Tuesday, June 9, 2009

4 places NOT to cut the grocery budget

As many folks probably are, our family is working to cut back on our expenses.

Right now, we're trying to cut our weekly grocery budget from around $90 to around $50. By meal planning, using coupons and cutting out impulse purchases I think this should be doable.

Even with our need to cut expenses and our desire to live frugally, there are a few areas of our food spending where I won't be cutting back:

Organic dairy products
For my 2 year old, I buy organic milk, organic yogurt and (when possible) organic cheese. She has dairy in one form or another with nearly every meal. I'm not comfortable with giving her items containing BGH and other hormones so I don't mind spending $5.69 for a gallon of milk. If organic items are not available, I seek out conventional dairy items that are produced without BGH.

Organic bananas
My daughter LOVES bananas. She'd have a banana with every meal if we let her. I know that bananas aren't one of the most at-risk produce items, but I've started buying organic bananas just because she eats so many of them.

Organic meat
We don't eat much meat at our house. When we do give my daughter meat, we prefer it to be of the highest quality we can get. So I get the organic or free-range/hormone free beef and chicken. Since we have this so rarely, it isn't a budget-buster for us.

Local produce
When possible, we shop at the local Farmer's Market. Some items are cheaper than the grocery store and others are more expensive. I'd rather support our local farmers and it just makes more sense to me to buy something grown right here than something that was shipped overseas or across the country.

Are there areas where you don't go for the least expensive choice?
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