I am such an advocate of shopping local! Since my daughter was born, I made the decision to pursue healthier eating and shopping at local Farmer’s Market’s is one of the healthiest, most frugal way to eat better!
This week I’m gonna show you all that I got from my local Farmer’s Market and talk about my weekly food budget. We are a family of 4 and my grocery budget for EVERYTHING (paper products, dog food, household items, batteries, etc) is $200 a week. I get about 80-90% of our food from my local Farmer’s Market and supplement with trips to Costco or Publix.
Today I spent $91 at the market and came out with TONS of groceries! There are a few things that I don’t buy at the market because of the cost. These are…
- Bacon – I buy that at Costco for cheap
- Spices
- Beef and Pork– too expensive for us. I either find a local meat market to purchase “Family Packs” or buy from Costco.
- Alcohol – my husband will never give up his beer!
- Oils, vinegar, and Maple Syrup – I buy them from Costco.
- Eggs – I usually get these from a local hobby farmer but she was out of them so I bought some today from the market. I usually get them for $3. I found this local lady off Craigslist. At the market today they were $4.
- Milk – my kids just started drinking raw milk again because I found someone local who sells it. I buy this for $10 a gallon and they get a gallon a week. When it’s out, it’s out.
Here is what I found at my Farmer’s Market…if I remembered the price, I listed it…
From left to right…
- 9 bananas, 4 for $1
- 2 large heads of broccoli, 2 for $3
- pack of 6 large nitrate free hot dogs, $6
- HUGE box (6 pints) of strawberries, $9
- 6 large carrots
- 2 green peppers
- 5 yellow squash
- 3 zucchini
- 4 avocados, 2 for $3
- 2 pints of blueberries, $3
- 5 tomatoes
- lots of small red potatoes
- 2 heads of romaine lettuce
- 1 large cabbage
- 6 sweet potatoes
- 1 green onion, $1
- 1 large bunch of spinach leaves, $1
- 1lb of Amish butter, $6
- 2 pints of white mushrooms
- bunch of red grapes
- 12 dozen eggs, $4
- Asparagus bunch
- 2 whole chickens, 2 for $15
Total = $91!!! Can’t beat that, eh?!?!
I got a few other things at Publix to supplement this trip:
- 2 bottles of local wine, BOGO free $9.99
- Yengling beer, $6.99
- Yo Kids organic yogurt, $3.50 (I put these in the freezer for a frozen treat!)
- BOGO watermelon chunks, $1.50 (I make popsicle with these)
- Thyme – forgot to grab some at the market
- Parsley – forgot to grab some at the market
- Vanilla
- Smoked Paprika
- 1lb of Boar’s Head chicken cuts, $9
Total = $57
This brings my total spending to $148 for the week!
A few budget points:
I have 2 lbs of ground beef in my freezer and 2 whole chickens from the market today to use in our meals, as well as bacon for breakfast.
I will need to use $10 on milk and $10 on more eggs (we average 4 dozen eggs a week) which brings my total to $168.
I will use the other $30 on buying more meat at some point during the week from Costco. I hope to get a roast and some chicken thighs. We eat out once, maybe twice, a week and never more.
I will not go over my $200 budget. I am pretty good about that. I operate on cash, so when the cash is out, so is the food and I need to be creative with how we use it. Also, I can, and have, cut this budget in half to only $100 a week, while still eating 75% Paleo. I supplement our meals with some rice, discount foods from market deals, and non-organic produce. It is possible, but it is more challenging. You have to really shop around.
Tell me what you find at your Farmer’s Markets and how you work your family budget!!!
What kind of bacon do you get at Costco? The closest Costco is a hour away and I’m trying to decide if it’d be worth a regular trip (bi-weekly?). Our local Sams Club has very little that is Paleo friendly (about half or less of what you found at yours – though they just got in Kerrygold cheese so maybe butter will follow). I eat bacon every day for breakfast – it seems to be the only thing that sustains me (with farm eggs – $2/dozen..woohoo!)…but I’m still using a no-sugar bacon that has nitr**** and I’d like to get away from that.
I still get the one with nitrates too 🙁 It’s the low sodium one from Costco. I’m trying to find a local pig farm with good bacon deals!
I’ve heard they aren’t necessarily *that* bad – but I eat 4-6 regular slices/day at a minimum (more if it makes it into other meals. I’ve heard good things about US Wellness but they always are out when I look and it’s $$.
Of all the health blogs and web sites I visit, they recommend if you eat bacon with nitrites, also consume vitamin C in the same meal (i.e. orange juice). That seems to be pretty common advice. The thought is that nitrites occur whether naturally or artificially, and vitamin C helps the body deal with them.
