Setting Up a Green & Affordable Grocery Budget
(While I’m enjoying my newborn, I’m pleased to share this guest post by Nikki from Simply Striving.)
I love a good challenge. That’s what grocery shopping was for me. I enjoyed clipping coupons, determining my meal plan based on sales flyers. Trying to save more each week. It was a good game.
Then I found myself pregnant and started researching what I should be eating to nourish more than myself. I scoured articles, followed studies. I educated myself on terminology. I saw Food, Inc. And my eyes began to open to a world I knew nothing about. Farming practices. Insecticides. Processing guidelines. Regulations. GMO’s. Fillers.
My convictions took a strong hold. I knew our grocery cart needed to evolve dramatically to meet my family’s needs. But our food budget couldn’t afford a major increase. We couldn’t afford to stop all of our habits and go 100% organic. Our budget was too tight for that.
We couldn’t afford to mess this up.
My husband and I sat down and came up with a strategic game plan which ultimately comprised a list of priorities. We took them one-by-one to see how our budget strings would handle the load. Our hope was to eliminate the worst food offenders in our grocery cart first and see how much more we could do from there.
Here was our progressive list:
1. Read labels. We decided to eliminate partially hydrogenated, MSG, unnatural food coloring, as well as ingredients we couldn’t pronounce or explain first. Â I couldn’t believe how difficult this made buying things as simple as sandwich bread!
2. Organic is nice, but not when twice the price. We agreed to abide by the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 list. Â I thought this would be the easiest change. Pushing the cart passed the 99 cent strawberries was harder to do than I anticipated!
3. Know where our meat and dairy are coming from. With grass/vegetarian fed, free range, no hormone or nitrates added being our goal.
That was it. Those three things sounded easy enough. Â I was wrong.
We had to come up with a new eating menu. Our taste buds had to change. I had to learn to cook all over again as I couldn’t rely on most of the canned or boxed goods I was used to using. (I’m from the Midwest. Casserole blood runs deep.)
After researching, experimenting, failing, trying again, refining, and finalizing, we came up with three guidelines our grocery cart needed to abide by in order to support our desired menu while sticking to our tight budget. Â They are:
1. Packaged food is an extravagance. Cereal is not necessary. Â Even if we find something sold in a box or can that passes our criteria, it is most likely not necessary. If I can make it cheaper, then I need to find the time to do just that. Â I have to remind myself often there are cheaper options for breakfast than quality cereal with milk. Even with coupons.
2. Less Meat. Quality meat is expensive! We had to scale back by half. Instead of each having a whole chicken breast or pork chop at a meal, we split one and have larger, filling sides to compliment.
Limiting our weekly grocery list to two meat items works best for us. We’ll stretch those out for a few meals or more vegetarian meals will be planned to compensate. Â We discovered eating vegetarian is cheaper and had to come up with meals our family enjoyed as a result.
3. More Produce and Nutritional Grains. When all is considered, produce is cheaper than buying meat and packaged sides for every meal. Â There is more nutrition in bagged rice vs. boxed. Grains like Quinoa are even better! Â Vegetarian lasagna or stir fry can be quite cost-effective and more filling.
The results?
It took nearly 3 years to get to a place we are comfortable with, but the results speak for themselves.
My husband and I both lost weight. We began being conscious of portion control with the higher priced foods we were buying. The side effect was an added bonus!
I discovered one of my migraine triggers was MSG. My head has never been happier.
Our taste pallets improved. Eating vegetables is no longer a struggle. And I never thought I’d like salmon!
We want to eat out less, which provides extra money to explore our produce aisle.
The strings haven’t snapped. We’re feeling great and loving food again. I’m so thrilled with where this grocery cart journey has taken us!
How about you? What grocery guidelines do you try to abide by? I’d love to hear.
Nikki is a loved wife, stay-at-home mom to her boisterous preschool son. Her stillborn son awaits her in glory. She journals her thoughts on a blog titled Simplystriving. There you will find her journey of seeking joy in the everyday while simply striving to become all that God has made her to be. Nikki shares her tips and tricks to living a simple, frugal life on her Facebook page. Stop on by ~ she would love to meet you!
