A few years ago we shifted from me as the primary shopper to sending my spouse (the less impulsive buyer) to the store each week. The monthly total came down by about 25%. And the quality of our dining did not change.

Regarding milk, we order delicious fresh-frozen, raw, grass-fed, sustainable organic milk products direct from Organic Pastures farm over 300 miles away from our suburban neighborhood for about half of what is charged at the store. (But, some of that savings must be used to pay the shipping by UPS.)

The nutrition has to be better when the cows are milked out in the field on a mobile semi-truck milking parlor where the milk is immediately deep chilled. After milking it is tested, bottled, frozen & shipped to my home with far less delay and handling. On top of all of those benefits, I am less hungry for foods that are lower in nutrition density, saving money by not eating as many snacks. How can I go wrong?

By the way, I looked into some reviews for the book you mentioned and found the review by Eric A. Woods to be very insightful and even fun to read (on Amazon). In fact, I saved money by reading the review and satisfying my interest in the topic without having to buy the book! (Could be there is a money saving tip to be found in learning from online reviews before choosing to spend on items?)

In any case, this tip has really got me thinking about how we go about our shopping. Thanks.

My wife and I have bought mostly organic for years, and went to raw milk and pastured eggs after reading that same book. We’ve done this for years now. Our food budget always seemed a bit high to me. I am the son of a Depression era mother who always ate the remains we left on our plates. But when the price of gas went up in the waning days of the Bush administration, and the price of food jumped accordingly, I decided to take a closer look at what we were buying. It must be the organic food, I thought. It is so much more expensive than industrial food. But just to make sure, I did a survey of all my family and friends across the country, focusing on the statistical Family-of-Four. The single survey question was:

“How much, on average, do you spend on groceries in one month?”

It took months to do this survey because many people weren’t keeping track (I will pass you their contact info for YNAB bulk mailing campaigns). None of the people I contacted bought organic food. Many of them went to Costco for groceries. I expected to hear that they spent a few hundred dollars a month less than us, which I would then take to my wife and say, “Aha!”

It didn’t happen that way. When the results all came in, I discovered that only one other family out of the twenty I contacted spent less per month than we did.

How could that be? Further research showed that the difference wasn’t organic versus industrial food. It was ready-to-eat, processed (expensive) food versus prepared-at-home, raw (cheap) food. We are apparently one of a dying breed, people who still prepared the majority of the food they eat in their own kitchen from scratch. In fact, the one family who spent less than us was the only other family who made their own food to the extent we did, but they did NOT buy organic. They were also serious coupon clippers and they share meals with other families on their block.

So, the lesson for me was, I could save money if I didn’t buy organic. But I’m not about to do so. Local, organic, seasonal food is healthier, “greener”, and just tastes a whole lot better. To me that is worth spending money on. Not everyone has the time and money to switch to organic, though most could take steps in that direction without impacting their budget – start a garden, join a CSA, make your own meals, don’t eat so much high fructose corn syrup, etc.

James Mills

We order our produce through an organic delivery service, http://www.greenling.com. This keeps us out of the store and we can more thoughtfully prepare a list of the produce we need each week. And it’s clean, healthier, higher nutrition produce which cuts down on health costs long term. I’m vegetarian so this covers the bulk of our food needs. We save on gas with not having to make trips to the store. For the items we do need from the store, we can buy in large quantities as Jesse suggests…

I do all my shopping at “wally-world”, Walmart and chose their generics at every opportunity.

Since my wife followed the low Cholesterol restricting diet list regular milk was not allowed. She did not like the taste of skimmed milk (too water down). She has been using creamer since then. We don’t drink milk (that’s for un-weaned babies – we are the only mammals who continue to drink milk after being weaned) except for with cereal. I have gotten used to the taste now. It does not have to be frozen.

I found that I was spending a lot of money on those big trips and after blowing through my produce in the first week and a half (I’m single so had to make sure to eat it before it went bad), I didn’t have as many good food options at home. So not only was I not eating as well as I would have liked, I was spending a lot of money.

Now I suck it up and go to the store about every two weeks. This enables me to eat more fresh products because I go more often. And even better it lets me only buy what I need when it is on sale. When my cereal goes on sale I stock up with several boxes. That way if it’s not on sale the next time I go I don’t have to buy it because it’s my one trip for 4-5 weeks. So even though I’ve doubled the number of times I go to the store, I’m more focused on only buying what I need and have the flexibility to get the staples when they are on sale. By doing this I’ve brought my monthly grocery bill down by at least a couple hundred dollars.

I agree not making the extra trips does save money. Now if I didn’t have to go back every week for deli lunch meat to pack for my kids’ lunches!