From grass fed beef to raw, organic milk – I’ve had several requests to share my current real food grocery budget priorities. While I’m working on a comprehensive post that breaks it all down, I’ve discovered some important items to note.

First, I shared that I rarely buy Sucanat any more. I explained all my reasons and shared what we’re doing instead here.

Next, I will let you know that I’ve made some changes in the cheese department.

My extensive research tells me that dairy is best when it is:

• organic
• hormone free
• raw
• full fat

Our family continues to drink raw, organic milk because we have a fabulous source close-by for just $5.00/gallon. It is affordable and our family generally doesn’t drink much milk. But cheese? In this house, the people like their cheese. We eat it in many of our casseroles, on our pizza, in our tacos and quesadillas, and on our scrambled eggs. Plus, the boys like to eat it plain as a snack.

Solving My Cheese Dilemma

For years, I bought a case of Landmark Raw White Cheddar every couple of months from Azure Standard. I love everything about it – except for the price. It’s not at all unreasonable for its quality. But at $5.59/pound, I’ve recently stopped buying it. We eat at least twice as much as we used to, so this is one of the food choices that I compromise on now.

You know what this means right? This means that our cheese isn’t white anymore. Why manufacturers have decided to change the actual color of cheese is beyond me.

While it might be considered a compromise, I am okay with it because cheese is still real food. This kind isn’t organic. It isn’t raw. But the ingredient label doesn’t make me gag at the store (which I have been known to do on occasion while reading various labels) – so we’re going to stick with this for now. I pick it up in bulk when I find a good price-match. Cheese freezes well, so my freezer door is full-o-cheese.

If you’d like to read more about our Houseful of Teenage Boys Grocery Budget, you’ll find it here. It’s also worth mentioning that we have a son in college and are about to add a second teenage male driver to our monthly car insurance premium (I can’t talk about it). Good food is worth the investment, no doubt! I’m not trading home-cooked meals made with real food ingredients for boxes of poptarts. I’m simply switching some of our pricier real food choices for less expensive real food choices.

The moral of my cheese story:

Just because something works for you now doesn’t mean it will work for you always. Be willing to re-evaluate your family’s situation and needs. But if at all possible, keep your food real. Some things just aren’t worth the compromise.

Tell me about your cheese preferences. Are you forking it over for the good stuff? Or sitting happy with the less-than-perfect-but-still-real-food cheese?