Is it possible to eat an organic vegetarian diet and not go bankrupt?

[ilovemygirl]

Is it possible to eat organic, healthy and vegetarian without going bankrupt? I just cannot get my food bill under control. Admittedly we do eat a lot of meat replacements instead of just a can of beans but I don't buy much else that is processed and definitely nothing pre-prepared like frozen dinners.
I really want to feed dd well. I hate giving her food that isn't organic and this really adds to the food bill. I want to join a csa but there is only one near me that is organic and they are doing priority memberships for previous members so it's unlikely I will get a spot.
We don't use dairy and try to limit soy so it's costing me a fortune to buy nut milks. Does anyone make their own almond or hemp milk?
Please share your ideas with me. I'm pretty desperate. I have come a long long way in curbing spending but it's not enough.

[SageR]

Sure you can. The first thing that popped into my head was "if you limit dairy" but since you don't do that anyway..

Stop buying meat analogues. They're too expensive and so highly processed. If you really want to do this you'll have to cook from scratch.

Organic vegetarian protein can be cheap. Dried beans are very inexpensive, and, if you eat them, eggs are a really good bang for your buck. Eggs are the least expensive organic animal food. Also organic peanut butter isn't too outrageous.

Frozen produce is less expensive than fresh but just as nutritious. My family doesn't like them so much so I add them to smoothies and soups or casseroles.

We eat very simple meals for breakfast and lunch to save money. Eggs, oatmeal, frozen fruit smoothies, pb&j, leftovers. I save the fun stuff for dinner.

If you have a blender you can easily make your own milks. If you goggle "nut milk recipe" or something like that you will find some ideas.

You should check out the Vegetarian forum. I'm sure you would get good ideas there.

[SuzyLee]

My first thought was- yes, we do it for about 400$ a month.

Get rid of most of those emat replacers- we have a once a week limit on those. ie, I only buy one box a week, if there are elftovers they are eaten for lunch.

Why do you need hemp milk and almond milk? Why not just feed almonds?

Do you have a garden in the summer? That is a huge helper for us- we only grow the pricier produce.

[Natsuki]

I don't consider the vegetarian meat substitutes to be healthy or whole food - they're highly processed and if they're not 100% organic the soy protein in them is most likely genetically modified which I want to stay far far away from.

Have you tried Rice milk? We do that for milk. I would also encourage you to buy organic tofu blocks and use those. Do you do eggs? Yogurt? Cheese?

You can do a lot with beans too.

[sanguine_speed]

Originally Posted by Natsuki

Have you tried Rice milk? We do that for milk.

I don't find that almond milk costs more than rice milk. Is it different where you are?
We used to drink rice milk, but decided almond milk meets our needs better in terms of nutrient value.

[AndrewsMother]

We eat organic and do it on a budget. I agree with PP giving up meat substitutes would save you money.

[rainbowmoon]

my partner barters for our CSA share. is that a possibility for you?

[Natsuki]

Originally Posted by sanguine_speed

I don't find that almond milk costs more than rice milk. Is it different where you are?
We used to drink rice milk, but decided almond milk meets our needs better in terms of nutrient value.

Here I can get a half gallon of rice milk for $2.69 and the almond milk is a bit more $$ (and also less nutrients, Almond Breeze vs. Rice Dream).

[texmati]

Meat analogs are expensive. Have you looked into cuisines that don't really have meet analogs (I'm thinking Indian food). There is just no room on our plates for meat, so we really don't miss it.

[lightheart]

If you are not breastfeeding then you could save some money by you choosing not to eat as good of a diet as your daughter. Continue to buy organic, healthy vegetarian foods for her and choose non organic foods for yourself. It means cooking double meals but it would mean that she is getting the organic diet you want her to have.

[summermay]

Where do you shop your organic foods?

Formerly I bought all our groceries at the friendly local "organic shop". However I can find most brands at the larger supermarkets as well.
saved us ca 100-110$ a month.

We rarely, maybe once or twice a month, have a @substitute@ meal and prepare everything from the stretch.

Do you eat bread and pasta? By making my own bread/pasta we save about 10$ pp pw. plus of course more control over the ingredients.

