is for our berries and such. As to making whole chickens, I cook up a whole chicken at a time in the crockpot to make a stock and then use the cooked meats for other meals. I usually freeze portions of the cooked meat because we don’t eat it all at once. It’s pretty fun and easy!
Yes, read more about agave in my natural sweetener post here.
I freeze the bags of spinach if we don’t eat it all before its time. I usually use other kinds of lettuces later in the month from my produce source.
Blessings, Lindsay
Lindsay! Thanks for your post – I am now a mom and was wondering what our grocery budget would look like now that we have kids – although it will be a bit before he is on solid foods.
On a spiritual note – The Lord is using you in the most amazing ways with your blog. You are an amazing blessing and I pray the Lord would continue to give you encouragement from your posts, its awesome to see how he is using you through your blog!
This is going on my refrigerator! My husband and I spend closer to $600 on food/month and that’s not including shampoo,etc! It’s good to see it is possible to live on less. Thank you for the example and showing how it’s possible. I have a long way to go and you are helping me get there!
Lindsey, which iPhone app is it? Is it called “Shopper” for .99? I’m always looking for ways to make shopping easier. Right now I have a spreadsheet I print out each week and leave it in the kitchen. When I”m out of something, I just circle it. The spreadsheet is even orgazined by location of the store. So I always do produce section first, so the produce list is first on my shopping list. It works, but would like to go paperfree:)
Yes, that’s the one! It really works nicely for me and they keep adding good updates to it as well. Here’s the link: http://www.myshopperapp.com.
I LOVE this post! I just found your site through a friend of mine. We just moved to the UK and are on a tight budget as well. My husband is a post-grad student. I’ve got 3 boys 6 and under who seem to eat a ton! I’m still researching all the best deals on food here. Food is more expensive in the UK and we are in the process of figuring our budget and how we can stick to real foods. Some things are not easily found here like sucanat/rapadura. I haven’t been able to find it at all actually–maybe if we were in London or somewhere further south. Buying in bulk is also not very common.
Thanks for laying your budget out though, it does help to see the details of how someone is successfully budgeting and doing real food.
Lindsay,
Thank you so much for taking the time to put together and being willing to share this information. I’ve been trying for the past several months to buy all organic and stay within a budget but don’t have anything to compare it too since my idea of frugality is based on healthy, but not organic meat, produce etc. This gives me something to measure against to see if I’m actually saving or overspending when it comes to the new way of managing our food purchases and budget.
Also, we don’t have TJ’s
but I’ve surprisingly found that meat at Gooseberries (hormone free and no antibiotics) is actually cheaper than regular meat at places like Costco. Go figure! If anybody lives near a Gooseberries, you might check out their meat prices… as long as you can get in and out of the store only buying their loss leaders.
Thank you. I currently budget $400 a month for groceries & household items as well… just not whole foods groceries. My husband isn’t supportive of switching to a whole foods diet & I assumed it would cost much more so I hadn’t asked him to reconsider. I don’t have a local Trader Joe’s but this post encourages me to look into my options & approach my husband about this subject again.
Try watching movies like Food Inc. and King Corn with your husband. That worked for me:) He was blown away and no longer questions why I don’t get the cheap meat in particular. I do all the reading and research but he was more than willing to sit and watch a movie.
Whoo hoo! Thanks so much! I wish I had access to some of your resources here in Boise.
Hi Jessica,
they only have 1300 products that also counts for lower prices…but I can do 85% of my grocery shopping there and the rest at WM or someplace else. If you want, I can find out what the name was, I know it wasn’t Winco I think it was a different name…anyhow…you can contact me through my blog. Good Luck!!
I am in SC but my mom lives just outside of Boise….I could be wrong, but I thought my mom was saying the other day that you have a store there similar to Aldi’s here. It would be a small grocery store and you have to bag the groceries yourself, but you get groceries really affordable because you don’t have to pay the overages that places like Walmart and other stores have…. it could save you quite a bit of money…. Aldi’s has a website and you can see what they are like, they don’t sell the brand names, it is their own brand but it is the same product in the packaging
Wow, great post! This is the first time I came across your blog, and I am impressed! I find it incredible what you make from scratch, and how much you can buy with $400/mnth. My husband and I have 3 sons, aged 14,11,8. My monthly grocery budget is $800/month, and sometimes I don’t think that that’s enough! Perhaps I need to figure out a way to revamp how I cook, bake, and can, and obviously shop!
