I noticed those of us that were responding to Diane's post below made some comments about $$ of low-carb and feeding our children and hubby's different.

I've had this debate with people before and thought it would be interesting to see what everyone here had to say. Do you think it's more expensive eating low-carb??

My grocery bill has gone up alot since I'm not buying stuff like, hamburger helper and the cheap, convenience foods. I've always found that when I buy all my meat and cheese it goes up! I've had people tell me that it's cheaper than the "other" ways to eat. But maybe I'm missing something.

Here's another thing--I'm a COUPON FREAK and I would be a happier shopper if they would have coupons for meat!

Just thought I'd get our brains going for a Tuesday morning!!

I think it's expensive if you are buying for two different ways of eating. If the whole household is LC, it would be about the same.

Potato chips and other snacks, cookies, ice cream, juice, pop, breakfast cereals and milk are not cheap. With LC they are replaced with small protein snacks and water.

I have a question for those of you with children. Do you worry or wonder if you may be sending your children down the same path of carb addiction that you have found yourselves on?

Karen

We have found that or bill is about the same, or slightly higher (my boyfriend claims its higher). Both of us are following this WOL now which makes things easier. However, when he makes his claims that the bill is higher I can point out that:

A) we no longer have food in the house that is being thrown out the day before garbage night. Everything we buy is eaten.

B) we don't eat out much anymore, with the exception of the occaisional wing night a few times a month.

C) We dont buy alcohol anymore. No beer, no slushy blender drink mix, very little wine.

D) no more lunches / dinners bought at work. I barely buy coffee anymore.

So while we may be spending more, we are making very good use of it.

Nat

I think my bill is about the same or slightly higher, and I also feel I'm making good use of the food I buy. However, where I work it's possible to buy low-carb things for lunch (baked chicken, cheeseburgers without the bun, etc.), which are NOT cheap. I wish I would work harder at bringing my own food for lunch at work. I also agree that while I may be spending more on expensive things such as meats and cheeses, the fact that I've cut out ice cream, cookies, milk, juice, and so on really helps to balance things out. In any case, a slightly higher food bill is worth it, in my opinion.

Karen,
You brought up a good point too. My daughter is only 16 months old--but has quite an appetite. I watch the real carby foods, ie potatoes, pasta and bread that I feed her. Sometimes she seems to really dislike meat (with her genes, there's no way that she'll be a vegetarian!!). But that is one of the things that I thought about when deciding it was time to lose weight--the eating example that I'm setting for her. I don't limit any of her fruits or veggies though.

My grocery bills have finally stabalized and this is why:
I started LCing and I'm had to buy two sets of groceries but after researching I found that I could put my two preteenagers on my WOL and at first there was great rebellion. But now that they have been LCing for a month, I notice the nibbling has almost come to a stop (they have 3 snacks a day, so they are eating every three hours or so) and I notice I don't have to buy 3 gallons of Milk, I don't need two bags of carrots or two bags of apples. They eat peanut butter and celery, plus cheese sticks, as well as nuts.

If you want to calculate the true cost of low-carbing, you have to factor in all of the side savings like medical/pharmacy bills, clothing, etc. Personally, I find that the most expensive food is the processed junk. I sometimes buy high-carb foods for my son and it kills me all the time to think I have to pay over $3 for a bag or chips or $1.39 for a small cup of soda at McDonald's which is, come to think of it, no more than a few cents worth of liquid sugar!

... about the medical expenses. For someone taking the cholesterol-lowering and diabetic medications ... these can cost hundreds of dollars a month. Fine if you have insurance, not fine if you don't. And some of us are trying to stave off potential health problems ... so, the money we save won't be realized right away.

Another expense to consider is the power needed to prepare the food. Carby foods take longer to cook (if unprocessed and not refined, pre-packaged). Meats, vegetables and salads are pretty quick to prepare, and generally do not require long cooking times ... except for roasts, etc ... and then the veggies can be cooked in the same pan.

Nat brings up a good point about less waste and garbage to put out. Most processed carb foods and junk food are overpackaged, and so there's the cost of recycling and disposing. It adds up if you're in a community where you pay a fee per bag of garbage.

For families where kids don't have weight & health issues ... it is a good idea to cut out the sugar and refined white stuff as others have pointed out. If they still want pasta ... try whole wheat. True, it's more expensive ... but it's twice as filling, so the portion size can be smaller. And potatoes aren't necessarily a no-no except for strict low-carb levels. It's the fluffy white pure starch in the middle that's the problem. Toss it in the compost ... and serve the skins and the ½-inch or so of potato flesh just inside the skin. That's where all the nutrition is found.

