Saving on organics

It's been a while since I posted anything. I moved to Spring and then had my tonsils out so right now I'm recovering at my family's house. 

Today I want to touch on a topic that many would-be coupon users or anti-couponers find to be their biggest obstacle. It’s the belief that coupons are mostly for junk food and the myth that there are no coupons for organics. Also a little of my own beliefs about organics and getting the best food you can in your circumstance.

Everyone wants to feed their families healthy, fast and easy meals; and I’m sure the public is quite educated on exactly what healthy is, though some vary in beliefs. Organic, whole grain, less sugar, low fat and natural are the new hype words for “healthy” food today. Is it possible for a busy working or even stay at home mom to cook 100% healthy 100% of the time? I believe realistically no, but it doesn’t hurt to try your best, right?

Organics and other health foods; the good, the bad and the expensive:

Our FDA has regulated that for something to display the word organic on its package it has to have 95% organic material, so 5% of the ingredients are not organic and usually the funky additives that’s in the cheaper non-organic stuff. Also organic doesn’t mean its not a GMO (genetically modified food), and before you start thinking what’s the big deal about getting a bigger juicer tomato, GMOs have led way to less nutritious produce (kick out the nutrition genes and keep the size and longer lasting genes) and also stranger things like a type of genetic pesticide so the tomato repels and sickens the bugs instead of inviting them, makes you wonder what it does to our kids. But that’s in all our food organic or not, it’s pretty inescapable.

So what’s the best solution for produce? Gardening. Even if you live in the desert you can container garden. Years ago the average family had a victory garden, so don’t think it’s impossible.

 Next let’s talk about organic meat. These are pricey and yet well worth it. But some people just can’t afford it. Even if it is just part time it’s financially feasible to incorporate organic meats into the family budget. One tricky way is to go to the store (HEB has awesome organic selection of meats) and look at the dates of the meat, make a note of them and ask the butcher how far before or after the date they put it on sale. Go for the sale, your meat will be slightly higher than the best cut of regular un-organic. Also you can use less meat. Make a pound stretch over two dinners and shrink that waistline.

Organic dairy is nice and almost indispensible. I get coupons for it all the time so I never have to pay full price. When an organic dairy coupon comes out in the paper remember to buy extra papers and email the organic companies often.

Lastly is packaged organic foods. These I tend to avoid since they are little different than their non-organic counterparts and vastly higher in price and rarely on sale. Organic corn syrup is just as bad for you as regular corn syrup, the processing is worse than how its grown. Processed food= little nutrition= no value.

So in conclusion yes there are ways to save and make organic (better) eating much more affordable. Yes there are organic coupons available on a regular basis. Its up to each one of us how much time and effort we are going to put into our health. Little effort gives little rewards, as for great efforts reap great rewards.

Good luck in your endeavors of finding the best food to suit your family’s needs!