Originally posted in the
PaleoRx blog:
Trying to eat Paleo on a budget? Read on as Essie takes you though her experience in finding what worked for her.
In 2002, I had a professor challenge me to survive on $100 per month on food. So I did him better. I survived on $80 per month.
For 2 and a half years.
Yes, I saved a ton of money. Yay. I also, however, gained a reputation for moochiness. And, often my homecooked meals were 3 or 4 plain wheat tortillas. (On fancy days I added packets of ketchup swiped from McD’s. Y’know, for *kick*.) Oh, and consequently, I also got hospitalized twice with malnutrition complications. Minus Yay.
You can safely assume that I’ve learned my lesson, and that I have paid (literally, figuratively, willingly now) to crave real food in my belly. But, one of my goals for this challenge is to make Paleo a sustainable lifestyle. I’m trying to aim for long-term habits. There are the obvious ones, like: going to bed earlier, avoiding weekend binges, killing cravings that make me grumpy. But the underlying premise to upholding it all is financial sustainability. I’m paying now to avoid the hospital bills later, but I also don’t want to break the bank.
HERE’S A ROUGH OF MY DAILY BREAKDOWN:
- PROTEIN: 1 lb of meat, roughly my body-weight in grams
- FATS: 1 can of coconut milk, 1/2–1 avocado, young coconut, coconut flakes
- CARBS: only a 1 or 2 veggies from the store at a time
- OMEGA STUFF: fish oil pills, chia seeds
- STUFF FOR COOKING AND FLAVORING: oils, lemons and limes, chicken stock for cooking, herbs
NB: *I should mention that I’m aiming to retrain my body to crave and burn fats right now, and going pretty minimal on the carbs for the time being.
SO MY TACTIC IS SIMPLE:
- PROTEIN: Buy a lb of meat for each day. Cook it in the morning, and feast on it throughout the day.
- ”bulk meat”: frozen chicken tenders from Trader Joe’s ($7.99-$9.99), frozen shrimp from TJ’s ($11), drumsticks from Costco ($1.50/lb), etc.
- ”2-day cuts”: Once a week, I get something from the butcher that will last 2 days, like a small chicken($1.50/lb), or a london broil ($5.99/lb at WF).
- ”1-day cuts”: These are typically cheaper cuts of lean steak, ground beef (in those nifty 1 lb packages), fish, shrimp, chicken. Anything that I can get in ~1 lb packages and fit in one pan for streamlined cooking.
The bulk stuff I ration out into individual single-pound portions and freeze them, so they’re at the ready. The 2-day, 2-lb cuts are typically things that I slow-cook overnight.
Once a week I’ll splurge on grass-fed, for a 1-day cut. Grass-fed london broil at WF is7.99/lb. The extra spending on those days is compensated for with religiously minding the prices on the cheaper cuts and 2-day cuts.
And since I rarely buy packaged or preserved meat, I save some cash by aiming for cheap cuts where I can: salmon collars, turkey wings, chicken drumsticks, hearts, broils, chowder fish pieces, etc. These are all perfectly fresh cuts of meat that just don’t lend to presentation, and so they’re definitely legit “real food”.
- FATS: Eat to satiety.
“Satiety” has more or less rounded out to about 1 can of lite coconut milk a day, about a half an avocado, and a little bit here and there of coconut flakes. The SUPER awesome thing about fats is that THEY STORE WELL.
- avocado: I hate that these are so expensive in this state. So I wait until they go on sale ($1 ea. at Safeway/TJs/QFC), and buy a ton. Then I lightly mash them up with fresh lemon juice (a natural preservative) and freeze them in individual baggies. They’re good for up to about 3 months in the freezer. (By the way, as of yesterday they were $4.29 for 4 organic avocados at TJs. Oddly enough that was the same price for 4 non-organice avocados…)
- coconut milk: The canned stuff is great, so long as you don’t get the dented ones. Thai Kitchen Organic Coconut Milk is on sale at WF through May 25th for $1.30/can. *AHEM*. That’s cheaper than the NON-organic, preservative-laden stuff at Cash and Carry. I drink the lite straight. I use the original in cooking or or I dilute it x 3 and spread it over a few days.
