Help with Prices at Healthy Grocery Stores

We are doing the same thing too! We normally shop at walmart and giant eagle, but have discovered Whole foods! It is so wonderful yet so pricey! I have searched Walmart and I can actually find a lot of organic foods there. We have done away with fruit snacks and turned to fruit leather, for example, and walmart carries the brand that we found at whole foods...and it is cheaper! They also carry lots of whole grain pastas, and Paul Newman brand foods, which are normally more wholesome. Eggs, Annie's brand foods, organic canned veggies are all foods that I can buy at walmart. We do however purchase milk, and most of our dairy from whole foods due to the hormone free products. Giant Eagle, too, has a small section dedicated to non modified foods. I did go to the whole foods website and found a news letter that does have coupons in it. You can try it!

I live in Westerville too and we buy a lot of our food at Costco near Polaris. There are lots of organic foods there in bulk that are cheaper than buying them at the grocery (though organic is always more expensive than non-organic) and their non-organic foods are top quality (produce, meat, bread, etc). Even frozen veggies there are great cheap and prganic.
HTH-
J.

Hi T. - have you considered joining a produce co-op? I believe there is one in the area for locally grown organic produce. I don't belong, but I've seen it advertised in the local smaller papers. I really like the garlic and peppercorn marinated pork tenderloin at Trader Joe's. You get two for around $8-$10 and they are OUTSTANDING on a grill. If you are talking about cost-comparisons, try the Grocery Game. She tells you how to buy things in bulk/when/what coupons to use, etc. It costs $20 every 2 months or so. I used it for a while and thought it was worth it because you got to choose the products you were interested in and print off the shopping list. You don't have to clip the coupons, you just keep the circulars from the paper. Good luck!

We shop a little bit all over. But I would say that Trader Joe's is affordable (most things anyway), but that unless you need something really hard to find, I avoid Whole Foods, becuase it is so expensive. I also shop at Costco, which has lots of organic options and I shop at Giant Eagle or Kroger, which have expanded their organic sections. Good Luck!

If you are looking for natural, green, organic options in the personal care department, don't spend your money at health food stores if your goals is chemical-free. Most of the natural, organic options have just one or two organic ingredients mixed in with lots of chemicals. Since labeling is not regulated, companies can put the words on the label and not follow through with the ingredients. To ensure you are getting what your paying for, look for the ACO (Australian Certified Organic) or USDA logos - they are the two most stringent and require the product to be to food grade standards. Therefore, you're feeding your skin what you'd also put in your mouth.

If your interested further in this topic but don't have much time to research, I'm doing some presentations on it...
http://www.organicology.com/seminars. You'll get tons of info to use when shopping in any personal care department.

As far as food, I've cut costs by keeping lists and sticking to it. When I don't have a list I end up buying a lot more than I need and throw out some - especially organic produce. I think Trader Joes has some great frozen options - specifically best price for frozen wild salmon.