I am a new reader to your blog and am loving it! Budgeting and meal planning are two of my favorite activities (am I crazy??) and this post is full of great suggestions. Thank you!
Thanks so much for taking the time to share all of this information. It’s so important for people to see that a real food lifestyle is much more achievable than it seems.
We are a family of 2 adults, a 5-yr-old and a 4-yr-old. We spend, on average, about $115 per week on food (and general grocery items) – including 3-4 gallons of raw milk, 3 dozen free-range eggs, and 3-4 nights of grass-fed beef per week. I make my own kefir, yogurt, and some of our butter. We also eat a lot of coconut oil (some virgin and some refined).
I would love to be able to buy everything local and/or organic, but my budget would have to run closer to $200 per week for that – and that’s not reasonable right now! But it’s fun working these amazing nourishing foods into our diet and realizing it’s not impossible at all.
I have truly been enjoying your entries on whole foods! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Lindsay. I know this is helpful to so many people, including me.
I wondered about holidays, and those times when you have company over for a meal, or when you bring something extra to a church function… those are the times when our budget gets completely blown.
Do you have extra earnings set aside for those times? Or do you just try to adjust your budget the following month to spend less?
Thanks again!
shannon
Hospitality is included in our food budget. We typically do it just fine, but occasionally it does cost more. We technically have a giving fund in our budget from which we can drawl if necessary as well.
Can you share your typical weekly menu? I would love to see what you prepare with these ingredients. Your budget sounds very close to ours, we spend $500 a month for 6 people (2 adults, 4 children) and we strive to stay organic and healthy but often times I find myself spending more. Would love menu tips!
You can view most of our menu plans in the menu plan category, or see our monthly spring menu plan and our winter menu plan. I will be sharing my most current winter monthly menu plan this next week.
thanks for this post–this is very helpful to break everything down. We are in a crazy season of business and although I have broken down our budget/made lots of things from scratch in the past, right now it’s just not do-able. We also live an hour away from Whole Foods, which is the closest big name natural food store by abotu 300 miles!
I would love to someday go to a trader joes since I have heard great thigns about them!
We do have a small health-food store that is local, but it is mostly herbs and organic snack food…veryyyy little produce, etc. but we do buy some grains from their bulk section,too.
Sarah M
Hi Lindsay,
Very helpful postings this week~! I was wondering what containers you use to store your baking flours, grains, and beans. Where did you purchase them from? I am about to make my first large purchase from azure in our new location, but I am wondering how I am going to safely store all these foods. Thanks!
God bless,
Tarah
You can see pics of my kitchen storage here & here.. I also talked about Safe Kitchen Storage which includes links to sources for difference sizes of jars. I typically use IKEA jars for some grains to display on my shelves, and then gallon size glass jars, and half gallon jars for everything else in my cupboards. Azure actually sells glass gallon jars if you are interested. Otherwise, check out craigslist. For large bulk, such as the 25 lbs of oats, I use food grade plastic 5 gallon buckets as described here.
Thanks so much for sharing your budget! It is very encouraging to see that it is possible to eat healthily on a budget. The food/household budget for my family of 3 is $70/week (we have a $30/week cushion but try not to use it). This is for groceries and all household supplie (toilet paper, soap, etc). I try to make most things from scratch and use only real foods. I have been doing this for some time. I have not delved into the organic foods as such yet… We live in rural Minnesota and therefore some things are harder to find–asure standard doesn’t deliver in our area, but I’m not giving up! I’ve found good local sources of raw honey, organic raw sugar, coconut oil and I can get raw goat milk for $4/gallon — what are your thoughts on goat milk? Still looking for more variety in our flours/grains especially to purchase in bulk — we go through 5 pound of flour a week and 3-4 pounds of oatmeal! WE eat meat free for breakfast and lunch every day and meet free supper a couple times a week. We tried your Sloppy Lentils recipe last night and it was a hit (even with my husband who is not a big fan of lentils)!
I have found that the dough setting on our bread machine is a huge time saver — I can put all the ingredients in and push a button, then when it beeps just shape into loaves and put in pans to rise and bake. Actual hands on time is about 5 minutes — great with a toddler running around!
Thanks for all your great advice!
We have a share of goat milk giving us a gallon a week and we pay $10 a gallon. It is actually better for us than cow milk but some people don’t like it. My kids and I all use it but only two of mine drink milk plain. My husband can’t stand it though. I would say go for it if it is that cheap. I would do 3 gallons a week at that price:) The other down side is that goat milk is naturally homogenized so you can’t make butter from it.
