Less expensive ways..

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Permalink Reply by RawTruth on April 14, 2008 at 10:55pm

Hmmmm ... I'm in my 4th year being 100% raw and I spend less money than before. I don't know what others are buying, but I do know that many new raw fooders think they must have superfoods to be raw. That just ain't so! The super-est foods are vegetables, fruits, seeds, and a few nuts. Don't need no powders, exotic dried berries, cacao, or even dried fruits (except raisins which are cheap). Sure, raw olive oil is expensive and young Thai coconuts, even by the case, can be $.85 each or so. But water is perfectly great in smoothies, olive oil can be used sparingly, and herbs can be bought fresh and dried.

As for your juicing ... and even when you're not juicing, go to farmers markets. That's where I do almost all my shopping. Between there and Trader Joe's, you can get everything you need and organic, too, of course. No Whole Foods and stay away from regular supermarkets, for sure.

On to your juice feasting dilemma. Buy your apples by the bag; they're always cheaper that way. Use an apple and a beet ... or a few beets ... to make the apples last. Do the same with carrots. All are sweet and will make your juices palatable. Finally, dilute your juice with pure water. There's no way it should cost you $30 a day to juice.

Another thing to consider is, if this is the first time you're juice feasting, to do it for a week rather than a month. Then go back to regular raw food fare. Then, after a while, if you're not getting the results you want, do the juicing again for another week.

Whichever way you go, have a great time!

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Permalink Reply by Rae on April 14, 2008 at 10:56pm

Out where I live we have a Trader Joe's and one day I saw one of the employees there collecting slightly bruised/mis- colored produce. So I went up to her and asked what the store does with all those apples,avocados,berries,greens etc. and she said that they throw them away at the end of the day, but that if I came back around 9:30 she would be able to give me the bags that they put them in. I walked away that night with all kinds of salad mixes and fruit worth over $250, it was amazing!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Raw Love on April 15, 2008 at 1:42am

Most Asian markets are lower in prices than the WFS. I get 25lbs of carrots at the feed store for 6 bucks, they are the same ones as the market and even organic, they just are broken is all, even the horses like them lol. We are heavy into foraging for our greens and do it whenever possible. We just got a ton of oranges that were still on trees in neighbor's yards, I have no problems knocking on doors especially if you know they are going to fall and rot.
I try to keep my spending between 10-15 dollars a day when Juice Feasting and that includes all the fruit I want to juice.
Each evening and then again in the early mornings I always hit the loading dock at the WFS, you would be amazed at what they throw away. They know I make my rounds and leave it on the dock for me rather than throwing it into the dumpster. I take what looks good and leave the rest. I get lots of fruit this way.

Good Luck
Raw Love
Melissa

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Permalink Reply by Lesley Anne on April 15, 2008 at 1:35am

You know whats crazy, I have volunteered at the food bank and food coalition and most of the time they have to throw out a lot of that produce because they can't use it all before it goes bad. They get a lot of donations from restaurants, grocery stores and farmers with excess produce they don't want to see go to waste. This is going to sound terrible but they feed the homeless and needy all the processed food we wouldn't eat.

Usually these organizations put out the excess veggies and fruit for people to take home and I have several times taken home huge boxes of fresh carrots, apples, pears, plums and apricots. FREE mind you.

If I were you I would contact your local food bank and coalition and ask them how often they have excess, unused produce and you can volunteer to take it off their hands. What ever you don't want or use you can put in a compost pile. Simple enough. It's really and ass backwards place we live in sometimes. With that said I hope this is helpful and your juicing turns out to be a VERY positive experience.

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Permalink Reply by Little Miss Sunshine on April 15, 2008 at 2:41am

this thread has so much great info on it...thanks everybody! my brain is like exploding with ideas now haha.

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Permalink Reply by Jess on June 16, 2008 at 4:14pm

At my church we have started something called the food exchange... we basivally are networking people with gardens, fruit trees and such, who have an over abundance and want to share....my kids and I just went last week and picked right off the tree 3 big bags of apples!!! And as you said in your inital post.. with the prices what they are... we just saved at least 50-60 if not more!!! Maybe you could get something like this going in your church or neighborhood??? Just a thought....;0)

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Permalink Reply by Jess on June 16, 2008 at 4:15pm

Oh I forgot to add.. we also do the co op food baskets like found here: www.bountifulbaskets.org

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