I buy organic as much as possible. It's important to me. But in today's economy it can be hard. The posts below lay out some different ways you can narrow the price gap between conventional and organic products.
- Make Your Own - It's easy to say don't buy packaged foods, it's harder to make quick easy meals without that convenience. This post includes some make your own ideas, like frozen veggies, and make your own recipes for things like ketchup, bisquick and rice mixes.
- Choose Wisely - When you can't buy EVERYTHING organic, know what things are the most important to go organic with.
- Coupons - My secret weapon! Organic food coupons are hard to come by. In this post I've shared my tips, secrets and links to prinatables.
- Cut out the Middle Man - Multiple ways to get around paying grocery store mark up.
- Buy in Bulk - A no brainer, but many of us need the reminder not to pay for box and fancy advertising.
- Grow it - Whether it's herbs in the kitchen, and urban patio garden or a giant vegetable garden, every little bit helps.
- One more addition to the list, sans post, is to shop store brand organics. Albertson's, SafeWay, Smith's/Kroger's and Wal-Mart all have organic store brands. Out West the regional food supplier Western Family has an organic line called Natural Directions. And of course Wholefoods has their wonderful 365 brand. These store brands are almost always a significant savings over other organics and often quite competitive with conventional products.
And here are a few great posts from other websites that toss in a some ideas I didn't cover.
3 Quick Tips for Green Grocery Shopping from Make Green Come True - It's really 5 tips, but they're all good. Especially the point about buying less meat. Go vegetarian for just one extra meal a week and you're saving bucks.
Kicking the Overly Packaged Snack Food Habit from EnviroMom -Snack foods and crackers are the hardest for most people. Lots of good ideas in the comments, too.
Another Organic on a Budget Article from Sage Mommy - We cover a couple of the same points, but surprisingly, our tips are mostly different. Definitely worth a look for a few more ideas.
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