Healthy Food on a Budget

Whenever I talk about organic food, the price of it inevitably ends up in the conversation.  Most people I know compromise by getting the most important things organic (like the dirty dozen and milk, for example), and the less important things conventional.  I do a lot of that myself -- buy it organic unless the organic version is so alarmingly expensive that it makes me want to cry.

Today, I did a pretty big grocery trip & decided to pay careful attention to what I'm getting and how much I'm spending. We are a family of five and I spend roughly $500-$600 a month on groceries.  I'm told this is a modest monthly food budget, but I don't know, I feel like it's a lot!

I went to Costco first and purchased:

• 10 pounds of sweet potatoes
• 8 organic apples
• 6 pounds of pears
• 4 jars of organic applesauce (11 lbs, 13 oz)
• 2 whole organic free-range chickens
• 1 lb. organic spinach
• 2.5 lbs. organic celery
• 5 lbs. clementines
• 3 lbs. bananas
• 5 large hass avocados
• 18 oz. blackberries
• 32 oz. strawberries
• 2 lbs. brussel sprouts
• 24 oz. baby bella mushrooms
• 40 oz. organic tortilla chips
• 32 oz. pure maple syrup
• 2 loaves of organic sprouted whole wheat bread
• 24 large organic eggs
• 2 pounds organic butter

Total: $121.20


From there, I went to Sprout's Farmer's Market and bought:

• 1 eggplant
• 4 lemons
• 5 limes
• 6 oranges
• 1 lb. organic carrots
• 5 lbs organic potatoes
• organic whole milk yogurt, plain
• organic whole milk yogurt, vanilla
• organic coconut milk creamer
• half gallon organic whole milk
• 1 block organic cheese
• 2 packages mini babybel cheese
• 1 package string cheese
• 1 can black olives
• 2 six packs of natural soda (for husband, ha)
• 2 pounds organic grass-fed ground beef
• 1 thirteen lb. whole organic free-range turkey

Total: $87.31

Grand total: 208.51

I have no idea how this compares to others, but I would be curious to know!