My Wholefood Romance - Meg
How many mouths do you feed in your house? 2 adults, 1 child
What percentage of the food you buy is organic?
About 80%. There are some veg and fruit that are more important to eat organically than others. Check out the Environmental Working Group's list on the Clean 15 and the Dirty Dozen!
What would be your average weekly spend on food?
$100-$120
What are your top 3 tips on saving money on food?
Buy in bulk, or from bulk containers and only buy as much as you need at a time. I like to do this with oat and nuts/seeds as you know they are super fresh when you get them.
Buy in season - it has higher nutritional value and is cheaper!
Shop from farmers markets, or get a weekly organic box delivered- I find this works out much less for us.
Cheeky number 4: Grow your own as much as possible! Even if this is only your herbs, that still saves $3-4 on a bunch of herbs at the shops.
To those who say eating wholefood is expensive what would you say?
I think often it's the packaged items that cost the most. Grains, vegetables, legumes, fruit, seeds and nuts are not expensive, but they do require you to put in more effort to prepare them! :) It's true we don't eat much meat in our house, and meat can be expensive. However you can chat to your butcher about less expensive cuts and cook them in more traditional ways such as in broths, casseroles, slow cooks etc.
I find leftovers a big money saver in our house. We don't buy lunch (unless it's a special occasion - everyone loves a lunch order!), and take leftovers from the night before or from a big lot of something that I have made. Soups and stews work particularly well, and freeze well also.
Stocking up on foods when they are in season and cheaper is great also. Berries work very well this way, and I also have a constant frozen banana supply.
THANKYOU Meg for sharing your great suggestions. I am looking forward to meeting Meg in real life at Jude Blereau's book launch later this month. xx
How is your wholefood budget coming along? Anything else to add? Love to read your comments.
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THANKYOU Meg for sharing your great suggestions. I am looking forward to meeting Meg in real life at Jude Blereau's book launch later this month. xx
How is your wholefood budget coming along? Anything else to add? Love to read your comments.
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Oh and the greatness continues, so wonderful. Oh Nikki I am very envious of you going to Jude's book launch, my friend Jen went last weekend, it should be wonderful, i mean what more can you want; the warmth, loveliness and wisdom of Jude amongst so much deliciousness, lovely folk, a day out and a new book!!! wowsers. xxxx
ReplyDeleteYes going to Jude's launch does tick all those boxes. Haven't worked out a babysitter yet for my cherubs but oh that's a small detail :) I look forward to sharing lots of delicious moments and photos of the day with you here. If I could I'd whisk you down to Melbourne for the day! Xxx
DeleteI love this blog and being new to organic and whole food cooking, I have a couple of questions:
ReplyDelete1) Does wholefoods mean making everything from scratch i.e. soy sauce, vanilla extract, coconut milk etc?
2) In transitioning to organic foods I'm pretty overwhelmed with how expensive it is. Is it preferable to buy all products organic (not just fruit and veg)? ie flours, sugars, grains, milk, butter etc or can you 'shortcut' on the secondary type items?
Many thanks
Thanks Charmaine for your lovely comment, very happy you like it here! now let's see if I/we can answer your questions (readers please feel free to add to my answers) 1) - me oh my the thought of making soy sauce and vanilla extract from scratch is overwhelming to me. I wrote a post that answers the question I'll include the link, but this is the definition I included there "Wholefood is food that is unprocessed and unrefined, it is fully in tact or close to being fully in tact, as it is found in nature containing all of its naturally occurring goodness in the form of vitamins, minerals and fibre." http://nikkifisher.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/what-is-wholefood-anyway.html
DeleteIt is about minimising the amount of processed food you eat, not necessarily making every single thing you eat from scratch. I hope that helps. To your second question I would say read through all the posts in this budget series and perhaps tackle one area at a time, find a good supplier for your fruit and veg at reasonable price and then once you have that sorted move on to meat, then your bulk buy and condiment items. Don't feel like you have to make this transition overnight, give yourself a year or two it is a process of constantly refining what you are doing, where you shop. Corny as it may sound, enjoy the process of the change. And keep asking questions! Hope that helps xx
I liked the link about which fruit/vegetable items are the most 'contaminated'. I found this a good place to start (especially when paying more $ while trying to find a cheaper organic option). I would love to know more about this too - for example is organic dairy more important than organic bread/oats? Picking up my first co-op fruit/vegetable box this afternoon (mix or organic and non-organic) :)
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