photo credit: striaticShopping for grocery items at the health food store can be a little stressful for a family who is frugal. My oldest son has severe food allergies, so we frequent several of the local grocers who specialize in the lines of food he can eat. Incidentally, most of these health food stores carry products that are dairy, egg, and peanut free (among other allergen free products). So every couple weeks, I stop by and pick up some items that he eats. When you purchase these products, you pay a very large premium to ensure they are allergen free, organic, natural, etc. My family purchases these special food items out of necessity, not as a luxury. But I often wonder how other families treat these purchases? My friends, family, and co-workers I talk with prefer to spend the premium on these health food items as they feel the products are better for their body. While I completely agree with them, I also have a difficult time balancing my frugal way of life with paying premiums for these items.
I stopped in at one of these specialty stores this past weekend to pick up a carton of non-dairy soy based butter for my son and some soy mozzarella cheese. I am not really sure if you can even call the soy based cheese product actual “cheese”, but that is how it is labeled. My son enjoys eating pizza and we use this as a topping for him. He has actually never eaten real cheese, so the soy product tastes are what is normal to him. Anyways, my total bill with tax rang up to just over $10! The butter will last him about one month and the soy cheese will be good for two rounds of his dairy free pizza. If I paid a premium on all of our grocery items like I did with the butter and cheese, we would never be able to balance our monthly budget.
While the health food industry has seen a boom in the past decade with stores like Whole Foods, I wouldn’t say that allergen free and natural products have become mainstream yet. Sure, you can find products like Soy Milk at most local grocers these days, but to find most healthy food items you still have to shop at a specialty store. You can also find organic labeled products at a lot of grocery chains but you are still paying a very large premium for these items. There just doesn’t seem to be a frugal way to shop for these products, or at least I have not found one yet. As a result, I decided to put together a list of the frugal pitfalls my family has experienced when purchasing heath food and allergen free food items.
- Coupons – While there are some brands that you can find that offer manufacturers coupons, there are very few. Silk Soy Milk is one that comes to mind that offers coupons from time to time. The Silk products are also found in any major supermarket chain which helps to bring down prices a lot. At times you can actually buy Silk products cheaper than you can purchase cow’s milk. I have also seen some coupons for organic products offered by large manufacturer’s. While there are some coupons out there for organic products, there are very few for most allergen free items. Clipping and using coupons is at the heart of every frugal shopper. If you don’t have access to any, it makes it very difficult to purchase these items. I can say that I have looked up and down for coupons for the soy butter we buy for my son and have never found any.
- Organic – If my wife and I had the extra money, we would probably always choose a product labeled as organic over one that is not. However, I often wonder how much cleaner and safer an organic product actually is. I think this is especially true with fruits and vegetables. The local news actually ran a story a few weeks back studying organic lettuce against non-organic lettuce for several different producers. They found that the non-organic lettuce was just as safe as the ones that were organic. Basically, the study said that their were no traces of any chemicals on the non-organic lettuce and the products were virtually the same. The only difference was the premium you were paying for the products with the organic label. Now I am not saying this is always the case with organic foods, but I believe it sheds some light on the premiums you are paying at the store. I can also say that my wife will never again purchase organic lettuce after she brought some home from the store and rinsed out a couple hundred small insects from one. She hates bugs (a lot), and after that experience, she prefers to eat lettuce that has no little tiny creatures living in it!
- Locations – As I mentioned earlier, I always have to shop at specialty stores to get products for my son. That means that I normally have to drive further to make these purchases, and the competition for some of these stores is scarce. That means they can charge a premium for their products because of supply and demand.
- Seasonal – A lot of organic fruits and vegetables tend to be seasonal because of a reliance on local farmers. For example, you couldn’t find too many organic tomatoes grown in the Midwest during January. Since I like to eat tomatoes year round, I would basically need to rely on purchasing organic tomatoes shipped in from Florida or California. I would think that the prices would definitely be higher on organic fruits and vegetables when they are out of season in your local area.
I can understand why a lot of the products my family purchases for our son come at a premium. It costs more money for the manufacturer to ensure a product is allergen free. But even more significant (I think) is that they also need to ensure that it is produced in an allergen free facility. That means that when a product is produced, the equipment and facility cannot contain any of the harmful allergens. This is especially important to people who have severe peanut allergies. To some, even touching an item with peanut residue could kill them. Fortunately my son’s peanut allergies are very minor compared to most and we have to worry more about dairy products.
I can also understand why most organic food items require a premium price as well. Instead of relying on chemicals and sprays to keep the products pest free, you need to pay people to do the same work. In addition, an organic farmer risks more crop loss than one who uses chemicals. All of these factors have a direct result on the price you are paying at the store.
