Frugal Fridays: Update on the Food Stamp Challenge

Hi frugal friends, here’s what I’m learning in the Food Stamp Challenge.  It’s a little different than I thought.  What I’m finding is this: It actually doesn’t cost that much to go organic/local/seasonal, it just takes a lot more time and requires a return to simplicity.

::Cost. It’s actually been cheaper than I thought to make the switch to organic, local, seasonal. As I mentioned last week, finding a great deal on meat, stocking up, and using the freezer means the cost is pretty comparable to regular.  Organic whole foods aren’t that much more expensive, but organic convenience foods are very expensive.  Organic snacks, popcorn, canned food, etc. is very expensive. Thankfully, we don’t need those items anyway.

Part of the challenge is to live on whole, real food.  So, I actually bought a lot fewer items, but just lots more of them. Tons of oats, whole wheat flour, brown rice, dried beans, and whole wheat pastas.   I read the labels on every item I usually buy and was amazed at the fact that almost every packaged/bottled food contains either a soy or corn derivative (GMO) or artificial ingredients.  Hmm… So, I will admit that I just plain couldn’t buy a lot of stuff.   Salad dressing, regular chocolate, microwave popcorn–those were the ones I just had to take a deep breath and walk away from. 🙂  But instead we can make our own salad dressing, air-pop our own popcorn (and drizzle real butter on it!), and I even found all-natural organic dark chocolate at Trader Joe’s with no soy lecithin. It’s heavenly and worth the $1 extra.

:: Time. So, the real cost in this whole deal is time.  It does take a lot more time to do the organic/whole food thing on a budget. I spent pretty much the whole day yesterday stuffing and roasting a whole organic chicken, making quinoa and homemade bread, and making fresh fish stock and chicken stock from scratch.  It was definitely worth it as my freezer is full of nutritious, delicious stock, I have huge pot of homemade organic chicken-noodle soup, and Jeff about died over how good everything tasted.  I actually enjoyed spending all day cooking because it felt renewing and therapeutic after a busy few ministry days. I loved just standing over that huge pot of stock and inhaling the steam and skimming off the fat–I was alone with my thoughts and actually had time to just be. So, I loved it. But, I can understand that not everyone is a stay-at-home mom, and for some a day of cooking is not realistic.  (And even for me that’s often not realistic.)

::Seasonal. So, one of my big commitments was to eat seasonally and locally.  This is easy in the summer, not so easy in the winter, for obvious reasons.  Oregonians don’t do a lot of gardening in December.  So, if we really stick to it, our winter produce will mostly include squash, yams, onions, potatoes, carrots.  I’m actually fine with that, but it is a bit of a shock to think of going all winter without salad. I was talking to my dad and he was saying how when he was young that’s just the way it was–you went to the grocery store to find out if something was in season yet. “Nope, probably be another month,” they’d say. Then you’d try back again later.  We’re so used to convenience that we don’t even know there are seasons anymore.  So, it’s certainly not a moral issue, but I’m just aiming to shop in season as much as possible.  This means apples and pears all fall, lots of yams and onion soup in the winter, plenty of asparagus all spring, and all the berries and fruit we can stuff in our tummies all summer long.  Maybe the reason God gives us less food in the winter is because he knows all we want to do is curl up and snuggle under a quilt.  Then He gives us more fuel in the summer when we’re out running around.  Who knows, I’m just sharing our journey.

Overall, it’s been really fun so far.  A good friend actually set up a spreadsheet for us and we split up all the stores around town and documented the best price on whole/healthy/organic foods.  It’s been fun to work together and learn from each other’s shopping habits.

Bottom line? Eating whole/local/organic simply means a little more cost, a lot more time, and lot less variety.  Somehow for us it seems freeing–it feels good to need less stuff in our kitchen, and it’s fun to see how many things I can make from a few simple ingredients.  But I can definitely understand how it would be tough to make the switch if kids were already used to certain items, or if time didn’t permit an occasional day in the kitchen.

High/Low: My favorite part: fresh organic nectarines and dark organic chocolate. Amazing.  Least favorite part: sticking my hand inside that chicken to stuff it full of rosemary. It made it delicious but I’m not a fan of the stuffing part!

Please continue to share any frugal/fresh/local/organic tips.  I’m the newbie and there are a lot of experts out there so pass along the wisdom!