Green Guilt

What do going green and the economy have in common? Money!

As a Mom, wife, citizen, and person, I aim to do the very best I can for my family, myself and the world around me. So, when I learn that there is a healthier choice for us or for the planet, I try to follow that path. For example, it's better to eat locally grown, organic produce, right? Cuts down on gasoline usage. No harmful pesticides leaching into my children's bodies. Etc. Great. To the grocery store, I head.

There begins the struggle (and it's one that I KNOW I'm not alone in). I head to the produce aisle. To keep it simple, let's assume we're just eating bananas this week for fruit since I've found those prices online. For my family of four, we'd need about 42 bananas this week. (3 of us eating 2 bananas/day for 7 days - my husband isn't much of a fruit eater).

The cost for organic bananas this week - $20.79
The cost for regular bananas this week - $13.65

That's a difference of $7.14 this week on fruit alone. Over the course of the year, it's $371.28!

It's simply much more expensive to shop healthy, never mind with the added good intentions of shopping green!

And, here's where the guilt comes in - ugh - let's say you go to the grocery store with only $20 left for the month before payday. You need fruit for the week. Do you go get the organic that's going to run you a bit more or the non-organic that leaves you money for milk and bread? Well, you go with the later. Then, you realize that you've had to make the less healthy choice for your family because of money.

Green guilt. No wonder the whole world hasn't caught on yet!