As promised, here are my ‘Cheat Sheet’ Shopping Lists for the local grocery stores in my area. If you have these stores in your area too, you can use these as a general guide as to what to buy. However, remember that everyone may have a different definition of Real Food and my food may not be foods you would choose.
If you want to understand how I define Real Food, check in tomorrow for my mini post about what Real Food means to me and what I look for in Real Food products!
Since I’m just starting out and still learning, some foods may fall into the ‘Good’ Category, some in the ‘Better’ and some in the ‘Best.’ I’m working on making it so I’m eating entirely in the ‘Better’ and ‘Best’ Categories, but I’m still learning what and where to buy so it will take some time.
The way I did my lists was to determine what foods at each store met my Real Foods criteria and who had the best prices. If they met both the Real Food and Best Price criteria, they went on the list for that store. I did not list every possible Real Food item you can get at each store, because it would get super redundant. I only listed what I would buy from each store based on my research. So if you see something on one list, but not another, it does not mean you cannot get that item at that store, it simply means I found it cheaper somewhere else (or it’s not something we buy! We have likes and dislikes, ya know?? For example. I detest bananas. You will NEVER see a banana on my list or in any recipe. EVER. They are evil.)
I did not list all the potential organic produce you can find at each store either because prices vary regularly and where I buy also depends on the quantity I need any given week. For the most part, I will be trying to buy my produce locally from the Farmer’s Market as often as possible. I also will be using the Dirty Dozen, Clean Fifteen rule when purchasing produce at the grocery store. I listed all Clean Fifteen produce you can purchase at Aldi, and left the Dirty Dozen to Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, or BJ’s depending on who has the best price that week. If you want to check out the Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen lists, click here.
On to the Lists!!
Since I am trying my best to stick to a budget, my first investigation was Real Foods at Aldi, since they have the most competitive prices around. Here’s the list I have compiled for Aldi:
Next I scoped out Trader Joe’s (who is owned by the same parent company as Aldi). Trader Joe’s is new to my area and is known for it’s Organic, Health conscious products. After talking to one of the Trader Joe’s employees, I learned that they also do not use any GMO’s, or artificial colorings of any kinds in their products. Not all their products are organic, but many are and the majority of their products are made with natural ingredients. They do their best to only sell products that are produced using sustainable and humane farming measures as well.
After Trader Joe’s I headed to Wegmans. For those of you not in the North East, Wegmans is like the grocery store you would find in Heaven, if Heaven needed a grocery store. I would 100% shop at Wegmans all of the time if I could afford it. They are not outrageously priced, but they are still a bit out-priced for our budget. Especially after shopping at Aldi for many years, it’s really hard to leave Wegmans with three small bags for the price of a cart load of Aldi’s groceries. Wegmans also has the largest and widest selection of Real Foods, they just don’t always have the best price. But like I said in my last post, if you can only shop at one store, Wegmans is your best bet to get everything you need in one trip. My list for Wegmans is significantly shorter because I do the majority of my shopping elsewhere for budget’s sake.
My list is almost equally short for BJ’s wholesale club because their products are all sold in bulk quantities, and as a family of two, we don’t often need such large quantities unless the product can last for some time. You do need a membership to shop at BJ’s so keep that in mind when compiling your store lists. BJ’s has really been expanding their organic and natural products so I will continue to look for new items. Here is what I’ve found so far:
Lastly, I stopped at Feel Rite Fresh Market, a local organic and natural food store chain. I did not do a ton of browsing there since I had already been to four stores already. They are a smaller chain, so they don’t have the most competitive prices, but they do have decent organic produce prices and some competitive dairy prices. I stopped here for my eggs. My friend Meg tipped me off to their pasture raised eggs. They were the only store that actually carried pasture raised eggs, as opposed to organic, cage free eggs. I opted for pasture raised but the implications as to the chicken’s life and grazing are very different than simply cage free. I am hoping that I can get my eggs at the Farmer’s Market from here on out because thus far, they will still have the best price for pasture raised eggs. But Feel Rite will certainly do in a pinch! I did not get anything else from there so, alas, there is no list.
Okay folks, that’s all I got. Good luck shopping and try not to strangle a random stranger in the meat aisle when you are feeling frustrated to have to work so hard just to eat what God intended. Take deep breaths and remember that the narrow way has so many amazing rewards.
Like ice cream. And the peace that comes from knowing you are doing the best you can for your body.
And since it’s Friday night and I like to party, here’s a hilarious gift to send you off on your weekend in style. I present, the owl and cat who are friends and like to play together in adorable and amazing ways. Enjoy.
Ditching the Processed. 