Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking – Week of September 15 – 19

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 September 8 – 12)

The Plan vs. Reality

This week’s meal planning was decent – I got corn in my CSA box again and decided to use it instead of waste it, even though corn isn’t paleo.

Monday

• The Plan – Collard wraps with shredded balsamic beef, bell peppers and carrots
• Reality – This worked really well. I can’t wait to get more collards in the CSA box – this needs to be repeated!

Tuesday

• The Plan – Shredded balsamic beef with corn/green pepper/feta salad
• Reality – Yum. This was a great meal. I added jalapeno for some extra spice and roasted all the peppers on my gas range. Delicious.

Wednesday

• The Plan – Bunless burgers with corn on the cob and herbed butter
• Reality – I ditched the fancy butter and this meal was delicious.

Thursday

• The Plan – Stuffed peppers with kale and roasted tomatoes if I get enough peppers in the CSA box
• Reality – I ended up going another direction. Had leftover shredded balsamic beef with a warm corn/pepper/leek/balsamic vinegar salad instead.

Friday

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

Lunches

• The Plan – Leftovers.
• Reality – Had a bunch of leftovers + days of chicken with tomatoes and peaches.

Extras

• The Plan – Nothing planned but almond milk.
• Reality – The almond milk turned out awesome. More on that soon!

This Week: September 15 – 19

I have leftover CSA veggies this week and $75 to spend on groceries.

This Week’s Proposed Menu

• Monday: Steaks with corn on the cob
• Tuesday: Stuffed peppers with sausage, roasted tomatoes, eggplant & kale
• Wednesday: Corn and goat cheese stuffed peppers with ???
• Thursday: Eggplant fries with ???
• Friday: Meat with CSA veggie or dine out
• Lunch: Leftovers.
• Extras: None planned.

Shopping List & Cost Breakout

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

Shopping List

Extras: peanut butter dog biscuits ($3.49 @ TJs), sauerkraut ($3.99 @ TJs), thai chile almonds ($5.99 @ TJs)

I also ran into a sale at Whole Foods on grass fed beef for $5 a pound – I picked up 4 lbs. and plan to break that out over the next few weeks. Win! 

Total TJ: $67.16
Total WF: $20.31

Total For The Week: $75.00; $0.00 under budget. I *was* $8.84 under budget this week, but I’m going to count some of that beef surplus toward this week’s budget. I think I’m safely recuperated from the week I went over with party supplies last month; plugging the partial cost of the beef in this week will leave me a little wiggle room for later in the month. Plus, now I have extra ground beef + the Italian sausage I still haven’t used in my freezer store. Whoo hoo!

Pantry/items repurposed from last week: fats, spices, CSA veggies, Italian sausage, ground beef.