Budget vs organic

ecotrip

Hello all

I've got a very tight food budget of £200 a month for a family of 4 -2 adults and 2 preschool aged children. With in that £200 I need to buy cleaning products (home and personal).

I acheive it with success most months. However I really want to be able to be nearly 100% organic. Do you think it is possible with that budget? WE're happy to eat mostly vegetarian meals (though we aren't veggie jsut realise it is a cheaper way to eat when wanting to buy organic produce) and keep our own hens so eggs are 'free'. We do have some vegetables growing at home but only really enough to supplement, rather than to be self sufficient.

So, is £200 do-able? Any tips?

Katzen

I would say, don't get too sucked in by the organic thing. I've heard of examples of veg (I think it was potatoes) where the artificial chemicals that are banned on organic are less harmful than the things they are allowed to put on them and call them organic. I reckon if you buy british, especially local, in season produce you'll get better quality and therefore more for your money

tessie_bear

hi....u could perhaps spend a few evenings doing reduced food shopping to see if u can pick up any organic stuff reduced and freeze it...can u get frozen organic veg ? that might be worth looking into.....if u got an organic chicken u could stretch it for a few meals...and make stock with the bones.... a few egg meals might stretch the budget a bit.....u could go and have a look and price things up...or use mysupermarket...iv not used that myself but iv heared people say its useful.

Hope that helps.

Trinny

Hi there

We are as eco friendly as we can be as a family.

1. What can you grow? - you can get organic lettuce seeds for pence, not difficult to grow in a pot or tub - should give salad all summer. same goes for organic spuds - you should still be able to get second late varieties - grow them in an old compost bag or bin with a few holes in for drainage. That way you know exactly what has been sprayed on what you eat. This is something we are doing more of each year - once you have the basic kit - its a good value option

2. As someone has said - buy up organic whoops, reduced items, bogof items

3. Cheaper cuts - or learn to cook rubber mince, rubber roast chicken, use less meat per serving and bulk out with organic pulses - dried pulses are pence. or bulk with grated carrot in things like bolognaise - organic carrots are pretty competatively priced.

4. Cleaning stuff - if you dont worry about chemicals - star drops concentrated liquid - around a quid from wilkinsons and discount stores will clean just about anything. I do worry about chemicals so i clean with vinegar, lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda - the forums will tell you where to buy cheaply and in bulk.
5. we buy free range eggs from a local farmer - not organic - these are a good cheap resource, most of the big supermarkets sell organic flour quite cheaply - i also buy fairtrade sugar from Mr S. With these items you have the base ingredients for a lot of HM baked goods. Also we buy organic milk from the supermarket - you could buy UHT organic which is cheaper.
6. Bulk buying organic pasta and rice when on special offer is also an option.
7. check out b&m - we are buying seeds of change organic pasta and curry sauce jars there at the moment for around 60p a jar - bargain.

To be honest - I find that its not possible to obtain everything I need in an organic option, so i then tend to choose fairtrade or free range. For us its been a gradual thing - home cooking, menu planning, streeeeching rubber chicken, etc will all help.

Keep all your reciepts for the first month - you might want to allocate a certain amount to spend per week, then after pricing up what you need - switch as many items as you can to organic produce within the budget - and see how far you get.

Hope this helps - and good luck, we have a similar outlook on life by the look of things. If any of this is unclear - PM me and i am happy to help

Trin

MrsBartolozzi

A quick google brings up this site
They list 12 types of fruit and veg that we are recommended to buy organic, and 12 which retain little or no residue from pesticides.
The "Baddies" - ie f&v which it is recommende to eat organic:
Peaches
Apples
Peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Pears
Grapes
Spinach
Lettuce
Potatoes

The Goodies (ie those which retain few or no pesticide residues)

• Papayas
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Bananas
• Kiwifruit
• Sweet peas (frozen)
• Asparagus
• Mangoes
• Pineapple
• Sweet corn (frozen)
• Avocados
• Onions

Bear in mind this is an American site and so the farming practises may vary, but I have seen a good few of those on the list crop up on other lists too.

ecotrip

Thank you so much, that is all really helpful.