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{Image Credit: m.mate}

Primal / Paleo “ish” Way of Life

In my last post “Groceries: Where Do I Begin?” I wasn’t clear about something and wanted to expand a bit about seeds and nuts (thanks for the comment!)

When I first begin eating a primal or paleo based diet, I really had no clue what I was doing. I knew I had to cut out the grains, but wasn’t quite sure what to replace them with. I bought a bunch of seeds and nuts to keep my hunger at bay. In my hours upon hours of research I discovered the following that beef has a lot of protein in it.

Protein Comparison

I was spending a lot of money on seeds and nuts because I thought meat was too expensive. I pay $4.50 a pound for burger that is locally raised and not corn fed (they add some lentils to the mix.) If I eat 1/4 pound burger (with Kerrygold butter on top of it) for breakfast then I don’t need very much food the rest of the day. The cost is $1.13 per hamburger. If I eat $1.13 worth of nuts or seeds, I eat a lot more food throughout the day. I *think*  it is 35 grams of protein for the hamburger versus 12 grams of protein for the sunflower seeds.

Each person is different…my husband (the athlete) eats 2 sausage links with 3 eggs almost every day for breakfast and that seems to work well for him.

Resources:

• About.com: List of High Protein Food
• NutritionData: Burger Crumbles (I’m guesstimating that I eat a bit less than this amount)

According to about.com’s list I should be able to eat chicken and keep hunger at bay…just doesn’t work for me. The other thing to consider is how inflammatory a food is. Nuts are high in Omega 6 and it seems like I read that chicken is too.

 Please let me know  if there is anything I can help you with!

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Food is such a critical part of our lives. If we feed our bodies the “right food” we will have energy, feel nourished and we will avoid many diseases. So where does that leave people who are struggling financially? People who have to rely on the government for a time until they recover from whatever issues they are struggling with (job loss, death in the family, single parents, etc.)

Groceries 101: The basics 

1. Realize that it takes time to figure out how to feed your family healthy and frugal meals. If you are a person who stops by the store when they are hungry (hello…that was me!) it will probably cost more than if you have some sort of a plan.
2. Although every person is different, if you eat wheat and/or sugar it’s been proven that it will satisfy your hunger for a bit, but then you will be hungrier later.
3. Again, every person is different, but I have found that if my family eats a big protein breakfast, we can get away with a lot less protein later on in the day.

Groceries 201: Break down the cost of each meal.

• Cricket over at ThriftyTexasPenny wrote an awesome post the other day showing how she broke down the cost of each meal. Penny wrote:

I’ve been trying to convince friends and readers for years that our groceries (or eating out) don’t have to cost us an arm and a leg.

You can read the post by clicking on the following link:

 Live Below the Line Challenge Day 1

•  If you break down the cost of your meals then you can see where you might be able to cut out some non-essential items. You can see where I’ve broken down the cost of our Primal Foods breakfast budget over at HummingbirdHomemaking.Com. Even though Cricket and I have chosen to feed our families differently, the concept of breaking down the cost of the meal is the same. Note: before I discovered my protein breakfast I would eat green beans smothered in butter. I was much better off than when I had whole grain pancakes ~ each person is different.

• You can see more dinners broken down by cost over at 5DollarDinners.Com. Here’s a fabulous allergy free / budget recipe for pork roast by Lindsey.

 Please let me know  if there is anything I can help you with!

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Awesome Photo by Adam Fields

How to Make a Paleo / Primal / Whole Foods Diet Easier

When you choose to eat a whole foods, paleo or primal food diet, convenience food takes on a whole different meaning. I try to do the following to help with food prep: 

1. Stock the freezer with meat (chicken, bacon, burger and roasts) and vegetables (green beans and peas).
2. Transfer meat from the freezer to the fridge consistently (on Monday put 3 pounds of burger, 1 pack of bacon, 2 packs of chicken and 1 roast in the fridge.)
3. Stock the fridge/freezer with quick and easy fruits and vegetables ie. avocados, frozen blueberries, baby carrots or sugar snap peas.
4. Keep pre-cooked meat in the freezer (fry 5 pounds of burger and package them separately in the freezer.)
5. Keep cooked breakfast sausage in the freezer AND fridge.
6. Stock the fridge with dozens of eggs.

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Feed Your Family: 7 Steps to Success

The first step is to Define Priorities and Set Goals. After you’ve completed step #1, it’s really important to look at the items you bought at the grocery store and ask yourself this question: 

Are the items that I purchased in alignment with the goals that I set in step #1?

One of my goals is to eat food that makes me feel good (for a long time…not a short period of time.) I’m fairly certain that the items I purchased for making a cheesecake were NOT in alignment with that goal.

You have to ask yourself if it was it worth it. Only you can answer that question honestly.

Honestly….the cheesecake was amazing, but it didn’t make me feel good. It made me feel HUNGRY, starving, tired, ravenous, etc. Was it worth it?

What would honest Abe say?

Please let me know  if there is anything I can help you with!

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Flylady 101

Have you ever heard of Flylady? She is the reason that I can manage my home. Until I started reading emails from her, my house was a disaster. For Flylady…it all started with a shiny sink.

I listened to what she had to say and I kept my sink clean. Although that didn’t quite transform my house into a well run home, I figured a few things out. 

1. I had to try a new system and TRUST that person.
2. Nothing had to be done perfectly.
3. Anything worth doing was worth starting.
4. Your timer is your very best friend
5. I had to figure out the “shiny sink” in every area of my life.

The ONE thing that allows you to control a part of your life.

In my home it’s my kitchen island (well…and my toilets, but that’s another story).

