We have been eating Paleo going on three months now. It is amazing how much we have changed, and how much I have learned. Yet, as others have said, changing the way you eat is a process.
Around Christmas I decided to use some money that we received to buy a membership to Costco. I chose Costco because they were more selective about their food, offered tons of organic, and at least at some stores they offered grass fed meat. I was also spending way too much money on food that was not even feeding our family.
The first month we went every week. We picked a new location so we got a sense of what we offered. Since we had almost no food in our house, it was also refreshing for the kids to start to see a stock pile.
Then we started going twice a month. There was just no reason to go every week. There were items we needed that they did not have - and their organic selection is not enough to survive on.
Then we started the CSA, and while we have not received our first box yet, I have changed our shopping habits to once a month.
There was another change with this monthly trip. I have started to question if the deals I am getting at Costco are really deals.
No, I am not ready to throw my membership out the window - the organic coconut oil alone is enough for the membership. I just started questioning some of the products.
It started when I realized that the almond butter I bought is not organic. Somehow in the early days I translated natural as organic - and after picking that as our stock up for this month I realized that we now have bottles of non organic almond butter. It is nothing worth panicking about. We will not be buying it again though. What we will probably do is buy organic almonds from the CSA and make our own.
Then I began to wonder if the free range organic chicken is actually a better deal then the CSA. At the CSA I can get 40 lbs of chicken for about three hundred dollars. At Costco I get 3.5 pounds for twenty dollars. For price on this one Costco won - it is over two dollars cheeper a pound. However, I like the idea of knowing where my chicken actually came from. Once I am more familiar with the CSA where we get our chicken may just change.
What about the hamburger I buy? Right now the best hamburger I could find at any of the Costcos around me is organic meet that comes from four different countries (yes you read that right, not thrilled to notice that today). I did also notice that our Ralph's also has free range hamburger as well. At Costco the price of four pounds of organic beef is $17.99 for four lbs - that are packaged in 1.33 pound portions - so it really only cooks up like three pounds. This is $4.50 a pound, it is $5.99 for a serving size. I think this is important since if you only need one pound of hamburger it would be very hard to take out that extra third of a pound to save for later. The grass fed beef at Ralph's costs ten dollars for a pound - yikes. At our new CSA we can get it for slightly under seven dollars for a pound. This is grass fed and local. While Costco is still cheaper I think this will be one of the first foods we switch away for Costco and get from our CSA instead.
Coconut Oil - hands down Costco wins at this one. I can get a container for twice the size at half the price. Since I have never seen local coconut oil (kind of ironic since we are in California), I have no problem getting the mass bottle. Once again, this alone is worth my membership to Costco.
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