Lately, I have heard alot of comments about how Paleo is “SOOOOOOOOOOO expensive!!!!!!” I have to admit, I always get a little frustrated when I hear this.
Let me begin by telling you a little about my own budget. My husband and I love Dave Ramsey, and we’re on the “get outta debt FAST” plan. We live in a tiny 1 bedroom / 1 bathroom apartment that has a VERY TINY kitchen with no dishwasher. We do not pay for cable. We have super-cheap cell phones (they are not “smart”) and a minimal cell plan that doesn’t even include texting (GASP!). We drive older cars so we won’t have to make car payments. We are able to toss alot of money toward paying off our debt because we live very modestly and frugally. And we are HAPPY this way! Our time together, our memory-making, and our health is more important to us than “stuff.” For more of my thoughts on this topic, click here.
(Update: We are now debt-free! And we have added texting to our cell phones… fun!)
That being said, I am no stranger to a tight budget. I know what it’s like to stretch the items in the back of the refrigerator into an actual meal. Trust me, I do not want to spend more than I have to spend on anything!
However, a major part of every human being’s budget (written or not) is “food.” Unless you live on a self-sustaining farm, stocked with plants AND animals, you probably make several trips to the local grocery store or Farmer’s Market each month.
How much will you spend? Well, you have a couple of options… You can get a whole week of groceries for $50 (or less) if you stock up on rice, beans, boxed pastas, cans, processed foods, and other fake foods. This may be a great solution for your wallet, but it will wreck your body (both now and in the future).
The other option is to BUY REAL FOOD. You know… meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Paleo foods! Is it more expensive? Yes, real foods will cost you more than fake foods (very similar to the way a REAL Coach bag will cost you more than a knock-off… just not quite to that extreme).
What you have to do is answer this question: Is it worth it?
Let me make a few points here to help you decide…
1. In today’s culture, the expectation of how much we should spend on groceries is SERIOUSLY skewed. Sure, grocery prices have gone up in the last few years, but if you are expecting to feed a family of four on $75/week, you must be filling your cart with cheap crap. The folks on television give you ideas about how much you should be spending on groceries, but what are they suggesting you purchase? From what I’ve seen, their suggestions are often based on the USDA food pyramid (which has GRAINS for its foundation!). Think a little harder about how you came up with the amount you allow yourself to spend on groceries.
If you spend more on your cable or cell phone bill than you spend on food (the sustenance that nourishes and sustains your body), there is a problem.
2. When you make wise choices for your body, you protect your health. So while it may be a little more expensive to buy REAL FOOD, you are almost certainly saving yourself from the inevitable medications, supplements, and even hospital bills that are looming in your future. I’d say that’s worth the investment. One of my Facebook fans also made the point that a Paleo diet may also prevent missed time at work due to digestion issues, migraines, joint pain, sickness, etc… not to mention the money that you would have spent on medication to treat these issues! My husband and I have definitely found this to be true.
3. If you are eating REAL FOOD, you do not have to purchase supplements! Grass-fed meat and healthy produce will provide almost all the vitamins and minerals you need. Eat clean, and trust that you don’t need to make so many stops at GNC.
4. REAL FOOD makes you feel better! Do you know how much people spend on feel-good items like alcohol, nicotine, coffee, etc.? I have found that the increased energy and more steady moods I experience when I’m eating clean really helps minimize my stress-level. So say “goodbye” to that outrageous Starbucks bill!
5. Eating REAL FOOD allows you to seriously chop the “eating out” allowance. Now that we make real, delicious foods at home, we don’t have much of a desire to go out to eat. We will occasionally go out on a date, but most of the time we would rather KNOW exactly what we’re eating, and enjoy the comforts of home! We always make enough food to have leftovers for lunch the following day, so no need to go spend way too much money on crap food then either!
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So yes… eating REAL FOOD may be more expensive than eating processed, knock-off foods.
Is it worth it? My answer is ABSOLUTELY!
As a matter of fact, when people ask me if Paleo is “expensive,” my immediate answer is NO! I believe that a Paleo diet is one of the most important ways I can take care of myself and my husband, so I would find a way to make it happen no matter what!
