Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking – Week of July 28 – August 1

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.

Current Box of CSA Veggies

Menu for Last Week (Week of July 21 – 25)

The Plan vs. Reality

This week’s meal planning was efficient – I ended up making pretty much what I set out to make.

Monday

• The Plan – Meat crust zucchini quiche
• Reality – Yum.

Tuesday

• The Plan – Zucchini soup with some sort of meat
• Reality – This was pretty great – the hubbs liked the soup. I served with bulgogi style beef, which didn’t go but was tasty.

Wednesday

• The Plan – Zucchini salsa verde with pork chops
• Reality – This actually tasted like salsa verde. Weird but good. I served with kale & chard & baby garlic to use some veggies up.

Thursday

• The Plan – Meat with CSA veggies
• Reality – I bought tri-tip steak and served with a big plate of veggies

Friday

• The Plan – Eat out
• Reality – That happened.

Lunches

• The Plan – Salads & leftovers
• Reality – Lunches this week were light on salads and heavy on leftovers again. My lettuce got used – but barely.

Extras

• The Plan – Nothing.
• Reality – Nothing made.

This Week: July 28 – August 1

I have leftover CSA veggies this week and $75 to spend on groceries. This week I sent the hubbs shopping alone. Let’s see how he did.

This Week’s Proposed Menu

• Monday: Cucumber tuna salad
• Tuesday: Basil cucumber gazpacho with chicken tenders
• Wednesday: Big salad with steaks and maybe leek butter
• Thursday: Meat with CSA veggie
• Friday: Meat with CSA veggie or dine out
• Lunch: CSA veg salads, leftovers
• Extras: Pickles or veggie stock if I have enough leftover

Shopping List & Cost Breakout

Grocery Store Key: TJ = Trader Joe’s, O = Optional if budget allows

Shopping List

Extras: None.

Total TJ: $81.92

Total For The Week: $81.92; $6.92 over budget. Boo. Over budget. We’ve been doing well with being under lately, so I’m not terribly worried – but I don’t like it. Still, he did pretty good – much better than pre budget. Technically, we could roll the coffee into another budget – but I will let it stick. Pretty good for spending $7 on fancy tomatoes.

Pantry/items repurposed from last week: fats, spices, CSA veggies.