Paleo on a Budget

August 4th, 2009, by

Paleo Budget

Yesterday we discussed how prudent it may be to spend more on food now in order to save a lot on healthcare later. Is it absolutely necessary though to spend more on food to avoid the diseases of civilization?

In layman's terms, NO!

Here are a few ideas for going Paleo on a Budget:

  1. Eat at home - you will lose money faster eating out than you would if you sat at home setting $1 bills on fire
  2. Join a food club - find a local CSA or Co-op and enjoy the discount benefits of ordering agricultural products with a group of people
  3. Grow your own - if you have the time and interest, start your own garden
  4. Buy in bulk - buy your meat a quarter of a cow or more at a time and stock your freezer for the next year
  5. Buy in season - stick to fruits and vegetables that are locally in season and save considerably
  6. Buy frozen - fruits and vegetables are just as nutritious when frozen, but a fraction of the price
  7. Go carnivore - stay away from those expensive fruits/veggies and stick solely to animal products

My family is currently making an effort to eat at home more often. We also try to buy our meat in bulk as much as possible. I feel that we have had pretty good success at keeping the cost down to this point. Personally, I have gravitated very closely to carnivorism over the past several months, so I will use that as an example.

A typical day for me will consist of 1.5 pounds of beef rib eye and 2 pounds of ground beef. This comes out to a grand total of $14.47 per day for food. I could also very easily swap out 3/4 of a pound of rib eye for 14 large eggs (7 whole eggs + 7 egg yolks) and arrive at a very similar level of macronutrients for a total of $10.39; a savings of $4.08!

With that being said, I challenge you to come up with a day's worth of food that contains approximately 4,000 calories and costs less than $14. If you are feeling really adventurous, you can try to outdo the cost of the second example. Feel free to use restaurants, fast food joints, supermarkets, mail order, whatever. We will then compare the nutritional profile of my daily intake to whatever you can come up with.

One last note. I will be more than happy to do a follow-up on the health merits of a completely carnivorous diet if requested to, but please don't flame me in the comments. Stay focused on the main objective of this post.

Category: Nutrition

3 Responses to "Paleo on a Budget"

  • Bill
    August 4, 2009, 4:12 pm

    Sparky - Vitamin deficiencies is the first thing most people question me about. Large amounts of vitamin A exist in both liver and egg yolk. Even if one wasn't to eat either one of those, but stuck strictly to a meat and water diet, vitamin A deficiency would be a non issue. You see, a lot of the vitamin levels that are thrown around by the government are based on the standard, carb based diet. If you don't have the irritating, harmful plant based foods in your diet, you won't need as many vitamins and minerals to digest them and prevent them from causing you harm.

  • Sparky
    August 4, 2009, 11:06 pm

    Polar bear liver contains a dangerous amount of Vitamin A. But my old survival instructor says if you can kill a polar bear with a stick go ahead and eat its liver caus you are one bad ass that can survive anything.

    Tastes like poop.