Families of 4 who buy mostly organic...how much do you spend on food per week?

[Amila]

I swear the cost of food has gone up in the past month. We tend to buy mostly organic, and don't really restrict ourselves at the grocery store (within reason of course). I have a 2-year old who eats pints of raspberries, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes in one sitting! We used to spend around $150/week...then it was $180...and now the past 3 weeks my grocery bill has been over $200. What gives???? Things will be so much better in the summer with our garden and the farmers markets, but this is killing me!

[SageR]

We're starting to feel the pinch too. I can keep it under $100, but that's drawing off what we put up over the summer and very little dairy or fruit. We won't be getting local produce until May/June

We're eating a lot of eggs, beans, and greens.

[BrooklynDoula]

We spend about $150 but closer to $200 if I need new staples that are pricey like oil.

[Alyantavid]

We try to eat in season as much as possible so that helps. Thankfully my boys love apples so they're eating alot of those right now.

[lunamama]

We are a family of 5 who eat mostly organic. We spend OVER 200 a week on average. I am thinking of ways to get the spending down. My new idea is eating a whole food based, non-processed diet. We are learning to make our own pasta and tortillas. This is huge. We do not eat a lot out of box or can but some. I have completely stopped buying canned beans. I am really pre-planning the summer and wanting to roast and store our own peppers. The one thing I do not know how to get past is the olive situation. I think we will just be buying these canned still.
It will be a lot more work but worth it health wise and on the pocketbook.

[SeekingJoy]

$50-85 a week depending on season. The keys for us are joining a CSA, eating seasonally, meal planning, shopping from a list drawn up from sale fliers, cooking generally from scratch (but I still buy crackers for example), stockpiling sale items, buying in bulk and using coupons.

[PlayaMama]

we have a famiy of 5, me, my dad, and my mate plus a 4 yo and a 1yo who eats like a horse (okay, a pony) and i have been trying to get us to $600 per month buit we've been consistently at $800. BUT that includes a LOT of stocking up lately on grains and beans and canned tomatoes. this month i'm stocking up on dried fruits and nuts and pasture butter i found on sale.

i'd say, we're probably at about $600 for maintenance but the extra $200 is needed to replenish the pantry and then some. i've been consciously focusing on increasing our pantry stores since food prices have been going up so much lately.

as for the berries my kids LOVE them, i've finally decided to go non-organic from costco for the blueberries. though i did find frozen ones for $2/lb at the grocery outlet. a decent deal. we shop at trader joe's, or azurestandard.com or on-line co-ops pretty exclusively. i'm just not willing to sacrifice the organic for most things.

[jenniferlynne]

We spend around $150 a week. I've been feeling like this is really high but now I see it's not completely out of the ball park. I wish I could stock up when things go on sale, but we have such limited space that I can't really do it. Also, I know we spend more than we should on "convenience" foods (thank you Trader Joes!) and I need to find a way to buy fewer of those, maybe making larger batches and freezing meals for those crazy nights when I don't have the time or energy to cook.

[lunamegn]

We also spend about $150 a week.

[sarasprings]

We're over $200 -- partly because the boys are on a special diet. It's frustrating because it's such a huge part of our income.

[carfreemama]

We're in Nova Scotia, Canada and our budget is like this:
$50 Farmers Market
$10 bulk
$20 meat
$65 grocery store

So that's $145 per week for 2 adults and 1 light-eater 5 yo dd.

Almost everything from scratch and unprocessed. Mostly organic or local. I choose local over organic if I have to make a choice and I will sometimes buy local conventional for price if I know the farmer.

I buy meat direct from a farmer who sells at the Farmers Market. I can get ground beef for $3/pound, stewing beef for $4/pound and steak for
$7-8/pound. Eggs come from a local farm.

I grind my own grain, bought in bulk with a members discount from the local food coop.

We will be starting in a CSA food box as of April 1 for $33. I am hoping this will cut my market spending down a lot and I won't have to go every week.

I make lots and lots of other cuts in order to be able to eat organic. I make almost all our food and we almost never eat out, even though dh and I both work full-time. And I've tried hard over the years to establish direct contact with farmers to avoid retail when I can.

I really wish I could find some of the good deals on things like organic canned tomatoes people talk about here. I have found store-brand organic tomatoes for as cheap as $1.49, but that's rare.

[bellabear]

Mine is about the same as yours...if you have a Costco near you they sell 3 pound bags of Cascadian Farms mixed berries (here) for 10.99. they have big tubs of organic spinach and also mixed greens for 4.00.

Michelle

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by Amila

I swear the cost of food has gone up in the past month. We tend to buy mostly organic, and don't really restrict ourselves at the grocery store (within reason of course). I have a 2-year old who eats pints of raspberries, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes in one sitting!

