I wanted to talk about how I grocery shop today. The plan of the post (requested by a reader trying to determine if a Costco Membership was worth it while eating Paleo) was to detail what I purchase at Costco vs. Trader Joe’s vs. Whole Foods vs. Our Neighborhood Grocer. Yep I shop at 4 different stores. Not every single Sunday, but since I try and find the lowest prices and sometimes look for specific ingredients, there is never a one-stop shop.
Man, can someone in Sacramento get on that? That would be great.
So I took some pictures while doing my weekly shop last Sunday and worked to write up something cohesive that sort of explained what I buy where. But as I got into the post I started to experience a bit of anxiety. I was trying to communicate an answer to the original question – Should I buy a Costco Membership? I have very specific opinions on that subject, and they are of the HELL YES! variety.
You see for us, it pays for itself each year, and I mean that literally. We pay $100 for the Executive Membership, which offers a 2% cash back reward issued once each year and for us the reward is always more than $100. Yes, it is just the two of us, but between groceries (many which are cheaper than my other 3 grocery store options), household purchases (some are cheaper, some are convenient to pick up in bulk), gas (ALWAYS cheaper), clothing (cheap workout clothes, HOLLA!), booze (always cheaper) and the infamous “impulse purchases” (FUN!) we clearly spend the required minimum of $5000 per year there to make this a good trade off. That breaks down to about $400 per month and honestly between all those things I listed above, we are usually spending more than that.
But the longer the post got and the more stores I started to incorporate, the more I felt like I had to qualify our purchases. The truth is, I love Trader Joe’s (and I used to love it 100x more when I bought all their candy and frozen processed food and pre-made meals) but at this point in my life there are very few items I buy there without “making an exception.” I don’t like their meat (it tends to come from other countries and I live in California so I feel like the least I can do is buy local since it’s readily available.) Their produce SUCKS at all of our locations and the per unit prices are never competitive.
This only leaves a few items on our TJs specific grocery list which include Coconut and Olive Oil, Beef and Chicken Broth, Olives, Almond Butter, Lara Bars, Sunflower butter (Garrett’s addiction) as well as Nuts and Dried Fruit. I buy all of those things there because they are super competitively priced, but when I looked at the photos, I felt like “Wow, seems like a lot of processed food that I could make myself. Maybe I should be buying a better source of Coconut Oil. Shit, my favorite nut mix at Trader Joe’s has peanuts and that’s so not Paleo. People are going to judge the fact that I eat Sunflower Butter.”
Then I looked at the Whole Foods picture.
I basically go there when I want to buy fun stuff. Mint sparkling water to mix with Strawberry Infused Vodka. The Good Olives. Dark Chocolate because it is one of my only vices left. Specialty baking stuff. You know what is notably absent? High Quality Protein Sources. Whole Foods is full of that stuff but they are generally SO MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE that I don’t pick up my beef there, or my chicken. My god, the last time I bought lamb there it was $25 and only made dinner for one night, and lunch the next day. Do you know how many pounds of ground beef I can get at Costco for $25? TWELVE. Do you know how many meals that makes?
So then I felt like I had to add in this “We’re on a budget” qualification to my post. But I felt douchey about that because who ISN’T on a budget, hello. And when I do the math — the amount of money I spend between all 4 of those grocery stores each month is well over $800. And that’s down from last year when it was over $1000. I get myself over the sticker shock of that by reminding myself that we buy A LOT of things at Costco that contribute to that number that aren’t groceries, but still. I just didn’t feel right rationalizing our purchase of non grass fed ground beef by using the “Woe. We are on a budget so we only buy what we can afford” excuse. Because the truth is, we can be making better decisions on this VERY ADEQUATE BUDGET.
It threw me for a loop. And I immediately felt guilty.
