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How To Save Money Buying Natural Organic Food

Buying organic foods is a growing necessity for many families. The more concerned we become about the pollutants and chemicals in our food, the greater the need for organic replacements. However, it’s not always easy to go down the organic route as this can be expensive for many families.

Here are a few tips to help you save on organic foods:

#1 – Buy in season. Seasonal product cost less and is also better for you. Our bodies are designed to eat according to our environment and buying in season helps you achieve this. In the summer we need more watery foods like cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. These also have higher sources of vitamins and nutrients designed to help us during the summer months. In the winter our bodies need the dense energy found in root vegetables such as squash and pumpkins.

Where possible choose seasonal fruit and veg for your table. If you frequent organic farmers market this is quite easy to do as many tend to grow only in the season.

#2 – Grow your own. Growing your own is more popular than ever. It really isn’t too difficult or time consuming to grow your own veg.  You don’t need to go down the route of being completely self sufficient (unless you’d like to be of course), you can simply grow a few vegetables here and there to help make a dent in your food bill.

It’s also very rewarding to grow your own. One of the easiest vegetables to grow is lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers. All are quite pricey if purchased organically at the supermarket and you can easily grow your own at home even with little space.

Try your hand at growing different varieties of fruit and veg and you may just find you get hooked. There is nothing more satisfying than growing and harvesting your own food.

#3 – Buying local versus organic. Many small local farmers use ethical methods for growing their foods – meaning they reduce the amount of pesticides and chemicals used and grow in the most natural way possible. However, many are not certified organic farmers as this can be a pricey and lengthy process for the average small farmer.

In this case, it may be best to weight out the options of buying local versus imported organic. Imported organic fruit and veg is harmful to the environment because of the transport issue and also tends to loose more nutrients and vitamins due to long storage times. Buying local, fresh, in season produce may be a better alternative in a lot of cases.  The decision is ultimately yours. You may be also lucky enough to have a local, organic farmers market near you – although pricier it is the best of both worlds.

Buying organic foods is possible with a little research and persistence. It’s also worth adding that buying and cooking foods from scratch may be cheaper (even organic varieties) than buying pre-packaged foods – not to mention better for you.

You can also look at other ways to cut back in your budget, such as eating out less and use the extra funds for your organic food budget.