Again, I don’t know this all for sure but it seems to be reoccurring advice.
I’m struggling with my food budget recently so this post was great timing for me. I buy about 50-75% of my food (including my meat) at our local farmers market. Do you buy all hormone free meat? Also, I’m wondering if you know anything about boars head meats. I used to buy it but have stopped since I didn’t know how clean it was.
I don’t buy all hormone free meat. I do when I have it in our budget though. If I do buy deli meat, I get boars head because I know it is gluten free. I sometimes also get Hormel Naturals.
Yes I usually buy hormel naturals too – I have found that target (of all places!) has the best price on it.
Right now I’m having to sacrifice buying all organic (like on yogurt, milk, and cheese) but still attempting to stick to the good foods. meats, cheese, egg, fruits, and vegetables. It’s really hard though!
12 dozen eggs? Really?
My husband and I are in debt too, and we have also brought it down. I didn’t even realize Dave Ramsey had this book or system; one day my husband said we need to get this under control, and the next day we had budgets and envelopes with money in the silverware drawer. Now my grocery budget is $100 every week because I’m only feeding my husband and I, and I live in Canada so gone are the cheap groceries I’m used to. I almost had a coronary the first time I went grocery shopping here. So when we started looking at our debt I noticed we were spending a ton on groceries, but that I also wasn’t exactly buying the cheapest of anything.
Now I make my grocery list from my recipe list. I grocery shop every 2 weeks so I list 14 recipes and their ingredients, and it took me a few months of shopping, but now I list the price they cost beside each food in my recipe, then I see if the recipe as a whole costs too much for my $200 every 2 week budget. I then add those ingredients to my grocery list. It’s a long intricate thing, but it’s easy to do for an hour on my down time.
So my grocery list also has the price of the food or product beside it, so I can budget my whole grocery list to the T. Now when things go on sale, I get a pleasant surprise of extra money left over when I’m done. Which eventually goes back in the envelope or for another jug of milk later.
YEs, I definitely couldn’t do it without a grocery list or a meal plan!!
Canada is a lot more expensive for grocery shopping, plus coupons dont usually apply and you cant double them up. Also in my area, farmers markets are MORE expensive than the grocery store. So rice and spam for me. 🙁
—a student
You can cut this grocery bill down even further with the processing of your own products or buying non-organic foods that are still of equal or better quality. Coming from a farmers perspective of course but I can vouch for alot of other farmers that if purchased fresh most of the time will be of equal quality and no further health risks than if purchasing organic. But I really do appreciate you post it was very interesting to read about another family working on saving money and spending money wisely.
I am terrible at budgeting essentially everything except groceries for some reason. My best tips are the following:
Research your sales! Most grocery stores specials/deals turn over Wed morning. All of the chain grocery stores now have their weekly adds online so its really easy to see where there are BOGO deals or when chicken is on sale.
I typically like to see what type of meat is on sale and plan my dinners for the week around that. I stock up common items when they are BOGO.
If you have a trader joe’s it can save you a ton on wine, cheeses and coffee (and sometimes meat). Do not buy your produce from here unless you are using immediately b/c it just doesn’t last long.
Speaking of produce – if your area had a CSA (community supported agriculture) or co-op this is a truly affordable way to get produce that is fresh and organic. We have a small share – which is more than enough for 2 – and it comes out to about $18/week.
Just found your blog and loving it! You said you eat out once or twice a week – do you any suggestions for good meal choices at restaurants if you don’t want to cheat (which I’m all for doing sometimes)? Sorry if you’ve already posted about it, I just may not have gotten to it yet!
Thanks!
Some of these are not 100% Paleo…but I put together a list on the best that I have found:
https://thepaleomama.com/2013/01/the-paleo-mamas-guide-to-dining-out-paleo-style/
Paleo Mama where are you located, if I may ask? I’m curious about food prices and availability in different parts of the country.
BTW, some of you have mentioned coffee—Costco carries organic coffee beans (San Francisco brand) at a great price. I think $14 for about 3 lbs. Not gourmet or “company” coffee—but good every day coffee.
One way to save on fresh veggies is to grow your own sprouts—so easy and inexpensive and gives you something “green” in the winter time. Also can grow your own herbs indoors in winter to save—as fresh herbs can be expensive at the grocery store during the winter.
Great post! I wrote an article a while back about 12 ways to eat healthy on a budget. Its how we manage to eat healthy on less than $100 a week, https://mysimplerealfoodlifestyle.com/2013/06/28/12-ways-to-eat-healthy-on-a-budget/