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In my opinion, you can either pay for real food with your wallet, OR you can pay for crap food with your health.
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You may think you’re winning with that cheapo grocery budget right now, but you’re going to regret it later… maybe even tomorrow morning.
Now that we’ve established that Paleo-eating is worth the money, let me give you some good news!
IT’S NOT THAT EXPENSIVE!
Unless you are buying everything organic and only shopping at health food stores, a weekly grocery-shop shouldn’t break the bank! I spend about $150 each week on groceries, and that covers real foods, grass-fed meats, any other grocery items, PLUS all our toiletries and paper products. This amount also covers all breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners (including a few dinners that we share with friends).
While there are not usually a multitude of coupons for Paleo foods (usually they are for boxes and cans!), there are several ways to save money while you eat well.
*Don’t go all out on pre-packages snacks. If you want to save money, you have to be willing to put in a little effort. When we first started eating Paleo, we bought alot of Larabars, jerky, individually-packaged nuts, etc. These items are pretty pricey! I like to keep a Larabar or a PaleoKit/PrimalPac in my purse “for emergencies,” but it is far cheaper to make your own jerky, pack your own nuts from bulk bags, and generally just snack on vegetables! The majority of our snacks are vegetables and fruits.
*Shop the Farmer’s Market! You will be amazed at how much you can save by skipping the middle-man! Support your local economy, and go directly to the farmer! PLUS you get the added benefits of eating seasonally!
*Not EVERYTHING has to be organic. Check out this chart for guidance.
*Buy in bulk. Reserve a portion of your grocery budget to save for a big grass-fed beef order, or for a big tub of coconut oil. You will get out cheaper this way.
*Take a few weeks to shop around, and compile a list of the best deals. For example, I have learned to only buy almond meal at Trader Joe’s. It is $3.99/lb. there, while almond flour costs $10.99/lb. at a regular grocery/health food store.
*Check out Paleo on a Budget. She does a great shopping list and coupon match-up every week!
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For more information on the “expense” of Paleo-eating, check out these fantastic articles:
“Paleo is EXPENSIVE!” (Robb Wolf)
Priorities for Eating Paleo on a Budget (Diane Sanfilippo, Balanced Bites)
you go girl! And living and cooking on Paleo we find ourselves not eating out and carrying leftovers for lunch saves as well.
great points not just on Paleo but on general living.
What a really nice and detailed accounting of the true costs and benefits of eating well.
I was surprised when I no longer felt the need to take supplements. That cost alone pays for lots of meals. And I agree wholeheartedly with Linda, leftovers for lunch are a wonderful time and money saver. My coworkers think I really pamper myself with my lunches. I’d guess they cost far less than a trip through the fast food place down the block.
You’ve given me a few things to think about, and I thought I was pretty much on track.
pamela
Hi! I enjoyed this posting and also shared it with my fans on facebook! I have been following the paleo diet (low carb, no grains) since Februar 2010 and lost ~50 pounds (no chronic-cardio, just weekly strenth and daily walks)! Back to my weight 12 (!!!) years ago! I want to promote the paleo diet and HIT (training) as best as I can. Thank you!
Excellent post and website! My husband and I just got married and also follow the Dave Ramsey plan. We just seriously started ‘Paleoing’ and noticed the increase in our grocery bill, but agree with all of the points you stated. Thank you!
When my hubby balked at the cost of grass fed beef (we later found a local source that compares favorably to the cost of grocery store beef) I reminded him to add up the cost savings of all the things I no longer purchase. Heck, a loaf of “good” bread is almost $4! Soda, chips, boxed cereal…etc. etc.
By the way, I’m glad to see a Christian blogger in the paleosphere!
I totally agree that Paleo doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. We get our produce every other week from a local company that delivers to the house. http://www.fullcirclefarms.com. We also buy our grass fed meat and pork from a local farmer, for everything else, we go to trader joe’s or even costco. As their eggs here in WA are from a local farmer. I do buy canned tomatoes and tomato paste for paleo bbq sauce and ketchup, but everything else is fresh, fresh is cheaper than processed and fake.