Honestly, this is the first thing I would look at. None of these items are in season in the US or Canada. Which means they've been flown in, usually from S. America. And if they're organic on top of that... hoo-boy! Talk about expensive! I saw a pint of conventional blueberries last weekend for $6, raspberries usually come in 4 oz (1/4 pint) containers and cost $4 when they're in season, I don't know that I've noticed any lately, but I'm sure the price would make me cringe. It's cheaper right now to buy frozen blueberries than fresh.

The big cost saver for me was really working on buying produce in season. Yes, those things are available right now, but the price is exorbitant. At this time of year, the fruits that are in season would be apples, pears, citrus and kiwi if it's available locally grown (rather than flown in from NZ). Veggies are mostly greens - cabbage, kale, chard, even lettuce, and the entire cruciferous family (broc, caul, brussel sprout, etc.).

Buying the produce that is out of season is going to cost you a lot more than buying the stuff that is in season. If you're trying to cut costs, that's the first thing to look at.

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy

$50-85 a week depending on season. The keys for us are joining a CSA, eating seasonally, meal planning, shopping from a list drawn up from sale fliers, cooking generally from scratch (but I still buy crackers for example), stockpiling sale items, buying in bulk and using coupons.

Could not say it better. I already have my meat for the year (1K in the end so about $85 monthly give or take for that. Then I spend $40 on dairy and produce delivered that is organic/hormone free. Add another $40 to odds and ends from the grocery. So we are about $400 or so monthly. But I think its more usually. Before the price hike about a year or so back, it was $350 - $400 and an expensive month was about $500.

In the summer months I will trim down the produce delivery since I will have the local farmers market w local fruits and veggies. We are also using less milk so I might rethink that as the seasons are changing.

[girlwouldmake3]

Has anyone mentioned food buying clubs (we're in the NE, use Associated Buyers)? That's how we stock up on grains, beans, nuts (for granola) and more...

The OP has a point -- prices are rising. At my last visit to the co-op, produce prices weren't bad (I wasn't trying to buy berries though -- we did a PYO for organic blueberries, and grew our own raspberries, and they're in the fridge), but processed food has gone up and stayed up (we all need chips sometimes, right?). My 6-year-old saw the strawberries from far, far away at the co-op and wanted them, but I repeated my "wait until they're in season" speech. I think having frozen berries, and making your own applesauce or canned fruit (if you're lucky enough to live where peaches and the like grow), is the best way to afford those sweets in the wintertime.

By the way, I have a hard time keeping track of what we spend on food, since it's divided between the co-op, the food club, local dairy and farms, and the cost of our garden (which more than pays for itself, I think) and chickens... But I don't think it's nearly as much as people have written here (we're also vegetarian). I know most people can't raise as much food as we do -- but I hope more people will be trying to!

[dbsam]

I don't keep track but it is over $200/week, less in the summer.

$120/month produce co-op

on average $250/month UNFI co-op (includes laundry products, personal care products, etc. I shop the sales and stock up.)

approx $200/month Costco (also includes some stockpile items)

on average $300/month Jewel (grocery store..many months this is less.)

We buy mostly organic and I shop sales. I do tend to overbuy sales and have fully stocked pantries and freezers. We are vegetarian so no meat purchases.


After reading pp's, I'm going to start keeping better records to see if there are areas I can cut back.

[Adamsmama]

We buy organic and locally grown (mostly) and we spend on average $150/week -- we are a family of 5.

[KingstonMama]

We are a family of 4, eat mostly organics and we spend about $150/week. Once in awhile we go over this when I buy a 25lb bag of rice or beans. This includes breakfast, lunch, dinner for all of us as we rarely eat out. We also belong to a CSA so I am hoping to save some money on groceries once that kicks in, but it didn't make a real big dent in our grocery bill last summer. I do meal planning and make up my grocery list on a spreadsheet. I make most things from scratch (except tortillas, I don't like making tortillas from scratch ) and we don't eat meat very often, and it's STILL almost always a struggle to keep in budget. Maybe we're in a high COL area?? We are in WA, west of Seattle.
Great thread!! I'll be :

[avendesora]

Family of 5: $200/week. We're probably 80% organic. I join a CSA in the summer, and am a member of a local coop with lots of bulk goods available. Raw milk is $6/gallon, 2 gallons per week. Meat is $20/week. I do use a few convenience foods as I work part-time and don't have time to do everything from scratch. I do make bread though, because I enjoy it. I tightly ration berries and other expensive goodies, except in July when they're more plentiful. But we also admittedly enjoy expensive cheeses, dried mango, super dark chocolate, organic wine, and other things. So I'm not particularly frugal. I get bulk rice (etc) at the best price I can so that I can afford the chocolate

Aven

[Montana Mom]

about $100 for us