Cook for Good Top 20 Foods: A Monthly Look at Prices for Grocery Basics

Use the charts below to find food bargains and to spend your money for organic and sustainably-raised food wisely. The first chart shows the changes over time of the Top 20 for the thrifty and green plans: the cost of one serving each for twenty ingredients used year round. The next chart shows the Top 20 prices in detail. Cook for Good tracks prices for these items each month. See the serving sizes at the bottom of the page and the definitions of regular (thrifty) and green.

Cost Summary — Total cost if you could buy just one serving of each item in the Top 20. (Costs for September and October have been gathered but not analyzed yet.)

month	Top 20 Thrifty	Top 20 Green
June	$3.57	$4.67
July	$3.62	$4.04
August	$3.85	$5.26
November	$3.25	$4.93

Getting the most for your money from October through December

The Cook for Good Top 20 list is in order by the difference in the cost between the regular and green versions of each item, so you can easily see where going green will cost you the least. Fall and early winter are terrific times to stock up on baking supplies, like yeast and flour. At the farmers' market, buy peppers at rock-bottom prices just before the first frost. Freeze peppers in strips to use when the price goes up by 5 or even 10 times from January until the next season's crop is available. New crops of potatoes and onions are in, greatly reducing prices from the summer peak.

One serving of organic cheddar costs 62 cents, 34 cents more than thrifty cheddar. But for only 33 cents, you can pick organic over thrifty for servings of each of these core items: rotini, olive oil, carrots, onions, tea, beans, apples, rice, potatoes, and peanut butter.

November 2009 — larger version >>

See the analysis and charts for August and July, June, May, April, March, February, or January 2009. September and October are awaiting analysis.

Serving sizes

top 20 core items	serving size
all-purpose flour	1/4 cup
apples	1 small apple (5 1/4 ounces, 2 3/4" across)
butter	1 tablespoon
cabbage	1 cup chopped
carrots	1/2 large carrot (2 1/2 ounces, 8 inches long)
cheddar cheese	1 ounce
eggs	1 egg
kidney beans, dry	1/2 cup, cooked
milk, 2%	1 cup
olive oil	1 tablespoon
onions	1/4 large onion
peanut butter	2 tablespoons
potatoes	1 medium potato (8 ounces)
raisins	1/4 cup
rice	1/4 cup dry (1/2 cup cooked)
rotini, high-protein*	3/4 cups (dry and cooked)
sugar*	1 tablespoon
tea	1 cup
tomatoes, diced	1/2 cup (7 ounces)
yeast, rapid-rise*	2 1/4 teaspoons (one packet)

* The rotini shown is Barilla Plus for the thrifty version, which is what I use at home. Barilla Plus has 12.8 grams of protein per 3/4 cup serving and is loaded with fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. There are cheaper pastas, but none that are a better value. I haven't found a high-protein, high-nutrient equivalent for organic pasta, so this list shows the best organic whole-wheat version available at the time.

** Only the thrifty prices are shown for sugar and yeast, since the green versions are so expensive as to not be practical.