My Current Way of Grocery Shopping

So I promised that I would update about how I am eating more natural and organic foods now, but actually spending less on my groceries. It's all about choices and going for the fruit and vegetables.

My favorite quote from Marion Nestle's book, What To Eat, is "the basic principles of good diets are so simple that I can summarize them in just ten words: eat less, move more, eat lots of fruits and vegetables". And so I took that same philosophy and applied it to my life and my way of shopping for groceries....I have decided to try and eat less in general and of the things that I know are not good for me, exercise more (which includes moving through the aisle of junk food faster-or completely passing them by) and eating lots more fruits and vegetables.

So here's what I do:
1. I try to spend 50-75% of the grocery money on fruits and vegetables alone. If they are in my house I tend to eat more (and if there not there, there's no way I'll go out of my way to get em).
2. I use the list that includes the dirty dozen fruits and vegetables, so I can spend the extra money on the organics that are more important and buy conventional fruit/veggies for those further down the list.
3. I have also stopped buying premade and prepackaged food almost completely (even if they are natural/organic-it's much cheaper and usually still healthier to make them myself).
4. I spend some of the remainder of the money on organic chicken and eggs. I do have a freezer full of natural beef, so that does help.
5. I try to get more iron and protein from natural sources, such as spinach for the iron and beans for the protein (which happen to be cheaper than meat anyway!).
6. I have stopped using coupons, except for the occasional items. They tend to make coupons for overpriced items that I don't really need and that have a lot of packaging! Besides store brands are usually cheaper even without a coupon.
7. I write a list of general things I need, watch for good sales on items I use regularly and try to avoid the aisle that are full of foods my body doesn't need.

At home, when I feel a want a snack I try to eat a fruit or vegetable first...that doesn't always fill me up, but then I don't eat quite as much of something that isn't as healthy. And eating the fruit and veggies first insures that I'll reach or get closer to the recommended daily value. Feel free to share you ideas for lowering your grocery bills while eating healthy.

Hope you are all having a beautiful spring day :)