Frugality vs Buying Locally vs Eating Healthily

[Lisahas2cats]

How do you, personally, prioritize your consumption (or non-consumption, as the case may be) choices? It sometimes seems like some things I'd like to prioritize on conflict with each other.

For example...bread. I'm trying to decide between making my own versus buying from an outlet versus buying from the store.

* Making my own, I know exactly what goes in it, BUT it heats up the kitchen and may negate any $ savings in the extra electricity.

* Buying from the store I expend no extra electricity (and I don't make extra trips to the store, only going when I need other things), BUT I spend more money (plus I don't choose what goes in it).

* Buying from the outlet store I get the bread cheap, BUT I have to drive off my mountain, through the valley, and up the other mountain to get there. Gas money spent to save small bits of money (and there aren't many other errands I can run on that mountain).

* In any of the cases, I'm buying/using items that were not produced or grown locally.

Anyway, the bread is just an example. How do you make the choices in areas of consumption between saving money, buying locally, etc?

[Neeley]

My top two priorities are price and health. I buy healthier foods(but not necessarily organic) at the least expensive grocer. I am a vegetarian and the rest of the family are meat eaters. I am also very picky. We spend between $600-$700 on food only a month already because of our vast differences in taste. If I did not shop at the least expensive grocer (Wal-Mart for most things - but not for meat) we would spend well over $1000 a month. Here WM is by far the cheapest on most every grocery item.

~I am not into buying organic foods for the most part. That is not a battle I choose to actively fight. For example, I cannot justify paying $1.50 extra for a pound of carrots just because they are organic. (No flames, please. It is a personal choice)

~I also am not concerned with buying local. The locally owned stores here are almost double the price and have very little variety. (Again, no flames please. Just another personal choice.)

~I do buy all of our fruits and most of our veggies from the state farmer's market. The people I buy from do not grow their own and most everything they have is not local. I buy from their booth because I like them as people and they give me such a good discount. As of late we have been spending an average of $200 a month on fruits alone and they have been giving me discounts for a couple of years.

~All of my loaf bread and dinner rolls come from the bread store. It is only a half of a mile from my house and the prices are super cheap.

[Ani]

When it comes to groceries, price is my last concern. My first priority is to buy healthy food that my husband and I love to eat. I buy that food from local sources wherever possible, regardless of price, and throughout the years it has become the cheapest option as the local markets have gotten to know me and give me discounts etc. If my other two requirements are met, then I start being concerned with price.

We are DEFINITELY not frugal grocery shoppers in this house.

[flowergirl]

Good question food for thought ? I buy local when I can and I do by organic for the most part personal choice I also only feed my dh and myself. I was sick earlier this year and change everything about my life and the way we eat I look it as a investment in our health so cheaper in a long run (health insurance) etc
I do look at prices and don't buy junk food cook at home pack lunches etc but our choice is to eat local when possible even if it more costly because when know where it came from and we are helping local businesses Like I said we eat healthy but we don't by pop frozen pizza I don't drink any alcohol or coffee hd still does on occasion . so I feel we save in many other ways. personal choice I guess is the answer. I think price is not the only reason .

[Emerald_Mommy]

Price is pretty much our main concern. We are on a tight budget so groceries are one big area we can work with. We try to buy healthily (very little junk food, prepackaged, etc.) within our tight budget framework.

I like to buy some things locally, if I can. Every summer people at our church who garden simply give away tomatoes, peppers, etc. This is the first year we've tried gardening, too.

I buy our bread at our bread store, while combining errands. Making bread at home is more of a "fun" thing for us - good activity for those cold winter days.

[themartins903]

Well, when I was single raising three children, mac 'n cheese (.30 cents a box), hotdogs, etc were cheap and that's all I could afford at that time. It was a ROUGH road at times, but we survived. Eating that all the time is NOT healthy, but I understand what it means: You do what you GOTTA do. I used powdered milk ALOT and found the cheapest meats I could.

Now that my kids are older, they still like mac 'n cheese every "once" in a while. I prefer to cook fresh vs. canned now. If you stretch your foods, it ends up being cheaper in the long run.

[Little Birdie]

It's always balance of all three. Right now price is our biggest concern.

(We are temporarily living off one income plus savings, and because it is temporary we don't want to sell the house or anything that drastic. But because we don't know how long it will last, we don't want to take on any debt to maintain our standard of living.)

