Primal Diet

swansea

Looking to change a few things up this year and one of them is eating the primal way (or as close as possible). Can this be done on a €30 per week budget? If so, how? I live in Dublin city centre if that helps in guiding me to certain shops!

Thanks.

RobAMerc

swansea wrote: »

Looking to change a few things up this year and one of them is eating the primal way (or as close as possible). Can this be done on a €30 per week budget? If so, how? I live in Dublin city centre if that helps in guiding me to certain shops!

Thanks.

I think it can. Lots of fruit and veg from the Moore St market stalls and lots of eggs, chicken breasts etc from local butchers. You'll also get a few meals out of a Turkey breast from Aldi/Lidl which is 7 quid odd.

fresh food isn't that expensive ( particularly fruit / veg ) - think what a ready meal or some sh1t would cost in comparison.

SunnyDub1

yes most defiantly if you shop around.
I am on a similar diet and I manage on €30 a week.
The likes of lidl and aldi are good for veg if you want it fresh. (i buy frozen as I get longer out of it as it doesn't go off as quick, and it cheaper)
Most shops/butchers do prepacked meat and fish so just buy in bulk and freeze: like chicken fillets,fish, red meat. It's cheaper to buy in bulk.

swansea

Thanks RobAMerc. I'll check out Moore St for some fruit and veg. Is FX Buckley's the best option for meat around that area?

SunnyDub1 - Do you buy frozen from Lidl as well? Must look at that, never usually buy frozen veg!

Currently making a list of 'essentials' to have here at home for this way of eating.

85% Chocolate
Almond Flour
Apple Cider Vinegar
Apples
Asparagus
Avocado
Baby Spinach
Bacon
Balsamic Vinegar
Bananas
Beef
Beef Liver
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Cayenne Pepper
Chicken
Chicken Drumsticks
Chicken Liver
Cilantro
Coconut Flour
Coconut Milk
Coconut Oil
Dill
Double Cream
Eggs
Frozen Broccoli
Frozen Broccoli and Cauliflower
Frozen Brussel Sprouts
Frozen Spinach
Goats Cheese
Grassfed Butter
Honey
Kale
Lamb
Lambs Liver
Olive Oil
Oranges
Parsley
Parsnip
Peppers
Potato
Sweet Potato
Tamari
Tinned Salmon
Tinned Sardines
Tinned Tuna
Turkey
Whipped Cream

Anything that shouldn't be on this list/need to add to it?

SunnyDub1

You can buy frozen from any of the shops, it's all around the same price no matter where you buy. If you are buying fresh veg lidl or aldi would be cheapest.

With regards your list, you will need to cut back on some items if you are on a budget.
For example: Chicken, chicken drumsticks and chicken liver why not just buy a 10 pack of chicken fillets and look at different recipes to cook them.
Same applies with the lamb, coconut, and beef, fish.

I'd be very surprised if you managed to eat everything mentioned in the list above in 1 week :P

There is no point in buying a load of food having it go off or not used.

Write out a what you are going to eat for the week - breakfast, lunch and dinner, snacks and choose to buy the items from the list you will actually use.

Stench Blossoms

What are you buying all the cream for?

RobAMerc

you'll not get all that for 30 quid !
But you'll also not eat all that in one week

As far as I can tell you can get deals on F&V on Moore st but it tends to be at the end of its life and will go off quickly. Not a bad thing ( imagine eating bananas when they are actually ripe !!! ) but buy small quantities often.

Get a standard set of 5 or 6 recipes you know what's in and you know how to do well and easily ( there is a mountain of info on the web ) - then always be a day or so ahead regarding food. Don't leave yourself at the mercy of the takeaway or frozen diner because you didn't plan to have something decent in - although in fairness the odd Mickey D never killed anyone really, paleo a philosophy not a rule

Animord

Please don't buy whipped cream:( It is only cream with air in it and you can do it yourself in minutes. No point buying air if you are on a budget.

Also, do you have a freezer? You'd be better off finding five or six recipes that you will defintely eat and going and buying the ingredients for those recipes. Freeze the left overs, most recipes feed four, and you will have meals for the next week too. Use the discounted section in your local supermaket - you can usual get chicken close to its sell by date and often other stuff. Take it home and freeze if you haven't got an immediate recipe for it or cook it and freeze it.

Eat seasonal veg, it's cheaper - nothing wrong with frozen but you will get stuff in season just as cheap or cheaper if you look. You will save more money in the long run if you learn to cook with cheaper cuts of meat, which usually means long slow cooking. Things like curries and stews where the slow cooking breaks down the tougher meat. Better flavours too.

Buying chicken that has already been portioned is expensive, buy several whole chickens when you see them on special offer and learn to joint them yourself, it is not hard. Then you also have the carcass for making stock which you can use as the basis of lots of lovely soups, which are dead cheap to make from the seasonal veg you bought!

