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bitt, you made my day. Really. I am determined to do this LOL…I need to prove to my husband that we can eat this way without breaking the bank. He really wants to eat healthy too, and raw, but I need to show that we can do it in a reasonable way, financially.
and yep, we are really excited about the change for the better in the kids’ diets. They’re young (6 and 3) and the fact that they love fruit, love quinoa and eat veggies now just makes us so happy.
check out the entry in sarahs 811 ‘going bananas’ blog…i think yesterday, about the cost of this lifestyle
time and time i refer people to her blog…it’s one of the most enjoyable out there
http://www.goingbananasblog.com/
thanks nycgrrl and bitt. yeah, this can be done! Takes a little creativity and not getting “things” we “think” we need.
Things we do to save money without feeling any form of sacrifice: no cable, modest phone package, we don’t do lots of gadgets and gizmos or have the latest and greatest _(fill in the blank), modest home size, modest clothing/shoes wardrobes, cloth diapers, breastfeed (no bottles, no sippycups), one van and one motorcycle for gettin around, eat at home mostly, and dang it, we have enough free entertainment here with these monkeys – we’re almost always in stitches!
To answer your question nycgrrl, my kids are: 21 (in university), 19 – he’s a gypsyboy, those two big boys are BAAADDD and SAAADDD but super-rad. ha ha. (they’re not mine biologically and too many visitations and part time living with a very very very SAD FAD family has done much damage…. ‘nuff said.) ; )
My other kids who love living and societally weird foods are: 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, and almost 14 months – the baby is exclusively breastfed, so she eats really cheap. heh heh. Those 6 kiddos are just so stinkin’ yummy, I just want to eat them up… life is quite beautiful
You guys are so inspiring. I just love visiting these discussions. We are stuggling with the budget side of the raw diet, too, and trying new things to make it sustainable. It’s easy for me, and rather cheap for breakfast and lunch at work, but in the evenings I just can’t make my family sit around the table to eat apples. :) We all love the veggie chilli recipe on this site, and my 3 year old scarfs it, so we are growing all the ingredients for that except the avocados..which are running $2 each right now (whew!) But that’s a good bit better than the $14 we calculated a bowl of this stuff to cost, all purchased organic. As for some of the fancier recipes, involving delicassies like pine nuts and thai coconuts, we’ve had to eliminate, at least for now. Otherwise, any advice you all have for trimming down the costs is appreciated.
lots of great tips here! I thought i didn’t want ‘advice’ but i guess what I didn’t want was moralizing about how wrong I am to think i am spending a lot LOL…
Anyway, to save money we 1. don’t have cable 2. are suspending our NYT delivery 3. rarely eat out, except for an essential bi weekly date night for hubby and me 4. don’t really buy books anymore—use the library 5. don’t really buy clothes much, just the basics on ebay usually for the boys.
Love these ideas :)
oh yeah i get ya about the moralizing. well people might say that you spend more in the front but get more back, it’s preventative health care. it’s a way to rationalize it. so far working for me! i am way down on health costs with fewer copays for visits and medicines.
i have to let you all in on a great find: freecycle. I posted about it elsewhere but I will repeat myself here. I honestly don’t think I will have to buy non-food stuff again if I am not picky. Instead of going out and getting an ice cream maker, I posted and got one for free. It’s barely used. And people are getting new refrigerators, furniture, etc. In a big city you are at an advantage here, more people to draw from. So that is one way to save costs for me. Any time I want something I will see if someone has a free one first. Saves the landfills too.
Hey bitt, it was because of your post that I signed up for freecycle. Haven’t participated yet, but I will.
nycgrrl, I did sign up for giveittomeraw, and am just waiting for “approval”.
for me the key to reducing costs was simplifying things.. I shop large once every two weeks, then have to hit the store for a few items 3 or 4 other times. I try really hard to stick with sunflower seeds as my main seed (cheap) and then maybe only buy one other nut. When I first started raw I’d have several recipes I wanted to try and therefore was buying 4-5 kinds of nuts and seeds. I also buy organic produce if I’m eating the whole thing, convential for things like grapefruit, lemon, banana, anything I won’t eat the peel. I also try to buy only one “fun item” per bi monthly trip like yacon syrup.. raw cacoa.. something like that. When I was starting I’d want everything and my grocery bills got crazy! Also.. if you have access to a dollar store that’s a great place to get stuff you don’t really care about, toilet paper, toothbrushes, etc
When I first went raw, I had serious sticker shock, too! I am a single mom, working my butt off to provide for my family. I am all raw, and high fruit. I don’t do well with nuts, they make my tummy hurt. I made a few ground rules, maybe they will help:
1. Only buy produce on sale, no ifs, ands, or buts… I only buy whatever fruit and veg is on sale. Some weeks I may eat only bananas or apples. Whatever I can manage. Right now watermelons are in season, and I can get a huge, huge melon for 1.99. So that’s what I’m eating/juicing at the moment.
2. Make the produce manager your best friend. I get produce for free now from time to time! I ask every time I hit up the market whether they have any bruised stuff in the back. They almost always do – and I get it for free or at a serious discount. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
3. Sprouting is such an economical way to get a lot more stuff out of a little. I have sprouting jars and always have quinoa and other seeds sprouting away. It’s nice to look at, nice to eat in my evening salads (well, not this week while I’m juice festing). And cheap cheap cheap!
Hope this helps!!!
Also, my two boys are now 100 percent raw. :) We did it! So yeah, they are learning the fine art of bartering and mono-meals, ha ha ha ha!
have you tried the wholesale fruit and veg market? I live in the UK s it is probably different, but ask any fruit and veg shop/stall where they go to buy their stock. There is one in every big town here and the savings are amazing. You don’t have to be in the business to buy there, anyone can.
littlebirdie: great suggestions! i will talk to the produce manager at our whole foods and see what he/she says :) and it’s nice to hear your boys are raw! mine are moving from SKD (that’s standard kids’ diet: some fruit, nuggets, pizza, hot dogs, few veggies, waffles) to veggie, with lots of raw too.
zoe: there aren’t any markets like that in nyc, i don’t think..someone correct me if i am wrong. i do find buying bananas by the case to be cheaper. I can get them by the case for 20 dollars. Is this comparable to other parts of the country?
kminty: yes, I am moving in the sunflower seed direction too, and flax seeds are cheap aslo
mon46-looking forward to chatting!