Sometimes price and health correspond: e.g. we don't buy soda.

Sometimes health takes a backseat to price: e.g. at one meal recently I encouraged still hungry Husband to have another baked potato (starch) instead of more than his alloted porion of chicken breast (protein) even though he is working really hard to drop fat and build lean muscle mass.

Sometimes price takes a backseat to health: e.g. this week I bought red leaf lettuce at 1.69/head instead of iceburg at .79/head cause there is nothing in iceburg lettuce to make it worth purchasing in the first place.

Buying locally is a matter of scheduling for me. Our farmer's market is only from 8 - 12 on Saturdays and I had a conflict yesterday. If I can get there, then buying locally and price might correspond: e.g. lettuce that isn't packaged and shipped across the country should cost less.

In with buying locally, I would put buying ethically. I choose not to shop at Walmart. I was just talking to a friend of mine from a small town on Saturday, and told her I feel fortunate that with my access to SuperTarget, Hy-Vee, and Aldi's I can continue to not shop at Walmart. She doesn't have those choices, so I understand why she shops there.

[littlemotherhaywood]

We do a little bit of everything. If organic is not drastically more expensive, I'll choose that. I have several papers (gotta organize those) that tell you which produce is best purchased organic. I know we could never afford a completely organic diet and I make do with what I can. We don't buy a lot of processed foods and if I can buy something locally at a reasonable price I will. I figure that if more people support local growers, the costs will go down eventually. We do the best we can for our health and our budget. There are things I cringe about, but in the end scrimping a little now will add up big for us later. My kids both eat and enjoy healthy foods and I don't break the bank. I wish I could always afford to buy organic or minimally processed, but I can't. I wish I could always buy local, but it's not even always available.

[starsapphire]

DH and I are right in the middle of making the switch to buying organic meat. I'm spending more even though I'm trying to make more meatless meals to compensate for the price of the organic meat but we are afraid of what's going into the livestock we eat and how its processed and yes its expensive but the meat tastes so much better. If it were up to DH we'd go vegetarian but he's not willing to help cook and I'm not willing to spend tons of time in the kitchen chopping up stuff and cooking so this is our compromise. I am trying to come up with more tasty, simple and quick vegetarian meal recipes. This is all a process and its coming along but its going to take me some time.

We are spending more but eating healthier, I think its cheaper in the long run for having good health is priceless.

Fruits, veggies, etc, I buy whats cheapest at the grocery store but the farmer's market should start having some good produce coming in about now, its more expensive but locally grown and most of it organic. I should be buying stuff there but I always forget. Plus they're only open in the summer and fall so I fall out of the habit. Anyways I'm considering buying organic apples since DH eats alot of apples during the week and we're starting to worry about pesticides.

Bread, its just DH and I and we don't eat that much bread. About 1-2 loaves/month tops. Not worth it for me to worry about baking it.

[Luv2BeFrugal]

Up here "locally grown" is a rare choice...and is usually SO much more expensive that we honestly can't afford it even though we would enjoy it. We are growing some of our own food this summer (first time).

I bake bread occasionally, but since I started working full time there just doesn't seem to be the time to bake (grind my own wheat, knead bread by hand, etc.). Factoring for A/C isn't a question up here...we don't have it/need it. If nothing else, it helps warm up the house...be it summer or winter.

We usually just shop the fliers for the best deals; try to incorporate coupons as often as possible. We buy in bulk at Costco about once every 4-6 weeks (yup, already did my Costco run this month...). We eat a lot of beans and lentils, soups and stews. We do frozen veggies more than fresh because they are more healthful (takes a while for things to get up here...they aren't the best quality).

We don't do a lot of canned goods... We switch back and forth betweek powdered milk and regular (depending on price availability). I just flat out refuse to pay the $3.49/gal the store wants now. Can still find it for $3/gal on sale.

We try to make sure we get enough protein for each day...often, it's not via meat, though we're not vegetarians. I eat a lot of pb & jelly sandwiches (on wheat bread) for my work lunches...cheap and good protein...and I love pb.

[peanut]

We shop for health and then price.

We grow our own patio garden (tomatoes, lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, cucumbers, beans) and mix vegetables in with our flowerbeds.

