Fat Loss Jump Start Day 4

I hope you’re doing well so far? And that you have the information you need to get on your way to losing some fat this month? Well, one thing you might have noticed is that organic and grass-fed foods are not very cheap, so today I’m going to give you a thorough guide to saving money on food.

Buying Paleo foods can range anywhere from $100/mo per person to $600 a month per person (and beyond), depending on how many luxury items you’re buying, how much meat you eat, and how much you buy in bulk.

HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON FOOD

My husband and I have gone through many phases of budgeting and then going crazy with our food budget, then tightening our belts and budgeting again. I know both ends of the spectrum very well.

Could You Save Money On Something Else Instead?

Before I get into this, I need to ask you a question: if this way of eating is pushing the limits – or busting the seams – of your budget, then is there anything else in your budget that can give a little? Even big things, like an expensive car payment or a big mortgage.

Yes, I just suggested that you buy a smaller house or refinance so that you can eat better. I know that’s audacious, but I really mean it. I think that the quality of food you eat is more important than what kind of car you drive or what size house you live in, but that’s just me. I think your health is that important!

What about your cable bill or that gym membership you never use – or any membership you never use? Is there anything you could give up in order to make this more comfortable?

In any case, here are the best ways to cut down on food costs this month and beyond.

Organic vs Non-organic

In general, I believe very strongly that organic, grass-fed, pastured, pasture-raised, and wild foods are the best foods you can eat. However, I get that they’re sometimes more than 2x the price of conventional foods. I personally can’t buy non-organic/pastured meats because when I pick up the package at the grocery store, all I can see in my head are the videos I’ve watched of tortured factory farmed animals. It’s not happening.

But I realize that for some people, the price is JUST NOT AN OPTION.

So in that case, do the best you can, focus on your meat, at least being organic. There are so many more toxins in conventional meat besides just the pesticides that are in veggies, fruits, nuts, and oils.

Antibiotics, hormones, GMOs, and pesticides are in meat, and the fatty acid and nutrient content are just so much better in grass-fed, pasture-raised meat. Have a look at my specific advice in the categories below.

Meat

You don’t have to buy good meat from the grocery store or a farmers market, where it can be really expensive. If you go to eatwild.com you’ll find a rancher near your home who will sell you pasture-raised/grass-fed meat for cheaper.

I have half a cow and half a pig in my extra freezer right now that I bought for about $4/lb and $3/lb respectively. They are pasture raised, and I bought my big extra freezer online for only $140 used. Here’s a tutorial on the process of buying local meat that I wrote at PaleoPlan.com when I was the blogger there (summary: it’s not hard at all). You can buy it for just yourself, or go in on a half or quarter cow with a neighbor or friend.

Then when you have that meat in your freezer, it’s like you have a grocery store in your house!! When you buy meat in bulk, you get to choose how it’s processed. You can ask for steaks or ground meat or bacon or sausage – whatever you want. If you get in the habit of taking meat out a day or two in advance, you’ll have it thawed when you need it.

At The Grocery Store

If you can’t find any meat in bulk locally, here’s what to do at the grocery store.

Buy whole chickens, or just the cheap parts of chickens (feet, wings, thighs)

Use every part of the chicken and make soups and stews. It’ll stretch the meat out to feed you for longer, and the bones and tendons in stews create rich, nutritious broth.

Buy cheap cuts of all kinds of meat and slow cook them. Or cut them up into really small pieces and make goulash-type dishes.

When tough cuts of meat are cut up into small bits and stewed for a long time, they’re way less tough, so don’t be afraid of tough cuts.

Or buy ground meat and organs and mix them together for a really cheap, nutritious blend of animal protein and fat. You can really make any cut of meat taste delicious.

Online

There are actually a lot of places to buy high quality meat online. Sometimes the prices are great, but the shipping can really add up. I’d look at U.S. Wellness Meats and see if they have any sales going on, or packages that are within your price range.

Veggies and Fruits

1. Buy the cheapest produce you can find.

Stay away from the peppers and other really expensive veggies and stick with carrots, onions, celery, cabbage, and the other least expensive varieties. We now have a limit in our house of $2/lb for veggies, and most of them are under $2/lb – all are organic. Look for what’s in season – it’ll be on sale.

2. Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Co-Op

Sometimes farms will create CSA’s where they’ll give you a veggies every week, depending on what’s in season, and it’s cheaper than you’d get it in the store or at the farmers market. LocalHarvest.org is a good place to find one.

3. Buy non-organic produce with the least amount of pesticides.

If you can’t afford to buy all organic, here’s a list of the veggies and fruits with the most and least pesticide residues.

4. Grow your own veggies and fruits.

Growing your own veggies in your own garden is the easiest way to get basically free veggies, but it’s easier said than done. I had a garden at our community garden plot one year because I didn’t have a yard of my own, and that was great.

