What’s in store for the Organic Costco Meal Plan challenge?
- You will stock up on organic foods without having to clip any coupons!
- You will eat real, whole foods for 4 weeks – and still have staple items left!
- You will spend less time in the kitchen on busy week nights with a bulk cooking day!
This 4 week meal plan features:
- Real food – not prepackaged food
- Organic food
- Whole Grains
$475 A Month More Than Your Usual Grocery Budget? You can spend less!
- You don’t have to buy everything at Costco like I am. Organic milk at Costco is actually a bit higher than at a conventional grocery store. Buy your milk at the lower cost, and you will spend less than $475 this month.
- Shop your pantry. Since this 4 week meal plan shopping list features basic staples, you may not need to purchase these items. For example: already have brown rice on hand? You don’t need to buy it!
This shopping list is GOOD:
- 20 out of the 44 items on this list are organic. That means they are free of hormones, pesticides and GMOs.
- It is intended to feed a family of 4 three meals a day – plus snacks – from your morning cup of coffee to your evening meal.
This shopping list could be BETTER:
- Potatoes and celery are both on the dirty dozen list. Skip buying them at Costco and buy them organically grown elsewhere.
- The only chocolate sold at my Costco is Nestle Chocolate Chips. You could skip these, but in a house of 3 women over the span of 4 weeks, there was NO WAY I was cutting out chocolate. To do better, skip buying these at Costco and buy a fair trade or organic dark chocolate from elsewhere.
- I could not find nitrate-free lunch meat at my Costco. To do better, skip the lunch meat and buy it nitrate-free elsewhere.
- The corn tortillas I bought were not organic. Corn is one of the most prevalent GMO crops. Look for an organic source.
This shopping list could be the BEST:
- Find a local source for your produce and meats. And buy grass-fed beef if you can.
SHOPPING LIST AND PRICES
**Please note Costco pricing and stock varies. These were the prices in my store.**
MEAT
Organic Whole Fryers $2.29/lb $23.15
Organic Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs $14.60
Organic Ground Beef $17.99
STAPLES
Organic Brown Rice $12.99
Natural Peanut Butter $9.99 (They used to carry organic, but I couldn’t find it when I went.)
Craisins $6.79
Pinto Beans $7.89
Quaker Oats $7.49
Organic EV Olive Oil $21.49
Organic Coffee $12.89
Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti $9.69
Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar $10.99
Chocolate Chips $9.35
Organic Brown Rice $12.99
Corn Tortillas $2.59
Green Tea $14.99
Organic Salsa $7.69
Organic Diced Tomatoes $7.65
Maple Syrup $11.99
Almonds $9.79
Whole Wheat Bread $5.99
Organic Lemon Juice $3.89
PRODUCE
Organic Carrots $5.79
Celery $3.29
Bananas $2.78
Organic Spinach $3.89
Potatoes $7.79
Oranges $8.99
Garlic $3.99
Limes $6.49
Onions $4.49
Organic Apples $7.79
FROZEN
Organic Peas $5.69
Frozen Tilapia $14.99
Organic Blueberries $10.99
PERISHABLES
Organic Butter $7.89
Organic Cheddar $6.54
Roast Beef $10.06
Organic Yogurt $3.29
Parmesan Romano $9.59
Organic Milk $8.99
Organic Eggs $6.49
Finlandia Cheese Pack $7.99
TOTAL COST $389.91
With the items on this shopping list, I’m hoping I don’t have to go back to COSTCO for at least 10 days. I tried to purchase items on my staples list. Therefore, I should only need to purchase perishables like produce and dairy.
What do you think? Anything you think I missed?
Great list. I will have to search again to see if my Costco carries Organic Butter. I can’t buy our Organic milk there as they only have 1% and we give Whole to our one year old and 2% to our 3 year old.
Have you tried their Organic Coffee yet? I’m curious about that as we got through A LOT of coffee.
Emily, It’s funny you mention coffee. We are really big coffee drinkers too! A couple months back I bought the Kirkland’s Signature fair trade coffee that is roasted by Starbucks. It was really weak. We were using way more coffee to make one pot than we’ve ever had to. This month I found the organic coffee. The brand is High Valley Roasters. It was only .20 more than the fair trade coffee and there is an extra half pound in the bag! I’ve been drinking it for a few days, and we haven’t had to add as much to get a decent cup of coffee. Hopefully you can find it!
As for the butter, in my Costco it is close to the eggs. I haven’t looked to see what percentages the milk comes in. Definitely better to find the whole milk elsewhere. ~ Andrea
Hi Andrea! I love your goal and meal planning. It’s very inspirational to me. I am trying to do the same thing, with $10 per day for 2 people. So far it’s mostly okay although I go over budget a few days per week! At least I am hitting the goal sometimes which is an improvement
I started a full time job so I find that I’m relying a LOT more on packaged foods, it’s awful! We are both gluten free, so the convenience foods are much more expensive for us. In general, I find that there are still a lot fo coupons for GF items, and my health is much better now that I took out gluten!
