Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Is it Worth It?

One of the main excuses people use for avoiding eating a real foods diet is the cost. I agree that it can cost more, especially in time it takes to find good food and prepare good food. We have a family of seven and our budget is $665 plus about another $120 on raw milk and eggs. Does that number shock you? Does it seem high or low? Maybe average? I'm the first to admit that I could probably lower our budget. I could demand that my husband give up drinking pop, eating potato chips, and gag me Chips Ahoy Cookies. However, that would cause him to totally go off the deep end. He would do his own grocery shopping and spend twice the amount I do!!

Is eating real foods worth the extra cost?
I have five children ages 11-19 months. We home school but attend many outside classes and attend church weekly. My immune system is compromised due to my previous battle with breast cancer and in October my white count was 2.2 We have only been to the doctor's once this cold/flu season. My oldest daughter had an ear infection. The other children have caught colds but they've only lasted about 3 days. I have not been sick at all.
Last year we battled colds/flu the entire season from September-April. No joke, some one in my home was sick every day!!
The main changes we've made? Drinking raw milk, eating 100% grass fed beef, eating pasture raised chickens and their eggs. I've always made most of our food from scratch. The other difference in our diet is that last year I was riding the coupon train. I was chasing down every deal and our average food budget was $300, however the food wasn't real food. It came in boxes and bags. It was food but it wasn't nourishing. It didn't build up our immune system.

I know that many families would love to eat a more nourishing diet but feel trapped by their budget. It might seem totally out of reach. Take baby steps. Make one change every month or longer. Maybe this month you give up buying snacks and you make your own cookies or cakes. Take the savings from that and buy some bulk organic oats. Next month maybe you don't buy snacks and cereal. Use your oats to make baked oatmeal and granola and save the money from not buying breakfast foods to buy a gallon of raw milk.

Maybe you already make all your meals from scratch and you don't buy anything in a package. Maybe your budget is stretched and you've cut everything you can. If you truly make all your meals and snacks from scratch don't beat yourself up about not eating organic. You're already ahead of the family who buys all the prepackaged/freezer meals!! Maybe your focus could be trying not to by any GMO food items.

Real foods are worth there cost. I read a great quote that said something along the lines of " if you think real foods are expensive have you priced cancer lately?" To that I say a hearty amen!


This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Autumn,
I totally agree. Dave's illness cost 5,000 a month just to maintain. If he gets sick or anything new pops up it is more. If he had eaten real foods when he was younger he would be much healthier. I spend about 800-1,000 a month for the 2 of us but our diet is really strict.We never eat out and Dave requires some speical things.
Hugs,
Elizabeth

Amy Lynne said...

I totally agree! We switched to organic foods about 2 years ago. It is more expensive, but the taste is so much better nit to mention how we feel. I am going to save up this spring to get some grass fed beef, I know it will be worth the little extra cost.

Cara said...

I agree it's worth it. My husband used to be like that, wanting pop and chips and lots of candy, but he's finally come around (we started 'transitioning' to real foods 4 years ago) to about $10/month on junk which is a huge improvement! He's rarely sick any more, he used to have 5-10 sick days a winter, but I think in the past 2 years he's only taken 3 sick days.

Christy said...

I am slowly transitioning to more REAL whole foods. Sometimes it is me who likes the junk and sometimes it is my family hollering "there isn't anything good to eat" that still holds us back, however we are miles from where we were even a year ago! I think it is worth it to buy the good stuff. My kids are very healthy and I think the food is a huge part in it. I also think getting outside in the fresh air and sunshine everyday makes a difference also. (sorry for rambling)

Anonymous said...

I would just like to say, my husbands grandparents lived well into their 90's, eating bacon and eggs or sausage and eggs every morning most of their lives. Our family has been blessed with good health in general. The difference is we were all raised on "homegrown" beef, pork, eggs, vegies, etc... it was a treat to ever get to eat at a resteraunt or get much snacks or anything from the grocery store. Man how times have changed.

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