Thanks for making some great points! We spend about $450/month and that includes pet food for 5 critters, toiletries and paper products. We are feeding a family of 4(which includes 2 teenagers)! We purchase a side of grass fed, organically raised, local beef each year. This is a HUGE savings!! I’m not sure we could afford Paleo otherwise.
Several years ago there was an email circulating about the % of income that different families around the world spent on food. Shockingly, the US was one of the lowest!We have some of the highest incidence of disease and healthcare costs. Coincidence, I don’t think so!
It’s all about priorities!
My husband and I just started Paleo about a month ago. We also noticed the increase in price, but with the results we are seeing because of it we are not giving up on it! We are also huge fans of Dave Ramsey! We actually are teaching the class right now! Love to find people who care about their future enough to change it now!
How many are you shopping for at $150 per week? We have a household of seven and I haven’t figured out how to swing this for all of us. I’m constantly asking if I do more for myself or the children. I am the weakest link, healthwise, in our home. I want to set our children up with good habits though.
Amy, the $150 covers myself and my husband (+ we cook dinner for folks at least one night each week), all our toiletries and paper/plastic products, and all our grass-fed beef orders.
-Jennie
Thanks so much for posting this. I always cringe when I see our grocery bill. Sometimes it seems easier to just buy the cheaper stuff and not pinch pennies as much but then I remember why I’m making the extra effort. I have a family of 5 and none of us have been sick at all in over 8 months. My kids are not at all over weight like you see so often lately, and I can be proud that I’m teaching my children how to be healthy.
Absolutely, Michelle! Good for you!
-Jennie
With respect this article is written from the perspective of someone who has disposable income. You are in the position where you can make a choice between spending $75 a week on your groceries or $150. Because of the other choices you have made. you live in a tiny 1 bed apartment and are debt free, don’t have children and are (probably) double income. The simple fact that you spend double on the real foods diet pretty much reinforces the point that real food is expensive (by comparison). Saying pay with your wallet or pay with your health ignores the reality of cash flow. Sure I agree with you if you’re spending more on cable than food there’s a priority issue, but the article does ignore the reality of cash flow.
If 2 of you spend $150 on real food a week then from what I know of raising a family if you were a family of 5 you would be spending about $275 on food a week. Does that look expensive now? When you could be feeding that family on $150? If you have a 15 year old car that barely goes, work a minimum single wage, have 3 kids, a cell phone that cost $20 on ebay and a plan for $20 a month. To these people, where an extra $20 is split between 2 new pairs of shoes for the kids, describes 40% of the US population and 60% of it’s health problems. To this huge number of people eating real food is impossibly expensive.
Paul,
Thanks for your comment. First of all, we are nowhere near a disposable income, let me assure you. And we were eating real food on a very tight budget when we were not debt-free yet (you will notice that that section of the post was just updated). And yes, we do make choices to ensure that we can eat real food… we choose our health over things like cable, fancy phones, new cars, big houses, etc. It’s worth it to us.
The point of this article is not to say that eating real food is less expensive than eating the standard American diet. One point of the article is to say that *sometimes* it is less expensive than what typical Americans spend on food (as you can see from several comments both on this post and on my Facebook post from earlier today from numerous folks who DO spend less on real food than they do on crap… I’ll post the ones from FB below). Another point is to say that eating real food is ABSOLUTELY easier on your wallet in the long-run (when you include all the elements I mentioned in the post… supplements, missing work, health issues, medications, etc.).
And as for cash flow, I’m mainly talking about the flow of cash over a person’s lifetime… not just on a week-to-week basis. Although, as you can see from the comments below, many folks have found that this way of living does save on a week-to-week basis. It’s all in how you manage it. It IS possible.
And no… I don’t think $275/week is “expensive” for a family of 5 people. I definitely think it can be done on less than that, but I’d be willing to make it work if it meant keeping my family healthy (even if it meant working an extra job).
Sorry, but I’m not going to agree that “eating real food is impossibly expensive.” If you can’t afford grass-fed/pastured meat, just get what meat you can! Shop the farmer’s markets for vegetables, and look for deals on meat at the grocery store. That definitely comes to less than $275/week, and most likely less than all the boxes and cans of pastas, sugars, and breads that are currently killing America.