Feeding Your Family

When it comes to feeding my family, my “shiny sink” is having a menu plan. The way I plan has changed several times over the years, but I always have some kind of a plan. Except when I don’t…and then we go out to eat. Last weekend, my plan was to go to Sam’s Club and pick up some food for the weekend that we wouldn’t have to cook. I didn’t know how things were going to go at the basketball tournament so I figured this would be the best route for us. Once I got to Sam’s I decided I didn’t have enough money to do a big shopping trip and it wasn’t worth the trouble. Unfortunately, I didn’t create a new plan.

We went out to eat….saved money in the grocery budget, but blew the entertainment budget.

Paleo Eating on a Budget

What’s the ONE thing you can control that will help you feed your family healthy meals on a budget? Here are a few I can think of, let me know what I missed:

• Menu plan
• Food in the house
• Thawed meat in the fridge
• Cooked meat in the freezer
• Will power to stay away from fast food/restaurants

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Why do I grocery shop weekly?

I’ve tried shopping weekly, every other week, monthly, multiple times a week, etc.

I have found that if I don’t focus on a weekly plan, then I get overwhelmed. When I first learned how much money I could save at the grocery store by having a plan, I focused on planning and shopping for just a few days at a time. We went out to eat frequently so I needed to break that habit first.

I also use the pantry principle concept. I stock up on the items that I know I am going to use every week. We eat hamburger for dinner about three times a week and we eat it at breakfast frequently. I just found out that our local meat supplier sells 50 pound boxes of burger. I’m looking forward to having burger on hand so I don’t have to factor that into my weekly grocery shopping trip.

 Please let me know  if there anything I can help you with!

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Grocery Budgeting

Someone left a comment over at MoneySavingMom stating that they were struggling with their food budget. I suggested that they break down their food budget using categories. This has been so enlightening for me, I hope that it’s helpful for you. 

In our family we’ve decided to eat a primal/paleo “ish” diet (we’re far from perfect!) The most expensive part of our dinner is the meat that we have chosen to eat. As much as possible, we buy local meat that is either grain fed without corn and soy or we buy grass fed meat.

You can see from my spreadsheet that 71% of my grocery budget is allocated to meat for dinner. I know that I *always* buy too much fruit so I need to figure out what percent of our budget that I am willing to spend on fruit (I’m still a bit of a fruit/sugar addict so I need to be careful.) I also need to figure out what percent of the budget should be spent on fats, vegetables, dairy, etc.

You can see how I broke down our breakfast budget over at my other blog.

 Please let me know  if there anything I can help you with!

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Wow! What a difference a week can make in your attitude. That is why I LOVE weekly grocery shopping! Last week I *really* struggled with grocery shopping. Looking back I realize that I didn’t plan enough. I purchased a bunch of items from Azure Standard. Most of those items will last a month or more, but I didn’t take that into consideration.

While I love grocery shopping weekly, I also love having a freezer full of beef. We’re looking at our budget now and will be increasing our budget soon so I can stock the freezer. We may end up buying part of a grass fed cow as well. I’ll know more in April what our new grocery budget will be (hubs is getting a new job so we’re not making any changes for now.)

Here’s what I purchased this week {eggs will be delivered this weekend so another $8.00 will be spent}:

If you are on a tight budget, the best way to save money is to review your purchases. This works in a couple of ways:

1. Ensures that you are spending money on the most important items (review priorities and goals – step 1.)
2. Creates an attitude of gratitude! Being thankful for the food that I can buy helps my attitude. Sometimes I lose sight of my goals and get a bit crabby that I can’t just walk into a store and buy whatever I want to.

 Is there anything I can help you with?
I hope so! Please send any questions or comments to:

jaebroeder @ yahoo.com

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Do you ever feel like throwing in the towel when it comes to finding ways to save money on groceries?

That’s how I’ve felt this whole week.

Irritated.

Frustrated.

Annoyed.

I was trying to figure out what in the world I could write about today that would be encouraging. Nothing came to mind. No tips, no hints, NOTHING.

But then out of the blue I thought about WHY I’m so frustrated with groceries this week. It’s because I’m trying something new. When I do the same thing over and over again it becomes a habit. When I try something new I have to spend more time planning.

A while back I wrote a post about the Primal / Paleo diet and whether it was more expensive or not. I still don’t think that eliminating grains from your budget costs more money because you eat less food. For a while I would eat green beans and butter for breakfast and then nothing else until lunch time. When I ate grains and sugar I ate all day long.

Anyway, I had a system in place and I usually had money left over every week.  Now that I’m trying to heal my body it is definitely more expensive (up front anyway, hoping to avoid Doctor visits down the road.)

My frustration was caused because I didn’t have a plan.

When I looked at Gayle’s blog GroceryCartChallenge yesterday and saw that she spent $60 to feed her family of 6 my first thought was “how does she do that?” Goofy girl – previously I spent $60 to feed my family of 4. I know exactly how she meets her goals at the grocery store – it’s almost as if I wrote a book about how to do it!

Note to self: You have to do the steps in order for them to work!

Although I wrote this post with myself in mind, I hope if you are struggling, you will once again go through the steps. Had I taken the time to complete “Step 1 – Define Priorities and Set Goals” I would have realized that I would need to having a higher grocery budget during this period of time.

 Is there anything I can help you with?
I hope so! Please send any questions or comments to:

jaebroeder @ yahoo.com

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By request, I’ve created a couple more grocery list templates for you:

Grocery List 1

Grocery List 2

Read more about Step 4: Focus on a weekly list and creating a grocery list.

 Any other requests?
I hope so! Please send any questions or comments to:

jaebroeder @ yahoo . com

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