We bake our own bread because I am allergic to things that go into storebought bread. I bake a batch that fills the oven and bake it early in the morning...before the sun comes up to heat the house. Another option is to bake it after the sun goes down. I freeze the loaves we aren't using immediately. Means I'm only baking once every 2 to 3 weeks. Usually I can find a cloudy cool day somewhere in that time frame.

We eat less meat. I have not gone to organic meat because of the exhorbitant cost (often 4x as much as regular meat). I do tend to pick leaner cuts though, and use it more as a condiment than the main feature of a meal. Plus we rotate protein sources. So one day will be pork, the next fish, the next beef, the next chicken and the next vegetarian. I'd go vegetarian except I have a 20 year old daughter at home who would howl in protest!

I don't necessarily shop local on a weekly basis, but in the summer I will go to u-picks for produce to freeze to get us through winter. I often go to an organic u-pick. But they don't have a lot of variety sometimes, so I end up at the regular u-pick.

That's how we do it. I do all my own baking, but often with cheap ingredients. I don't grind my own grain or anything. I do buy free range eggs. They just taste better to me.

[Telephus44]

I agree with most of the posters that it is a matter of balance, and we make different choices for different items. I don't buy organic meat because it is a lot more expensive. I do buy bread instead of making it because we prefer the "gummy" texture for sandwiches - I'll make homemade bread for Thanksgiving or whatever when we just have it with butter.

We recently started buying milk from a local dairy - it is near my MIL's so it's not out of the way, it's cheaper than the grocery store but not cheaper than BJ's. We're looking for a local farm stand to purchase our produce from.

[lullaby80]

I would love to buy 100% local (and organic). I know I could buy local organic meats but I would have to drive 20 miles to get to the meat store with DS (I'll probably go there one of these days, until then I'll stick to org. chicken at Costco).

We buy organic milk but I don't think it's local. How do you find out? There is a plant number but the only other thing it syas is the distribution center.

We buy organic eggs supplied by a farm from less than 100 miles away from us, again this is at Costco.

We grow our own veggies but have to buy some as well, this year I'm gonna try to remember to get to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings if possible. I just don't like buying fresh produce from the supermarket, they never tell you where it comes from.

Bottom line: I don't focus that much on price (eventhough I should esp now) but rather try to make ethical desicions.

[claimsgirl66]

I am like most of you and try to strike a balance and shop locally when ever possible. I am fortunate in that between work and home, there are several large chain grocery stores, as well as a couple of locally owned groceries, two organic chain stores, and then a farmers market in the summer.

I am an empty nester now, but when I was younger, earning less $$, and doing the single mom thing, some weeks the groceries bought were really driven by price and whatever money was left over after paying the bills. That was just what I needed to do then, and I know alot of people are doing that now....just the way it is. My DD would go with me to farmstands or the organic grocer sometimes, so she knew the value of "good" food. My daughter is grown and has a pretty good idea of a sensible, balanced diet, so I think it all turned OK as far as raising kids.

Now that I am earning more $ and pretty much shopping for just me, I try to strike a balance. I do not eat much meat, and buy maybe 2 loaves of bread a month from the local bread thrift store. I actually like the local bread thrift store, nice people work there, and it is small and I can get in and out quickly....which is important as well.

I will shop at the farmers market on the way home from work (just started this week!!) and get some good deals on fresh local veggies. Also in the summer, co workers bring in leftover tomatoes & cukes and zucchini by the ton....so that is wonderful. There is a local large farm here that sells wonderful, organic meats at a local grocer. Occasionally I will buy hamburg from there, when the budget allows.

I went thru a phase a few years back when I was trying to pin down my migraine triggers, so I really did buy organic, no processed foods etc....It was great, I figured out some things to avoid. But I was so broke as all my $$ went to the grocery store!!

So a few months ago when I needed to spend $800 on car repairs one month, I went to the Dollar Tree, slashed the grocery budget to the bare minimum, spent my money wisely and did not beat myself up too badly.....I was doing what needed to do. I try now to make money-wise purchases in a few areas that mean the most to me.

[justpeachy92]

Our food purchases are based first on health. I try to shop so that I can support the local owned businesses and local farmers first, but there are times when I have to go to the national chain store because price is a factor that week and I need to get more bang for my buck.