- coconut flakes: In bulk at Madison Market, or on sale currently at WF for $5/2 bags 7 oz Unsweetened Organic Coconut Flakes
- young coconut: An infrequent splurge, but less so knowings, after I drink all the delicious juices, I can also thwack it open with a cleaver and eat delicious fresh coconut meat
- CARBS: filling, low-carb veggies that don’t spoil immediately
Some of the very best veggies are the dark leafy greens. Collard greens, kale, broccoli—these guys also spoil slower than lettuces, baby spinach, and the like. Carrots take the cake.
- OMEGA STUFF:
- fish oil: Kirkland brand 1000mg capsules. ($8.99 for a 500 count bottle)
- chia seeds: Amazon Nutriva in bulk ($6.00/lb)
- STUFF FOR COOKING AND FLAVORING:, like oils, lemons and limes, chicken stock for cooking, herbs
- oils: I just don’t skimp on cooking oil anymore, especially the stuff that I use for high heat. There’s some scary business that oil transforms into if it’s been processed, and some even scarier crap that your body does in response to not knowing what the heck to do with it. (Hello to you too, trans fat molecules, you bastards.)
- lemons and limes: They’re cheap at TJs
- chicken stock: I always save the bones from the chickens that I slow roast, stock them in the freezer. Once I have enough, I make a broth. 2 chickens’ bones worth of broth makes about 8 cups and lasts a good long time. It’s perfect flavoring for braising, deglazing, etc.
- herbs and spices : Avoid buying the bottles at the grocery store. They’re not fresh, and what’s more they’re pricey. I like Market Spice in Pike Place Market, where you can get hundreds of spices by the half ounce, and they’re always fresh.
HERE’S A ROUGH OF MY DAILY PRICE BREAKDOWN:
- PROTEIN: $2–$10
- FATS: $1.30 for coconut milk, $0–$.50 for avocado, $2.00 for half a young coconut
- CARBS: $.18 for a carrot, $1.50 for half a head of kale
- OMEGA STUFF: $.09 for 5000 mg fish oil
This works really, really well with my budget of $400 a month for food, which breaks down to under $13 a day. Most days, it’s less, so that I’m still able to allot myself something for going out. $20-$30 has refreshingly been enough so far, what with being a cheap date and all.
Finally, in spite of a high protein, high fat diet, I’m saving for that jet ski by not purchasing non-Paleo items, as well as abandoning all kinds of Paleoish non-real-food items from my pre-challenge shopping list:
SOME THINGS I’VE STOPPED BUYING:
- SWEETS: truvia (8.99 for 40 packets), gum (about $1 a day), stevia chocolate ($3.50 a bar, about 4 a month), candy ($10-$20 a week)
- FATS: almond butter ($1.99)
- CARBS: Full Circle Farm veggie box ($35 per box)
- ADDICTIVE INFLAMMATORIES: cigarettes ($10 per pack, about 1.5 times a month), nicorette gum ($20 worth a month), coffee ($12 per bag, about 1.5 times a month), americanos ($3 3-4 times a week), happy hours ($5–$30 a week)
- SNAX: beef jerky (sugar-unavoidable) ($3-$6 per bag, about 3 times a month), dried fruit (~$10)
Holy coconut. That’s a savings of about $203–$245! And that’s just the obvious stuff. I haven’t even mentioned the strawberries that would go bad before I could finish them, or the pricy roasted seaweed snacks, the Jamba Juice or Healeo smoothies here and there, or the Red Mango(c) splurges.
In any case, I will gladly pay you on Tuesday… for an unburger today…
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WOD
"40/40"
for time:
40 handstand pushups
40 front squats, 71/46kg
The standard for the HSPU is STRICT. No kipping!
compare to
11FEB2011.
Post results to comments!
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Skills Class Notes:
"NINJA SH!T"
Warmup
- Big hop, little hop
- Silent box jumps
-
Pike stretch
Tumble
- forward roll
- shoulder roll
- PK roll (off elevation, for height, for distance, with momentum)
Kong Vault
- hand plant, raise hips
- hand plant, raise hips, replace hands with feet
- land further
- land in front of object
- use momentum
Grip
- hang off hand vs. hang off fingers
- traverse side to side on bar
- traverse entire pullup system
Underbar
- hop, grab, swing
- land further away
- start further from bar
- add momentum
- grab, tuck and layout for longer distance
- shorten "window" to "door"
