Dinner.
Somebody’s gotta cook it.
And as the head chef in the house I consider myself lucky.
Not because I get to cook, but because I get to control what we eat. Which means this lady always gets to eat exactly what she’s craving.
And let me tell ya’, that’s a delicious place to be.
100% Organic? Really? C’mon, really?
Organic gets a bad rap as an eliteist word thrown around in grocery stores and playdates.
Are those apples organic? We only eat organic.
But really, 100 years ago they didn’t use the word ‘organic’, they simply called food — well, food. It was grown in the ground or harvested steps from the back porch but more importantly, it was REAL. Free of chemicals, synthetic ingredients, and pesticides.
Before you view organic as a way for eliteists to eat, think about WHY people really choose organic.
It comes down to purity.
We want whole food, and we want it to be healthy. We want ingredients, not packages. And we want to bite into an big juicy apple knowing it was grown without a layer of pesticides.
A lot of us organic eaters are have realized if we’re gonna cook from scratch, it might as well be the best tasting whole foods possible. What it comes down to is we’re looking for great ingredients that we can turn into mouth-watering meals. We want fresh garlic and yellow butter and crisp green beans. We want mouth-watering potatoes and celery that tastes like it should.
So, for us, we strive to buy everything organic and whole as possible. Maybe we don’t always hit exactly 100%. But we come pretty darn close.
So how much do we really spend on organic food?
Let me break it down for ya’.
The Average Grocery Bill for our 100% Organic Family (of four)
Here on our 1-acre urban farm in Arizona, we have been able to year-round provide our own eggs from 15 chickens we raise, as well as our own milk from our 2 milking goats. We also raise 50 meat chickens once a year which are stored in the freezer and lasts us about a year. Because living in Arizona also gives us year-round gardening, we almost always have something to eat on the veggie side. We have been able to provide our own onions, garlic, carrots, radishes, peas, all sorts of greens, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, & more here but we definitely need to expand the garden because we still find ourselves purchasing from the store a lot. We have a BUNCH of fruit trees planted we’re just waiting to produce for us. Once they are fruiting we’ll hopefully have mangoes, bananas, avocados, mulberries, grapes, oranges, figs, cactus fruit, almonds, peaches, etc.
I would say that our farm provides about 30% of our food, with the rest of our purchases coming from Azure Standard, local farms, or our local Sprouts. We usually purchase grass-fed beef in bulk to also help costs.
Including our feed & garden costs with our food purchases, we typically come out to about $600-$800/month to provide our family of four with organic meals.
So that’s it. Pretty reasonable if you ask me. And hopefully our investment into fruit trees will pay off in year-round fruit for us, too! What about you? What does your grocery bill look like?
Watch our video below of a meal we make that is 100% homegrown!
Kay says
April 21, 2018 at 7:07 pmI know this is an older post but we spent 400 a month for 3 people. My husband and son are very picky eaters and love to eat the same thing over and over. So, eating baked oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow 7 days a week and simple sandwiches for lunch saves us a lot. We garden but do not have any farm animals. The only thing I really spurge on is organic naval oranges which is a must have in my family.
Nancy davis says
February 19, 2018 at 10:45 amI think you listed what you buy off the dirty dozen list but I can’t find it. Could you tell me please? Thanks. Nancy
Bobbi says
February 21, 2018 at 8:43 amHi Nancy-
Here is the link I think you are referencing. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-fruit-tops-dirty-dozen-list-of-most-contaminated-produce/
Thanks! -Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
Katie says
November 21, 2017 at 8:39 pmThank you for the honesty! But, If we spent this on food, it would be half our monthly income. Not really possible for low income families. Soooo how do very low income families living in climates with short growing seasons (and food deserts), get healthy food? I hope to work on answering this question and get a PhD out of it, so I would love to hear ideas from folks. Shooting for under $4/day per person. And since low income usually don’t own their homes, it can’t involve lots of infrastructure or planting trees. So far I am focusing on an integration of permaculture with small livestock, and super foods like Bok choy, chard, beet greens. Healthy food shouldn’t be only for people above a certain income. Lots of bright, hard working, experienced people in this group. I would love to hear ideas.
Kay says
April 21, 2018 at 7:13 pmWhole grains. Oatmeal, homemade bread, barley, other types of grains, is the way to go when you are trying to save money. Also plan your dinners around what you have in your pantry. We could easily get our budget under what it currently is but I love making desserts and always have snack foods prepared. 😁
Lindsay says
June 7, 2018 at 12:35 pmI’m interested in this question as well. In college I joined a community farm group and had more vegetables than I could eat for the whole growing season for $50, I need to find another one of those! Combining that with whole grains and legumes for carbs (they’re very cheap!), buying peanut butter and other shelf stable items in bulk when they’re on sale, you can get under $4 a day. Meat is expensive so eat it whenever you can afford it. Oh and only drink water or milk. You can eat pretty well that way and not break the bank!
