7 tips for eating organic and cheap

You can eat organic, more or less completely, at the same price as a traditional menu. On the other hand, it will be necessary to eat “differently”.

“Eating organic is expensive”. This is what many claim, wrongly. As part of its “ Green For Life, eco-consume to save ” campaign, ecoconso did the math: you can eat 100% organic without increasing your food budget. Amounts in line with the French figures from WWF and Eco2initiative (which included 50% of labeled products on their plates, including all fresh organic products, without increasing the food budget).

ecoconso has calculated that a week of organic meals costs €55 per adult, which is as much as a week of non-organic menus.

However, organic products would cost on average 20 to 33% more expensive. [1] The trick? To eat organic food at the same price as conventional food, you have to rethink your purchases and the preparation of your meals. And in addition to eating organic at a reasonable price, we eat in a healthier and more sustainable wa

Cook your own organic meals
The homemade organic dish (almost) at the same price as the hard discount
Make homemade preserves
Cultivate your organic products
If you have a garden: the traditional vegetable garden
If you don’t have a garden: the terrace or collective vegetable garden
Avoid wasting food

Buy in bulk (or lightly packaged)

With all these savings, we treat ourselves to organic food

1. Eat less meat

To eat organic and not more expensive, you can reduce your meat consumption. No need to become a vegetarian, but a flexitarian.

The WWF and Eco2initiative have calculated that a traditional menu costs €244 per person per month and a flexitarian menu €194. That is €600 savings per person per year. [2]

Veggie burger with lentils and organic vegetables

Veggie burger with lentils and organic vegetables. Photo: Shpernik088 at Wikimedia Commons [CC-BY-SA]
Photo: Shpernik088 at Wikimedia Commons [CC-BY-SA]
We therefore treat ourselves to organic meat but we eat it less often . Several times a week, it is replaced by vegetarian dishes that give pride of place to fresh vegetables and legumes. Pulses provide vegetable protein at an unbeatable price :
€3 to €5/kilo for lentils, split peas or chickpeas (even organic);
minimum 5€ per kilo for meat, but more often 10, even 20 or 30€/kilo, depending on the type of meat and its quality. [3]
Eating more legumes therefore makes it possible to reduce the price of your plate without neglecting the protein intake. Admittedly, vegetable proteins are less easily assimilated by the body so you have to eat more of them [4] … but not enough to compensate for a steak with 3 kilos of lentils 😉 Especially since we are talking about a diet here flexitarian, that is to say less rich in meat and fish, without being vegetarian. [5]

> See 2 organic and inexpensive lentil recipe ideas :

Dahl of almost 100% organic lentils at €0.92 per person (€1.85/kilo).
Lentils with carrots, bacon and small onions, 100% organic at €1.36 per person (€4.3/kilo).

2. Choose local and seasonal products

Eating organic is better for your health but it also reduces your impact on the environment. However, there are many organic products that come from afar, or out of season. So it’s a bit contradictory. The ideal is therefore to buy local and seasonal organic food.

> Read How to eat sustainably and choose between organic, local, fair trade?
> See the answers to the 7 questions we ask ourselves about organic products

Most of the time, local fruits and vegetables are also cheaper than those that come from far away or are grown out of season. [6] Not always though. We do not in fact pay the real cost, on the environment, of transporting fresh produce over long distances or growing it in heated greenhouses.

In season, it is therefore the right time to:

eat fruits and vegetables that grow naturally at that time and are full of flavor in high season;
make homemade preserves ( details below ).
> See our calendar of seasonal fruits and vegetables in Belgium.