You see, I roll my eyes when I see news articles and talk show segments talking about How To Slash! Your! Grocery! Bill! It’s not that I’m against saving a buck, but I feel in my heart of hearts that I want to be aligning my spending with my values. I say this out loud to people all the time when they ask if Paleo is expensive. Yeah it can be more expensive, but isn’t your health worth it? Behind a lot of those exclamatory article headlines tend to be tips like Buy Less Meat, or recommendations to add cheap filler foods like grains and pastas into your dishes to further your dollar and since going Paleo, that is just NOT a part of our lifestyle anymore. We chose this lifestyle because we believe that food is the 100% most important thing that nourishes our health. We have made some financial sacrifices for it, even. When Garrett and I talk about our budgets, quality food is an absolute non-negotiable. But I had clearly been negotiating my way out of this mindset without even realizing it.
And when I was writing this post and looking at the pictures I just nonchalantly snapped at Costco, it really hit me in the face.
I was actually really upset about it last night. You should have seen me, I was bucking for Best Dramatic Actress in my own kitchen about the fact that WE BUY FACTORY FARMED PORK, OHMYGOD — and luckily Garrett took me by the shoulders and asked the all important question:
“Holly, look me in the eyes. Is this you talking or your period talking?” 🙂
That guy! I don’t always smile when he asks me that question. Understandably, right ladies? But I was being melodramatic. And so if this post is starting to move in that direction again, I just want to clarify the point. The world doesn’t end if you are on a budget. The world does not end if you don’t buy meat that is raised by farmers who only give them positive affirmations and let them go night night on alpaca rugs. There are recommendations everywhere about how to prioritize your food purchases if you aren’t burning money in your fireplace for warmth.
I talk here a lot about my commitment to eating cleanly, and the positive changes that is has brought to my life, so I feel like it’s only honest to also acknowledge when I’ve gotten a little off track. It bums me out, honestly, but I’m going to do what I do best and evaluate where I am, evaluate where I want to be, and make a new list. A new grocery list, actually, and one that is more in line with my values.
That said, I still recommend a membership to Coscto! I mean where else can you find wild caught tuna, bison sausage, roasted seaweed ALL IN BULK.
Oh yes, and reasonably priced LARGE bottles of McCallan 12.
I mean we can’t all be perfect every day, now can we?
Great post Holly! Don’t feel guilty – you are being honest in an effort to help people – and there should be no guilt involved with that!
We too will spend a few hundred dollars at Costco a month and my Sunday route includes some variation of the farmer’s market, Trader Joe’s, Corti Brothers (lunch meat and Good Olives only), regular grocery store and usually Target too. That’s a lot of places and I realize families don’t usually have time to do all that, but it’s something that my husband and I enjoy doing together. Dare I say, it’s fun. I’m sure that our shopping excursions will change shape if our lives change later on, but for now, it’s what works for us – and I don’t feel guilty 🙂
Hey, it’s better than eating out all the time, right? Thanks again for sharing!
It is better than eating out all the time for sure! And that’s the other thing I say when people gasp over my $800 “grocery” budget for 2 people. Yeah, it’s a lot of dough, but it’s 3 meals a day 7 days a week for 2 people (we rarely eat out) so that’s like $5 per meal. Hello, some people will pay that for a Frappuccino, why not for dinner??
And you know what, I totally forgot about Corti Brothers. I love that store. I may have to hit that up this weekend, along with the Carmichael Farmer’s Market! 🙂
You’d think I’d have done that math before, but $5/meal is a great deal! Thanks for that 🙂
Yeeeaaahhh. Matt and I started (mostly) Paleo on Monday. On Saturday, we dropped $350 on groceries at Whole Foods. I agree that the money is worth it to eat whole, organic foods, but HOT DAMN. It’s going to double our grocery bill if we keep doing that.
Do you freeze a lot of stuff from Costco? I’ve never thought it was practical for just two people to buy groceries there, but perhaps I need to reconsider!
It totally does get better, but it IS pricey at first because you don’t know what to buy or how to be efficient with ingredients and all of that, so I totally get it. We spent a METRIC TON OF CASH on eating the first year. But you will figure it out, don’t let that discourage you. Right now just focus on working through your cravings, finding meals that work for you, figuring out what types of meals work when (high carb in the morning vs at night) and THEN try and cut back on spending. If you try to do it all at once is so overwhelming!!! Baby steps. 🙂
Thank you for this post! It was very helpful in my ongoing internal Costco debate. If we lived close enough to Costco to get gas there, it would be an amazing deal. I think I just need to jump in and try the basic membership for a year. The worst thing that could happen is that I don’t get my $50 worth.