Just my thoughts ..

Doreen

Well, so far our food bill has gone up only a little. We haven't had to buy much beef however, only from now until December when we buy 1/2 a cow again. That's been a life-saver on the budget. We have an upright freezer in the garage and have eaten more beef since we started this WOE in June.

As for the children. I have thought about how many carbs they get. My dilema is that I run a day care and am required to feed the children certain foods. Breakfast is to include milk, fruit or veggie, and grain or bread. I've been adding protein shakes in the morning, the kids love them. I have to go by the FDA requirements, even if I don't think the children get enough protein and too many carbs.

As for my own children, we limit it more but they are still growing and need the vitamins from fruits and veggies that are high in carbs.

I do have to say that my grocery bills have gone up slightly but not that bad. But I have my whole family LCing now with the occasion of my husband and daughter having a few of junk food. They are both underweight to begin with and I don't mind that they eat the junk every once in a while so they don't loose weight. Thankfully my husband is such a great support that he eats LC while I am around but when I am not around and he is out and has our daughter for his days off they go out to eat and eat burgers and frenchfries so they get there carbs that way. But we don't try to keep very many carbed foods in our house if all possible. I am still trying to use up my Hamberger helpers that I had before making the switch to LCing but my husband and daughter eat those on nights that I have dance class so they can have extra carbs that way. But my bill has gone up a little because we buy more meat and cheeses now but my family loves meat and cheese so it never goes to waist. But I feel like the food bill hasn't gone up for the fact we don't eat out but maybe once a month so we are not waisting money of fast food at all.
There are always those plusses and minuses the the whole WOL but don't you love the energy and the fact you are loosing is the best of all. Who needs carbs then.
Shondel

My grocery bill has gone up slightly from the meat and cheese increasing - however, I now bring my lunch to work to avoid the temptation of "you want fries with that?" so all in all my budget shows a slight savings from those extra values that aren't very valuable at all.

I agree that if they would put out coupons for meats I would be one very happy camper. I use cheese coupons whenever I find one. Sometimes you can get great deals on cheese.

I still have to get breads and pastas and pizzas for the hubby so I don't think I have the overall savings that I could if he would join me in LCing.

Hmmm, my food bills have shot through the roof !
Just compare snacks:

1 packet of biscuits: £0.40 (hey I like the stores ownbrand "nice-biscuits"

1 packet of cheese: £1.69

I also buy more veggies now, as I don't have cheap fillers like rice and potatoes anymore.

I also eat more vitamins now (the price for Q10 is insane !)

I eat more real meat - no more sausages and cheap burgers ( both contain high amounts of bread) and no more vegetarian dinners

No more fish-fingers, real fish instead

Less coffee - saves me about £2.00 a month
Less diest sodas - saves me about £1.00 a month
More Water - Not sure, water bill hasn't gone up much and I refill at work a lot
Cream instead of milk - costs me about £5.00 extra a month (milk is a lot cheaper, and I still need to buy it for BF and daughter)
basically, protein food is a lot more expensive to buy, than crisps (potato chips for you ) and biscuits.
The lunch situation is about the same as before. I either have a BLT with no bread (they charge the same for that) or bring my own (did that before as well), or have some convienient processed food ( hot-dog-sausages, Cheese, ready made chicken...)

I recon my food bill has gone up about £25-30 a month, propably more

Mine has gone up a lot. But I was eating very unhealthly. I was very poor and found out quickly that it was MUCH cheaper to go to a fast food restaurant and get whatever sandwich was $0.99 than it was to make a cheap meal at home. I could easily spend $10 to make something at home, and only $4 to eat out. I worry about my ex though, he's been eating like that for a long time and doesn't take vitamins...

Mine has gone up alot too. I used to exist on pasta, rice, bread and potatoes, mostly cheap convenience foods. Now I'm buying more meat and veggies which are alot more expensive. Not to mention the tons of vitamins I take every day...lol. I would say that I've saved on sugar and sugary drinks since I don't drink them anymore, but I think my husband started consuming my portions of those. I still buy him his snack chips, but less of them. So I guess I've saved in some areas, but I spend much more in other areas.

But I figure it's worth it in the end.

Wendy

I actually think we save money. Mostly because I have to be more organised and plan what I am cooking, taking to work etc.

Previously we were really bad at picking something up for tea at the supermarket on the way home (convenience food) and I always bought my lunch.

It must be cheaper now beacuse I find I still have cash in my wallet at the end of the week that was there at the start

Unbeknown to the tenagers, I have also cut back on the junk food in the house. They think it is a treat to nibble on macadamia nuts and salami sticks now

Lesley