David Podley and clinical psychologist Dr. Joe Dilley discuss how to categorize expenses in your budget when you and your partner don’t see eye-to-eye.

This episode can be downloaded through this link, or you can subscribe to our podcast updates through iTunes (for free) by clicking this link that will take you to The Frugal Couple’s page in iTunes. For more instructions on how to use iTunes to subscribe to podcasts, we’ve written a document you can find here.

A reader recently asked about how to keep her family’s grocery bill low while still buying organic food. Saving money on organic food can seem daunting…there’s a reason Whole Foods Market is often called Whole Paycheck.

Our family chooses not to buy organic food, in large part because of the cost. But I recognize that some families feel that buying organic is important or even necessary. The reader who wrote in explained that her son has autism and an organic diet is best for him.

So how do you buy organic food without spending your whole paycheck? Let’s take a look.

Buy from Local Farmers
The reader mentioned she buys from local Farmers’ Markets already, so this isn’t as much of a help for her, but if you aren’t already looking to local farmers you may be missing out on some good buys. The challenge with the local Farmers’ Market is that in many parts of the country, they don’t run year-round.

Look to Large Grocery Markets’ Brands
Many of the larger markets sell their own organic lines of foods. Known as Private Label items, these are often about 15% to 20% less than a brand-name item. Even Whole Foods has their own brand (called 365 Organic) that offers savings. (For example, a pound of organic, whole wheat spaghetti is $1.99 if you buy a brand name and $1.69 if you buy 365 Organic at my local Whole Foods Market.)

Look Online for Savings
I compared several items at Whole Foods and Amazon’s Grocery Store. This is where comparison shopping is required. Some items, such as organic olive oil, are much less expensive at Amazon. Ounce-for-ounce, organic extra virgin olive oil was 43.5 cents per ounce at Amazon and 63 cents per ounce at Whole Foods, a savings of 30%.

But other items were more expensive at Amazon. A 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes at Whole Foods cost $1.69 and the same amount at Amazon cost $2.77, 64% more expensive.

Break out your calculator because you’re going to need it to compare costs.

Buy What’s In Season
Years ago, people ate what was locally produced and fresh. Then we started to ship produce all around the world. No matter what time of year it is, most produce can be grown somewhere. The cost of shipping this food around the world to the price, so buying food grown 50 or 100 miles from your home will help. (This is why tip #1 above helps as well.)

What About You?
Do you have any tips for saving money on organic food at the supermarket? Please share your suggestions in the comments section.

This is the third part of a series on setting financial goals with your spouse. Our first part helped you figure out what’s important to you and our second part talked about the importance of defining goals that are specific and measurable.

This article will be about how to plan your steps so you can move toward your goal with focus.

There’s an excellent time and task management book called Getting Things Done by David Allen. The overarching idea in the book is that the best way to tackle a project is to break it down into actionable steps.

This advice is perfect when it comes to setting financial goals. When you look at where you want your finances to be, sit down and think about what it will take to get there.

You will most likely need to make some changes in your spending and saving, and you might need to do some administrative tasks to start the ball rolling. I recommend separating these two parts of your planning by making one list that only has tasks. If your goal is to start saving for your children’s college expenses in a 529 plan, your task list might have the following:

• Look at 529 Plan offerings from your state, Charles Schwab, Vanguard, and Fidelity. Order hard copies of plans in order to look them over with your partner.
• Decide which plan fits your needs best based on minimum investments, amounts allowed to be invested, and funds offered by the plan.
• Sign up for plan and decide on investments use in the plan.

If you don’t know what to do for the second and third steps, look for resources on the internet. One good site for college savings is (naturally) savingforcollege.com.

Many couples don’t even begin saving for a future goal because they get don’t know what to do. It’s times like these that you may want to seek the advice of a fee-only financial planner. (More on finding a financial planner at the bottom of this email.) Don’t let yourself get tripped up because you don’t know the best way to split savings between stocks and bonds.

Moving Beyond Administrative Stuff
As I mentioned earlier, besides the administrative-type stuff required to plan for a financial goal you are going to need to decide how to find the money to put toward the goal.

Right now, all of your income is going somewhere. Even if you’re living well below your means, income is being placed into some sort of savings.

If you’re already living below your means and you’ve been saving into an emergency fund that has at least five or six months of your living expenses saved up in it, this step may be as simple as setting up an automatic deposit into the chosen account (in this case the 529).

If you are barely making ends meet, there are a couple of ways to go about examining your spending.

First, there are three levels of spending that you can look at reducing. First are the incidental expenses, often called discretionary expenses. Things that fall into this category are frequent trips to the local coffee shop or dinners out.

The next level of spending to examine is your essential-but-easy-to-address expenses. Clipping coupons for groceries or examining your cell phone expenses fits into this area. Some things require a phone call to a service provider (cable, cell phone, etc.) and others require an ongoing effort (such as clipping coupons).

The final (and most often overlooked) step is to to take a deep look at your lifestyle and see if your lifetsyle, income, and goals are mutually compatible.

The area this shows most is in housing and where we choose to live. Can you afford to live in your city, with the income your family has, and fund your goals? For some, the answer is that they can’t.

I’m not saying you should immediately pack and call the movers for a move to another state, but it is something worth thinking about.

Earning More
The final idea to look at is whether you or your spouse can earn more money. Whether it’s a second job or a part-time home business or a change to a different industry, are there things you can do to earn more?

Wrapping Things Up
Goal setting often feels tough because we don’t break things down into small steps. As you talk with your partner about what’s important to you and how to get there, keep in mind some of the things Dr. Dilley mentioned in the podcast on keeping financial harmony with your spouse (here’s a link to the entry with the podcast link).

Link to an Article on How to Find a Financial Planner

Rent: $25 per day

Food: $10 per day

Cars (insurance, payments, maintenance): $45 per day

Gasoline: $13.50 per day

School and Other Debt Payments: $14.00 per day

Utilities: $2.00 per day

Medical: $4.00 per day

Phone: $6.00 per day

Miscellaneous:  $5.00

Total: $124.50 per day (assuming 30 days in a month)

This is what it costs us to live a minimal life in Pasadena, CA. I see the biggest areas to cut as the cell phone and possibly food.

Our real spending looks vastly different from this. We’ve cut out Starbucks except for rare occasions. I’m looking at our cell phone plan (getting rid of the Blackberry?) to see if we can cut that back some more.