it's not just Rae either. I catch both Trin and I eating veggie straws in passing when entering the kitchen. and I'm wondering if some of our not so good habits are the reason why Rae is all of a sudden picky about her broccoli on her damn dinner plate.
Zane is a champion when it comes to eating vegetables and fruit, but it always wasn't this easy. a couple of years of coaxing the kid to eat beans and onions with certain meals has turned into a very easy mealtime. hell, the kid can hold his own eating sushi or any other type of food for that matter.
but I'm worried about Rae and I don't want the battle that we once had with Zane. so to prevent that I'm going to have to change the way our family eats, again.
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so, I'm like a cobra and I'm going to attack first.
I made our grocery list and I'm going to give the down and dirty details of what my three different grocery store stops and 14 different meals will run my family (spoiler alert: it's fucking expensive).
I am not the end all be all of organic and healthy shopping, I'm aware I could save some money by buying only in season produce (but I want it noooow) and buying even less convenience products (like making homemade granola and cereal), but we are a work in progress, it's all trial and error in my opinion.
first things first are my green bean bin. I recently picked up my subscription to have a biweekly fruit and vegetable bin delivered straight to my door. they deliver in a few cities across the Midwest, if you are interested click here.
Vegetables and fruit:
so, for about $53 I am getting a majority of our produce and getting it organic. plus, I don't have to sit and guess if it's fresh or ripe or whatever (they do that for you). I am also throwing in some coffee and eggs because I've heard rave reviews about these local eggs.
so, here is my bin:
I'm also getting some things at my local store (bananas, onions, more potatoes) because honestly Walmart is cheaper and they now have organic produce.
I'm meal planning mostly around my bin. so some of my 14 meals have some of their ingredients from the bin. makes it easy peasy for this mama.
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| green bean bin |
Milk:
my next step is my Giant Eagle trip, which is the only place I can get Hartzler Family Dairy (other than green bean, but they charge fifty cents more). now, each bottle is $4.09 per half gallon plus a $1.50 bottle deposit which I get back once I return the bottles. this is by far my 2nd largest expense next to meat. with our family spending on average $41 for farm fresh milk every two weeks.
if you have access to low-temp pasteurized, non-homogenized milk i would honestly opt into buying that over regular organic store milk. the taste is phenomenal in comparison, and i whole heartily believe that a lot of the good ol' enzymes are killed when the milk is taken through such a lengthy process. i believe the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to non-homogenized milk. i'll be okay with stirring or shaking out the lumps for some vitamin-ey goodness.
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| milk bottle army |
Meat:
meat is by far my biggest expense, and my duty is to keep this cost to a minimum. this means we use cheap cuts (oxtail, bones, and clearance meat). we freeze whatever we can when we find anything on discount, we usually try to go for the organic or more natural brands if it is more in our budget.
my biggest bit of advice: buy clearance meat and freeze it. I save about $30-40 every two weeks by doing this. the best time to go grocery shopping is early on a weekday to get the best meat deals (this makes me fee so old).
trin used to work for Giant Eagle in the meat department, so we have learned a few tricks. first, don't buy it if it looks bad. second, the sell-by date means the meat has been on the floor for 24 hours, so don't look at the "use-by" date, focus on how it looks and the "sell-by" date. it's usually in military time.
Breakfast:
cereal, coffee and other breakfast stuff is another big budget buster, so we buy cereal on sale. every other week Kroger or Giant Eagle run an organic cereal sale and we stock up with about 6 boxes for 2 weeks. we also buy waffles in bulk. the simple truth multi-grain waffles at Kroger seem to hold our breakfast budget in check, I just have to buy enough jam and peanut butter to make sure my two hungry men don't eat me out of house and home.
coffee is another point where I see my dollars flying out the window, I just have to decide if I'm going to buy the giant bags in bulk or increase my biweekly Starbucks budget. I usually end up doing both, sadly. we are a highly caffeinated household.
Dinner:
meal plan. meal plan. meal plan. you have to when shopping for a family. i miss the days of smearing goat cheese on bread and calling that dinner. but i cannot do that anymore. i have to cook and plan out what i am going to cook. i do this by checking out weekly fliers and planning meals around meat i may have stowed away in my freezer or by what is coming in my green bean bin.
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| fresh milk in an angry golfer glass. |
also, be realistic. you probably aren't going to roast a chicken on a work night, and i always budget for 2 nights as "fend for yourself" or pizza nights.
Snacks:
we don't keep things like chips usually in the house. i usually have a fresh bowl of fruit sitting on the bar which is great when someone complains they are hungry. in my fridge i stock up on things like yogurt and place them in organization bins. the bins are fantastic for things like food pouches and yogurt because you can easily see what each one contains.
i have found the only way to get my boys to eat healthy is to have this stuff readily available to grab and eat. Zane is not going to shuffle yogurt around to find the right flavor, he would skip it and make a sandwich instead.
we also buy nuts and granola in bulk, but i still have to ration the boys out on items like this. trin will seriously eat a bowl of granola like he would a giant bowl of cereal, and forget the $5 price tag (sigh).
Zane also usually packs lunch out of our food budget. he takes a sandwich, cheese stick, fruit and some nuts. trin realized we were spending $8 a month on plastic bags, so we have invested in some tupperware for zane to be able to tote his lunch to school without putting a strain on the environment or our pocketbook.
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at the end of the day i have bought enough meat and groceries to last for two weeks (aside from my weekly banana and fruit pickup, buying more milk and more yogurt).
here is the breakdown of the budget:
- Green Bean Bin -
- $52.60
- Kroger-
- $62.40
- Giant Eagle-
- $133.11
- Walmart-
- $73.17
- Off week shopping-
- $40ish
Total: $361.28
this does not include household items and dog care things we have to buy on a regular basis. this is just organic food. and one can see how expensive eating well can be averaging about $180 per person per month.
it is a luxury to be able to eat this well, but i am sure our eating habits are what keep our medical bills and health in good condition.
aaaand i have oxtail in my freezer and i am pretty damn excited about it
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