Frugal Friday: Balancing frugality, health, and nutrition
I'm not sure if you've ever written about this topic but, if not, I'm interested in hearing how you stay on budget while feeding your family as much organic/natural food as possible. I am really trying to move into the direction of organic foods and finding coupons for those can be a challenge. -JohannaGreat question, Johanna! We all want to save money, but I think most of us also care about the health of our families, too. You do often "get what you pay for" as much of the food that is cheap is just that - cheap. It's food laden with artificial who-knows-what and chemicals galore.
How do we seek to strike a balance between saving money on groceries while at the same time buying healthful foods? Well, our family doesn't do it perfectly by any means and it's something we're constantly working towards improving at, but here are a few things which have worked for us so far:
1) Plan a menu and a grocery list and stick with it. Seriously. If you just do this one thing, you'll cut back on many needless trips to the store, trips through the fast food lane, extra time, extra stress, and extra headache. Just do it. (For more helpful ideas in this regard, download a copy of my podcast.)
2) Plan your menu based upon what nutritious foods are on sale. Again, it's really simple to pull out the store flier and consult it when doing your menu-planning (look online for it if you don't get it delivered in the newspaper).
3) Look for mark-downs and re-vamp your menu at the store to accommodate any great finds. If your store reduces produce and other healthful items on certain days or at certain times, learn to shop then. Get savvy at thinking up menu revisions and alterations on-the-spot based upon what great reduced items you find. Remember, though, that no matter how great the sale, if you're not going to use it before it goes bad, don't buy it.
4) Cook from scratch. Eliminate as many processed foods from your diet as you can and you'll not only save a lot of money, you'll also eat much healthier. Baby-step your way away from reliance on processed foods. Start reading labels, start experimenting, have fun with it!
Think about what processed foods you consume a lot of and start coming up with ways to make them from scratch. Instead of pop tarts, make up a big batch of homemade waffles and stick them in your freezer. Instead of potato chips, make up homemade crackers. And on and on.
Start looking for inexpensive alternatives for processed foods you normally eat and then slowly begin incorporating it into your diet. I cook in big batches and freeze things whenever possible as this is a lot more efficient and it's really nice to know my freezer is stocked with healthful "convenience" foods!
5) Keep it simple and stick with low-cost wholesome ingredients. Lower your food costs by sticking with recipes that have fewer, inexpensive ingredients. A lot of our meals contain staple ingredients like dry beans, barley, and brown rice. It's amazing what you can do with beans and rice and vegetables. I'm not kidding. My husband says I really should write a cookbook on 101 ways to serve beans and rice since I've gotten so good at creatively sticking them in so many meals.
6) Cut back on meat and dairy. I know some people really have an issue with this so I won't say much beyond the fact that if you do a little research, you'll come up with plenty of more nutritional and cost-effective ways to get adequate protein and calcium without consuming large amounts of meat and dairy. (See my article on "How to keep meat from breaking your budget.")
7) Scrimp where you can so you can splurge on what's important. We don't eat all organic at this point, but we have opted to buy only hormone-free meat, milk, and eggs. I'm hoping to incorporate more and more organic into our diet in the future, but at this point, we've decided that avoiding hormones in meat, and buying hormone-free organic milk and farm-fresh free-range organic eggs from a local dairy are our priorities for spending extra on. Since we've cut back on our consumption of these items and have lowered our food and household product costs through ways mentioned above and through couponing and shopping at CVS, it has given us wiggle room to afford to "splurge" in areas where we especially want to buy high quality.
8) Think outside the box. Plant a garden, barter with friends, join a co-op, buy in bulk, check out farmer's markets and CSAs... start looking for creative sources for inexpensive high quality ingredients and you just never know what you might stumble upon. Any time I find someone who is also interested in healthful eating in our area, I try to always pick their brain on what their food sources are.
9) Always be looking for ways to improve. We aren't where we hope to be in regards to healthful eating, but we've come a long way. I'm constantly trying to study and learn more, try new things, find less expensive sources for high quality foods, and learn to make more wholesome recipes in order to depend on fewer processed ingredients. One of our goals for this year is to grow more of our own foods and to buy more produce locally.
10) Do your best and trust God with the rest! I think this is the most important point to be stressed. No matter how well we do, we can always find someone who is doing it "better." Instead of comparing ourselves to someone else or allowing other people to dictate what we do or don't do, we need to seek the Lord for our own family. We should strive to do the best we can with the time, resources, and ability we have, but then we need to trust the Lord with the rest.
What I've shared above are just some ideas of things which have worked for us. Maybe they will be helpful for you, maybe they won't. I encourage you to seek the Lord and your husband for direction.
