Eating Organic Food on a Budget

We understand that many household budgets are stretched at the moment, including our own, however we would never compromise on something as important as the food (fuel) we are putting into our body and our children's bodies, as we strongly believe that food is medicine (as we have seen this to be true from personal experience and the experience of our customers time and time again) and we would reduce spend in other areas such as social activities including eating out, buying second hand where possible, hand made gifts for friends and family, deleting a streaming service etc...

We have put together some tips for eating organic food on a budget to help you keep organic food on your essentials spend list.

And actually what we found when we first started eating organic, healthy food is that by cutting out prepackaged conventional and convenient foods, and eating with fresh ingredients, our weekly food bill actually reduced. Key is to keep it simple!

Budget friendly organic eating tips:

• Plan your meals, then write a shopping list and stick to it! You'll save money by only buying what you need for the week which may give you a little more wriggle room in your budget for buying more organic foods.

• Get your apron ready! We make a lot of our snacks from scratch. In doing so, most of the food budget can go towards organic produce, meat, and dairy. This is much cheaper than buying prepackaged snacks that are often priced as high as $5 per box! To save time, I double the recipe of whatever it is I am making, and freeze the second batch for later.

• Buy dried, tinned and frozen organic foods as well as fresh – they’re often cheaper, last longer and can be just as good for you. We have a great selection of organic canned and tinned goods.
  
  
• Use organic meat and seafood as a condiment only, ie. tossed through pasta, on a pizza, Mexican dishes etc rather than being the main event in a meal to reduce your costs.
  
  
• Use more vegetables and pulses - good quality organic meat and fish usually cost more so introducing a few more vegetarian meals into your family menu can help save you money. Check out our delicious creamy vegetable slow cooker curry recipe for inspiration. This nutrient packed organic meal is less than $10 per serve. 
  
  
• Eat what's in season, it's not only most nutritious and tastiest produce available, but also available in abundance, so in season produce is more reasonably priced than produce not in season. We only sell seasonal produce, so you can't get it wrong when you shop with The Organic Scarecrow!
  
  
• Reduce your food wastage, because when stored correctly, organic produce can last much longer than conventional fruit and vegetables because they are fresher (not been in deep freeze for months or years!). To ensure you are storing your produce correctly, see our storage tips blog.
  
  
• Click and collect to save time and money, conveniently order online and then collect your organic food shopping for free from our Brookvale warehouse, saving you the cost of delivery. 
  
  
• Buy bulk or imperfect produce, big savings can be made on buy surplus stock or things that might look a little funky but still taste great and are full of nutrients and free of nasty chemicals. This kind of produce is perfect for freezing or using it in big cook ups to freeze for later, to enjoy in smoothies and juices. Check out our new 'Juicing and Bulk Buys' collection to easily shop from.