Oils and Fats

1. Get a Costco or Sam’s Club membership.

You can get 4-lb tubs of organic coconut oil for $20. That is an extremely great deal, and just might entirely recupe your membership fee for the year.

2. Make your own!

When you get a local pig or cow from a local rancher, you can request that they keep the fat for you when they’re butchering and processing it. They won’t charge you anything for it, and then you can render your own tallow or lard. I’ve also asked for fat trimmings at Whole Foods and they gave them to me for $1.50/lb or something super cheap. Rendering your own cooking fat is really easy – it just takes a little time. You could do it while you watch a football game on a Sunday…

Lay Off The Luxury Items

1. Don’t buy unnecessary foods:

Bacon, olives, exotic fruits, chocolate bars, dried fruit, etc. If you can’t afford them, you don’t need them. Or you can make them yourself.

2. Make your own chocolate bars:

Heat up organic cocoa powder, honey, coconut flakes, and coconut oil in whatever ratios you prefer, and then freeze it on parchment paper in the shape of a large thin pizza crust. Then chop it up once it’s frozen into snack sized pieces. It’s incredibly easy and tastes delicious.

3. DIY sausage and bacon:

Sausage: If you buy ground pork from a local rancher or grocery store (it’s usually pretty cheeap), you can just add spices to it and VOILA! You have yourself some sausage.

Bacon: Buy pork belly and have your butcher slice it up into bacon-sized pieces. Bacon is, in fact, just pork belly that’s been brined and smoked. There are a zillion recipes online to help you make your own bacon – I’ve used many of them with great success. There’s a great book called Beyond Bacon that has incredible recipes for bacon and sausage, among many other things.

4. DIY ice cream:

Instead of buying it for $7 a tub, buy an ice cream maker for $70 and it’ll be one of the best investments you’ve ever made. You can make ice cream out of coconut milk (the kind in a can) or almond milk and you can control the amount of sweetener that goes in it (and make the sweetener one of th natural, unrefined kinds).

5. Dry your own fruit or jerky (or anything) in the oven or dehydrator.

For all of the options above, there are recipes online everywhere, so you can find the one that fits your tastes the best.

Eggs

You can usually find a good deal on pastured eggs somewhere, whether it’s in your grocery store, a local farm, or in your own back yard. Yep, you could have your own chickens! People do it where I live in Boulder, CO all the time. Look on eatwild.com for a local source of high quality eggs. If you can’t find any of these things, just buy organic, or at the very least cage free eggs that are high in Omega 3s.

Flours and Nuts

Buy things like nuts, seeds, coconut flour, almond flour, and tapioca flour in bulk if you can. You’ll get a much better price, whether that’s in the bulk section in your grocery store, or online at Amazon.com or somewhere else. Always look into buying stuff online! If you have the premium membership to Amazon, you get free shipping, so things like coconut milk and flours can end up being cheaper there than at grocery stores.

Make Bone Broth

Bone broth is a simple way to get a lot of nutrients into your diet. Bone broth is good for your bones, skin, hair, and overall gut health, and if you add veggies to it, you’ll get even more nutrients. It’s a super cheap way to get nutrition and bulk into your diet, since soups and stews really do go a long way.

You can either make straight bone broth with just marrow bones you can get from your butcher or a rancher. Or you can add veggies to that mix. Or you can make more of a meaty soup by boiling cheap meat sources with the bone in, like turkey wings or chicken legs or lamb bones.

Honestly, I crave these comfort foods, and it’s relieving to know they’re not costing me an arm and a leg to eat them. You just stick the foods in a pot and let them boil anywhere from 2 hours to 24 hours. There are many resources online for how to make a good bone broth, like WellnessMama.com’s article called “How to Make Bone Broth”.

Once you’ve made the broth, it can be the base for all kinds of foods. For example, our breakfast is often a soup that consists of broth, a little bit of pork sausage from our pork supply, eggs, and whatever veggies we feel like eating that morning. We also use it in stews, dinner soups, chili, and other large dishes we make in bulk.

Don’t Waste Food

Don’t throw food away.

The simplest way to not waste food (and therefore not waste money) is to not throw away food. I know that sounds obvious, and it’s easier said than done. But basically, if you follow a meal plan (check out the Meal Planning Guide I linked to in the Day 1 Post), you won’t ever need to throw away food because you’ll use everything in your fridge every week. Doesn’t that sound amazing?!

Use wilted veggies.

Those little wilted veggies can be used in soups, crockpot meals, stews, or bone broths and you’ll never know the difference.

Cut Down on Eating Out

Need I say more? It’s SO EASY to spend half your salary eating out at restaurants, Whole Foods, and food trucks. Too easy. Just follow the Meal Planning Guide in this program (it’s one of your downloads from the first post) and you won’t ever need to eat out again! (Well, maybe not never