How A Locavore Feeds A Family Of Eight On One Income

One thing we hear in the media is that family farmer food is only for those who can afford to pay a lot more for it. On HOMEGROWN.org we share the many ways that folks are eating and living frugally. We pinch pennies by growing our own, buying direct from farmers and living simply. Busy mom, Heather, saves money on the food bill by subscribing to a CSA and shopping farmers markets. In fact, she only purchases one quarter of her food from a grocery store. Really!


Heather’s blog, “It’s Twinsanity“, is an account of every day life with two sets of twins + two more kids + a military husband. You may think she has superpowers or a couple of nannies, but she runs the house and feeds her family by keeping things simple – which includes subscribing to CSAs and shopping at farmers markets. In this post, she breaks it all down:

I can’t even count the number of times that I have had someone ask me how we can afford to feed a family of eight on one income. One military income. And what they don’t usually know is that we eat fresh, organic, healthy foods and I rarely use coupons. How do we do that on such a limited budget? Because we are basically locavores.

A majority of what we what our family eats each week arrives on my doorstep on Thursday mornings in a brown cardboard box. It’s always like unwrapping a special gift when we look inside our box and see what foods we’ll enjoy in the next few days. Where does this mystery box come from? From a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s a beautiful thing. All across the country, farms of all sizes offer their bounty to local customers who pay for a share of the crops. (Continued here)

Of course, our options for eating local produce vary by geography, but there are more year-round farmers markets than ever, so don’t let that stop you from trying! Have some skeptics in your midst? Pass this along!

What is HOMEGROWN.org? HOMEGROWN.org is an online community that enhances the relationship between family farmers and eaters through the shared experiences of growing food and participating in an agrarian life. It is a part of Farm Aid’s program work to cultivate a greater demand for good food from family farmers and strengthen the links between farmers and eaters. HOMEGROWN.org has become a gathering place for eaters and farmers who celebrate the “culture” in agriculture and share skills like growing, cooking and food preservation. Join the conversation at www.HOMEGROWN.org