Help! My scary grocery bill!!!

[Liserpiece]

Hello!
I started raw 3 weeks ago...YEA! I'm loving it soo soo very much! I've been 100% for the 21 days and the rest of my family (3 little kids and a husband) have been about 90%. It no doubt has been one of the greatest things I've done!
I only have one problem... my grocery bill has sky rocketed! I thought I'd treat this fist month as a trial, seeing how much buying raw, organic foods would really cost. I thought to myself "If we iliminate prepackaged foods surely our bill will go down" But it hasn't, it REALLY went up. We were vegan before, but still buying a lot of packaged foods along with soy stuffs, ie. soy milk, tofu, tempe etc. I don't buy that any longer and do a lot of bulk shopping for nuts, seeds, raisins but WOW!
I know it is a trade off, pay more now and save later on health costs (I tell myself that a lot!), not to mention I feel fantastic!!! But for the here and now I'd love some ideas on how to lower the costs of foods. I soooo want to keep eating this way and I don't want the cost to become an issue.
Thanks for any ideas you all may have!
Liserpiece

[razza]

I would say either

1) cut back on food

or

2) dont but so much organic.

I like to eat, so I think it would be better to cut back on organic.

imo

[snowdrop]

my earlier bills (and 1st of the month restocking bills) were scary too.
but once you have a well stocked kitchen and then strive to live & eat simply most of the time (saving complicated expensive foods for special times), it will normalize to something more do-able. appetite also alters as you do this awhile.

i am shopping for 1 raw 1 sad and that gets complicated too. i am glad you are all in this together.

i truly believe you will benefit greatly in the health dept, and won't be spending on meds etc... as much. just wait till cold & flu goes around you'll see.

i'd look locally for fresh produce, farm markets etc.
eat what's in season, it's always cheaper.

hope some of that helps.

[barose]

Our bills leveled off to about $150 a week. DP isn’t raw but he eats about 1/3 of the produce I buy and he drinks my nut milk – it took me months to get him to stop drinking soy, LOL. . No packaged foods other than nut butters, raw cocoa and a few other things that are only purchased once a month anyway. I buy mostly organic but a lot of things are not much more expensive anyway except for almonds which are $12/lb.

[billyne]

peace,
how about a garden? or a couple veggie plants in some containers?

[RawVee]

Peace,

There are some great threads on here about saving money. Farmers markets, Asian markets, the "slightly bruised" section of the grocery store...they all are wonderful places to get fresh produce. If you're going to go the "not all organic" route, I'd recommend searching online for the produce most affected by pesticides (grapes, etc) and get those organic.

Can you put in a garden or do container gardening? Also, look into a CSA farm share--you invest around $400-500 and get about 15 weeks of fresh produce from a farm. Like I said, there are great threads on here; just do a search and you'll find that many people are on a very tight budget and doing well with raw!

:)

[Stina]

My system does well with sprouted grains but not so much sprouted beans. Thanks goodness they are so cheap. I'm also learning wildcrafting and attempting to do container gardening. It's worth it for me to keep plugging away at this experiment. I also believe that once I've been Raw for an extended period of time that my body will be more efficient at absorption and will need less calories.

[juliebove]

Can you get organic produce delivery from a local farm? We have several in my area that deliver and it saves me money. Are you making sprouts at home? They are very cheap and a good source of protein.

[Liserpiece]

Thanks!!
I decided to go non-organic. I went to our commisary, we are a military family, and saved a lot. I really love the idea of organic, but I had to make a concession and that was it. I think, for the time being (maybe until a pay raise!) this will be the best solution.
I did find a farmer's market and I will try that this Tuesday!
Have a great day!
Liserpiecer