[WendyC]

So I am not a vegatarian - in fact I am on a very low carb diet right now, however I have experience with the out of control grocery bills. Its a bit different because I ran up my bills buying meat, meat, and more meat, BUT I did find something that helped a bunch.

I created a spreadsheet that listed every household item and food item that I buy regually and semi-regually. I found old reciepts and copied down the prices I paid - I also listed where I purchased each item. I do my grocery shopping at HEB, but I do a once a month bulk buy at Costco and once every few month bulk buy through Frontier. Next to each item I have an empty square and every week I go through and put an 'x' in the square if its something that I need. I then sort the sheet by which items have x's and which don't - copy and paste those into a new sheet for a new list - resort according to store, total up the prices and see what I am expecting to spend that week.

Ok - so it may sound a bit complicated, but if you know how to use Excel its a piece of cake.

This totally revolutioned my grocery buying experience, because I can see where and how I am going to go over before I step into the store and can rationally make decisions on what to cut ahead of time rather than feeling overwhelmed in the store. The great thing about this is that frequently once I go into the store I end up spending less than I planned because something on my list will randomlly be put on sale - or a bunch of items will be on sale. Its fantastic. I am FINALLY on budget now!

Anyway - wanted to pass that tip along.

[mnnice]

I'm an omni, but one with a very plant heavy diet.

A couple of ideas. Learn to sprout at home. You can buy enough sprout seeds for a whole year for just a couple of dollars. Also dried beans are you friends.

I'd check out the non-organic CSAs too. You might find that they have chosen not to seek certification rather than they are not organic. Go visit in person.

Expand your idea of salads. In the winter salads should focus more on carrots, beets, cabbage, and less on greens. A month ago I had greens from my garden now I have a foot or more of snow.:

Learn to make bread.

A soy milk maker might be useful to make almond or hemp milk with.

[ItsBasilThyme]

Do you drink much juice? One thing I found when I started incorporating more organics was that the organic juice seemed to really be disproportionately more than regular juice. I started watering mine down and that helped a lot. I also started just making an organic frozen fruit smoothies every day in place of some juice and am really liking that better. It's more satisfying, plus you get more fiber and good stuff. I also got a juicer so I could make juice myself from the less expensive organics. Right now I'm making carrot-apple juice on a pretty regular basis. It's cheaper, helps me use up produce that I may have overbought on, and is really delicious.

Other than that, I agree with the meat substitute thing. Those are really expensive, and not that healthy. I use tofu fairly regularly, but that's it. I stock up and freeze it when it's on sale ($1.50 - $2.00 is a really good price here, I think). I also try to use lots of higher protein veggies like broccoli, spinach, asparagus, etc and use higher protein grains like quinoa. Of course, we also eat lots of eggs, yogurt, milk, etc so that helps a lot. I couldn't tell from your post if you're vegan, but it sounds like you probably are, so advice on those probably won't help.

Also - a lot of people tell me that it's cheaper to buy organic produce at the regular grocery store. Maybe my regular store is just overpriced, but I haven't found that to be true. It seems like organic produce there hangs around on the shelf a lot longer, and is usually smaller even if it costs less per item (a bag of lettuce might be $0.50 less, but the heads are really small!) Plus, when I get it home it goes bad really quickly. I know it sounds crazy, but for me if I buy organic produce at whole foods (and still to seasonal, non-exotic items) it lasts a lot longer, and I usually get the same amount or more for my money. That's all I'll buy there, though. Once you get to their grocery items, the costs are usually insane.

[mnnice]

Originally Posted by ItsBasilThyme

Other than that, I agree with the meat substitute thing. Those are really expensive, and not that healthy. I use tofu fairly regularly, but that's it. I stock up and freeze it when it's on sale ($1.50 - $2.00 is a really good price here, I think)

I really like tofu, but my experience with freezing it was not good. I'd try a little before I stocked up. I usually am fine with frozen things that others gripe about and freeze things like milk, kefir, cheese with good results.

[ilovemygirl]

Wow ... thanks so much for all the great responses.
I've only recently thought about making our own nut milk. Thanks for the idea about the soy milk machine. I didn't even know such a thing existed.