16 MUST BUY foods at your Food Co-Op!

I have written an article on Food Co-Ops in the past, but many of you asked for more information on the benefits.

I shop at a Food Co-Op for one main reason.  Cheaper and healthier products for my family.  I tend to waver on the line of half organic and half ‘regular’ foods.  If my budget allowed it, I would shop entirely organic. Unfortunately, that is not the case right now.

Here is how the process works:

1. I shop through an email food co-op.  What does that mean?
2. I get an email from the Food Co-Op with the catalogues and lists from the month.
3. I email out what I want, and submit the payment for it via snail mail.
4. I then pick it up at the designated pick up spot.

It is very easy and it doesn’t take a lot of extra time out of my day.

Here are my MUST BUY 16 items that I buy almost every month:

• Organic Jasmine Brown Rice – $1.00 per lb
• Organic Quinoa
• Raw Honey
• Cup for Cup Gluten Free Flour  $3.00 per lb (This is a CRAZY good price!)
• Organic Raisins
• Dried Cranberries
• Gluten Free elbow pasta (I like the Tinkyada brand)
• Organic Popcorn
• Coconut Oil
• Almond Flour
• Coconut Flour
• Sea Salt
• Natural Peanut Butter
• Braggs (kind of like a gluten-free soy sauce)
• Pure Maple Syrup
• Spices

After I mail out my check and pick up my products, I get them into air tight jars at home.

Here is what they look like when I get them home. You can see how the items are packaged. Some of the items are in their original packages, and others you can tell were purchased in bulk and then re-packaged for me in the sizes I need.

I use large Ball Canning jars for my popcorn, raisins, and cranberries. For the rice and quinoa I use these glass jars from Walmart. They start at just $5.00 each!  I like to use plastic containers for my flour, this Sistema container is my favorite for flour storage.

I typically set aside $25.00 per month to spend on my co-op. This normally gets us exactly what we need!

To learn more about how you can join a Food Co-Op, learn more about what does co-op mean?

What are some of your favorite foods to buy at a food co-op?