How to Eat Organic for $5 a Day

With a little careful planning and creativity, it is possible to eat organic food daily and stick to your grocery budget. Make these tips part of your regular food shopping routine, and you will be able to eat organic food for around $5 a day.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. STAPLES: Shop at Costco for cheap prices on bulk staple items. Costco carries many organic and all natural products. Purchase things you will use daily for the "core" of your recipes, such as rice, breads, oatmeal and nuts in bulk.

2. PRODUCE: Build on your staples with fresh fruits and vegetables. Shop for organic veggies and fruits that are in season as they will cost less. Buy fruits and vegetables that are on sale (yes, even Whole Foods has sales!), and chop and freeze for later use (frozen sliced bananas work great for breakfast smoothies, and frozen diced onions and celery are great for soups and sauces).

3. FROZEN FOOD: Don't be afraid to buy frozen fruit and berries when berries are not in season and cost more. Organic frozen fruit is very inexpensive, and can contain even more vitamins than fresh fruit that sits in your fridge for too long since the fruit is frozen at the peak of its freshness.

4. PROTEIN: Use a variety of protein sources to incorporate into your daily recipes. Meat does not need to be present at every meal, and is one of the costliest things to purchase organic. Great recipes are available for lentil soups and "meat" loafs, and lentils are very inexpensive. Nuts and cheese are other good sources of protein. When you do buy meat, buy it on sale and freeze individual servings in plastic wrap to use down the road.

5. BEVERAGES: Organic milk is expensive, so supplement with other sources of calcium from less expensive items, such as yogurt or green veggies. Buy organic frozen juices for less cost than the fresh, or if you have your own juicer, consider purchasing fruits and vegetables to make your own juice for a fraction of the cost.

6. MEALTIME: You now have inexpensive ingredients to make some great dishes. Consider one dish meals, an inexpensive option to make the most of your ingredients. Soups are cheap and make great leftovers. Stir fry dishes with brown rice, veggies, and pork makes a great all-in-one dish for a very small cost. Whole wheat spaghetti tossed with fresh asparagus, mushrooms, and tomatoes and sprinkled with walnuts is another fairly inexpensive meal. The list is endless!

Tips & Warnings

• Shop at a variety of grocery stores to make the most of your grocery budget. It is more time consuming, but you'll find that some stores have great prices for organic milk and butter, while other stores have better deals on organic produce and meat.
• Shop locally. Farmers Markets often have lower prices on produce. Trader Joe's is a great grocery store which tends to purchase from local farmers and carries organic staples, such as chicken broth, pastas, juices and butter at a lower cost than other grocery stores' non-organic food.
• Don't be wasteful--be creative! Throw some overly ripe fruit into a blender with some kefir for a great breakfast smoothie. Saute overly ripe veggies in olive oil, and add to a pot of boiling water to make your own vegetable stock.

[niccolostubbs]

on 8/10/2009 Very helpful! I had no idea you could eat organic so cheaply!