11) And finally, enjoy the process! I have to end with this because I think it is vitally important to remember. Have fun being creative and frugal in feeding your family a wholesome diet; don't stress over it. Do it for the glory of God and find joy in serving your family by the meals you plan, shop for, cook, and serve!
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31Related Posts: Saving Money on Produce, Balancing Healthy Eating and Frugality, Baby-stepping Our Way to Better Nutrition
Helpful Websites: Organic Grocery Deals, Mambo Sprouts (Free printable coupons for healthy, natural, and organic items.)
Recommended Reading: The Busy Mom's Guide to Simple Living
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Join in Frugal Friday! Have a frugal tip or idea to share with the blogosphere? Post about it on your blog and then come back here and leave your link below. Remember to keep it family-friendly and to link directly to your post, not your blog home page. Have fun!
Labels: Budgeting and Finances, Frugal Friday, Health and Nutrition
posted by Crystal Paine at 5:00 PM
29 Comments:
I love your post! We are hoping to have a garden this spring and summer. Thanks for these great ideas!
Blessings,
Vickie@PursuingSimplicity
Hi Crystal, It's funny, but I'd been planning for a few weeks now to blog about how our family eats healthy on a budget... and, low and behold, when I came to link my post to your Frugal Friday, the topic was about just that! I enjoyed your post, by the way... it's always good to compare notes with other frugal moms. I look forward to hearing what other moms may have to say, as well! ~Kristy
Hi Crystal,
Wonderful ideas! This is something our family is working very hard on at the moment also.
I would like to add what is to me the most important aspect of the 'eating healthy and organic' thing - more important even than my babies' health! My husband and I began this after really being convicted that modern mass farming methods and the terrible things they do to the land and to animals are really going again the Dominion mandate God gave us in Genesis.
We have a responsibility to be wise stewards of the bountiful resources God has given us and supporting battery farming and polluting chemicals is the antithesis of that. Organic eating and support for small-scale farming has been co-opted to a certain extent in people's minds - it's associated with liberal hippies and not with God-fearing Christians. This is to our shame! We really need to take a good look at what our money supports and ask ourselves, is this what God has charged us with? Are we exercising our Dominion wisely?
Thanks so much for drawing attention to this - your post was great, I just wanted to highlight how BIBLICAL this really is!
We are gardening right now! It is very strange to be harvesting and planting in the winter! But it has been such a blessing.
We use grain co-ops, costco, our garden and food co-ops to eat about 80% chemically free or organic. It's taken us about a decade to get to this point and I'm so glad we are here!
We started with dairy because we didn't want the girls having all those hormones and slowly built in grains.My bread has come a long way in 10 years!~ Julie
We are gardening right now!It's strange to be harvesting and replanting in the winter. But it has been such a blessing...
We use grain co-ops, costco, our garden,vitacost and food co-ops. We started very slow over a decade ago. We changed out dairy because of the hormones etc., then grain and slowly built in the rest.We are now about 85% organic or chemical free! It's a bit tougher on the budget, but doable. I make A LOT from scratch. My children appreciate the food more when they've been to visit others and eaten a lot of packaged food etc. They can't wait for Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies!~Julie
Great post, as usual!
I forgot to tag my article, though! It should read "Using less" next to my name (story). Thanks for hosting!
Thank you Crystal for your usual good tips!
I just wanted to add that before I go grocery shopping, I try to remember to pray before I go...asking God to stretch the dollar and make it work for us. I believe that he hears those prayers and blesses us! We always have enough money to make it work :)
Crystal, this only a test...
We moved up here to Washington DC last year and food is outrageous (store brand gallon of milk is $4.09, cheapest eggs in the store are $2!). I had to learn some new tricks b/c I just couldn't afford organic on top of the normal food. So I learned - look in unusual places! Turns out that Whole Foods (no kidding) has their own line of food that is not organic, but is hormone free, and is CHEAPER than a lot of the STORE BRAND food at the grocery store, much less the organic food at the grocery store. So I go to Whole Foods for milk, eggs, meat and cheese and buy their brand (called 365). It's helped me stay on budget and get almost-organic. That said, if you walk in that store you have to STAY AWAY from the other tempting more expensive stuff!
We do our shopping on Saturday most of the time, so it is so nice to see all the great ideas for saving money at the store! Thanks ladies!
~Michelle
www.prek8tutor.com
Cooking from scratch and menu planning have got to be two of the best courses for saving money, time and headaches! A well-stocked pantry/freezer/fridge is right up there, too. This is especially fun when nothing good is on sale, and all you have to do is reach into your freezer for the roast that cost you half price.
Keep the great ideas coming, Crystal! It's nice to be inspired!
Thanks for the tips! I am striving to be more frugal. Menu planning has been such a money saver for us!
