Wednesday, July 01, 2009

The Feingold Diet and Household Budget

Today the girls and I are making the trek up to Whole Paycheck (aka Whole Foods Market). The distant commute minimizes the Whole Foods' influential tentacles on our household budget. After about a month of eating exclusively Feingold food at the family table (household and personal products took a little longer to integrate) the effect on the budget is about an extra 100 dollars per month in groceries, give or take 20 dollars. The trip to Whole Paycheck is for a change of scenery and for some menu variety which we (I?) seem to need at this point. Out of all the food listings on Feingold Diet, Whole Foods appears to have the greatest availability of products. The biggest temptation will not that I will bust the budget on Whole Foods groceries, but that I will buy things that we will consume too quickly because of their novelty--and that I'll have to go purchase groceries again too soon--a budget buster of a different brand. I also must remember to take cash with me and leave the debit card in my wallet.

I can't imagine what we would be shelling out to live on the Feingold Diet if we lived in South Dakota; groceries were expensive enough with all-natural and organic varieties insanely expensive. If we were merely eating on the cheap, we could probably lower our food budget by 100 dollars on King County grocery prices. It's that less expensive in the Northwest compared to South Dakota--though I haven't determined whether the lower prices can be attributed to metro location (competition and volume) or regional abundance of foodstuffs, or a combination thereof.

Commuting so far to go to the grocery store rubs me the wrong way these days, especially since I discovered Walk Score. These are the day to day adventures of the give and take of a home economist. I know I'll miss it when I'm not doing it full-time, so I shall enjoy it while it lasts.

1 comment:

Marcia said...

In the beginning, the Feingold diet might stretch your grocery budget but once on it, you can be spending less. We did not have a Whole Foods store, the Internet offerings, etc. We did the diet well living in a remote are AND in the city. The big money is spent on processed food, as you probably know. You can do processed food or you can go the more scratch method--either is doable. Anything you see in the store can be made at home--which is more economical and tasier. Are you a member of the Feingold Association www.feingold.org? That is a huge support system.

Most of all--any effort is worth it!

Markey
Bremerton