Where has the money gone?!

Yesterday I spent yesterday going grocery shopping.  Weird, you say, grocery shopping doesn't take me  an entire day to do.  Well, it might if you had to drive 35 minutes to get to the Farmer's Market and Whole Foods, just to drive home and finish your shopping at Bi Lo.  The Farmer's Market is actually a pretty cool place to spend a Saturday morning.  There are so many crafts to see and organic, locally farmed food that is cheaper than grocery stores.

I have to admit that I am grateful for a reason to swap over to a GMO-free, more organically inclined lifestyle.  It is something I have thought about for a while but could not justify the extra money.  I wish I could go on and on about how I feel amazing and have all this energy that I didn't before, but the truth is with New Baby (NB) on the way, everyday I feel pretty much the same:  exhausted, hungry, and nauseous.  However, the good news is this:  Intellectually, I know why planning out a natural, organic diet is best for me and NB.  First off, I know that I need to keep as many toxins out of my body as possible so that my liver does not have to filter them because I am trying to keep my liver in tip top condition (Hopefully this will make it really hard to succumb to HELLP syndrome).  Secondly, you, quite literally, are what you eat.

However, I'm sure you've been wondering when I am going to start posting about the expense of eating organic,  That starts now.  HOLY COW.  It is so stinking expensive.

The hard part is that eating organic is truly a worthwhile venture.  The difference in my life due to eating organic food and/or food that does not have GMOs, artificial ingredients, or food coloring is unmistakable.  I have more energy and fewer routine illnesses.  I can count the number of headaches I have in a year on one hand.  My ADD is reined in.  My skin color even looks healthier.  Those are descriptions of my life personally.  Eating organic is also good for the environment and keeps all kinds of cancer causing toxins out of your body.

So how am I supposed to balance organic consumption with a pocketbook that is now going to be looking out for four human beings??

While there doesn't seem to be any such thing as bargain shopping at Earth Fare, I have come up with somewhat of a middle ground.  Below I have listed both the "Dirty Dozen" (which is actually 14 at this point) and the "Clean Fifteen."  As you might guess the "Dirty Dozen" is a list of foods that if you don't buy anything else organic, you should these, either due to the nature of the food or the accepted process of growing the conventional variety of these particular foods.  The "Clean Fifteen" are foods that are considered to be generally as good conventionally as they are organically, and my pocketbook approves of the conventional prices.

Dirty Dozen

• Apples
• Strawberries
• Grapes
• Celery
• Peaches
• Spinach
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Nectarines
• Cucumbers
• Potatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Hot Peppers
• Summer Squash
• Leafy Greens

Clean Fifteen

• Onion
• Sweet Corn
• Pineapple 
• Avocado
• Cabbage
• Sweet Peas
• Asparagus
• Mangoes
• Eggplant
• Kiwifruit
• Cantaloupe
• Sweet Potatoes
• Grapefruit
• Watermelons
• Mushrooms

Technically not in the "Clean Fifteen" but still fine to buy conventionally

• Smelly produce like garlic and shallots (thought shallots count as onions, don't they?)
• Cruciferous veggies (pests are warded off by the sulfurous smell)

The bad news is that with my liver healthy diet, I am supposed to eat a lot of berries and fruit on the dirty list.  I try to think about it in the way that if I would eat the skin of the fruit, it's generally a good idea to buy is organic.  That being said, of the clean food, onions, avocados, and grapefruit were on my list of liver super food.  So...whoop! whoop!  There's definitely some workability.  I think the skill is going to come in budgeting our meals by balancing the organic with conventional.  

What are your money saving tricks for your natural/ organic life style?