Eating Low-Carb on a Low Budget OR “Cheap Meats”

Some people argue that eating a quality low-carb diet is more expensive than “regular people food”. Now while its true that you can’t exactly fill up your freezer with $30 worth of frozen pizzas and call it a weeks-worth like “regular” people might do, but it is very possible to keep the cost low and maybe even come in a little BELOW what you were spending on carbohydrate loaded processed crap-food.

Some of you may call it ‘Common Sense 101′ – but hey, we aren’t all as smart as you, so settle down – you condescending son of a b*tch! Ok, sorry. Besides, “Common Sense” is so often WRONG these days – or else we probably wouldn’t be in this giant obesity mess (Americans continues to balloon out of control for the 20th year in a row).

When I first started a low-carb diet a few years ago, initially I was psyched that about the prospect of saving so much money eating in. You see, I hadn’t quite mastered the art of “menu manipulation” (aka “self control”) at restaurants yet so I had just resigned to making all my own meals. However, the first few trips to the store were shockers – lots of fresh meat,  berries, random sugar-free condiments, and artificially sweetened low-carb processed junk galore – turns out I was spending MUCH more than I had been before (compared to an armful of frozen pizzas, Heineken, and potato chips). I think that’s what people assume when they hear “low-carb” – they must think that we’re eating Kobe beef all the time or, filet mignons for breakfast (which actually sounds like a great idea, but I digress).

Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot since then – mainly, how to eat well, stay on target and NOT break the bank in the process.

I don’t know about your household, but in mine what we eat for dinner usually starts with one simple question…

“What animal do you want?”

No, no, I don’t live next door to a Zoo, so we’re not throwing Lemur kabobs on the grill or anything. What I’m saying is, the most important thing for dinner is to get an adequate amount (some un-enlightened people might say “high” amount) of high-quality protein, and the best place to get it is MEAT. It almost reminds me of those old Speak and Spell toys we had as kids (well, us 30 something people anyways) with all the barn animals on it. Just pull the cord and see what animal is lands on!

“The Cow Goes Mooooooo!” (in a horrible, satanic, 1980s, 2-bit computer chip voice)

However, if we have a strict “eating budget” and want to keep things reasonable – the Speak n’ Spell might lead us astray – possibly to meats that will make our dinner financially lopsided. Which could mean (gasp!) that we’ll run out of “food money” too soon – and end up eating hot dogs for 3 days! Oh, the horrors! The horrors!

A better bet? Go read the online circulars for that week on your local grocery stores and see what meat or seafood is on sale – then feature it prominently on that weeks household dinner menu.

Grocery store prices (especially larger chains-stores) are a numbers game. Usually each department will have a small number of loss-leaders (items where the store sells them AT cost or a LOSS), in order to get you to shop there – then, you end up buying a ton of other junk (you know, “since we’re here” kind of thing), that the store knows they’ll make a killing on. This is the oldest trick in the book, and it works almost every damn time too.

Your Trusty Steed - Silent and Dangerous

So with that in mind – we need to be Terminators when grocery shopping, or else the store will beat us. I mean old school Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminators too – with rubbery faces and driven to fulfill only one mission… “To Terminate Grocery Store Margins!” None of this goofy, robot-dancing, Terminator 2 and 3 friendship stuff. So get your Arnie faces on and let’s DO THIS.

In my area – the 2 biggest grocery store chains are Hannaford and Price Chopper (I think they are all predominantly in the NorthEast region of the country). As for their weekly ads, I’ll check the front page first – because, well, its hard to avoid it – AND, generally, their biggest loss leaders for that week are on there to try and lure people in.

• Hit up the loss-leaders in the protein department

When I find some fish or meats that are on a really good sale – I’ll stock up. Maybe only buying enough to eat for that week, or maybe stocking up a LOT and freezing it. When you’ve got a supply good meat at home (fresh or frozen), then all you need to do is pick up some fresh veggies and berries (some fruit is ok, but generally it has a ton of sugar) every few days and you’re in low-carb dining heaven.

• Buy fresh produce and berries that are in season and on sale

This changes from week to week, season to season – so as long as you’re open to different things you should be able to make a killing. For example, around here strawberries are in season now – so the grocery stores and swimming with strawberry sales in order to get rid of them (And I’m more than happy to take them).

• Take advantage of coupons and “member cards”

This one may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people WON’T use the free “member card” and get raped on the “non-member prices”. Coupons can be a good source too, but require a much bigger time commitment and researching in my opinion.

• use that saved money for something exciting

Or do what we do with it, and buy some lobsters. Saving money on food, in order to buy more food. Genius or insanity, you be the judge.

Anyone else out there have any tips for eating low-carb on a budget? I’d love to hear them!

Let me know in the comments!

Related posts:

1. Fast Food as a Cheap & Quick Protein Fix?
2. Top Ten Reasons to go Low-Carb Today
3. Working Out and eating low-carb will NOT kill you, but you will get stronger and faster
4. What am I eating? Easy Nutrition Fact Finder
5. Everything you need to know about losing weight (without being hungry) – all on one piece of paper