Flickr Image Credit: Riekhavoc
Nikki,
My husband and I have been having conversations on how to successfully pull this off. Thanks for sharing your ideas. So far, we’re still deep into processed, canned, packaged..etc. But, we’ve also begun the process of switching our thinking away from years of poor habits learned as kids. I’m more encouraged now.
Oh, Donna, I’m so proud of you! For taking those first few steps. It helped us to go slow. Eliminating only a bit at a time. I’m certain it’s the only reason we have had such success as we never went into shock 😉 You know where to find me, so let me know if I can help you further. I’d be happy to share some meal ideas, etc…
All for Him,
Nikki
What a great post! I used to have a couponing blog, but I had to quit because I knew we were eating terribly. These are simple and great steps toward eating more healthily!
I did not know that, Kim! And who knew it was so simple to eat better? Thanks for stopping by and sharing!
Beautiful post. Its a huge mental shift, but far from impossible.
Brilliant way to describe it, Kendra. Far from impossible! and yes, it does require a dramatic mental shift. I couldn’t have said it better!
Thank you so much for sharing with me!
Blessings to you,
Nikki
Great practical tips…we try to follow the list of the dirty dozen and I agree it is hard to pass those non-organic strawberries 🙂 Thanks, Nikki, for sharing your journey…Blessings 🙂
Thank you, Dolly! Glad I’m not alone in that tug for the strawberries 🙂 My boy was sure begging for them last week and they didn’t have any organic ones, so we got a watermelon instead 😉 Everyone was happy!
Always enjoy hearing from you. thank you!
I loved this- so inspiring! I’m an avid couponer but I wouldn’t say we eat a lot of processed foods. Still I’m trying more and more to go organic with veggies but it is hard to not spend too much that way. I think my biggest struggle has been justifying good quality meat but you gave me some new motivation.
Thanks for sharing!
So thrilled to meet you, Lydia! That is what it takes, isn’t it. Information. Motivation. Conviction. Then determination to do what’s best for your family. If you need help with any research or anything, please let me know. I’m happy to help in any way I can!
I shop a lot at my local Grocery Outlet. They carry organic milk and eggs, as well as other products. I have good intentions to change my eating habits. Haven’t been doing too well with all the stress in my life lately. But I have a plan! Enjoyed this post so much my friend!
You do have a lot going on, Barbie! I’m all about baby steps. And tomorrow can have plenty of them ; ) love that you have a plan!
Your story is inspiring. I agree completely that making a plan and taking babt steps (w/ family members on board) is important. We decided eating as locally as possible would help us on our journey. We even go as far as having our own backyard chickens and growing some of our own produce.
I’m so thrilled you stopped to share a bit of your journey — thank you! We’re striving to buy local now, too. And I have tried my hand at having a container garden. I have so much to learn, but am enjoying every step! How fun to have your own chickens!
Yes, you do note a key point. having family members on board. It is vital, isn’t it, to become successful.
thank you so much for sharing!
Nikki, what a practical, real post. It’s hard to change your eating habits and I’m so glad you told us it took 3 years. It certainly doesn’t happen overnight. My man and I met in a restaurant so we eat far less processed stuff than most. When we lived in England where they have far less filler in food, we found that we felt better. We’ve tried to maintain that since coming home, but it’s a constant struggle between budget and health.
I’ve often joked with my husband that we should move to England. Where the options help us make better choices! I didn’t know you lived there…
It is a constant struggle. Especially with an unforgiving budget. It takes determination and sacrifice most every day. Trusting you are finding your groove, Heather. Don’t let it overwhelm you. The simpler you make it the better it will be and the longer it will last!
Thanks for sharing with me here!
I love this post! I would love to share these tips with my readers. Please come linkup today (the last day for the linkup) at EVERYTHING FRUGAL!
http://teachersofgoodthings.com/everything-frugal-the-ultimate-frugal-linkup/