I wish Costco would have organic unsalted butter. At least mine doesn’t. Otherwise I like shopping there.
I am interested in comparing these costs vs. my “buy price” when I coupon and ad-match at Publix. We are making the shift to whole foods but have not gone organic yet. What jumps out at me is that it is hard to compare pricing when I don’t see package size on your list. That would REALLY be helpful. I am going to read the rest of this series. I would love to save money AND get to complete our transition to whole and organic foods. Thanks!
Hi Brandi – I’ll work on getting the sizes up for you! Andrea
Conny ~ I bought the salted since that is the only organic butter they carry. I prefer the unsalted too.
Angela ~ 2 for $10 is a great idea! Making it most of the time is fantastic! Where do you shop? I know how hard it is to work and do food prep. Give yourself a break – if your health has improved since going GF you are on the right track! Andrea
I also wish Costco had organic unsalted. Each time I scour the area with hopes it will magically appear. Maybe one day it will!!
Sarah, Costco giveth and Costco taketh away. I used to buy organic peanut butter there. It really was the cheapest price in town. Then I go to stock up for this challenge – and there is no organic peanut butter anywhere. So I think there is hope that someday unsalted butter might just appear. Of course, to try to make that happen a little faster, we could all add it to the suggestion box!
In fact, I plan to do just that! Andrea
This is a really cool idea. I finally had a chance to sit down and look at the price list and see what you’re doing here.
I’m definitely going to Costco to look at some of these items. I really love how Costco carries so many organic products.
I’d like to do a big freezer cooking marathon so that I have lots of healthy food in the freezer ready to go for busy nights. It sure would be easy if I could get everything I need at Costco, but I agree, things seem to come & go there. Never know if your favorites will still be around.
Looking forward to seeing how this goes for you.
A little confused…will you have recipes to go with this shopping list or are we to buy these items and come up with my own recipes? I see that you have a few recipes, but I wasn’t sure if you would eventually have the whole Costco meal plan with recipes all organized in one place? Maybe I am missing something.
Hi Shannon ~ I posted the meal plan on Sunday, and every day I’m posting recipes for things I am making. For instance, on Monday I made Blueberry Baked Oatmeal with Crumble topping and I posted that recipe. That night I made baked eggs – and the recipe for the baked eggs was linked to on the meal plan. At the end of the four weeks, I plan to put everything together in one download-able document. But I’m hoping I’m providing enough recipes and guidance that you can kinda follow along. Please ask me for anything that you need to make this easier to follow – I’m happy to help!
Andrea,
Have you had a chance to post the quantities from your lists yet? I’ve looked, but haven’t found it and am really interested in doing this. I’m a bit behind, but I figure it’s better to start late than never at all.
I also found a place to have a little garden at our local conservation office. I’m so excited! My family isn’t behind me and thinks it’s silly. I bet they won’t think that once fresh produce starts rolling into our kitchen!
Sandy
Sandy, I don’t have the exact quantities of what I’ve bought up yet. Here is a link to a post I did in August that has some of the unit pricing: http://thegreenbacksgal.com/costco-price-list/ Also, if you take my shopping list, you should be able to match up the price to the right quantity. Some things – like the organic salsa – there will only be one quantity.
Andrea
I’m so excited you got a community garden plot! Last year was the first year for our garden, and my family loved how flavorful all the fresh produce was! They even loved the radishes!
Hi Jessica! How’ve you been? Speaking of freezer cooking, I need to do more freezer cooking myself. If I don’t have a plan, that’s when our nights are really rough. Costco would definitely be a great source to get what you need. Andrea
i second the suggestion to put up the quantities (or price per pound) with your price list…it would be helpful to me too!
I promise I am working on the price/pound list! Awk! I need just a few more hours in my day!
Andrea,
You have inspired me to start my own Costco Challenge starting for the month of April! I am really excited to try this. I would love to see you continue on in April also
Thank you for all of the great recipes!!
Yea Kristin! You can do it! I will be continuing in April, but with a few twists. ~ Andrea
oh my gosh I went through and wrote all the prices of everything that I have purchased and what I had in my houses with all the sizes and it wont let me copy and paste it here for some reason. I have a pretty good list, email me I guess and I can send in email. Sorry was trying to help.
Oh Amanda! Thank you for doing that! I will have my list up today – we’ll need to compare costs. Andrea greenbacksgal@gmail.com
Would love to see said “MEAL PLAN” to go with this list of groceries!
Vieve, The post you read was the “meal plan shopping and price list.” It was the shopping list and the prices I paid. The “MEAL PLAN” you said you wanted to see is here: http://thegreenbacksgal.com/organic-costco-meal-plan-week-1/ It is exactly what we ate and it is linked to all the recipes. Let me know if you have any other questions. Andrea