Think back to the last time you went to the grocery store. What were the most expensive food items in your shopping cart?
If your shopping list looks like ours, then the answer to that question would be fruit, vegetables, and meat. Basically all the healthy stuff…
Perhaps you don’t even grocery shop. You’re currently living the “fast food American dream.”
This post isn’t designed to guilt-trip your eating habits. You already know the all the bad stats like 1 in 3 children eat at least one fast food meal every day (according to the CDC).
If you think fast food is a problem only for the lower socioeconomic levels, then read this quote from a 2013 Gallup study-
[F]ast food is hardly the province solely of those with lower incomes; in fact, wealthier Americans—those earning $75,000 a year or more—are more likely to eat it at least weekly (51%) than are lower-income groups. Those earning the least actually are the least likely to eat fast food weekly—39% of Americans earning less than $20,000 a year do so.
I don’t need to list any stats or figures to convince you that eating out is typically the most expensive way to consume calories. Funny how it’s also the easiest way to shorten your life, but eh- those fries taste so good!
Growing Green
I don’t have any easy 5 step program to keep you from scarfing down Benjamins every time you hit the drive through. What I do have to offer is a case study on how we’ve tried to cut back on eating out this summer, and replace those high-cost grocery items with healthier garden-raised alternatives.
To premise this story, I have to let you in on a secret. I’ve always been a fan of growing things and eating what I grow (as seen is this early baby photo of The Drunk Millionaire).
After buying our first house this year, we embraced the idea of planting an edible landscape. The premise behind this plant-selection technique is to pick plants that help beautify your yard (thus increasing property value) while also producing some form of edible food.
Currently we are reaping the bounty of a dwarf peach tree planted along our driveway.
In fact- we’ve planted nearly 20 fruit trees of all sorts along our driveway and in our backyard. In the spring these trees have beautiful flowers, and throughout the year we pick fresh fruit which is super healthy plus a huge cost savings compared to those sad fellows offered at the grocery store. According to the company we purchased these trees from (Stark Bros) we will produce nearly $800 in cherries per tree yearly and we have 3! In fact, I’m currently eating ice cream smothered with fresh peaches as I type this post…
We have recently started to pick fresh blackberries from a nice okay looking bush that was planted right next to our back door. This crazy thing will produce (by my non-scientific guesstimate) nearly 5 gallons of berries. Try to calculate the value of these babies based off the cost of supermarket berries!
In addition to eliminating fruit from our grocery shopping budget, we also eat fresh vegetables (at the scant expense of labor during weeding) every day straight from the garden!
We’ve also added some feathered friends to our self-sustainable homestead. Currently we have nearly 20 chickens that should lay a ton of eggs for us throughout the year. Talk about a cheap, super healthy protein source! As you can see in the photo below, we recycle our uneaten food scraps by letting the chickens feast. Thus we reduce our waste, consume less packaging, and make the world a better place.
They even live in a little “Trump Tower” coop I built using many salvaged materials.
I think one of the chickens even looks a little bit like our friend J. Money over at Budgets are Sexy!
In short, my wife and I have jumped feet first into the sustainability/low food expense world.
Sure, we benefit from living on the edge of town with a couple of acres, but with a small garden and a few fruit producing plants (neither of which take up much room), you’d be surprised at how much healthier and cheaper you could eat!
Bonus Benefits
One thing beyond the financial benefit of these endeavors that we never anticipated has been the sense of fulfillment gleaned from these outdoor activities.
My wife and I were recently discussing how much we love spending the last few hours of daylight feeding the chickens or picking fresh peaches. Our happiness levels seem to grow exponentially as we spend time growing things and thus saving money. Eventually, we hope to shorten our timeline until Financial Independence (FI) using these sustainability approaches as one cog in the machine. If we spend less now, we won’t need to have as much invested later to officially declare FI!
What do you think? Have we gone off the “tree-hugging” wall? Do you see yourself ever planting an edible landscape to soften the expenses at the grocery store? Share in the comments below!
