From time to time I hear parents say that the reason they don’t juice is that it is too expensive. I know how they feel. As a one income home, it is hard to watch your family food budget growing and growing.
I’ve found juicing cost-effective over the years
However, I know from my many, many years of juicing, that it is not as expensive as people think. Especially when you compare the amazing long-term health benefits gained by our kids in comparison to other things we buy (eating out, cafe coffee, soda ) that often offer no such rewards.
Working out the cost
To work out the true cost to make a basic (yet delicious) fresh veggie juice, I decided to base the costing on an 8oz glass of juice (for young children you can halve the final cost as you could make two juices from one 8oz glass.)
The recipe used is my ‘Sweet & Simple’.
3 carrots
1 apple
1 celery rib
1/2 small lemon
1 sliver ginger
In the breakdowns below I have shown you the cost of the produce item (in Australian dollars), the number of juicing serves in the produce item, and then the dollar amount for the number of juicing serves used to make one glass of juice.
I have done three costings. The reason for this is to show the cost difference in the type of produce (organic or conventional) bought, and also to show the cost difference for where the produce was bought from (supermarket or farmers market). I hope you find this enlightening.
Here are the three costings I did
Before scrolling down to see the full breakdown, can you can guess which amount belongs to which costing? The final amounts were – $5.51, $2.79 and $2.52 see if you can match it either numbers 1,2 or 3 below (no cheating).
- Using conventional (not organic) produce from my local supermarket
- Using organic produce from my local supermarket
- Using organic produce from my local farmers market and local regular organic market
The final costs are surprising
As I was, I’m guessing you’ll be surprised by the final cost. This leaves the ‘organic is too expensive’ argument wanting. Of course it depends where you shop and what your priorities are.
Keep in mind while reading the tables below that not everyone is keen on ginger, and even lemon. If these are not ingredients your child likes it would make your juice approximately $0.50 – $.080 cheaper, PER GLASS!
I offer this as a way to show possible cost savings, not because I think that is the best way to make juice. Lemon and ginger not only make juice taste better (in my opinion), but they both have wonderful nutritional value.
Conventional Supermarket
Item Cost item No. Serves per item Cost per glass
carrots $2.98 6 $1.49
apples $2.30 5 $0.46
ginger $1.68 10 $0.17
celery $1.00 10 $0.10
lemon $3.00 10 $0.30
Total $2.52
without ginger & lemon $2.05
Organic – Supermarket
Item Cost item No. Serves Cost per glass
carrots $6.00 6 $3.00
apples $4.98 5 $1.00
ginger $5.00 16 $0.31
celery $6.98 10 $0.70
lemon $4.00 8 $0.50
Total $5.51
without ginger & lemon $4.69
Organic – Farmers Market & organic local market
Item Cost item No. Serves Cost per glass
carrots $32.00 72 $1.33
apples $2.30 5 $0.46
ginger $5.00 16 $0.31
celery $4.00 10 $0.40
lemon $2.80 10 $0.28
Total $2.79
without ginger & lemon $2.19
Juice – true value for nourishing kids
So there you go. You can make a densely nutritious glass of juice for your child for around two dollars if need be, and you can even make it organic for that price. Show me a bought juice, or a coffee, or sports drink that can match that price for nutrients delivered. I can’t think of one.
Beyond the price it is the ritual of our daily juice that I love in our home. My son is learning every day to nourish his mind and body. That is amazing bang for the buck.
Happy Juicing
Juicingkids.com helps parents and carers create life-long juicers out of their children.
As a child I stood at the juicer with my mother and now my son does the same with me. Experience has taught me how to start a child drinking fresh, raw nutrient dense vegetable juice and then keep them doing it as a daily habit.
In our home now we make a daily vegetable juices with a little low sugar fruit added for taste. Kids need parents and carers to to guide them lovingly through this over processed and hyper marketed world of foods to teach them how to love and nourish their bodies.
www.juicingkids.com
