I am in love with the farmer’s market, and I look forward to it every week. I don’t even want to sleep in on Saturday anymore (shocking!) because doing so would mean I miss out on browsing the heirloom tomatoes and sampling the local cheese. I don’t usually take T1 with me, but I did last week because I was meeting up with Kristin and I knew she could take a picture of the two of us. This was taken at Green City Market, my favorite Chicago market because of the selection, my least favorite because of the awful parking situation.

I came up with this idea a few months ago. I wanted to track what I bought, and what it cost, with my new farmer’s market habits, specifically because I think there are so many people who believe that localganic from the farmer’s market is completely inaccessible to them. It certainly is to some, but as I mentioned before we’ve decided that food is really important to us and we’re willing to sacrifice in other areas of our budget in order to allot the amount we need to eat this way. If you haven’t seen this series regarding what different families around the world eat in a week, I highly recommend it! Those photos are now part of a book, Hungry Planet.

Each time I bought groceries, at the farmer’s market or the grocery store, I came home and took a picture of everything all spread out on my dining room table. This was, of course, supplemented with the dry and canned goods that we already have in our cupboard. If you’re really curious to see how I used this you can cross reference everything using posts from my food blog.

Editors Note: I just wanted to clarify that this food was bought in Dallas, not Chicago, though I’ve found the prices here in IL to be somewhat comparable. Costs are slightly higher I think because producers have to come from farther away. I plan to do this another time next summer!

All organic except the milk, cream cheese, and pasta. Milk is lightly pasteurized and cream cheese is made from said milk.

All organic except the bread, milk, and eggs.

All organic except the milk, yogurt, butter (forgot to list the butter in the picture), and eggs

All dairy products and eggs seen above come from pasture-fed animals

I don’t have a picture of the snacks I bought for the Weddingbee Pool Party at Costco (fruit tray, vegetable tray, hummus, ice cream bats), but the cost was $35 and we ended up eating the leftovers for a few days. TH wasn’t working during this time period so he was eating at home during this time as well.

Grand Total for 4 Weeks of (mostly localganic) food: $239.59

I may have forgotten something, but as far as I can remember, the only times we ate out of the house for that 4 week period:

  • Central 214 for Restaurant Week dinner (free, paid for by Company X)
  • Warm Pear and Goat Cheese Salad for a client consult (Jenna Cole expense)
  • Halibut at a friend’s house (free)
  • Gone for 4 days for Maine wedding (Jenna Cole expenses)

You may have noticed a little thing missing from all of these photos? Meat! We aren’t completely vegetarian (I’ve adopted the term flexitarian), but at this point we eat it very, very rarely. We’ve officially been in Chicago for a month now, and I haven’t cooked any dishes including meat yet. We do have some goat meat (I was feeling adventurous at the farmer’s market) and ground beef in the freezer, but I’m guessing we won’t end up using them until sometime in November because the produce is just so amazing right now. Cutting back severely on our meat consumption has made a huge difference in our grocery bill, and I think this is how we can afford to buy everything localganic the way we are.

I hope this will help some of you consider whether localganic is a possibility for you, specifically during the summer when produce is the cheapest. I passionately believe in this movement for so many reasons and as more people join it’s only going to grow.

The best part? TH and I agree we have never been happier with the way we eat at home. Our simple meals are bursting with natural flavors and both of us are consuming more vegetables than we ever have before. I think I’ll have some squash chips for lunch today!

P.S.-I doubt it will matter for some of my most loyal opposition, but please do keep in mind that I’m opening up about my budget not because I’m looking for people to tell me why I’m entitled, spoiled, spending too much, or a myriad of other criticisms. We all spend our money differently and this is an intimate look into how we do it in That House!

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