How to Live the Paleo Lifestyle on a Budget

Hi Friends!

Back on my gut healing journey post, I wrote that I was going to share how I live the paleo lifestyle without breaking the bank. Since January 1^st, I have been grain-free, sugar-free, processed food free, and eating all real food.  Eating even more vegetables and more protein has increased my grocery bill, but I have found ways to keep my costs low and my meals simple.

Eating only real food is not cheap.  But this is about choosing to spend your money on your health and investing in it.  You only have ONE body and your future depends on it.  Luckily there are lots of tips you can do to cut costs and make living the real food lifestyle easy on your bank account!  So let’s dive into them!

1. Choose your Priorities on Spending. In an ideal world, I would eat 100% organic vegetables and 100% grass-fed organic meat.  But you cannot always have it all, so I choose to prioritize grass-fed beef and organic chicken.  This is where I choose to spend my money and where I recommend you spend yours.  The benefits of 100% grass-fed beef are too good to pass up! I make sure to always look for 100% grass-fed and not just “grass-fed”.  A lot of beef is fed mostly grass and then at the end given corn to fatten up.  The labels on this beef can say “grass-fed”, but it will not be 100%.  The nutritional value of 100% grass-fed is well worth it.
2. Eat Cheaper Cuts of Meat. Most of my meals revolve around organic chicken thighs and 85% lean 100% grass-fed meat. Not only are these tasty, but they are the lowest cost cuts of fresh meat!  I also purchase wild fish at Sam’s Club, or wherever I can find good deals on frozen fish. These are nice to stock up on to keep in the freezer whenever you need to whip up a quick meal.
3. Buy On-sale Vegetables. Get to know prices for vegetables and meat around you. Buying a small head of organic cauliflower for $8 is ridiculous.  Buying organic red bell pepper for less than $2 is good.  Typical low cost organic veggies include:  carrots, purple cabbage, broccoli, various greens (spinach, kale, arugula), roma tomatoes and sweet potatoes.  Check out a few stores around you, and AmazonFresh to get an idea on the comparable prices so you can find the best deal.
4. Use AmazonFresh or another Grocery Delivery Service. Yes, it does cost a small bit to pay for grocery delivery.  But if you are foodie like me, or find yourself hungry while shopping, buying your food online can help you save money.  I have a bad habit of adding new things to my cart that aren’t on my list.  Online shopping helps me stick to my budget and edit the food in my shopping cart.  I have been using AmazonFresh for the last month and I LOVE it. It has helped me spend less money and its one less errand to run on the weekends.
5. Eat Less Snacks and Paleo Desserts. Snacks are killer on the wallet.  Paleo desserts and snacks are fun, but all the variety of ingredients can add up.  If you want to include some desserts, limit your ingredients by using the same staples, like one kind of GF flour, one kind of sweetener, and some nut butter.  But for the most part, try to limit the fancy desserts and snacks to keep costs low.
6. Eat Plenty of Leftovers. I cook 1 recipe for the whole week of lunches. This might sound boring, but it sure makes life easy and you spend less.  If you get bored, you can try making different sauces to coat on your meals.  Cooking food that uses similar ingredients means buying less and using up what you have!
7. Portion out your Meat. The pricy side of paleo is the cost of protein.  To save money, I make sure to limit my meat portion to about 4-5oz.  If you don’t, it can be easy to eat up all the protein and then you don’t have anything left for the next days. I don’t like measuring food, but I find that measuring protein can be the most beneficial to make sure you have not too little and not too much.
8. Build your Meals around the Season. Foods that are in season always have the best price. Make fresh salads in the spring and summer. Make more soups and potato based dished in the fall and winter.  Not only does our body feel best eating seasonal but it can help you to save money.
9. Buy in Bulk. When you buy in larger quantities, you save the most money.  This can save trips to the store too which saves you in gas money and time!  The best way to buy in bulk include: Join a CSA and get weekly boxes of fresh vegetables.  Buy large quantities of meat from a butcher and store in freezer.  I highly suggest exploring the options around you and checking out what is available to you!
10. Cook Simple Paleo Meals.  I try not to over complicate any of my meals.  The simpler the faster it takes to cook and the fewer ingredients you need to buy.  The simpler the meals the lower the cost!  If you are looking for easy and simple paleo meals – check out my pin boards.  I have some saved here and here.

And those are my tips to saving money while living the paleo lifestyle. Yes it might cost a bit more, but think of how much better you will feel? I know that my energy to live my day to day life is invaluable and so is my health. If you want to make something happen, you can and you will!

What are you favorite money-saving paleo lifestyle tips? Comment below and share with me!

xoxo
Chelsea Jolene

PS! If you are looking for personalized support on your healing journey, I am now accepting 1:1 clients!  I support my clients through specialty lab testing to find EXACTLY what their body needs and use my detective skills to connect the dots on their unique past and develop a simple to follow plan to get them back to feeling amazing! Just click here to apply (so I know a bit more of what is going on) and we can chat about exactly how we can restore your health! yay!

Questions? Email me at chelsea@cjwellness.com . xx