Paleo on a budget

Money has been quite the issue lately because I went a tad bit overboard on grocery spending. You see, our church does this thing called Awakening where everyone (maybe not everyone but a lot of people) fast for about a month. I spend spent in the recent past quite a bit of my time shopping, in stores, online, on my phone, in catalogs. So I decided that I would fast shopping and give that up for the month. My plan was to use all this extra time and energy to focus on God...my plan didn't work. I just basically got rid of one idol and turned to another...food. Shopping for groceries became my new focus and I threw a lot of money at it. There were a lot of lessons learned in this situation, the least of which was reinforcing the need for a budget...like a real, on paper budget. So after opening up Excel and having a lot of fun creating a spreadsheet with bold headings and formatted cells I finally came up with a really scary budget. It really sucks to see on paper just how very little money is leftover at the end of the month!

After the tears and moaning in despair, I looked at one very important number...$250. That is the amount I decided would work for our grocery shopping per week. That means $1000/month, and an average of $11.90/meal, $2.98/person/meal. So I know $250 a week seems rather pricey but less than $3.00 a meal for each person is incredibly reasonable especially when we are talking about grassfed meats, organic produce, and specialty foods. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to afford a grocery budget of $250 but I know that everyone has different incomes, expenses, number of family members, etc. So if $3.00/person/meal is just not going to fit all is not lost. There are lots of ways to make paleo work with your budget.

• Maybe grassfed meats are not budget friendly. That doesn't mean you should throw paleo out the window. Save your dough and just don't buy grass fed meat. Easy peasy. Or plan for more recipes with meats that go further like ground beef or roasts. Or buy a cow and stick it in the freezer, after it has been slaughtered and processed of course.
• Plan loosely. If you had asparagus as your Tuesday veggie side but squash is on sale then get the squash.
• If you see a meat on sale buy it and freeze it and then go home and google a paleo recipe for that type of cut of meat. Put it on next week's menu.
• Do not waste food. If you buy 6 oz of tomato paste but only need 3oz then scoop the remainder in an ice cube tray and freeze for later. Or if a recipe calls for egg yolks hold on to those whites and add them to your breakfast in the morning. Eat leftovers.
• If a recipe calls for expensive ingredients then substitute with cheaper ingredients. Who knows, you might actually improve the recipe. Or you may be able to just leave that ingredient out. So if you want to make omelet muffins that call for asparagus, sausage, sun dried tomatoes, and mushrooms (Mmmmm) then pick two of those four ingredients and keep it simple. It will still taste super yummy.
• Buy larger quantities. You usually (but not always...do your math) save a couple of bucks when buying a larger size.
• Reading a store's sales flyer is also really helpful in saving money.
• Only focus on buying organic produce if it is on the Dirty Dozen list.
• Know what produce is in season in your area and plan accordingly. Check out this cool chart  to find out Texas seasonal produce.
• Check out Bountiful Baskets for your produce needs. I have these wonderful intentions of doing this but have yet to actually do it. But I have heard good things about these neat baskets of healthy goodness.

I am not very good at this whole bargain shopper thing. There is so much I need to learn. I went through that whole stage of cutting out coupons and sticking each one in its own little baseball card sleeve and then ending up with 84 free toothpastes. It's been almost 5 years and I haven't had to buy a single tube of toothpaste yet! But I don't have the time nor the storage space for this money saving effort any more. I really respect those of you that provide for your family by couponing...it just isn't my thing. But I would love any money saving tips you use in your family that doesn't include hours of cutting on dotted lines.

I tried to save money the other day by going to Big Lots to buy generic Ziplock baggies. I was so proud of myself until I stepped on over to Brookshires and they had the real deal Ziplock baggies on sale and cheaper than my "bargain buy." Super disappointment. But I'm learning with each mistake and hopefully I'll make them less often eventually.

So I know you're thinking, "well sure, $250 works for you because you own a shop where you are doing most your shopping and I'm sure you get a really awesome discount." Well you are right...but I'm not including my discount in my budget. For the sake of this blog I have decided to forgo the discount so that I can learn how to make paleo work for non health food store owners too.

I do want to note that the $250 does not include anything other than food. So things such as foil, laundry detergent, shampoo, trash bags, supplements, etc are not included in my $250 grocery budget.

So what does $250 get me? Here is our family's meal plan for the next week:

Friday (I start on Friday because I grocery shop on Friday): Eggs/Sugar Free ham......Tuna Salad, raw carrots.....Eat out at Shogun (ask for no sauce or rice and you are good)
Saturday: Paleo Chocolate Waffles, bacon, eggs....CauliHummus (See recipe below), veggies, turkey rolls....Meat Lovers Paleo Pizza
Sunday: Eggs, bacon, leftover waffles....Broccoli Coconut Cream Soup....Baked Chicken w/ Moroccan dip and roasted butternut squash
Monday: Eggs, paleo oatmeal....Leftovers....Chocolate Chili(Yeah...not too sure about this one)
Tuesday: Fried eggs over sweet potato hash.....leftovers.....Asian Lettuce wraps
Wednesday: Omelets.....Chicken Salad, raw veggies....Spaghetti Squash and Meatball (Double batch to freeze)
Thursday: Eggs, sausage....Kids' valentine's party food (Gluten Free snack mix).....Bacon Bruchetta Chicken Breast and roasted Brussels sprouts

I was able to successfully buy all the groceries needed for these meals in Greenville, TX. I spent $112 at Brookshires and $134 at the Sunshine Shoppe. I could have saved some money by going to Costco. But I choose to keep my money in my community when I can. But it is very important to do what is best for your family. If going to Costco or Sams makes it possible for you to make healthier meals for your family then do it. I do want to say very quickly that it is so important to me that EVERYONE be able to have the option of healthy foods and that is why I am patiently wrestling working with the state to set up the Sunshine Shoppe to start taking food stamps. I know this hardly includes everyone but it's a step in the right direction.

Okay. Enough money talk. Lets get to that CauliHummus recipe.

This was pretty stinkin good and once again I am amazed at this simple pigment challenged vegetable and its many uses.

Ingredients:
1 bag frozen cauliflower, steamed according to instructions
5 TBSP Tahini
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1 TBSP Cumin
1/4 or more Cayenne pepper
2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Stick in everything but the oil in the food processor and blend. Pour oil in slowly. Scrape sides and blend until it looks like white hummus.

Enjoy with bell peppers sliced thin, sliced radishes, carrot sticks, cucumber slices, or raw broccoli. This is great for a quick cold lunch and is what I ate today in the car on the way to my dear sweet friend/little sister's bridal portraits that are going to be GORGEOUS!!!!!