What does everyone do to save money when eating Paleo foods? I find I save a lot of money just by doing a lot of my own cooking, but at the beginning I found Paleo to be somewhat expensive.

Cheap satisfying paleo foods that I've discovered are coconut milk (about $1 a can) and beef. Cabbage, carrots, squash are pretty cheap and energy dense too. I guess also eating in season is cheap and healthy too.

What are your suggestions?

Hey Artic: I think that we THINK we are spending more on Paleo eating. In the old days, my shopping cart would be full of boxes and packages. A box of cereal nowadays costs at least $5.00. When eating low fat we were still eating lots of fruits and veggies so that is constant. We were also eating lots of low-fat yogurt, low fat cheese, low-fat milk, low fat margarine, no-cholesteral cheezies, chips and french fries, and all that stuff cost big money. We ate less meat but the meat was very lean (the more expensive cuts). Now we can eat cheaper cuts of meat with more fat on it. I don't think we pay more, I think we spend less. Our foods are pure and uncomplicated. We cook from scratch as you said. No cans of spagetti sauce. No commerically prepared sauces, dressing, mayos.

If you look at our shopping carts all you see is meat, fish, eggs, tons of vegetables, fruits and nuts and seeds. I think it evens out in the long run.

And all that roadkill is very cheap

Build a community, go in on a whole cow and split it!...
Well, there is the cash outlay for the enormous freezer!!!

It seems buying in bulk (and maybe planting a garden) is the only way to save money in the long run these days.

[QUOTE=arcticslug]What does everyone do to save money when eating Paleo foods?


I check out the weekly flyers for the best meat/veggie/fruit sales and go to that store. I am lucky enough to live in an area surrounded by 4 seperate grocery store chains. It's great!! I do this each week when the flyers come in on Friday.
I also do not take my boys shopping with me (2 teenagers) or else i would end up with $50 worth of crap in the cart I do not want in there. I shop when they are at school so when they are home they have to eat whatever is in the house because I refuse to give them money to bring crap in the house. If they want pizza they have to have it at pizza day at school because they will not get it from me. I do not do delivery but I will cook something up for them if they arte hungry or they can cook it themselves.

It's almost impossible to get wild meat here at anything like a reasonable price, it's a real luxury item. The best I can manage is organic meat and that's dear enough.
I do worry a little about eating organs of commercially reared animals as they tend to collect and intensify any environmental toxins.

My wife constantly tells me how expensive the "diet" is. I tell her I no longer go to the doctor, I'm not on my heart medication any longer (no more high blood pressure), I'm NEVER ever sick, so no cough medicine, flu medicine, etc...I think she will NEVER go on this "diet" because she just refuses to believe in it, even though I am walking proof that it works. I have to admit, when the price of Lettuce is about $1.00 a head and veggies are as expensive as a gallon of gasoline, it can seem pretty expensive. But, like someone said about the cost of a box of cereal at $5.00 a box...well, I think she is just complaining because when she combines what she buys for herself and what I have for my diet and she makes things for herself (she has a bread maker and makes lots of bread and grain baked goods) and makes stuff for me, too...It IS EXPENSIVE. If she would just "see the light," I think our food bill would drop a lot.

The price of food, in general, is out of this planet, nowadays. But, then again, so is everything else.

Except your prices that side of the pond are about half ours! The cost of meat there looks to be about a quarter.

I'm sorry for you! Are grain-based products as expensive as that, too? Eating everywhere is getting to be so expensive, but, then again, that's our primary thing to keep us alive....

I think the cost of living in the UK is really high compared to almost everywhere. I've heard that London is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the world!

Something I read once was that for Americans, the percentage of total income spent on food is the lowest in the world. Kinda interesting...

of course I don't have actual stats to back any of that up...just digging lost stuff out of my brain

Well, according to my conversions, a beef or lamb joint works out about $9 US per pound. A couple of VERY small lamb chops will cost about $4.50. However if you go organic you can add 60% to that. Pork is cheapest at about $3.50 a pound. A ready made salad (no dressing) for one is about $3.

A head of lettuce is about $1.78, about the same for a small cabbage.