I hear you on the food guilt. The more I read, the more important food quality becomes to me. But I LOVE getting good deals, and there aren’t usually coupons or sales on high-quality, local food. So I make a lot of compromises. I, too, buy all of my coconut oil and olive oil at Trader Joe’s because it’s so much cheaper, and I don’t notice that much of a difference in taste when we splurge on the pricy stuff. I buy a dozen farmer’s market eggs about once a month for making mayo, otherwise I buy the cage-free eggs at Whole Foods for about a quarter of the price. We’ve only been eating beef for about 6 months and we only eat it once a week, so I make grass-fed beef a priority, but I buy the not-ethically-raised TJ’s ground turkey for about three meals a week. I would love to buy only local/organic/ethical/pastured food, but then we’d lose other things in our life that we value. It’s a total first-world problem, but a hard one to reconcile. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I’m making a special trip to Whole Foods to get some of that mint sparkling mineral water.
Ha! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was trying to be helpful since you had asked and WOW — in the end that went in a total other direction! But seriously, I should thank you! I needed to re-examine my priorities.
It’s all give and take, I’m sort of doing a little less self flagellating today but you know, I am going to get more creative. I think I can do better, so darn it I’m going to try!
On the Costco debate, if you only buy toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning supplies there, you pay for your basic membership in 2 months. Add in that you can get metric tons of Advil and contact solution and stuff like that for half the price of Target or Meijer (which are already super cheap) and it’s so worth it!
I go through the same thing of wanting to go in on a grass-fed cow with someone, but at the same time buying the $12 ground chub (“we be chubbin'” — remind me to tell you that story sometime) of frozen meat from Costco.
Or wanting to buy a $100 heritage turkey for Thanksgiving and then just buying a Butterball from the Lucky.
Like you said, we can’t all be perfect all the time and it’s all about balance, I think.
Example: I am not into organic (at least not the high-cost way it takes to become organic here in CA), but I am pretty damn adamant that (when seasonally appropriate) we buy all our fruits and vegetables from the farmers’ stand (or grow it ourselves, holla!) I’d rather snack on fruits and veggies than processed chips and so what if the fruits and veggies aren’t organic? They’re better than Doritos. (Sweet, sweet Doritos, the glorious nectar of the chip gods.)
Also, I’m toying with the idea of making my own yogurt. Not because I’m concerned about what goes into most yogurts (although a little of that for LG’s sake), but more because we eat a lot of yogurt and I am cheap. Why not make it ourselves!
I’d love to buy free-trade coffee, but you know what? The big tubs at Costco are cheaper and more efficient. SO FUCK IT.
Basically, what I’m saying here, is that my life is so, so hard. PITY ME.
We be chubbin’ — OH MY GOD. You know I love this.
I also feel very MEH about organic, shockingly enough and way more passionate about local mostly because we live in CA, which I realize is sort of a food luxury. Garrett has totally rubbed off on me this way because he used to get his panties in a wad as an econ major (though as you know, it doesn’t take much for that guy LOL) about all the produce from Trader Joe’s being from Mexico when we live in the HEART OF THE COUNTRY’S AGRICULTURAL BELT.
Why am I buying artichokes from Chile when we live so close the Salinas and all that blah-de-blah. So now, it bugs me too! I’m determined to support the states economy, and I feel like if I’m eating lots of food that keeps me healthy, what’s a little pesticide!?! I’m being glib, but you know what I’m saying.
I feel you on the yogurt because I have a hard time with convenience type food that I feel like I can make (and make better and for cheaper!) myself. Things like Lara Bars and Beef Jerky and hell the other day I came across an article about how easy it is to make your own mozzarella and I was like WHY AM I BUYING THIS STORE BOUGHT GARBAGE? But you know…it is about balance. I’m not Ina Garten, I don’t create magical dishes in my barn and instead I work full time and try to have a life too.
So WHATAYAGONNADO?
