Yearly spending habits on LC specialty foods?
 

I am curious what people are spending on specialty LC foods per year.

I am doing research for a marketing class here in the USA and am able to come up with some general numbers for the industry, but wanted to come right to the source for my best information.

I am not looking for general products like meat or eggs, but specialty foods like LC bars, ice cream, breads...

Any feedback will be helpful too!
Thanks,
Chris

Seems like a lot when adding up totals. I'm sure we'll be over $500 in a year. May be there now!

Biggest expenditure - DaVinci SF syrups. We have about 20 bottles at any one time. My DH no longer drinks regular soda, only custom ones. So we've saved a lot of money by not buying soda. A lot of the LC items are trade offs. Yes they cost more but we would have purchased something similar so you can't count the entire cost agains low carbing. We've always gone through lots of nuts and coconut so I won't count those at all.

Low carb products in order of frequency of use at my house:
SF DaVincis
LC Ice Cream
RS Candy
EAS AdvantEdge bars (favorite but buy other brands on sale)
Almond Flour
La Tortillas
LC Bread
Flax seed meal
other baking stuff (vital wheat guten, soy flour, raw wheat germ...)
Atkins bagels

Have but rarely use:
Baja Bobs LC drink mixes - got us through some hot nights this summer!
Keto Ketchup (a must for cheese steaks)
Banana Nut LC hot cereal
LC jelly
Vanilla whey protein powder (for baking but I don't like the taste)
ThicknThin

Tried pasta once - didn't like it at all. Bought Keto Krisp to make cookies. They were great but the cereal cost way too much so never again.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of items but I'm drawing a blank. :doah:

$0.

I won't be buying any specialty LC foods. If I can't the real thing now, I'll wait til I'm on maintenance when I can.

If I can't eat the real thing on maintenance, then I just won't eat that food.

I think this philosophy is the only way I'll be able to lose the weight and keep it off.

I couldn't begin to estimate this. I am spending money on Russell Stover sf candies, and seldom if ever bought candy before beginning this WOE. I'm hoping the novelty of that wears off. I usually buy it on sale. CVS drugstores in our area almost always have at least one weekly special on sf candy these days, along with almonds, macadamia nuts, and cashew nuts one sale. (their house brand). Today when I went there to buy macadamias on sale, I noticed that they now have a whole new line of CVS sf candies.

The one consistent thing I am now buying is the canned Atkins chocolate delight shakes. I buy them at GNC for 20% off the first seven days of each month. (in fact, Jason, the store owner, just called me on the phone to tell me that their first seven days of the month was beginning on Friday, November 28th, this month.....can you tell this store is having trouble making ends meet?) I don't really need the shakes this month, but I like Jason and would like the store to stay open as it is less than 2 miles from my house, so will probably buy some more.

So this amounts to an extra, and new to my budget, $35 or so a month. On the other hand, I was previously buying Slimfast canned shakes, so it balances out a bit.

I buy unsweetened ketchup, which is more expensive than the Heinz I used to buy. We've never used much ketchup; but I use it to make lc seafood sauce since we are now eating more shrimp.

Overall, my impression is that when someone first starts on this, they (read I) go overboard on buying rare and exotic foods (such as guar gum, almond flour, etc) But I've never used most of what I bought 8 months ago, and probably will never need it.

Never did like the lc bars I bought at the beginning. So cross that expense off my ongoing list.

Hopes this helps with your research,

Kay

Like Nebula, I've spent $0. If I'm going to maintain this WOE, I figure I'm going to have to cope with real food on a daily basis. Besides, I'm too much of a cheapskate to spend a lot of money on low-carb products.

However, I have been spending more money on gluten-free products but that's a different health issue.

Yes, thank you this is all very helpful.

