I agree in principle with what you say, but when I tried to fit into Thrifty Food Plan budget, I couldn't. I normally cook all of my meals from scratch, avoid prepared meals and very aware of per-pound cost of any food I buy. Going with "economy" budget was only a question of changing menu to work with much cheaper ingredients. Couple things I noticed - spices, flavoring and oils that I normally use were clearly out of budget (I used them anyways); any fresh milk, cheese or dairy were out; most fresh vegetables were out of budget with exception of onions and carrots; any meat cuts that easy to work with was out of budget.

As to points you brought up about organic, way I read it was more of "it would be nice to have organic, but I can't with this budget" than "I tried to eat organic, but run over the budget". Frozen dinner comments - yes, I agree, but unless you are a good cook, that is your only choice.

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