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.
Menu for Last Week (Week of August 25 – 29)
The Plan vs. Reality
This week’s meal planning was decent – I made most of what I wanted to, though I had an off-track night where I ended up eating lunch for dinner.
Monday
- The Plan – Leftover pulled pork tacos with peach/basil salsa
- Reality – I forgot to make the salsa, but the tacos were fantastic
Tuesday
- The Plan – Pork bowl with chard and leeks
- Reality – I wanted tacos again. More tacos.
Wednesday
- The Plan – Mexican-ish pork bowl with sweet potatoes, green peppers and onions
- Reality – I kicked the taco habit and this was really good. Used 1 pepper + some sweet potato
Thursday
- The Plan – Steaks with creamed chard and carrots
- Reality – The steaks were good, but I served with corn since we got corn in the CSA. Yes, I know, corn isn’t paleo – but I don’t want to waste it, either, on top of the massive amount of veggies I chucked last week. I also made a nice little tomato/basil/shallot salad.
Friday
- The Plan – Eat out
- Reality – That happened.
Lunches
- The Plan – Salads and leftovers.
- Reality – Salads didn’t really happen, but I ate a lot of leftovers.
Extras
- The Plan – Broil eggplants and perfect zucchini fries
- Reality – Neither of those things happened
This Week: September 1 – 5
I have leftover CSA veggies this week and $75 to spend on groceries. This week’s shopping was all tied up with Saturday’s game night.
This Week’s Proposed Menu
- Monday: Labor Day – eating out
- Tuesday: Zucchini fries with burgers
- Wednesday: Ground pork or turkey bowl with Asian flavors + eggplant, carrot, pepper and kale
- Thursday: Corn salad with leeks, carrot top pesto & some sort of meat
- 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
Ground pork (ground turkey – $4.29 @ TJs)
Meat for 2 nights – big or otherwise (more ground beef – $6.99 @ TJs + pork belly – $6.49 @ TJs)
Sweet potato ($0.49 @ TJs)
Almond milk – did not get
Coffee ($7.99 @ TJs)
Extras: coconut milk ($0.99 @ TJs), cashews ($6.99 @ TJs), cheese for the DH ($6.59 @ TJs)
Total TJ: $69.57
Total For The Week: $69.57; $6.43 under budget. I made up about half of last week’s budgetary overage by planning less and relying more on my CSA veggies for this week.
Pantry/items repurposed from last week: fats, spices, CSA veggies.
Gastography 