I have written other posts that debate frugal living vs. some other factor. This is just one more debate that my wife and I go through every day. While there are some products we purchase for our oldest out of necessity because of his food allergies, we don’t always purchase organic or other healthy labeled food items because of the premiums. In the end, we basically debate each item one on one. We would love to buy all organic products for our two boys, but at what point are you actually benefiting from these purchases?
How do you handle purchasing healthy items at a premium? Do you prefer to save money or spend more to feel safer?
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We like to buy organic as well, and purchase local as much as possible. To save money, we buy beef by the side from a local grass-based farm and milk from a raw milk dairy farm. We grow some of our veggies and get some from my parents for free. I also buy apples by the bushel form our local orchard–way cheaper than the stores!
I try to balance out my shopping. I prefer organic, but can’t always afford it. When it comes to produce I try to buy entirely from my local farmer’s market. However, I do most of my main grocery shopping a mega-store, I only hit the health food store on rare occasion, since I always over spend there. It seems I always find a few things I just can’t live without, which weren’t on my list. That never happens at the regular grocery store for some reason.
I’m supposed to avoid gluten, dairy, and eggs, which is a big reason I first started shopping at Whole Foods and PCC (they are a Seattle-based store but have an awesome selection of wheat-free and vegan foods in their deli area). I’m fortunate to be able to shop these places these days (I certainly had my shopping-in-the-parents’-fridge-and-hitting-the-99-cent-menu-at-the-fast-food-joint days!), but I am amazed at how expensive it is to buy gluten-free and organic foods. Don’t even get me started on the grass-fed meats!
If you haven’t read up on the Palo Diet, it might be something worth checking out. We don’t really *need* dairy or grains to live (in fact, there’s a lot of evidence that we’re better off not eating them), and if you drop cereal and cheese substitutes and the like (except maybe for special treats), you can shop just around the outside of any grocery store (where the fresh meats, fish, veggies, fruits, etc. are) and create a healthy balanced diet. Of course, veggies still manage to cost more than a big bag of Doritos, but that’s life, I guess!
We buy organic about 95% of the time. The only time we don’t is if we can’t find an organic version of the product we need. Groceries are by far our biggest expense. To make up for it, we spend almost nothing on entertainment, clothing (we only shop at thrift stores, and not very often), etc. We buy organic food not only because we don’t want to eat any chemical residues, but also because we want to support organic farming and “vote with our dollars.” We don’t want to support agriculture that involves spraying chemicals into the soil and runoff water around a farm. Instead, we’re willing to pay more for products that we know are not harming the environment with their production.
We grow a lot of our own produce, and I’m mostly vegan (I still occasionally eat eggs and cheese) – primarily for environmental reasons. Not buying dairy or meat means that we have more money in our grocery budget to buy organic food.
I am also a huge fan of organic and ‘good’ food. I just can’t eat bad cheese any longer for example, it doesn’t give me the same satisfaction as a delicious, more expensive piece.
The flavours aren’t there in heavily processed or chemical foods. I don’t taste ‘food’ I taste chemicals.
Fabulously Broke in the City
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver…
Yes, having to buy gluten free products for my husband does add an extra challenge to my frugal shopping. I get my weekly shopping from a discount supermarket that has good gluten free labelling(Aldi’s in UK) and then top-up with gluten-free pasta and cornflakes from Sainsburys once a month.
Jackie – Fortunately my son is not allergic to gluten. I couldn’t imagine trying to find food for him that is gluten, dairy, egg, and peanut free. Good to hear that you have your shopping worked out.
I buy organic as well and I can promise you I am very cheap about it. You’d be surprised how many manufacturers coupons there are for organic products. I always have a stash of Mambo Sprouts and Healthy Clippings booklets. My local organic market also takes printable coupons, so I make sure to check out Health E Savers and the Mambo Sprouts printables. Another great place to find coupons is in the free magazines you can get from the local health foods store. Delicious Living is one that comes to mind that usually has some good coupons in it. I also take a few hours every few months to contact companies I buy from regularly. Organic Valley is great about sending out coupons (though that isn’t much help to you because of the dairy-free issue). There are other companies also that will send out coupons every few months if you are on their mailing list.
Besides coupons, I also trim from the budget by buying from the bulk bins. Many times organic rice, beans, spices, and other grains are a lot cheaper if you buy them from the bulk bins. It’s also helpful because I can buy the quantity I need. I can buy a small amount of cardamom for a recipe instead of having to go to the spice aisle and shell out $9 for the bottle that will lose its potency before I finish it.
My budget for organics isn’t much higher than if I would buy the non-organic options. We really don’t buy much junk food- cookies, crackers, chips, etc because that’s wasteful and unhealthy regardless of being organic or non-organic.