In my class I am trying to write a business plan to market a LC product and need information on the market. Specifically, I have come up with a sandwich, well more of a wrap that will start off as a breakfast sandwich (egg, cheese and a breakfast meat) in a LC "tortilla". It will be frozen to extend its shelf life, with the possibility of moving more varieties of wraps (pizza wrap, broccolli & cheese...)
A family of products that can be heated and taken if need be. I find this is not alway the most convenient way of eating at times. If you don't plan ahead you could be in trouble!

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this type of product? Would that interest anybody? Again, this really helps my research for my class.

Thanks again!

I buy DaVinci syrup and La Tortilla. That's it. The rest of it is just LC substitutions for junk foods that I no longer want. I love my quesadillas though as well as using the softshell wraps for scrambled egg "sandwiches." The DaVinci (I only have one flavor at a time) is good for flavoring shakes. I really like the chocolate one.

shortstuff

I might buy a frozen sandwich or two for DH. He's on the run a lot. I don't think I would use them.

Do most of you not consider things like almond flour, coconut oil, guar gum, vital wheat gluten..... lc? If I never used it before, I consider it a lc item. Well, maybe not all the strange new veggies we've been eating, but all the new baking things.

Do you folks drink soda? If so, ordering DaVinci's and making you own might not be a bad thing to try. I know lots of families that spend hundreds of dollars a year just on soda. (That would only be $4-$5 a week.) I bought a diet Coke, diet Sprite and a regular Coke for when the kids come home for Thanksgiving this week. Probably won't buy anymore until they come home for Christmas.

I think people underestimate how much they spend, especially eating out (coffee at work?) and on junk like soda and fast food.

$500 a year on LC food probably replaces $450 worth of junk that I don't buy anymore. I think it's a very good trade.

I buy artificial sweeteners stevia/Splenda/cyclamate and that's about it. I still have the DaVinci syrups that I bought three years ago. :lol:

I view them as ingredients used in LC cooking but they were around before the days of LC consumerism.

Karen

Hmmm... I'd have to estimate about $150 a year. That's one or two Atkins bars a month when I'm in a pinch, occasional RS candies, and cooking products like Splenda, almond flour, etc.

The frozen sammitches sound convenient for folks on the go. :cool:

I'd be interested in some lc frozen meals, but not with the La Tortillas. I have tried several of their flavours, and have not been able to swallow even one bite of any of them. Spit every one of them in the trash.

I'm in the minority as far as they go, I think, so you may find good reception for the idea.

Kay

I actually have never had a La Tortilla. Have not gotten around to ordering, we do however have a bakery in our area that caters to the low carb/low sugar market and makes a great flat bread, basically a tortilla. They estimate they have 6 carbs per wrap, and the wrap is at least 12" wide. They taste great too.

I'm the exact opposite of BIG SPENDER
 

I don't use anything ! But that's only because it's impossible to get hold of here in Norway. No mixes, no bars, no nothing !

I have to do this "the old way" - in other words the way LC'ing was done before big bucks came in and made it an industry ! I have no problem with that, - even if I sometimes wish I could grab a bar. Now I grab a chicken drumstick instead ..... :lol:

Most low carb products are sub-standard, and extremely pricey, IMHO. You might be missing out on the convenience, but tastewise, I'd take a chicken drumstick over a low carb bar any day.

Oh, you hit the nail on the head! I buy a couple loaves of LC bread a month because the kids love making French toast with it. I can't stand the stuff! I attempted home-made LC dinner rolls yesterday and on my first attempt far surpassed the quality, texture and taste of the store-bought bread.

I bought one package of LC tortillas, haven't seen them in the store since. They're not bad, but not something I'd want to make a habit of eating--tortillas just aren't tortillas when they're made of whole grains. ;)

We do buy the occasional LC ice cream (maybe one carton per month), Carb Countdown (big hit around here with kids who're LCing) and a box of RS dark chocolate candies.

Otherwise it's just ordinary whole foods for us. I'm not saying I would never buy some kind of quick thing like that to eat, it's just that I'd imagine it would cost at least $3.50 and for $2.00 I can go to Carl's Jr and get a good burger, protein wrapped. ;)