I’m looking at purchasing from Azure Standard for the first time and it appears they deliver via UPS to anywhere in the US. Am I wrong? Have you checked into that? Or does UPS not deliver where you are?
If they don’t, I’ll be heartbroken, because I’m finding I can do much of my non-perishable shopping on there and have it shipped straight to my door. In my opinion, that’s worth it (as long as shipping is reasonable), as then I can carefully calculate what I’m spending, rather than going to the store and a few “extra” items make their way into the basket.
(Just got back from the store and yep, a few too many extras came home. Whole family went and that’s a huge no-no, if you know what I mean. Haha!)
Tami,
Azure delivers to many cities at monthly drop points (no shipping). Just give Azure a call and see if there is a drop point location in your area and who the contact is.
Hope you have one in your town!
Thank you, Jennifer, for mentioning that! I doubled checked their policy and found the specifics. I am definitely not within driving distance of a drop off point. I’m on the opposite side of the country.
UPS is cheaper and faster. Hehe. But it does say they ship USPS if your area does not have a UPS route, so I’d think Beth would still be able to purchase from them.
For anyone interested in Azure Standard’s specific policy on shipping, drop off points, ect…, here is the link:
http://www.azurestandard.com/policies.php
Hope that helps someone else!
Wow… I have to give you credit! We currently are on a military salary and have just the two of us (baby on the way though) and we spend about $400/month on food as well. For the two of us, this is fine — except I don’t buy snacks, pop, alcohol or anything that isn’t an ingredient for a meal.
What kind of meals do you make? I typically make a lot of things from scratch (though not condiments since we don’t go through them much)… and am wondering why our $400 seems to just cover us 2, and your $400 covers a family!
it is possible to stick to a budget and I love that you posted this topic!! We are a family of 6…2 adults, and the children, 7,5,3,1 and one on the way. We our working on getting out of debt and we have $100.00 a week for all expenses for groceries , paper goods and toiletries. I cook from scratch and am always looking for ways to improve. I make my menues out before going to the store. Where we live there is an Aldi’s and I have a spreadsheet that I made up that I would share with anyone, just email me through my blog…..it has all the items that we might use and then some with the prices. Prior to going I check off the quantity I need and the price is there and it calculates how much I am spending. We pay cash for everything no credit or debit cards and this way when the money is gone from the envelope that is all there is to spend, no going over my budget. My daughter being the oldest, is learning to help cook the meals as well as the snacks…we cut out convenience foods and cook wholesome food, it is possible to do!!
Thanks, Melissa.
It’s encouraging to hear that someone else, trying to get out of debt, can eat well on $100 a week. We have 2 kids and one on the way, so I know if someone with 4 and 1 on the way can do it – so can we!
Fantastic post !
This is a really good post, Lindsay! We have a $400 monthly grocery budget as well. It seems to be working really well for us, but I am expecting my third son any day now, so I am expecting to sit down with my husband and discuss making some adjustments. My 10 month old son, like your Titus, eats his fair share too! One thing I want to budget in as soon as we can find it is raw milk…as of now, we haven’t been able to find a good source. However, we are pretty lucky, as the going rate here is only about $4 per gallon. Thanks, also, for the link to Dave’s Killer Bread…I am not able to make much of my own bread right now in this season of my life either!
When I saw this I was discouraged “Other expenses that we chose to eliminate: we own no television, no magazine subscriptions, own one vehicle, eat out less, etc. I have found that if you have the vision and passion to eat naturally, you can make it work!”
Because we’ve already cut those corners — the only corners left to cut are internet & phone.
However, then I saw that you only spend $400/month, and I was very encouraged! I have 1 adult and 3 kids, and I spend about the same, or more. So I could do it too!
Thank you so much for posting this…it was very encouraging to me! As a new wife, I often get discouraged reading the I-spend-$40-a-week-on-my-family’s-food posts since that’s really not possible if you want to eat “real food” (and live in CA, as we do). And I’m finally coming to terms with that, but it was still very encouraging to read a post on a food budget that’s much more similar to our own. So thank you again…and YAY for Trader Joe’s!
I second the “YAY for Trader Joe’s”! It makes shopping on a budget much easier. The alternative is going to Whole Foods and then blowing your budget.