//END RANT 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this. I sometimes feel crazy about how much I spend on groceries so it’s nice to know I’m not alone 🙂 I also definitely justify it to myself in that I am spending in line with my values. Having an abundance of good-for-me food in the house makes choosing the right things to eat a no-brainer. I only buy things that I truly love to eat and that are in line with my food philosophy (mostly Paleo plus some extras like brown rice and tortilla chips for my husband). I like feeling excited (or at least content) with what I have on hand so that I’m not tempted to indulge those “oh, chuck it! Let’s just get takeout” feelings, especially when tired.
I have a membership to BJs, which I never use 🙁 I may try it out again after reading your post. I don’t think it’s as nice as Costco, but it has some things that I like. We eat a lot of frozen wild caught fish and frozen veggies, so it might be a good place for those things. I quit Costco a while back because they make you either get their credit card or use debit which drives me crazy and messed up the way I manage my money (I use a rewards card for all spending). When this year is up with BJs (in a few months) I may switch back to Costco and just deal with it!
Although it’s not local (I sometimes have guilty feelings about this), I’ve been ordering my meat from US Wellness Meats online. I am in love with the quality and taste so it’s totally worth it for me. Plus, the convenience can’t be beat. I love getting a cooler full of deliciousness once per month. Their bacon is amazing! I rely pretty heavily on the ground beef and burger patties. Perfect for quick meals. I wish I could get all rib-eyes and roasts, but the ground stuff is way cheaper and very versatile. I am way less picky about my fish (I try for wild caught) and chicken (I mostly get organic, but not always). I’m also lazy about eggs – I just get the organic kind at the store or Trader Joe’s (I hit them for nuts, oils, etc. as well).
I feel you on the Costco debit thing. Totally irksome. Especially when you want to impulse buy things like PATIO FURNITURE SETS ON COUPON. Hello, Costco. I’m not paying for $1100 on my debit card when I could use a credit card and get some rewards! Not that I’m bitter or anything. (We don’t have a Costco AmEx and I am stubbornly avoiding getting one, dammit!)
I really want to try US Wellness Meats and I haven’t yet. Everyone seems to love them, but I do hem and haw about it not being local, but hell — Costco ground beef is from Canada and New Zealand, so obviously my logic is flawed. I think I’m going to peruse around their website! Thanks for the nudge! 🙂
This post is very timely for me because Darcy and I are about to sign up for Costco. Now that we will be home owners, we’ll have the space for all those bulk items that we didn’t have in our one bedroom apartment. And since I’ve been eating Paleo, I’ve really wanted to buy in bulk when it comes to meat and such. It IS expensive to get the good stuff but it’s worth it. I’m glad to read that Costco is good for the Paleo lifestyle!
I do love TJs for some items, most of which are for Darcy because he insists he will die without bread, pasta, and mac ‘n cheese. (I beg to differ.) TJs is great for cheeses but…again, not Paleo. There isn’t a TJ’s super close to where we are moving so I might end up at Costco & Safeway most of the time.
I don’t allow myself in Whole Foods because I want to BUY ALL THE THINGS. And I do not have the money for that.
Every time I go to Whole Foods I leave $50 poorer, with only 1 bag, and nothing to make an actual meal. I clearly need to rethink my strategy. 😉
Hey thanks for including my link !
PS I *love* Lara bars.
Have you tried the new Keen-wah decadence bars? They’re no Lara, but they’re still delicious. They were handing out samples at whole foods. Highly recommend.
No problem! Love your site. 🙂 I’ll have to look at the Keen-wah Decadence…anything with Decadence in the title appeals to me haha
I agree with you on TJ’s and Whole Foods. I have to go to TJ’s because it has the canned cat food my two cats eat and you can’t go changing up a cat’s diet all willy nilly. But it’s gotten to the point where I won’t buy anything else there but a few treats. And Whole Foods oh my dang that place is a mess and everything is so expensive, damn it all to hell. We have one right by us and I only go in once every like 4 months and then buy useless “healthy” junk food and spend like $80 for 2 bags of groceries. I do all my regular shopping at a ghetto Ralphs that actually has great prices. But I’m sick of the selection…. sooooo… we have a Costco REALLY close and I used to hate it like it was the devil. This post has convinced me to give it one more chance. Especially since I don’t have to go on the weekend anymore. I think I might go give it a try tomorrow. Nice “lifestyle blog” btw.