Racheal says
April 24, 2017 at 3:35 amSo interesting to read all this! I have no idea what we spend all up on food. We are Nutrition farmers and run an organic market garden on 5 acres. I couldn’t really afford to feed our family of 8 organic before we started this venture. But now we have OODLES of fresh organic veg from our mineral balanced soil, we buy bulk beef from my mother-in-law who lets her cattle happily graze on grass and I’m in Australia, so bulk buy organic coconut products, nuts, dried fruit etc from AbSoulutely Wholesale at great prices. We’re not 100% organic, but I can tell you what, I feel the difference eating so much veg from mineral balanced soil! I’ve got 6 children under the age of 12 and feel so energetic since we started growing and eating all this lovely seasonal produce!
A.C. Caylor says
April 12, 2017 at 12:30 pmIt’s neat to see someone willing to spit out the numbers on what it actually takes to pay for this awesome nutrient dense lifestyle. We use raw milk, high-quality fats, natural sweeteners, raise our own eggs, and grind our own organic wheat, but are still buying conventional produce, butter, and cheese. The grocery budget for my husband, me, and our hungry one-year-old is $350 per month, which is only possible because we fill our freezer each fall with deer meat we kill and process ourselves. Right now I add conventional chicken, bacon, or sausage to that every so often, but within the next few months we’re going to start a batch of meat chickens and when we get time we’ll process some deer sausage. We also plan to preserve lots and lots of home-grown vegetables this year and pick and freeze as many of the abundant wild blackberries as we can. We also want to spend more time fishing. 🙂
The key to eating well on a tight budget really is time. Bone broth, homemade yogurt, soaked grains, home-cooked beans all take time. Our dinners are made up of some combination of deer meat + vegetables + potatoes, rice, or bread. For breakfast we have eggs, muffins, fruit, and/or yogurt, for lunch soup or leftovers. Little cups of custard sit in our refrigerator for snacking. All in all,
France says
March 24, 2017 at 9:46 amHello,
I live I’m Montreal canada we are 3 and try to eat mostly organic. I think we spend around $1000 a month for food. We are not big eaters. And really have to be careful with food expenses because it can increase much more than that. Don’t have any chicken .
Lisa says
March 8, 2017 at 11:01 amI have a family of four as well. I estimate we spend about $800/month on groceries, with that being about 75% organic. That does not include our money to eat out, which we do 1-2 a week.
erin says
February 15, 2017 at 10:12 pmi would love to know roughly what you pay to feed your animals per month. we have 40 chickens, so we rarely buy eggs and are also able to use them occasionally for meat. this lowers the grocery bill just a of course, but if you add in the $200 we pay out each month for chicken feed, we’re not coming out ahead. 😉
DaNelle Wolford says
February 18, 2017 at 9:03 pmThat’s a lot of chickens! We have 10 laying hens and so we go through a $30 bag of feed per month and have plenty of eggs for us.
Kerri says
February 15, 2017 at 1:27 pmWhat kinds of organic snack foods do you buy?
Levina says
February 10, 2017 at 7:47 pmGoodness, would i love a small farm like that. My husband says organic is sprayed at night and more expensive ?? . How many helpers do you have? Cause we could never run it on our own.
Sarah says
February 5, 2017 at 6:43 pmI do Azure Standard too and I love it. I’m in a much smaller town than you, and before I found Azure, I simply couldn’t find organic options for a lot of things I needed. Now I am getting better quality food for less, and I love that I ‘shop’ in my pjs at my kitchen counter with mull laptop! I am constantly changing up my order as I’m cooking. I love Azure day to restock my pantry and plan lots of healthy meals for my family. We also have goats (due any day now with our first kids) and chickens for eggs. This lifestyle is the best!
Deborah Choma says
February 5, 2017 at 4:22 pmHi DaNelle,
Thank you for your article on the cost of a 100% Organic Grocery Bill.
Our family has been eating Organic everything for over twelve years. I cook everything from scratch which includes dressings, tzatziki sauce, and whatever else takes our fancy. As a family of three, if we work as a team, there is an ebb and flow towards growing happier and healthier.