That’s awesome, I love the idea of an edible landscape. I’ve looked into fruit trees that grow well in my area, but have never pulled the trigger yet. We have been gardening a bit, but nothing compared to the looks of yours.
Do you farm the acres you own (and the corn in the background of some of the photos) or do you rent that out? Curious if you use any of the corn as feed for the chickens too. I’ve never looked into raising chickens (probably not as feasible as the edible landscape idea where I live in suburbia), but I think it is an awesome idea. And now that the J Money bird has earned its 15 minutes of fame, you may be able to sell him for a pretty penny! That bird is very GQ.
The picture of you in 1989 with the cig gives me an idea… Living in NC I could probably grow some good tobacco!
I wish! We have a huge yard that we are able to leverage in this pursuit of self sufficiency. You should! You can even plant dwarf trees in pots and get amazing production!
Many suburbs are changing ordinances to allow a few laying hens in town. The last place we lived (in the middle of town) allowed them…
That’s an awesome idea! Let me sample some if you do take up the hobby!
Awesome post. I would love to grow my own fruit and veg and have a bunch of chickens too. Once I’ve saved enough for my first house this will be high up on the to-do list.
Awesome! It is so fulfilling!!
Nothing wrong with what you guys are doing Drunk Millionaire. In fact, count me as one of your many jealous fans who wishes he had a plot like that. Well one day.
Not only the fresh fruit and veg but free range eggs as well. As I’m sure you know, you really can taste the difference.
One more suggestion. If you live rural or semi-rural, see if you can find someone local who farms beef cattle and sed if you can buy one of their beasts. You pay them to farm it but go and help with the butchering (if you’re up to it) and you get nearly a years supply of beef for significantly less than the crap at the supermarket. And you know where it came from.
Believe me its worth it. You’ll just need to get a freezer if you haven’t already got one.
Let us know if you do go down this track. You won’t regret doing it.
It doesn’t take much! I started with potted plants at my apartment back in the day. 😉
Great ideas- we will look into that further. Thanks!
I rent a room in a house. I grow basil and mint and some green onions. Not much. But my food tastes so much better as a result.
very inspirational and not at all tree hugging!
I’m looking forward to growing vegetables and fruit once we reach early retirement. it will be a learning curve for me but I’ll have the time to figure it out! I’d be happy to do it right now but again, time is working against me. In an ideal world I’d also have chickens and bees – lets see how that goes!
Are you self taught when it comes to gardening and livestock, or have you had enough experience over time for this to be pretty straightforward for you?
You should totally dip your toes in at least before FI! 😉
We grew up with a garden but most of what we do is very straightforward. If we have a question, YouTube has provided some pretty robust tutorials!
We tried the tree thing this year and planted 6 apple trees. Unfortunately, the deer have eaten the the trees down to nubs. I’m hoping next year to give it another shot with fencing to keep the deer out.
Or despatch the deer and put meat in the freezer as well. Or is that not the done thing where you are?
It would take more dispatching than is legally allowed, I’m afraid, and neither the hubby nor I is (am? are?) handy with a bow (because of the population density, only bowhunting from stands is allowed.)
Thats a shame, Emily. I love venison. It’s such a healthy, flavoured meat and when you bag it yourself, it seems to taste even better. Ive never done any bow hunting myself but I guess it could be considered a skill in places where it’s the legally permitted way to hunt.
Agreed! I love to deer hunt and we usually fill up a freezer with this healthy (and relatively cheap) meat source.
Hey! What did that chicken ever do to you?! 😉
Ha-ha we love that chicken! 😉
I’m late to this party…Love your approach. We have a small garden and I don’t know how much it contributes to grocery savings…But the kids love the colorful heirloom carrots, helping with the garden, and growing our own pumpkins!
Great to hear! We’re expecting our first kid soon and hope our trees are large enough for him (or her) to enjoy the “fruits” of our labor!