This past Friday I was lucky enough to get both my IRS and state tax refunds, so Friday night I spent my evening reworking the budget.  Starting in May, my budget has two new entries ... diapers and baby food.  (well, technically three....dum dum dum dumm... day.care.)  In an attempt to pry myself away from the tv and the computer, I figured today was the best day to explore Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Jewel.  What will it cost to feed the baby organic food?

Formula, really no difference in costs ... same price for any brand, organic or not.  For rice, vegetables and fruits ... the choices are much more than what they used to be.  Seems the prices are pretty much the same, some more expensive than others.  Especially these at Whole Foods.  

The food is neatly packaged in a reseable pouch.  They were priced at 3 for $4.00.  If nothing else, the packaging had me easily drawn to their location on the shelf.  But as I was holding a package of this in my hand, reading the ingredients, I wondered, really how different is this baby food from regular ol'Gerber? 

Recipes have changed since I was a baby and there are a TON more preservatives put into foods now than in the 70s.  So is the non-organic food really good for the baby?  Are these preservatives causing the childhood obseity epidemic? or dangerous, life threatening diseases in children?  Probably not.  But it still has me thinking about all the 'fake' foods there are out there.  (prime example, Equal, Splenda and Sweet'n Low ... all fake sugars made of chemicals devised in a lab...not grown on a sugar cane in the beautiful sun.  Our bodies dont know how to process these chemicals, so they dont.  With real sugar, the body can easily digest). 

Anyway, as of today, no decision has been made on the organic or non-organic.  I'll have to wait and see what happens with the bean ... what he prefers.  Then I'll adjust the ol'budget.