Our story will encourage readers who are:
(a) on a budget and,
(b) under pressure (work a minimum of 40-hours outside the home)
We are a work in progress and continually tweak our week to improve the quality of life under pressure. It’s easy to surrender to packaged meals from Wholefoods and for such times, an organic prepared meal is better than fast food options.
Our 100% Organic eating family’s weekly food budget is around $300. This equates to a monthly food budget of approximately $1,200. Given that we both work full-time and live in a city, we rely wholly on the supplier for our groceries. In addition, we eat out on special occasions only, we never stop for a Starbuck’s snack or equivalent, and have healthy snacks-to-go i.e nuts, seeds, dehydrated fruits, homemade soup in a flask or freshly juiced vegetables.
We consistently streamline our expenses but the reality is that if you think eating organic food is expensive, have you priced cancer lately? (or autoimmune disease, obesity, etc.)
As a cancer survivor, eating 100% organic food is important to our family.
How I shop:
1. Variation of Trader Joes, Wholefoods, Heinen’s, Door-to-door organics
2. Always with a list
3. Weekly meal plan
How I prepare for the week:
1. Soup stock Saturdays:
We always have a stock prepared ahead of time i.e grass fed chicken, lamb, or beef. This releases the pressure on preparation after working long hours.
2. Prepare a meal for Mondays:
Having a meal prepared for Mondays, releases pressure and creates comfort. We often land around 6:30pm after having left the home around 7am.
Monday meal idea:
Lasagna made from gluten-free rice lasagna sheets, goat’s cheese, grass-fed meat or roasted vegetables.
3. Prepare lunches the night before
I use a large glass dish with a lid and chop up a salad for school and work lunches. The salad has a minimum of 9 plant-based ingredients.
Next, I sautee chicken tenderloins and pack a few into our son’s lunchbox. He is a six foot thirteen year old, with a size twelve men’s shoe, and plays varsity basketball four nights a week. This equates to a maximum quantity of dense healthy foods being consumed.
For snacking at school and work, we eat nuts, seeds, dehydrated and fresh fruit, sprouted whole grain sugarless crackers, and raw cheese. I mix bulk trail mix from sprouted raw nuts and seeds. Very clean eating.
3. Steam Quinoa, bean fuscilli, or brown rice ahead of time:
I do this early in the week before I run out of steam. I use a handful of cooked Quinoa or bean fuscilli in Saturday’s soup stock for the soup I create mid week. If I don’t, our six foot thirteen year old size twelve men’s shoe, varsity basketball player goes hungry. The soup has at least six vegetables in addition to the grain of choice. This is accompanied by a multi ingredient salad.
4. Slow cooked end-of-week meal:
We purchase grass-fed lamb from New Zealand. I seer the cubed meat with pepper and place fire roasted tomates, lamb, fresh thyme, parsley, halved potatoes, carrots, celery, braggs amino acids, and a hearty homemade vegetable broth into the slow cooker.
Coming home at the end of the day to the aroma of a prepared meal is amazing! This is a good option for us on a shorter day.
There are so many more ideas but this should inspire the individual who works long hours and aspires to growing happier and healthier.
We juice vegetables at least twice a week from home. In addition, I have set myself up to juice most days at work.
Once again, keep your love for fresh food alive and continue to plant the seeds of healthy living. I appreciate you, DaNelle.
Kind Regards,
Deborah Choma
Mary says
February 6, 2017 at 11:54 amI read your post and did not see mention of Vitacost online shopping. They have a wonderful selection of AFFORDABLE organic food that is delivered to your house and the are AWESOME to deal with.
ORGANICGIRL says
February 24, 2019 at 8:37 amHello
I enjoyed reading your post but just wanted to chime in that Trader Joe’s is not 100% organic or usda certified. The company says they don’t use pesticides or gmo’s in their ingredients or products but they do. Not to mention their use of Palm oil is hurting rainforest life everywhere.
Stephanie says
February 4, 2017 at 6:41 pmWe spend about $500/month for our family of 4 (soon to be 5 this summer!) We live in Idaho, so no year-round garden for us unfortunately! But I do try to grow a lot in the summer. I also got 3 chickens last summer and I’m planning on 3 more chicks this spring. We live within the city limits so I’m limited to 6 chickens. I try to buy mostly organic food, but we can’t always do that. I focus on meat and dairy the most, we manage about 95% organic and grass-fed on that. So I feel pretty good about our groceries! Every year I work on growing more of our own food. Your blog is a very big source of my inspiration!
Ali Colbourn says
February 8, 2017 at 7:23 pmWow! $500 per month for four is amazing!! I would love to hear about what kind of meals you have, as we really need to bring the budget in. I also have a family of four. Congratulations on no5 on the way!!!