Thank you so much for posting this! It is so helpful to me
I spend about $250 a month buying food for my husband and I. I think that is a reasonable amount considering that my husband is working and I am a full-time student, so time is a valuable commodity. I know we can do better in many areas, so I find all your whole foods posts very helpful. Baby steps is the key!
Thank you for posting this. It’s very helpful.
I see you buy your coconut oil from Mountain Rose Herbs. I looked at the site, and I’m confused as to which coconut oil to buy for cooking & baking. There’s refined organic and virgin unrefined organic, expeller pressed, cold pressed… I don’t know which to buy. I want to use it for cooking and baking, and don’t want a really strong coconut flavor added to our foods. Which one would be best? Are both the refined and unrefined suitable for cooking/baking? Thanks for the help!
Extra virgin unrefined coconut oil is what I purchase. It is most ideal for cooking because it has a highly level of nutrients, as some are lost through the refining process. On their website they recommend the refined for exterior use on your body and the unrefined for cooking. I have never had a problem with it adding a try flavor to our foods. You can use refined for cooking, it is just not ideal.
Hi Lindsay,
Besides the extra virgin unrefined cold-pressed coconut oil, what else do you buy from Mountain Rose Herbs? I would like to place an order soon and am trying to distribute the shipping costs over as many items (that are good deals!) as possible. Any other tips regarding ordering from MRH are appreciated! Thanks!
MRH has wonderful loose leaf teas that we love (Women Balancing has been a particular blessing lately!). I also love their bath salts, herbs, and essential oils. I also buy shea butter from them.
For the past couple years I have been trying to change our eating and buying habits. My monthly food budget is $450 for a family of 5 with 3 boys (7, 5, 2.5). This is what I use just for our food I shop every 2 weeks and most of it is done at Costco with a monthly order from Azure Standard. I use Azure Standard monthly for grains, sweeteners, produce sometimes, etc. Costco had a pretty good variety of natural and organic items. I get organic carrots, organic spinach, organic apples, organic butter, organic eggs and a variety of other non-organic items there. I live in an area abundant with wild blueberries and blackberries so I try to freeze what I can in the summer. This summer I was also given a bunch of peaches that I canned, froze, and dried. I had a garden this summer, but it was fairly small and I don’t have extra veggies canned away or frozen this year.
We have not been able to afford switching over completely to raw milk as we use at least 7 gallons every two weeks and the price is now at $10/gallon for raw. I purchase whole chickens from costco, but our other meat is all game meat (the Lord blessed us with a large buck this fall again). We will hopefully have Elk meat in the freezer in the next few months as well. We use the game meat for stew meat, ground, sausage, roasts, etc. I know some may find it difficult to think about eating game meat, it is such a blessing for our family with 3 growing and eating boys. When we are out of game meat, as we were early in the summer, I bought all natural ground turkey (in frozen 1 lb. chubs) from Costco, thankfully I no longer have to make that purchase every 2 weeks!
My husband and I just butchered this season’s elk and our freezer is full! I feel so blessed to serve what I consider to be “organic, free-range” meat, without the cost. Although my hubby tells me not to count his hours in the woods, the gas, the gear, or his “hunting” food into the budget, or I will begin to question whether his hobby is really saving us money.
I’m glad to see another mama who uses wild game in her kitchen on this site.
My boys love that we are eating something that their daddy was able to provide directly for us. I think my hubby likes the opportunity to have his hobby be valuable to the family as well! Congratulations on the Elk…I am praying we will have Elk come January as well.
Thank you so much Lindsay. I know a budget is very personal. Sharing yours has inspired me to dive in and just do it. I know if you can so can I. My budget is $600 a month for our family of 3 and that includes gas and dog food.
I knew right away what one of my biggest problems was when you wrote that you go to the grocery store once a month. I drive by my grocery store nearly everyday so I go about every other day. I will go in for a few things and half of what I come out with is not on my list. I need to be more serious about meal planning. That should keep my out of the store.
Another thing that must go is cereal. I buy organic granola type cereal in tiny boxes and it is expensive.
I bought the book Real Food. Thanks so much for posting about it. I am going to copy your list. Thankfully I have a Trader Joe’s nearby also.
You are such an inspiration to me. It’s nice to be challenged as a homemaker. Sometimes I go on auto-pilot and that is when I become less passionate and bored. This will be a challenge. It’s not just about money, this takes extreme organization.
