check this out, kinda cool

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...how???
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-veronica

i think it's the tone of the posts. i posted because i was *excited* to share something, thinking maybe someone else might also be inspired by it. the response was that it had already been discussed and that it wasn't as cheap as it seemed. i don't disagree with the content, obviously, but i find the tone of the writing to be very cold and 'frugal-er than thou.' (mainly the first response, to be specific) if you don't read it that way, i can't make you see it. but i think when people post on any computer message board, they can get a little rude, a little snippy...it's not the way one would talk if it were a face to face conversation. and the end result is, when people don't consider their wording, that the tone that is delivered is alienating and a big turn off. do people know what i'm talking about here or do i still sound 'angry'? i'm not angry by the way, i just felt bad, and kinda stupid...and then annoyed and like, ok ok alright i get it already!! $7 bucks a day ISn't Cheap!!!! : but what can i expect from an online message board, right?!

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I think its unfortunately an inherent flaw in this form of communication. We tend to "hear" the posts in the voice we assign to them, and its very hard to give feedback which the other person finds critical in a way that ensures they will interpret the text a positive tone. It doesn't help that many of us are plugging out quick posts while trying to do a ton of other things, so posts tend to be terse (okay, never mine, but that's just me ) I try my best to assign the best possible intentions to any post, but it is always hard. Please don't feel that you can't post! And don't feel bad, I'm nowhere near eating all organic for pennies a day!

Gosh, I'm sorry. I certainly didn't mean for my post to come across snippy.

Honestly, I was in the middle of trying to find the post from a couple of weeks ago, and was pulled away from the computer by my kids. So rather than spend time searching for the post, I decided to post my original thoughts. I thought that if you were interested in the topic, it might be helpful to see what was said about the article when it was published.

And FTR, I still don't think $7/day per person is cheap. I have a family of 6, and so that would make it $42/day or $294/week. I realize that everyone has a different idea of frugality, depending on their own financial situation. While I'm glad you were excited and inspired by the article (truly!)- for some of us, it seemed excessive. Quite honestly, I don't consider myself to be a very frugal person, but I feel my family (mostly organic) for about a third of the suggested amount.

Where I live, and no, I don't have my own garden, there is no way I could do organic for $7 a day. Seriously, one bag of apples, organic, is $8! : I also cook from scratch, buy in bulk, freeze and the like, but $7 a day is impossible for us. My DH must eat meat so we get our meat from a fabulous butcher who carries only high quality, grain fed, non hormone meats. It is actually comparable in price to buying meat at the grocery store.

I think many variables come into play here, i.e. what region you live in, accessability to organic products, space/living conditions that may enable you to can/freeze/grow your own garden, and $$ (what it costs and what you have to spend).

For example, there is an organic farm about an hour away from us that has a market on Sunday mornings. But since it is so far away and Sunday's are set aside for religious reasons then that isn't an option for me. However, there are a few local organic stores as well as an organic section in my local supermarket. (but the price is steep).

I will mention, though, that since I've started some serious meal planning, doing the pantry challenge and learning how to cook and enjoy beans, eating organic has become more affordable.

sorry for the ramble... I admire/envy any family able to eat organic for those fantastic prices! I just haven't found it to be possible in my area.

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Do you work outside of your home full time?
I can't imagine having the time to do this. Though, I do consider a higher cost of eating as a cost of working outside the home when making the decision to do so.

Looking at that list of products from Whole Foods, I said to myself: WF has a lot higher prices around here!

I would expect that most of the people who are able to do it for less than $7 are not in big east-coast cities.

I think most of the cost of foods we buy here is transportation. Transportation into NYC is limited to a few bridges and tunnels, with very high tolls. It costs a lot more to truck something just from outside the city into the center of it, than it took to truck it all the way from the farm to that same point outside of the city.

For me, the main cost of eating organic is that they don't sell much organic stuff in my suburb, and when they do it is expensive and half rotting. So, we have to go into the center of the city to get it, which costs us about $10 for the both of us to go by bus each way, and we would have to go twice a week to get it all home. It also takes more than an hour each way, so we are looking at spending about 10 manhours total per week just to go to the city for organic versions of things. 10 manhours plus $20 in a week just to get there and back.