I’ve been in Whole Foods to actually purchase things three times in my life now. The first two times I spent under $2. Today I actually grocery shopped. What changed?

When I went in before, I had major sticker shock. Who pays these kinds of prices for food you can get much cheaper at Aldi or Schnucks when they have a sale? Not me! No way. You see, all I had to compare the Whole Foods prices to were my normal cheap (frugal, I mean) purchases without considering health factors.

But I’ve now renewed my quest to purchase dairy and meat items with no rbST in them and am doing my darndest to not have corn syrup in the ingredients either. I’ve been to no less than five different stores that specialize in natural and organic foods within the past week. Whole Foods was the last on my list today and let me tell you – when comparing Whole Foods prices to their counterparts, they look pretty good. I’ve now got the right comparison to measure them up against. I’m still a loyal Trader Joe’s shopper too, but on some really important things (milk, butter, yogurt, meat), Whole Foods has the better deal.

Still, it’s hard to make more expensive grocery choices when the grocery budget is so limited as it is. It would be nice if the best food choices were easily obtainable by all budgets. The positive of that, though, is that I was forced to buy only what we needed. With food being about 30% more expensive than I’m used to paying, I really need to say no to about 30% of the junkie items that somehow make their way into the cart.

So that simply means we will eat less junk and better “whole foods.” I’m getting it, it’s just taking me longer than most people to figure this stuff out.