Seriously, thank you so much for posting this. I had a very serious health scare this week with a CT scan and so on and so forth. Based on the symptoms I was experiencing, what might have been was something that very probably would have killed me within a few months, and if it were that, it could have been prevented with a more conscious approach to eating and living.
That said, the night between the call that my doctor needed to see me face-to-face to go over my test results and the actual consultation, I committed to be more thoughtful, more responsible — bargaining, perhaps? However, the thought of switching from the lazy, easy, highly-processed, common American diet to something slower and more considerate is nearly as overwhelming as the threat of death.
I went to bed last night thankful to a merciful God that this pain that has been plaguing me is not a plague that will kill me. Still, I was overcome by the thought of a major diet overhaul. Your post, though, gives me a launching point. What may have just seemed to you to be blog content, something to fill a page, is to me a lifeline. Thank you, THANK YOU for posting.
Thanks for sharing. This is really helpful. My hubby and I have been talking about revisiting our food budget since we are spending more money on whole foods now.
This is great! I am just posting about what we eat and was going to list what we buy also, so it will be great to be able to link people here too so they can see what others do!
Have a great day!
Great post! I’m linking to it on Monday, Nov. 16!
I’ve been thinking of asking you about what your food budget looks like, especially after I saw a jar of coconut oil for $20. I’d really like to go to more “real foods,” but right now with my husband in seminary our budget can’t afford it.
We have $160 month budgeted for groceries (or $40 a week if there’s 5 weeks in the month) for our family of three. I plan my menus, so I always know exactly what I need to get. We eat a mostly vegetarian diet with meat a few times a month depending if I can get it on sale. I cook pretty much everything from scratch.
We have a lot of beans, rice, veggies/fruits, potatoes, and soups lately. About the only canned products you’ll find in our pantry are tomatoes (diced, stewed, paste, & sauce), partly because the price of tomatoes are going up as the weather gets cooler (we live in Kentucky) and with an active toddler who always wants to be in the kitchen it’s easier than cutting them myself. I’d really like to learn how to make my own tomato sauce and paste, but I think time is my biggest hindrance right now.
We moved from San Diego this summer, so I’ve had to get used to the higher prices and smaller selection of produce. So, I’ve been cooking with more seasonal vegetables.
I’d really like to buy more organic, especially with our dairy products. I think it’ll just have to happen little by little and making more from scratch. I’d love to learn how to can and preserve. We live in an apartment, but our complex has a garden where we can rent a plot and we’re planning to do that in the spring.
Thanks for all information. I even checked out a copy of In Defense of Food and it’s pretty interesting. It’s definitely good to be more mindful of what we eat and whether it’s real or not, which sounds funny…food that’s not really food. Anyway.
i’d say you’re doing REALLY GOOD!! I spend that much per week, for a family of 5 (3 toddlers) but still… you must work really hard to stay in that budget! I would also say though that if you REALLY want to go more organic, you could try praying about it and see how God might provide…not that you have to, but you might be suprised…
Thank you so much for this. I currently work full-time. My husband stays home with our 15-month-old son during the day and teaches at a local college part-time in the evenings. I pray daily (if not hourly) for the day I can be home full-time caring for my family and home. Given my schedule, I am not able to make as much from scratch as I would like to but then I get so confused (even at TJs) which packaged foods are ok. For some reason I picture you making everything………even hot dogs and cold cuts
!!!
I have 3 questions.
Which shampoo do you buy from TJs? I recently started playing around with some shampoo recipes from your website because I was developing terrible itching and dandruff. My mother developed terribly sensitive skin after having me, so I assume maybe I’m having the same issue. Using the homemade, I’m noticing a drastic improvement.
Where do you get your Dr Bonner’s? Is TJ’s price competitive?
Do you use mason jars to freeze everything such as the fruit and cheese?
Thank you for your blog. You are such a blessing.
TJ’s can definitely be a little tricky with the packaged convenience foods. They are all free from preservatives, but often have refined ingredients. I use the Nourish Shampoo from TJ’s. My husband likes a real shampoo over my homemade varieties, and it was cheaper in the long run, so we are using that right now. But I also don’t buy conditioner, so that cuts costs there. If the homemade works for you, stick with it! I currently don’t buy Dr. Bronner soap, but TJ definitely has the best price, although they only carry the peppermint variety. No, I use ziplocs for freezing my fruit and cheese, because I don’t have enough freezer space to use all glass jars for these purposes. Ziplocs lay nice and flat and stack well. Hope that helps!