A number of people I know are completely flabbergasted when contemplating sticking to a budget while eating a primarily “paleo” diet. I’m hoping to shed a little light on that issue for those of you on the fence about eating healthfully in this manner – it *can* be done – and done well – without spending all the money. All it takes is a little planning.
A little background: I live in Brooklyn, NY, and the grocery prices here are definitely not the same as what you will find in other areas of the country. If you live in say, Raleigh NC for example – you may very well be able to cut this grocery bill by a third, depending upon where you shop. For where I live, where I shop and what I buy, $100 a week is a doable budget without having to sacrifice the quality I want too much. My DH thinks $130 is probably more realistic with our morning smoothie supplies, but I want to shoot for $100. I aim to make 4-5 dinners for two and 5 lunches per week, plus two smoothies per day six days of the week with my budgetary allowance and update you all weekly on what’s going on. Let’s see if I can make it.
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My CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares are going strong, so I will be doing things a little differently with the vegetable portion of my meal planning for the next few months (until October). My share averages out to $25 a week, which will come off the top of my budget allotment and will comprise the bulk of my non-smoothie-related vegetable purchases. If you’re curious to see how I use my CSA veggies up, check out my What To Do With A Box Of Vegetables posts.
Last Week (Week of June 23-27)
The Plan vs. Reality
This week’s meal planning was pretty much nonexistent. We were on vacation last week, so I told the DH to pick up 5 meats + smoothie supplies and call it a day.
Monday
- The Plan – Burgers with sweet potato fries
- Reality – Always a great dinner to have in my back pocket. Today, the day after getting back from vacation, was no exception.
Tuesday
- The Plan – Some sort of meat my DH picked out while shopping + CSA leftover veggies
- Reality – The DH brought home rack of lamb, so I cooked that up and served it with broiled radishes from the CSA & carrots from the crisper. Decadent and delicious.
Wednesday
- The Plan – Some sort of meat my DH picked out while shopping + CSA leftover veggies
- Reality – The DH picked out Cabernet Pot Roast (one of the pre-marinated meats from Trader Joe’s). I made that and served it with CSA mystery greens (mustard greens??) + collards. Yum.
Thursday
- The Plan – Some sort of meat my DH picked out while shopping + CSA leftover veggies
- Reality – Pork chops with baby bok choy from last week, big bok choy from this week, carrots from the crisper and some of the 999999 spring onions we now have.
Friday
- The Plan – Some sort of meat my DH picked out while shopping + CSA leftover veggies
- Reality – The hubby brought home chicken as well, but we ended up eating snacky things from the grocery instead.
Lunches
- The Plan – ?????
- Reality – I ordered rotisserie/grilled chicken on Monday and ate that as my protein all week with scrounged CSA veggies until Wednesday and lettuce & stuff from Wednesday on. It worked.
Extras
- The Plan – Nothing planned
- Reality – And nothing made.
This Week: June 30 – July 4
I have leftover CSA veggies this week and $75 to spend on groceries.
This Week’s Proposed Menu
- Monday: Big salad with lots of veggies + such – big enough that I can eat the leftovers for lunch
- Tuesday: Chard + beet greens roast with pork/sage/apple burger & caramelized onion
- Wednesday: Bacon-wrapped sage sweet potato wedges with Barbicoa
- Thursday: New CSA veg with barbicoa
- Friday: New CSA veg with barbicoa
- Lunch: CSA veg salads
- Extras: Sage lemonade, sage ice cubes and maybe sage honey
Shopping List & Cost Breakout
Grocery Store Key: TJ = Trader Joe’s, WF = Whole Foods, O = Optional if budget allows
Shopping List
ghee – $4 est – O
coconut aminos – $4 est – O
worcestershire sauce – O
Coconut oil – $5 est – O
Lemons – $1 est ($0.49 @ TJs)
Apple – $1 est ($0.79 @ TJs)
Green beans – $3 est ($2.69 @ TJs)
Cherry tomatoes – $4 est ($2.49 @ TJs)
Parsley – $2 est ($1.79 @ TJs)
Bacon – $5 est ($4.99 @ TJs)
Garlic – $2 est ($1.29 @ TJs)
Onion – $1 est ($0.79 @ TJs)
Sweet potato – $1 est ($0.49 @ TJs)
Ground pork – $8 est (TJs did not have, so I bought ground turkey instead – $3.99)
Chicken – $7 est – use leftovers from last week
5-7 lb. brisket – $30 est – $20 MAX (more like 2 lbs – $17.65 @ TJs)
salt – $4 est ($1.49 @ TJs)
eggs – $4 est ($3.99 @ TJs)
$86 estimate – without smoothie supplies. This is $11 over my $75 mark.
$73 estimate without the Optional items.
Smoothie supplies estimate:
2 bags kale – $5 est ($2.29 x 2 @ TJs)
1 bag spinach – $2 est ($1.99 @ TJs)
5 apples – $5 est ($3.95 @ TJs)
3 avocados – $4 est ($4.47 @ TJs)
5 limes – $5 est (1 lb. bag – $1.79 @ TJs)
Coconut water – $4 est ($3.69 @ TJs)
Celery – $2 est – did not get
Cilantro – $2 est – did not get
$29 est for smoothies
Need to cut $27 worth of groceries from the list.
Buy cheaper meat – $20 max (cuts $10)
Cut the chicken (cuts $7)
STILL NEED TO CUT $10 WORTH OF GROCERIES FROM THE LIST
Extras: I forgot to list ginger in smoothie supplies – $1.39 @ TJs. The hubbs was with me and bought some snacky food for Friday night’s dinner – $2.69 for pita crackers + $7.47 for Old Amsterdam gouda — and those could both have come out of the “entertainment” budget bucket. We also had to buy an emergency bag to carry groceries home, since one of ours was horrible smelling once we unrolled it.
Total TJ: $76.03
Total WF: $0.00
Total For The Week: $75.00; $0.00 over budget. This was one of those weeks that shopping on a budget sucked. But I made it – barely. I did manage to get the coconut aminos I needed + some fruit to snack on for the week (cherries), but those came out of our weekly entertainment budget, since things like Friday night’s dinner + beer were purchased at the same time. I’m calling this week even on budget – technically, I spent a little under, but it all evens out in the end.
Pantry/items repurposed from last week: fats, spices, CSA veggies, chicken.
Gastography 