I feel VERY fortunate to live in the Midwest USA, surrounded by many farms. A year ago I purchased an upright frost-free freezer (it holds about 450 lbs of meat). I used the Internet and did extensive research to find farms near to me. For the last 6 months I have only had meat from local farms. I purchase about 1/4 bison or 1/2 pig or lamb at a time, 10 chickens or some rabbits, 1/4 deer from hunters, etc. Everything is organic and naturally raised (grass-fed). I pay around $3.00 per pound on the average for all this meat and fat and organs. That is the average cost once processing costs are figured in. This includes tenderloin bison steaks, bacon, venison steaks, turkeys, pheasants, sausage, lamb chops, pork chops, ground bison (with ground heart), ground lamb, etc... that is the average price for all of the different meats. I often go in with others to buy larger amounts at even cheaper prices. Plus, I can communicate directly with the grower and processor of my food. I get what I want, things I could never get from the grocery store. I have tons of pig lard for frying eggs and bison fat to render for pemmican. I have the best (nitrate free) bacon I have ever tasted. The fat from these animals is around 1:1 ratio omega 6/3. That is optimal. The normal factory-farmed, grain-fed meat is like 20:1... add in all the grains most people consume, and you are looking at 30 to 60:1 ratios of omega 6/3 fat... horrible for the cells of any living mammal! It is no wonder why so many people have so many health problems!

I also get range free eggs from friends who have a bunch of South American chickens. I get these eggs very cheap. These chickens roam completely free. They produce the most beautiful eggs I have ever seen. I often eat the yolks raw. Taste wonderful (and talk about nutritious!). Other than that, I get whole fruits and veggies and some nuts and seeds that I put on salads. I try to buy in-season produce that is cheaper or on sale. It really does not cost me much every week to buy fresh produce. I drink herbal tea (at less than 5 cents per cup) and ice water. I never eat out. My food money is going to healthy food. Period. I eat for my health. I try to make interesting and tasty dishes, but I eat for my health over all other considerations. And I reep the reward of feeling wonderful because of it!

I love it when someone says how "expensive" my diet is. I just have to laugh, knowing how much this same person (a typical consumer) is spending every day for coffee at coffee shops, drinks at bars (and/or restaurants), fast food at drive-thrus, gum, sodas, candy, chips, etc at convenience stores, boxes and cans and bags of processed JUNK at grocery stores, etc. Not to mention soft drinks and alcoholic beverages and cigarettes and the list goes on... and of course all the headache medicine, digestive aids, cold/flu/sinus medicine, doctor visits, etc, that go along with that lifestyle.

I don't think Paleo diets are expensive at all!

But, I AM very fortunate to live in the Midwest, surrounded by farms (and quite a few progressive farms at that). Check the internet, do some searches, find others who you can buy bulk with. Negotiate with local farmers. It is do-able to reduce the cost of eating what nature evolved you to eat.

For me it is clear that my paleodiet is more expensive than what I ate before. I never was fond of the fast food at drive-thrus, gum, sodas, candy, chips, etc at convenience stores, and other junk that Dean line up, so I do not save any money there. I mostly changed my diet in that I stopped eating bread, cornflakes, pasta, and increased my consumption of fruits and vegetables very much. I stopped consuming milk products but that makes a small difference because I just had some milk for the cornflakes before. I always ate much meat so that is no big change, but I stopped eating too salt and fat products as for example bacon and salami (salt is bad and I reduces salt consumption a lot), so I eat more natural meat and that does it a bit more expensive. I drink water to my meals just as before. I am not religious about the paleodiet so I have some beers in the weekend just as before and relax with a whisky sometimes, and I drink coffee, as before.

To reduce the costs I buy much of the fruits and vegetables at a local outdoor market, but anyway there is NO chance that this diet can be as cheap as for example a diet based on pasta. Well, these are additional costs that I gladly pay for having a healthier and longer life.

Captxray raise a good point when he says he save money on doctors and medicin, I am sure I will do that in the future. I had no major problems with health so far, but it would probably just be a matter of time with my former diet.

The paleodiet force me to do a lot of cooking at home, but you do not have to be on paleodiet or “lowcarb” to do your own cooking. Buing the food takes a more time now because I need to do it more often when I only eat fresh products, which irritate me slightly sometimes, but again the better health is well worth is.

Regards - JHT

JHT - Welcome to the Paleo clan. Glad you've joined us.

Yes I agree with you JH. I have always been pretty health conscious so I never really ate a lot of junk food. I did, however, eat a lot of bread and pasta which is definately cheap! Sometimes I will "cheat" with beans because I don't think they are really that bad for you - at least compared to grains...

The health aspects are definately worth it though.