Oh, if you don’t have to go on the weekend Costco is SO MUCH NICER, I usually get there about 10 when it opens and it’s almost empty and I never have to wait in line.
Thank you for sharing. Awesome post and you spoke to my heart! I constantly feel guilty because we don’t buy organic, grass fed meats or organic produce. I spend a good chunk on groceries each month and it’s only 3 of us, one of which is a picky four year old who doesn’t eat much. But I do buy a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, and while we don’t eat Paleo I do try to feed us a healthy diet. I love Costco. I have to be careful every time I go there so I don’t empty my bank account at their register!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this post, holly! We’ve been doing paleo for about 5 months now and I was looking at our food budget and seeing where we fall, and we’re about $150/week for 2 of us, and we have a Costco membership. When I compared that to our food budget from a year ago, we’ve cut it drastically, also because we don’t eat out….well, er, we rarely eat out. I *may* have had a Chipotle steak bowl yesterday, but I needed it (period and all). After the initial setup of investing in oils and nuts and spices and coconut and almond flours, and arrowroot and stuff, it’s actually not bad pricewise.
Like you, I also hit up multiple stores to get the best prices and selection. In Chicago, we are very lucky that we live 6 blocks from a beautiful Mexican grocery store that has beautiful produce, much grown locally, for rock bottom prices. And while I tell people that eating “healthy” by shopping at Whole Foods is more expensive than eating processed foods, if you make an investment in your shopping (less than 2 hours per week for us) you can get awesome food and ingredients at good prices.
Now, if only I can get my diabetic mother to make some better choices….
The Food Saver is a great investment if you shop in bulk. We bought ours because my husband fishes a lot in the summer, but it great for the foods you buy in bulk. We will buy a bunch of chicken breasts, my husband will grill them all, and we vacuum pack them. We just pop them in the microwave and they taste great.
We don’t have many grocery shopping options where I live, no Whole Foods or Trader Joes, so we do lots of shopping at Costco.
Great post – thanks! I currently have some pork chops in my freezer that I bought because it was on sale , but it’s not organic or free range or anything and I actually feel guilty about it. I don’t want it now and I don’t want to just throw it out. And who would I give it to? I mean, it’s not good enough for me, but go ahead, have it?
We also spend a lot on food for a two person household, but like you, that’s breakfast, lunch and dinner so in the end it actually is cheaper and definitely healthier.
Holly! I love this post. Love.
I also tend to put food first when it comes to budgeting. (I mean, I have sports bras from high school, which was more than 10 years ago). Food is where my priorities lie.
For me, meat comes first. BUT I buy grass fed beef at Whole Foods or farmer’s markets, and regular chicken at Market Basket (a cheapo supermarket). I buy organic kale at Whole Foods and the rest of my veggies at Market basket because it’s unbelievable how inexpensive it is.
I like to tell my clients to find where their top food priority and buy the highest quality that you can afford. For me, those food priorities are beef and kale.
I also buy the dark chocolate/nuts/baking stuff/coconut milk at Whole Foods, but probably because it’s only a 5 minute walk from my house.
Thanks so much for sharing this post! You’re pretty awesome, lady.
Great post, and I’m glad I stumbled upon it today–I just did my end-of-month (paycheck months, that is) budget tabulations after my first month back to paleo after a long break. Previously, my diet had been really poor. REALLY poor. And cheap. I don’t eat out at all. I wasn’t shocked by how much the groceries added up to, but it was a ton, even though I was as frugal as possible and I can’t imagine sustaining this. I’m operating on a really lean budget.
I know there’s the argument that health is worth it, but when “worth it” threatens to put me into debt…I don’t know how to work it out. Hopefully the restart costs will be out of the way next month.
I’m so, so relieved to finally hear that someone is spending as much on groceries as we are… because we easily average about $600 (groceries only – also for all three daily meals, we don’t eat out often).
When I hear that people spend like $250/month – I want to scream “what do you eat? Where do you buy? What’s your secret?
