Price List Restart, Part 1: Our food preferences

Every time I read about people's price lists/books, I want one. And I've tried many times. But I get overwhelmed and put too much in them. At least I think that's the problem.

But I need to come up with something. Our food spending is high, and I would like to see what I can do about that. My husband's opinion on budgeting is that as long as we tithe, pay our bills, and stay in the black, he doesn't really care about the rest. But I would like to do my best within that perspective as possible, as I appreciate how hard he works, and I want to learn to stretch his income.

I was just getting into my groove with shopping and monthly menu plans when we realized that dairy is causing our oldest to be constantly congested, with drainage and swallowing even while she sleeps. So now we are going dairy free (except Kitten Cat, as she only eats dairy!). So now I need to think this all through again. As I am long winded, I'll do it in parts for anyone who happens to read it.

Our Preferences

The newest preference is of course dairy free. While it isn't too difficult to change in my cooking, kids eat a lot of cheese, and I'm struggling to figure out what to make for lunch. And dairy alternatives are fairly spendy. Worth it though!

We are Torah observant. That means we observe the Levitical laws as much as we can. We offer our thanks to God by obeying His commandments even with what we eat. So no pork or pork products, including gelatin. And no shellfish, although that really didn't make it onto our meal plan before either :) And there is no kosher meat around here, although sometimes we can find kosher marshmallows!

We prefer organic whenever possible. We just rediscovered the Dirty Dozen list, and are evaluating our purchases based on that. Because organic is expensive. At least in the moment that is. Every time I try to talk myself out of getting organic, I get horrified by the thought of poisons in my children's food. Life is tough enough not to also eat things not made for our body.

We like whole foods, real foods. So no high fructose corn syrup, no fake food colors (Red 40, etc), no or limited processed and empty foods. And we try to include as many whole grains as possible.

The whole genetically modified issue is just on my radar, I haven't got a hold of that yet.

Whew, now that's processed on some level.