Hi friends! How are you?! Per popular request– I’m doing a post about our weekly grocery haul. The same question gets asked over and over again whenever I show the amount of fruit we eat: “How much do you guys spend on groceries?!!” I mean, the answer is, “more than we’d like to” haha. But that doesn’t mean we spend more than you guys would. I mean, I don’t know since I’m not at the store with each and every one of you– but compared to standard food prices and what we spent when we were just your standard vegan vs. high raw fruitarian vegan, is not drastically different.
I mean, in a perfect world, fresh real food would be exceptionally less money and more affordable to everyone. But unfortunately, that’s not the case. With government subsidies with crap products like sugar, cheapo dairy, corn, etc… well, junk food is pretty cheap for the masses. But even still, at the end of any grocery haul, you’d find that the most expensive products are the products that come packaged with an ingredient list. And the more affordable products come with zero packagings or very minimal (think dried beans and rice in a bag).
Also being vegan cuts out things like meat and dairy– which can both be rather pricey if you’re buying meat and dairy that are hormone and antibiotic free (which if you eat those things, at the very least you should be making sure that you’re avoiding hormones and antibiotics). If you want to go wayyyyy back to 2011, I did one of these “whats in my organic and vegan pantry” posts then. I bought a lot of fresh vegetables and some fruit then– but my pantry was also filled with canned products and some other processed goods. Today, we still buy canned coconut milk from time to time (rare though) and we buy dried beans and rice from time to time. And we always have at least one package of rice noodles and rice pasta in the cabinet, seaweed for sushi and dried for salads as well. But other than that it’s mostly fruit + vegan that you’ll find in our home. Oh, and Alex’s granola + peanut butter. I think he’d die without those things.
I’ve also shared our pantry situation in the past (when we lived in our other home) and our pantry set up in mexico as well, if you want to check those things out. But those two posts don’t come with a price breakdown. This post will (hooray!) I didn’t include what’s currently in our pantry in this post– I just included what our current grocery haul looks like– so you could have a real price break down on what we buy/spend weekly.
What We Buy In A Week As A Fruitarian High Raw Vegan Family
Now, I want to remind you guys that this list varies a bit week to week and month to month depending on what’s in season and on sale. We’ve been eating A LOT of grapes this month. They are on sale (hooray!) so it gives us an excuse to buy them– but I have to be honest, this is probably our biggest expense. We could save A LOT of money not buying grapes. (But yolo?) This week we bought a ton of strawberries since they were on sale— and fewer grapes. Great for Marlowe and Alex, but not so much for me, haha.
I also want to be totally upfront and let you know that this is more or less for 2.5 people since Alex does not eat most of his dinners at home. He’ll have juice with me in the morning (my favorite juice lately) and then usually an acai bowl or smoothie or whatever we make for lunch– but then dinners are typically just Marlowe and myself 5 days a week. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can see more of what we eat in a day post HERE. Again, it varies, but this gives you a general idea. And of course, What Marlowe Eats gives you a general idea of what dinners typically look like. At least for her. For me its been mostly fruit and salad lately.
During the week we typically do one big grocery haul (something like pictured above) and then we might pop into the grocery store one more time to refill on something if we need it. In the case of the week pictured above, it was bananas. We definitely needed to make another banana run. Which I know, people seem so taken aback when they see the number of bananas we eat– but we love banana ice cream and smoothies all day. It’s economical AND delicious.
In the fridge, we had two heads cabbage (we eat a lot of cabbage! — no we’re not that gassy, don’t worry), turmeric, gingers, maybe two carrots, and not much more.
One more thing I want to remind you guys of is that we grow food and have friends and family with fruit trees. This helps a bit. For this week pictured we had the bowl to the left with food– mangoes and passionfruit. And we ended up getting at least two-three more giant bowls of mangoes. We also ended up with a giant guanabana at some point (yum!). So we obviously don’t live off our garden and free food– but we love when we can take in a big lychee, mango, papaya, banana, whatever fruit haul!
We also buy a ton of the food at the market typically– where I can find much cheaper prices on cucumbers, ginger, turmeric, and more. We didn’t have time to go all the way there this week– so this is actually typically less food than we normally buy and at a higher cost too.
Last thing! Everything we buy is organic. Always. No exceptions. Yeah, because I don’t want to eat chemicals, but mostly because I don’t want to be an a-hole to the people who grow and harvest my food. They do not deserve that.
What We Spend In A Week As A Fruitarian High Raw Vegan Family
7.98 Coconut water
2.47 Yams
7.98 Cauliflower
1.24 Ginger
2.37 Broccoli (we always use the stems too.)
3.98 Roma tomatoes
7.98 Pineapples
6.99 Oranges (for juicing)
4.79 Dates
11.98 Acai (we can’t quit you. see our favorite acai bowl recipe HERE.)
7.49 frozen strawberries (we typically buy blueberries but got these to make Marlowe crepes. Turns out she doesn’t love sweet crepes and only wants dosas in her life).
1.99 Kale
25.53 Grapes
1.79 Romaine
1.99 Lettuce
1.73 Loose Carrots (SO much cheaper in a bag, but we’re trying to avoid plastic where we can. Womp.
2.98 Cilantro
1.27 Beet (this just reminded me that that’s probably still in the fridge and about to die, so I definitely need to eat it)
3.98 Celery. (it got cheap for a while and now the price is going up again– if you can even find it!)
1.32 Garlic
4.66 Rice noodle
4.99 Blueberry
8.49 Bananas
6.00 Cucumbers
TOTAL: 131.97$$
+ I’m not sure of the exact amount of bananas picked up at the store, but if you want maybe add another 8-10$ in more bananas 😉
Tada! Is it a lot of money? Is it a little bit? I don’t know. For us, it is a lot, but it’s worth it. We definitely don’t view it as an expense, but rather as an investment in our health. I don’t have any plans to change the way I eat anytime soon. We’re not bored with the food we eat, we’re not lacking in nutrition, and we have a home filled with real food. We eat mostly fresh raw food all day long– but there is plenty of food for cooked delicious dinners as well 🙂 We’re grateful for it for sure.