Comments from Facebook (just from today):
Brooke Carlock: Since going paleo I actually spend about $50 LESS a month than I was previously. yay!
Rashell Rice: We spend less now than we were and now we are eating all local & humanely raised meats, mostly local produce, and almost 100% organic. I don’t buy it at all!
Fran Kelley Windels: No way….as a family we are spending aproximately $200 less per month
-Jennie
Hi Paul 🙂 I agree with you, and it is a point I bring up to a LOT of different people who don’t seem to understand that a person CAN’T just pull 20.00 out of their butt if it doesn’t exist in their wallet somewhere.
HOWEVER, I don’t agree with you. The only reason that my family of 4 is able to eat is that we get 650.00 a month in food stamps. That’s 162.50 a week for me to feed 4 people! I absolutely refuse to compromise my children’s health, and I and trying to fix my own body – I have diabetes from growing up on government food recommendations… Therefore grain is a big no no in our house 🙂
I have come up with a basic rule. If it’s vegetable or fruit, it MUST be organic. If it’s meat, well… unless I can find a farmer who supplies grassfed meat and takes food stamps, then I have to make do with the cheapest meat in the grocery store. I feel that even crappy meat is better than eating foods that contribute to my wildly fluctuating blood sugar. And we eat a LOT of eggs because they are full of nutrition and fairly economical. All snacks must be grain free and preferably organic, so that mostly means nuts (which are expensive!)
You know what I’ve found? I’ve found that so long as I MAKE the food myself, it’s actually way cheaper to eat real food than processed food! I could take 50.00 and spend it on non-organic boxed food such as noodle roni or ramen noodles, OR I could spend the exact same 50.00 on a rump roast, a whole chicken or two, and some veggies, and I can make enough real food to last the entire week for my family of 4!
The point of this article ISN’T that real food is more expensive than fake food, and tough you just have to do it! It’s that eating REAL food is better for everyone and if it seems more expensive, it just means you’re still relying on organic boxed meals and other time savers than buying ingredients and making them yourself.
This fall, for the first time ever, we plan to buy a 1/4 or a 1/2 a cow (using student loans, so it’s not like we suddenly have actual money, sigh…) And the prices around here for buying it in bulk this way make it almost the same price as store bought ground beef – except that we’ll be getting a ton of cuts we could never afford for that same price, such as prime rib and NY strips, mmm…
My point is that simply having a tiny and utterly fixed food budget doesn’t mean you have to buy crap food just to save a buck. Use your money to buy the cheaper cuts of meat and make them into 3 or 4 meals for the same price!
I’m posting a link to a blog post I wrote demonstrating how I made some mostly organic soup – back before grains were off the menu – enough to feed the 4 of us for 2 days for only 8.50. Tell me that’s not cheaper than buying a bunch of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup to feed the same amount of people the same amount of meals!
http://5degreesofweirdness.blogspot.com/2011/05/soup.html
Have a happy day 🙂
Roxanne
For us, it would cost an arm and a leg, but we’re feeding seven people and a budget of 160 per week is well over what we spend. (We average 180 every other week). We do what we can within that and try to emphasize the addition of meals that support these principles even though we haven’t found a way to make a complete transition. Larger families learn tricks to control costs and emphasize nutrition. Two big ones are frittatas and stock made from bones with veggies. Children have an additional serving of affordable whole grain.
We come from different backgrounds Roxanne (I’m in NZ) but we feed our families in a similar way. Much of our meat is bought from farmer and hunter friends (at less than half grocery price.) We don’t buy organic because frankly I dont’ think the difference is worth it. We do grow as much of our own vegetables as we can. We prepare all our meals. Our grocery bill is still about 15% higher than those of our friends and family who just buy the rubbish. I think our different view points do show that you can eat reasonably well on a tight budget, but your experience of being able to do it on less than others may spend on SAD crap is not typical from my reading of forums and my personal experience.
I wish I had hunter friends! Thank you for acknowledging my point of view. I can’t imagine how different things must be in NZ, but I hope you and your family do well 🙂
Have a happy day
Roxanne
I love your practical advice. I’m cheering here at home because it’s everything I believe in. I will be back to read your entire blog!
Thanks so much!! Very kind!
-Jennie