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Over the years I have occasionally worked with people that have told me they cannot afford to buy high quality, organic food, yet I have noticed that they are driving fancy cars, wearing designer clothing or they are telling me that they just bought a flat-screened TV and home audio system with surround sound for their vacation home. In these cases, clearly it is not about affordability, but about choice. How frequently does one see BMWs or Mercedes lined up at McDonalds? Perhaps in these cases I have not done an adequate job of explaining why, for example, grass-fed beef is so much healthier than grain-fed, and the real difference that food choice can make over time to pain levels, and disease processes. Perhaps I have not explained that one can't wash off all the pesticides, as the soil has been sprayed too, so the pesticides are taken up by the plant. Maybe with more education, these people will decide to afford healthy food.

That said, many of us live on a fixed income, and in these difficult economic times, trying to eat healthy and save money can be a challenge, as often the cheapest foods are the most processed ones, and therefore the least good for us. Seems strange to me that salted butter is cheaper than unsalted butter, and that powdered milk is cheaper than the liquid stuff that is fresh from the cow. Hopefully in time, as more and more people become aware that the quality of the food we eat has a direct impact on our health, and more of us demand whole food grown or raised without chemicals, the prices will come down. In the mean time, here are some tips that will hopefully prove helpful.

• Plan, plan, plan, plan. Plan meals based on what is in season, and create a shopping list from the menus. Buy only what you need based on your meal plan.  This reduces wasted food.
• Know what you are going to have for dinner tomorrow, so you can prepare as needed. (Soak legumes/grains etc.)
• Shop when you are full.  We tend to buy more when we are hungry.
• Cook big batches of food, and bring the left-overs for lunch the next day to save on meals out.
• Skip the prepared foods, pre-cut foods. Prepared food often costs twice as much as the raw, whole ingredients.
• Go to farmer's markets to buy LOCAL, in season produce. Even if the produce is not organic, freshly picked produce has far more nutrition than organic produce that has travelled for a few days, and sat on the grocery store shelf for a week. Also, many farmers do farm organically, but have decided not to pay for the expensive organic certification. So, we can get top quality food without the organic price tag. AND we get to know the farmer that is growing our food.
• Buy whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds in bulk from the bulk bins, when on sale.
• Choose GRASS-FED or FREE-RANGE animal products over organic, if you can't afford organic and grass-fed.
• If you must make a choice between organic produce and quality animal products like butter, free-range meat and poultry and eggs, choose the quality animal products, since animal foods concentrate the toxins. Conventional butter contains 20 times more pesticides than organic butter does. Buy what you can in bulk for extra savings, and freeze. Buy half a grass-fed cow, for example, or join a meat coop. Butter can be frozen, so buy lots when on sale.
• Buy whole free-range poultry with the skin on. Generally cheaper than buying skinless or cut up.
• Buy a Community Supported Agriculture share (CSA) – you pay a fee and get a weekly box of fresh, local produce during the growing season.
• Grow as much of your own food as possible, pesticide-free, of course! This reconnects us to the land, and is very useful for teaching kids where our food comes from. Nothing tastes better than a home-grown tomato! Even small window gardens can provide fresh herbs for cooking which can save us money.
• Waste nothing. Chicken carcasses and beef bones can be turned into stock, along with those left-over veggies, and the other vegetable scraps can be composted to help our gardens grow.
• Buy too much cream or milk and can't drink it before it goes bad? Ferment it – turn it into cultured cream (put a tablespoon or two of plain yogurt into a jar of cream, sit on counter for a day or two), kefir or yogurt which greatly enhances nutrition, and extends shelf life.
• Soak dried legumes like black beans, kidney beans, chick peas etc. – cheaper and healthier than buying canned. This does not much take time to do – just planning to start soaking early enough before you need to cook.
• Don't buy boxed breakfast cereals, crackers, rice cakes, unsprouted bread. Spend the money on rolled oats, steel cut oats, millet or other whole grains to make hot cereal if you like cereal in the morning.
• Don't buy juice, soda pop, sweet beverages. Drink filtered tap water instead.
• Don't buy potato chips, cheesies, cookies, puddings, fruity yogurts and other sweet, processed unhealthy snacks, even if the label does say organic. Save your money and your health.
• Eat smaller meals, making sure they include enough protein and quality fat to be filling. For many (except protein types who may need more) 3oz of meat per meal should be adequate. If you get hungry between meals, play with your food ratios.  Most people last longer between meals by cutting out the starch altogether. For example, most will be hungry sooner if they eat a piece of chicken, some broccoli, and some roast potatoes, than if they ate only the chicken and the broccoli.   You will have less need to snack, cutting down on costs.
• Plan your snacks, making sure they contain some protein. A hard-boiled egg and a tomato brought from home is cheaper than going out for a muffin, and you won't be hungry in an hour.
• At local harvest time, consider buying in bulk and preserving food through fermenting, drying, and freezing, to reduce higher shopping bills in the winter due to food being shipped from great distances. Fermenting adds nutrition, and drying preserves nutrition as long as the foods are not dried too hot.  Dried foods can be rehydrated if desired before consuming. And making your own beef jerky, salmon jerky etc. provides you with healthy protein snacks, and means you can control the ingredients, as the store-bought versions are not only expensive but full of chemicals.
• If you can't afford to buy all organic produce, choose based on pesticide use. Here is a list of the produce that is sprayed the most:
  • Peaches
  • Apples
  • Bell peppers
  • Celery
  • Nectarines
  • Strawberries
  • Cherries
  • Lettuce
  • Grapes
  • Pears

We pay for convenience, so to save money we need to put in the time to plan, locate, prepare our food. The other benefit, besides a more balanced lifestyle, is a greater appreciation and reverence for our food and where it comes from. And in the long run, the money spent on eating healthy will be more than saved in health bills later. Considering how much money many people spend on medical drugs and procedures, and how much quality of life is compromised from ill health, can one really afford NOT to spend the money on good quality food?

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Related tips:
The problem with organic food
Improving nutrition by staying out of the grocery store
Choose local and save the world!
Food, our raw material
Conventional vs organic vs pasture fed meat, poultry, eggs and dairy
Processed food is taking over our supermarkets

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