SteelyDanJalapeno

My essentials on a primal diet, i'm not limited to these, but I make sure they're in my basket most weeks :

Eggs 12 - 18 ~ 3.00 - 4.00 euro
Bacon - 2 - 3 euro
Beef mince 1lb - 5 euro
5 chicken fillets - 5 euro
100% butter or ghee - 2 - 3 euro
Leafy greens - 3 - 4 euro
Fresh fruit 3 - 4 euro

probably missing something, but they're usually the 1st things in my basket, I'll get at least 5 - 6 dinners from the meat and some fine breakfasts with left overs and eggs and bacon. That all comes to somewhere between 23 - 27 euro. There's other stuff then that I wont need to buy every week like some coconut milk/oil, spices etc.

I'd probably on average spend 30 - 40 a week in the shops.

banquet

While it may in theory be possible, I don't think it can be achieved practically. To eat primally on €30 is asking too much. A lot of things that are popular in the primal community aren't cheap. Sweet potato is more expensive than white potatoes, coconut oil is around 12€ a litre.

The only way I can see it being achieved is with a very restricted diet. And lots of eggs.

SteelyDanJalapeno

banquet wrote: »

While it may in theory be possible, I don't think it can be achieved practically. To eat primally on €30 is asking too much. A lot of things that are popular in the primal community aren't cheap. Sweet potato is more expensive than white potatoes, coconut oil is around 12€ a litre.

The only way I can see it being achieved is with a very restricted diet. And lots of eggs.

You'll never use a litre of coconut oil a week thou? would last me at least 6 - 7 weeks so it less than 2 euro a week.

Aldi are cheap for sweet potatoes too, but I tend to agree, my expenditure would probably be closer to 40 a week

banquet

TiltedBrain wrote: »

You'll never use a litre of coconut oil a week thou? would last me at least 6 - 7 weeks so it less than 2 euro a week.

Aldi are cheap for sweet potatoes too, but I tend to agree, my expenditure would probably be closer to 40 a week

Granted you aren't going to go through a litre in a week, I think people have a tendancy to write off these costs for items like oils, franks hot sauce (A personal favorite), etc that only need to be purchased every odd week or so, and thus not factor them in to their weekly cost.

I still would have reservations about 40 euro. Not just on a primal diet, but any diet that has an adequate amount of protein and where most of the calories aren't coming from cheap sources of carbs.

If I take your first four items listed, the protein sources, and the foods providing the majority of the calories from the foods you listed, I arrive at around 4000 calories and 355g of protein. Now add in that pound of butter and we are at 7000 calories.

Assume we need around 17,500 (2,500 x 7) calories per week for maintenance and a moderate amount of protein, lets say .80 per lb which is a figure I'm sure most on these forums would be aiming to hit. I'm going to use an admittedly arbitrary figure of 175lb for the persons weight. Which is 175 x 1 g protein per lb x .80 x 7 = 980 grams of protein.

So that leaves a gap of around 10,000 calories and over 600g of protein which have to be plugged up by 13 euro if you're going to get to 40 euro. I don't think that's possible.

I'm not targeting you in particular its just you posted a shopping list and I just used it to illustrate an example. I think people tend to A) Underestimate the amount of money they spend on food, and Underestimate the amount required to eat healthy.

BTW I'm open to correction on any of my estimates or my maths if they're off.

Ant11

banquet wrote: »

Granted you aren't going to go through a litre in a week, I think people have a tendancy to write off these costs for items like oils, franks hot sauce (A personal favorite), etc that only need to be purchased every odd week or so, and thus not factor them in to their weekly cost.

I still would have reservations about 40 euro. Not just on a primal diet, but any diet that has an adequate amount of protein and where most of the calories aren't coming from cheap sources of carbs.

If I take your first four items listed, the protein sources, and the foods providing the majority of the calories from the foods you listed, I arrive at around 4000 calories and 355g of protein. Now add in that pound of butter and we are at 7000 calories.

Assume we need around 17,500 (2,500 x 7) calories per week for maintenance and a moderate amount of protein, lets say .80 per lb which is a figure I'm sure most on these forums would be aiming to hit. I'm going to use an admittedly arbitrary figure of 175lb for the persons weight. Which is 175 x 1 g protein per lb x .80 x 7 = 980 grams of protein.

So that leaves a gap of around 10,000 calories and over 600g of protein which have to be plugged up by 13 euro if you're going to get to 40 euro. I don't think that's possible.

I'm not targeting you in particular its just you posted a shopping list and I just used it to illustrate an example. I think people tend to A) Underestimate the amount of money they spend on food, and Underestimate the amount required to eat healthy.

BTW I'm open to correction on any of my estimates or my maths if they're off.

Agree with this^^. I could easily spend 30 euro a week on meat, never mind anything else. I do buy in bulk to bring costs down but IMO 30/40 euro a week is tough when trying to eat primal/healthy.