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how to prioritize organic food purchases

august8080august8080 member
in Austin Babies

I have been KILLING our grocery budget buying organic food. We just can't afford to continue buying that much of our food organically right now, as much as we'd like to Sad

So if you had to prioritize, what groups would you buy organically? The dirty dozen? Dairy? Meat? I just can't do it all....

ETA: Thanks for the suggestions so far! Keep 'em coming. I should add that we're in GT and it's not feasible for me to go anywhere but HEB (or someplace else great that you know of up here???) regularly. I go to Costco periodically, but not enough to keep fresh things in stock, just frozen (like chicken breasts, ground beef). 

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Re: how to prioritize organic food purchases

  • SinafeySinafey member
    The dirty dozen + dairy.  If you can do a bit more, get cheaper cuts of higher quality meat or buy stuff like whole chickens and portion it out yourself.
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  • misjennmisjenn member

    imageSinafey:
    The dirty dozen + dairy.  If you can do a bit more, get cheaper cuts of higher quality meat or buy stuff like whole chickens and portion it out yourself.

    Yup. I generally do dirty dozen, meat and dairy. I also try to use this list: https://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214

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  • misjennmisjenn member

    imageSinafey:
    The dirty dozen + dairy.  If you can do a bit more, get cheaper cuts of higher quality meat or buy stuff like whole chickens and portion it out yourself.

    Yup. I generally do dirty dozen, meat and dairy. I also try to use this list: https://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214

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  • MrsMillerTimeMrsMillerTime

    imageSinafey:
    The dirty dozen + dairy.  If you can do a bit more, get cheaper cuts of higher quality meat or buy stuff like whole chickens and portion it out yourself.

    Ditto.  Anything that DD will eat, we try and buy organic.  I'm not as worried about the one-off stuff DH & I eat. 

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  • fjarilfjaril

    I'd start by going to the farmers market and checking out prices there for the produce and fruit. Otherwise I stick the the dirty 12. I always get milk and if I can find cheese (luckily I have trader joes and I can get organic cheese sticks cheap) and free range orgo eggs. (knowing what convential egg/chicken places do to those poor creatures i can't not buy it that way).

    I go to costco for ground beef and chicken breast/thighs and whole chickens. Costco often has other organic stuff for good prices and in bulk you get more bang for your buck.

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  • carlinlpcarlinlp member
    We are strictly organic and I've had to get pretty creative to make that happen. We are meat free 1-2 nights a week to save $. We are also dairy free so purchases for milk, cheese, etc don't add up. Coco it milk is less than $3 a box and one box lasts all 5 of us a week. I recently cut that out though too and am making my own coconut milk.  We cut out all processed foods. They are bad for us and expensive. This gives me a lot more money for fresh, organic produce and high grade meat, eggs and fish. I save a lot by going to natural grocers and the farmers market rather than whole foods. I also hit local farms for meat every so often and really save a lot. Being almost grain free saves us a lot of money too. Eating organically, isn't all that much more if you cut out the processed stuff, breads, mixes etc. Also consider cutting back on soaps for cleaning. You can make your own in bulk and use the money saved for food. It's super easy and you can find recipes on pinterest easily. I use a lot of vinegar, tea tree oil, lemon, etc for cleaning. You can make your own dishwasher and laundry soap too, big money saver!


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  • libbyannlibbyann member

    Ditto a lot of what carlinlp said. We are not strictly organic by any stretch of the imagination, but I've saved TONS of money in the past year by cutting out processed foods. I have a couple convenience foods that I still buy for Will that are processed, and I make sure they're organic. But everything else is made from scratch or some type of whole food. I rarely go into the interior aisles of HEB, except for spices, oils, etc.

    To answer your original question, I make sure to buy organic for all of our meats and dairy. If I have money left, I buy organic produce as well, starting with the dirty dozen.

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