I’m curious to know what you guys spend in a week on food! I’m curious if this seems like a big expense or a little one for you 🙂 If you’re interested, please share below 🙂 Cheers friends!
13 Comments
Canadian family of 4 including 2 teenage boys. We eat alot more produce than you showed in your photos. My son and I have a long list of food allergies which can limit flexibility and increase price. We easily spend $175-190 each week. I have a large vegetable garden too which lowers costs.
I often spend more than that in a week for a fam of one adult/one toddler 🙈 so was taken aback by the number at the end. It was built up like it was going to be very high! But we live in NYC where prices are just consistently high. For $23 we get a fruit and veggie share from local farms that helps offset the cost, though we still buy some milk and processed foods (single mom life). Whole Foods has actually become one of the cheaper options when they have sales! Even the farmers market is expensive here.
Have been trying to incorporate more fruits and fewer processed foods into my diet after reading this. Grapes are on sale here lately too and have been my grab-food for all kinds of snack cravings. They’re the best!
I’m high fruit low fat vegan and I spend that on myself alone each week. I juice celery daily and go through a bunch of cilantro every two days, a bunch of parsley every day, etc. I love that you shared this because it helps me feel even better about the way I treat myself. Ah, the perks of living in the tropics! I’m working on the Mediterranean…lol, because I eat four or five oranges a day and am ready to move into the orchard!
I am impressed! The grocery bill for my husband and I is about $200/wk. its a pricey combo though. I eat mainly AIP but have a ton of food allergies. My husband still eats garbage and is not interested in vegetables so, I buy him organic versions of the crap food he eats. (It’s the best I can do). But add those two things together, and all of my veggies and fruits and the small amount of meat that I eat are organic, it’s pricey. Our food bill is more than our mortgage plus utilities!
I love posts like these! Did one on my old blog a few years ago as well. Family of two mostly dairy-free omnivores here, living in the PNW. Depending on how much of the pantry needs to be restocked, we spend between $65-$125 per week on groceries (including household toiletries and products too though) it usually is around $80 per week. We try to only eat out once a week, sometimes twice if we’re meeting friends. I definitely look at groceries as an investment, and will gladly pay more for organic produce and higher quality meats!
I am loving this post AND reading the comments. It’s so interesting! Echoing another commenter, I feel like the prices you pay for organic produce are beyond good! We spend about $66/week for two adults in the Czech Republic – vegetarian with some organic produce choices, cooking most meals from scratch. I’d really like to cut out more processed foods and make even more from scratch but some days get lazy/busy. Your blog always helps inspire me, though 🙂
Family of four in Canada – vegetarian – 150$ CAD on food a week. More or less. Almost all organic.
We are a family of 4 living in Hawaii and we probably spend $250/week, sometimes more. Produce is really expensive here but worth it. And I try to buy as much local as is reasonable for our budget.
i absolutely love everything about groceries and grocery shopping…planning, lists, looking at the receipt, strategizing so nothing goes to waste, etc!! so i love this post. and hmm… we are def more at the $150 a week mark. minimum. more if we reeeeally try to not eat out for a single meal, i would say closer to $200 a week. and that’s for our no-meat, family of three household. (should i blame brooklyn for this?) we do have a few of what i call “$10 dinners” each week, which would be something more expensive per person, for ex: frozen veggie burgers w/nice buns, or handmade ramen from the japanese grocery store. honestly most of the budget goes to fruit which is no complaint of mine! although i can eat through $20 of brooklyn farmers market berries in about thirty minutes…oops 🙂
My husband and I spend around $125 a week, sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less, for just the two of us. It’s definitely an investment in our health. I enjoyed reading about what you guys do!
We’re a family of 4 (my husband, myself and our 5 year old and 3 year old) living in PA and we are plant based. We spend about $80 a week and we do one big haul too. Something that really helps us is shopping in bulk for all of our grains, seeds, nuts, beans etc (I know you guys don’t eat a lot of nuts or seeds though right?) so that $80 a week is mostly produce which we get at our year round indoor farmers market (here in lancaster – thank god for those amish man). Such a cool post and I love seeing what other people spend and get for their weekly shopping hauls. Really inspiring! (side note: we use your cookbook all the time and love it!)
we’re a family of 4 (3 vegetarians, 1 omnivore). we probably spend about $100 a week on groceries (and that includes our toiletries). it’s mostly the fresh stuff we replenish (probably 50/50 organic) and we do have a garden. honestly though, it’s really only 3 of us that eat most of the meals at home. the omni buys his own meat and typically eats meats out, so that isn’t included in our grocery bill (and we have separate bank accounts sooo im not counting it).
we’ve really cutback on our pasta and canned goods and usually buy bulk quinoa, beans, etc.
we could definitely be better, though, for sure.
This was honestly just what I needed to read today! I almost asked you the other day about being a fruitarian and how to get started. I went raw many years ago while juicing for six months straight. It made me feel much more energetic and “high” on life. I miss that. I’m good about going raw during the day, but I am so hungry all the time, that by mid-afternoon/dinner, I end up eating cooked. While this read didn’t answer all my questions, it made me feel more motivated to continue going as fruitarian and raw as possible. Thanks!
P.S.
The prices you’re paying sounds reasonable to me for organic! Makes me think I could save if I give up my vegan t.v. dinners at night instead.
~Laurali