Crystal,
A few questions. My husband has a hard time with a decrease or elimination in meats? I am trying to be submissive, but wondering how to handle that one.
Also, it is one thing to do organic foods but I am now looking at cleaning products. What do you do about natural cleaning products? I have a friend who is a Shaklee rep but doesn't make any money off of it, because she sells it at her cost. Do you have any opinions on that one?
Thanks
Beth in GA
Hi Crystal! Thank you so much for hosting this great idea and for sharing these wonderful shopping tips! We are moving to a more healthful eating style so I will surely keep these suggestions in mind.
I have beem blessed by visiting your site before, but this is the first time I have participated in Frugal Friday. It's lots of fun, and I'll do it again!
Blessings to you & yours,
Heather
Crystal, Sorry about the muliply comments. I'm still great with computers!
Southern Belle: As I always say, cook to please your husband first. He's the number one priority when menu-planning.
If your husband is adventurous, like mine is, ask him about trying one meatless or half-meat meal a week and see if he likes it.
I always ask my husband, "Honey, I'm thinking about trying out _____ because it would save us $x.xx or it would be healthier for us (etc.), what would you think about us trying it once to see what we thought?"
If he says no, then I just skip that idea. If he says, "go for it" (which he often does because he's learned that he can trust me to not try really bizarre idea most of the time!), then we try it and see what we think.
Sometimes we decide we like it, sometimes we don't. It's not about pushing him into my mold or "changing him," we look at it as something we are learning, growing, and experimenting in together. It's a fun adventure that we're slowly journeying on together.
There's so much more I could say on this subject, but my computer time is up...
Oh and we use Basic H from Shaklee for the majority of our cleaning aside from dish detergent and laundry detergent.
This was such perfect timing since I have been planning on gardening for weeks too!
I'm on a health kick too!
Well...I didn't expect to see my question in your blog today! :) Thanks for such a detailed answer; lots of good ideas!
Oh and we use Basic H from Shaklee for the majority of our cleaning aside from dish detergent and laundry detergent.
Crystal,
Thanks for your quick answer. On the Shaklee, are you a rep or do you get it from someone? Is all you use is the Basic H?
thanks for the input
Beth
I am so glad you had this topic today! I recently read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and "Fast Food Nation" and wow, have those books opened my eyes. Our family is currently "baby-stepping" as well toward eating well and staying within our budget. It's fun to hear that others are going through the same process and get tips from them. I also agree that the 365 brand at Whole Foods is a great option and so are Farmer's Markets.
I enjoyed the post and agree in many ways :) I do think meat and milk can be very healthy--even necessary--additions to the diet, but I agree that it should be in moderation! Many people think of the food pyramid, for instance, but what they don't realize is how small a serving really is. I can stretch a pound of beef because a serving of meat is about 3 oz per person. A glass of milk is 6 oz, not 8.
Meat and milk are top priority for us as well, and after that I use guidelines to prioritize. We buy almost all of our produce organic, but we get it from cheaper sources than your average Whole Foods. if I'm not able to, then it depends on the veggie or fruit what I buy organic and what I don't. If I can't buy organic, I try to buy local. If I can't, then I try to do without. I buy organic grains too, but if not organic, then natural and whole.
I also echo Claire who talks about being a wise steward with the earth. We are to be wise with ALL God has given us...it is a wise way to use the gift of finances, in my opinion, to support organic and local practices (as well as ethical animal treatment) because it is a wise stewardship of creation. I like to "vote with my dollars", so to speak. :) Instead of giving money to corporations who stuff chickens into tiny cages or who employ slave labor or unfair laboring practices or harms the environment or would be harmful to my family, I prefer to give my money to families and companies that don't do those things. I feel I am able to keep my financial stewardship "untainted" in that way. :)
Joining the party on how to eat organically on a budget! It is fun to see so many others pursuing this lifestyle and giving suggestions for how to do it. God bless!
I love frugal ideas!!
I love Frugal Friday! I get so many great tips and ideas.
What a great Frugal Friday post! We are hoping to have our first "real" (other than a couple of tomatoes in a pot) garden this year. I'm really looking forward to it.
It's my first FF post- so I need help!!! How do I add the in "()" part? Mine should be: Karen(Free Heat/Free Firewood) ...Sigh, my very FF post, can't believe I finally joined in after lurking for over a year :). Love your blogs! ~K~
Thanks for your post health and frugality. I enjoy your insights into planning meals.
I've just linked to you as a blogger of integrity award. The idea is that each person who receives this "award" passes it onto five others. I don't know if you'd like to participate in this, but I thought of it as a good way to pass on some encouragement! Thanks for sharing your life honestly and blessing so many in the process!
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