Green Daily

I try, I try so hard to be careful at the grocery store, but for some reason my grocery bill just can't budge past a certain cost. But I'm going to keep trying.

I'm convinced that the cheaper the grocery bill, the greener your household can become, and probably the healthier your meals become. Things that are packaged and branded and processed generally cost more than whole foods. Even when you layer in some pricier organic options for the foods that are most important to you (for us milk, eggs, other dairy and certain fruits and vegetables), you will probably find you come out ahead, in terms of dollars and environmental impact.

I'm also convinced that you don't need to be perfect on this. It would be nice if we could all shop at fancy, all organic, free-range, fair-trade, no-high-fructose-corn-syrup, super pleasant stores, but sometimes that can add up. Simple steps in even the most ordinary of grocery stores can be the easy way to go.

Here's an interesting free e-document from Liss Burnell, "How to feed a family of four for $200 dollars a month." I'm still perusing it for ideas, but here are some quick tips I picked up already. Burnell's focus is financial, but you'll find that many of her tips are also quite green, particularly in terms of reducing food packaging.

• Learn how to make baked goods from scratch, it's often almost as easy as all those packaged mixes.
• Purchase your seasonings in bulk.
• Purchase your meat in bulk, much cheaper and less packaging.
• Get to know your crock-pot.
• Grow your own herbs, even on your kitchen windowsill.
• Don't eat out.