Come the Revolution

As crunchy, frugal, eco-conscious types, Cian and I ask a lot of our food budget. Although modest, it has to supply us with a good variety of nutritious food while supporting local, sustainable agriculture. If we wanted to, we could easily spend hundreds of dollars a month buying organic granola and all-natural spaghetti sauce. That isn’t practical for us, though, so we’ve had to give careful thought to the ways in which we prioritize our food dollars.

There are some things we try to always buy either organic or local:

Milk. Organic milk comes from cows that haven’t been dosed with antibiotics and growth hormones, and they’ve also been on a pesticide-free diet. We’re lucky to live in an area where local, raw milk is easy to come by and not any more expensive than supermarket organic milk. (An exception: Once a month I buy a gallon of rBST-free conventional milk for yogurt. Now that we have a good source of raw milk, that may change.)

Meat. Since Cian is still a vegetarian, this is a rarity in our house. Meat has a huge environmental impact, though, and buying meat from sustainably-raised animals helps to mitigate that impact. When I want a little bacon, I want to know that it came from happy pigs who haven’t been hopped up on antibiotics their whole lives. The best way to get that assurance is to shake your hog-farmer’s hand.

Produce. Environmental Working Group crunches the numbers on USDA data to produce the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which ranks fruits and veggies based on the number of pesticides they carry. We try to structure our meals around seasonal produce and use food storage to plan ahead, but sometimes a girl needs a big bowl of chili in the middle of winter. Local seasonal produce from the farmers’ market tends to be cheapest, but when there’s nary local sweet pepper in sight, we’ll buy organic from the supermarket. Out of season sweet corn, on the other hand, we’re much more likely to buy conventional and frozen — the price difference is astounding, and it’s low-priority on the Shopper’s Guide.

Eggs. Local eggs are fresher, more nutritious, and taste better. Plus, the conditions at conventional egg-production factories are horrifying.

Then there’s the stuff we buy from bulk bins, either at our co-op or at a local supermarket:

Beans. All kinds of beans are usually (but not always!) cheapest when bought dried and in bulk. Sometimes bags of dried beans will be cheaper on sale, but the quality can be hit-or-miss. The only advantage of canned beans is their convenience, and even the tiniest bit of planning can make dried beans just as manageable. Make sure to comparison-shop: organic black beans are much cheaper at one of our local supermarkets than at the co-op.

Grains. Rice, oats, quinoa — you may pay a little bit more for the stuff in the bulk bins, but the quality tends to be much higher than the packaged stuff. (An exception: We bought 60 pounds of enriched rice at the discount food store for under $10. My parents will use it for “slump,” the meat-dairy-grain mix they feed their five sled dogs.)

Tea. We were surprised to see how much cheaper it is to buy delicious loose-leaf tea from our co-op than to get the stuff that comes in bags. By buying in bulk, we save on packaging, get a better product, and save money all in one go.

Some things we only buy when they’re on sale:

Flour. When we’re on our game, we bake a lot of our bread ourselves. Between that and the cookies and pancakes that Cian spoils me with, we go through a lot of flour. We aim for high-quality stuff, unbleached and organic whenever possible. Stocking up during sales helps make that affordable.

Sugar. Have you seen the prices on raw sugar? Holy moly. Someday we’ll be able to afford that, but right now we stick to good old fashioned refined white sugar, which we buy when it’s on sale. We’re both cutting back on how much sugar we eat to reduce its impact on the environment and our dentist bills.

Ice cream. I really, really like ice cream. For a while I considered it a food group all its own. But good ice cream — the kind where you can read all the ingredients — doesn’t come cheap. We buy a couple of cartons when it goes on sale, and that usually gets me through (and when it doesn’t, there’s always Ben & Jerry’s up the street). Chocolate often falls into this category as well.

And some things, we’re pretty flexible about. These things we often get at the discount store, or wherever it’s cheapest.

Bread. If we’re not making it ourselves, we don’t worry too much about bread (with one exception: we try to get loaves without HFCS when we can). We’re also not too fussy about english muffins or bagels.

Condiments. Sometimes I like to splurge on a fancy bottle of barbecue sauce, but more often than not we just buy what’s cheapest (again, while trying to avoid the ubiquitous HFCS).

Breakfast cereal. Now that we’ve both got to be up and out the door so early, we go through a lot of cereal. Luckily the discount food store stocks a good selection of it, including organic varieties.

Granola bars. Someday we’ll have (or create) the time and energy to make these ourselves. In the meantime, we buy ‘em cheap and try not to think too hard about what’s in them.

Butter & cheese. Someday we’ll be able to afford organic cheddar — but we eat a lot of cheddar. In the meantime we buy the good stuff when there’s room in the budget, and the plain old store brand stuff when there isn’t.

How do you prioritize your food budget? Is there something we should emphasize that we don’t?

Photo: “Beans for Sale” by Magical-World on Flickr.