Eating Healthy Costs a Small Fortune

I like to think my family is like any other family. We laugh together, we cry together, we confide in one another, and we leave grocery shopping until the last minute and run out of food.

When I say we run out of food, I don’t mean it in the sense that there isn’t a morsel to be found in the house. What I mean is, what remains could be consumed by either a child under the age of six or an adult during a zombie apocalypse. First world problems and all that, I know…

On Wednesday night my wife told me that we were out of food. We would have to scrape by for dinner but she would run out after her exercise class and pick up groceries. She would have to skip one of the classes to get to the grocery store at a decent hour so I told her not to worry, I’d run out early in the morning and pick up a few things. She agreed and the following morning I made a run out to Walmart.

The idea was to pick up a couple of items to hold us over until my wife could get to the store to do the usual grocery shopping. Both my wife and I are trying to live a healthier lifestyle so I spent a fair bit of time in the produce section.

• Watermelon – $5.98
• Tomatoes – $3.38 (1.96lbs at $198 per pound)
• Green Beans – $1.50 (0.76lbs at $1.98 per pound)
• Plums – $6.38 (2.14lbs at $2.98 per pound)
• Apples – $3.30 (3.4lbs at $0.97 per pound)
• Bananas – $2.13 (4.34lbs at $0.49 per pound)
• Cantaloupe – $1.98
• Baby Spinach – $4.76 ($2.38 per 10oz package)
• TOTAL – $29.41

After I was finished in the produce section, I flowed farther into the store to pick up some meat.

• Chicken Breast – $7.53 (3lb package)
• Pork Loin Chops – $6.00 (pre-packaged at 1.61lbs)
• TOTAL – $13.53

From there I picked up some other odds and ends before heading to the checkout

• Bottled Water – $7.00 ($3.50 per package of 35 bottles)
• Light Caesar Dressing – $2.98
• Greek Yogurt – $3.38
• Bacon – $3.94
• TOTAL – $17.30

If you’re following along, that is a Grand Total of $60.24 for healthy food. Do you have any idea how many boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese and Ramen Noodles I could buy for $60.24! The amazing thing out of all this is that the bulk of what I bought is for lunch and snacks. We still have to buy dinners and miscellaneous items yet!

I’m really hoping to slash the cost of produce during the next few months by finishing off our garden. We have about 48 Square Feet of planting space and I’m hoping to use Square Foot Gardening to pack in the vegetables.

With the money we have been spending on vegetables these last couple of weeks, I’m wondering if it might be beneficial to buy into one of those crop shares that local farmers offer. You pay a certain amount of money up front and pick up a percentage of the yield each week throughout the Spring and Summer months. The prices I’ve seen haven’t been cheap but compared to prices at the grocery store, it might be a worthwhile option. I suppose I’ll have to take another look after seeing how the garden pans out this year.