Then I realize: I can’t compare myself with those people, because I put value on what I purchase/put in my body. Organic meat, fresh vegetables, dairy is expensive. That’s just a fact. I am not willing to compromise on the quality of my food to save a few dollars. I rather cut back in other areas of my life.
I love your post. I shop at costco, tj’s, the farmers market, Fresh and Easy and Sprouts for my paleo and primal food.
If it makes you feel better I attended an Everyday Paleo workshop and Sarah Fragoso stated. “big box stores are ok” she gets it too, grassfed is expensive.
As a single parent I have to walk the line of healthy and funding our next vacation, college saving and retirement. Costco wins in my book and loving that bison is showing up more often.
Just fortunate I have those shopping choices close to me. Karen P
You have bison at your Costco? I AM SO JEALOUS. We have NONE bison at ours and I looked all over the place for it yesterday b/c of this post.
Maybe it will make it to Texas soon.
I hope it does too, but isn’t the cattle contingent in Texas pretty ruthless? 🙂 hehe I’m so jealous you get to do weekday Costco runs. MY KINGDOM, FOR A CALM COSTCOOOOOOOO!!!!!! 🙂
Great post, Holly. I go through the same shit, all the time. There’s just two of us, so how can we spend almost 200 a week on fucking GROCERIES??????
There are a few things to take heart in, though:
1) Every time I look down at a receipt from a restaurant where we’ve eaten a mediocre, not-at-all-fancy meal and it screams “50.00”……….I can feel better about justifying spending more at the grocery store. 200 divided by 7 is cheaper than 50 times 7. Something to think about.
2) Despite the FDA’s protestations to the contrary, I am starting to consider the impact of GMO foods. I don’t buy that food infused with animal, plant, and/or viral DNA can be all that good for us in the long run, and the jury is still out. Not to mention that one of the top dogs at the FDA was the V.P. over at Monsanto………….GROSS. So, eff that. GMOs are in about 80% of the processed foods on our shelves. The Trader Joe’s house brand as well as the Whole Foods house brand don’t do business with those who knowingly use GMO products. So yeah, sometimes it’s worth it to buy a bottle of ketchup or some occasional condiments from those places.
3) Certified Organic foods means those companies can’t put GMOs in their product, either. Yes, Organic is actually beginning to mean something.
4) The meat one is hard for me. However, when you look at the nutritional profile of grass fed vs. farmed beef and the fact that Americans are O.D.’ing on Omega-6s……………what your meat ate before you ate your meat really does matter. The only problem is it’s super fucking expensive. So I try to focus on using free-range eggs (worth it) when they’re on sale at Sunflower, frozen ground Elk (the meat is so freaking dense, you don’t need as much and it’s not likely to be “farmed”), wild caught fish of different varieties, and steak with no crap added. If there is a grass fed option, I’d gladly take it, but then I have to sacrifice something else.
5) I obviously like Organic produce, but I choose my battles. If I can peel off the skin or the shell of a veggie or fruit………doesn’t necessarily need to be organic. Apples or anything that could have been sprayed and would go directly into my mouth that way, I buy organic. Bananas, no. Lettuce, yes.
6) I am considering doing some kind of meat share where a bunch of friends go in on a grass fed cow. That might be something you’d want to do with your Crossfit buddies, perhaps? You can divvy it up and I believe it’s a lot cheaper than buying it steak by steak. Plus, you have two fridges, still, right?
Thanks for this topic! I still struggle with it at the end of the day. Coffee especially is a crapshoot……….
Love ya!
Michelle…you rock! I was nodding my head to every point you made, for sure. It’s funny you mention the meat share with my CrossFit buddies…we actually used to do that but then we got kind of lazy and then my SECOND FRIDGE DIED. Oh, the first world woe of only having one fridge. Writing this post though, has made me realize that I need to reevaluate my priorities and do more actual acting on it, rather that just thinking and nodding. 🙂 Thanks for always contributing such insightful things, lady!
My husband and I try to buy our meat from our local food co-op (who gets it from a local farm). Everything else I buy from the regular grocery store, though I suppose we could eat locally and seasonally if we bought from the farmer’s market.