Monthly Archives: February 2015

Today started our second full week on the Whole 30, and as promised I’m sharing what we spend each week on groceries. (You can find our Week One list right here, where we spent a total of $65.66.)

Last week, in addition to that haul, I did go to the store to buy a red bell pepper which cost me a whopping $2.08 (in addition to two hours of my life) so I really tried to ensure that I wouldn’t have to make a second trip this week. I went to three stores (eep!) but we needed a good variety of stuff and I try to shop at the store that sells the products we buy for the cheapest price.

For breakfast this week I made breakfast boxes as per usual (example of what I’m talking about here) and filled them with roasted brussels sprouts, hard boiled eggs (ugh, peeling egg shells!) and made my own sausage. (Link stolen from Beth who has a great blog you should totally check out.)

For lunches I made a huge batch of Paleo Minestrone for me and for Garrett I made boxes filled with roasted kale and Trader Joe’s grass fed beef burgers.

Dinners, again, will be a mix of protein and veg that I’ll document on Instagram, but I did make a batch of Rogan Josh and Greek Beef Stew because we picked up some stew meat. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Here’s how all the shopping broke down:

Trader Joe’s

I loaded up on produce at Trader Joe’s because they have some things I enjoy (shredded brussles, what what!) and some convenience stuff that is still compliant. (WOOT!) Here’s a list of what we got:
Zucchini, Squash, 8 Vegetable Mix, Mushrooms, Shredded Brussels Sprouts, Curry Simmer Sauce, Cabbage, Kale, Leeks, Cauliflower, Garlic Sauce, Apples, GrassFed Burgers (Frozen), Ground Turkey, Salsa, Guacamole, Olives, Spaghetti Squash, Butternut Squash, Jalapenos, Snow Peas, Bananas

Trader Joe’s Total: $80.13

Costco

While I was at Trader Joe’s I sent Garrett to Costco with a list. Unfortunately it was not specific enough (you know how this goes sometimes, right ladies? :)) So we generally buy the Organic Ground Beef from Costco which is about $4.99/lb and comes 4.5 lbs to a package.

I guess Garrett wasn’t paying attention because he came home with regular ground beef. No big deal. This is as good of a time as any to point out that Whole 30 isn’t only about buying the most expensive meat and produce you can find.

I think sometimes people have the misunderstanding that Whole 30 means you must buy the absolutely best and cleanest possible ingredients. Sure, that would be great, but that’s not always in everyone’s budget. Here’s a handy dandy guide to what is Good-Better-and-Best that I’ve found helpful in the past. If you want to try a Whole 30 but think you can’t afford expensive produce and meat, I’d definitely take a look at that.

This week we’ll just drain the fat off the ground beef and roll with it.

We also picked up stew meat, eggs and brussels sprouts.

Costco Total: $57.01

*****
WEEK TWO GRAND TOTAL: $137.14

As you can see we had to stock up on some protein this week so we spent more than last week, which is reasonable. We will probably have to do this a bit next week as well because last week we finished up our shrimp and andouille sausage stash. We still have a few packages of chicken thighs, but after that our freezer meats are basically used up.

So far for two weeks worth of Whole 30 grocery shopping we’ve spent $204.88, which seems mighty reasonable to me for 40+ meals. That’s all for this week. Hope this has been helpful in some way!

Welcome to my first Whole 30 Grocery Haul!

I love seeing what staples other people buy at the grocery store so I thought it might be fun to share mine while we are doing this Whole 30. More fun — I’ll show you how much we spent. I shared how I save money doing a Whole 30 yesterday so I thought I’d also show you throughout the month what the actual spending looks like.

A few things to note:

*We had some veggies I wanted to use up this week (zucchini, green beans, squash, baby carrots and a head of cauliflower and a bag of kale) and the freezer was pretty full of protein so I meal planned this week to use what we had on hand.

*For breakfast we’re eating frittatas with chorizo, kale and black olives. For lunches I made chili. For dinners, it’s just meat and veg every night in different varieties. I’ll try and share some meals over on Instagram so you can see specifically what we’re eating.

*As we go through the month we’ll DEFINITELY buy more protein, so don’t worry — I didn’t just stock up on protein the week before we started tracking and then am all of a sudden going to be like “See…wee only spend a few dollars.” No ma’am. We’ll definitely need to buy ground beef next week for sure and I’m sure at the end of the month we’ll still have usable stuff in the freezer, so you’ll see how all of that balances out at the end.

*As for pantry/freezer stock other than protein, I always have cans of tuna, cooking fats, and random bags of frozen veggies for when we need quick meals. I may or may not have to restock those things during the course of the month, but I’d be restocking them regardless of a Whole 30 so I don’t think it will be a huge budget swing.

*At the end of the month maybe I’ll get real crazy and break down our spending by veg/protein/fat and give you a price per meal.

So after all that — here’s what we bought.

WHOLE FOODS

Chorizo
Eggs
Shredded Carrots
Kale
Potatoes (YESSSS! This is our first Whole 30 since potatoes got the green light!)
Grapes
Coconut Milk
Avocados

What we spent: $35.28

RALEYS

Hard Boiled Eggs
Jalapenos
Red Onions
Celery
Green Onions
Green + Yellow Peppers
Fizzy Water

What we spent: $30.38

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WEEK ONE GRAND TOTAL: $65.66

Source

Last Saturday I put together a meal plan for this month’s Whole 30 and headed off to Whole Foods and Raleys (our local supermarket) to pick up some groceries for this week’s eats. I find it super helpful to have a meal plan so I can make sure I have all the ingredients I will need on hand to cook all of my meals.

SIDEBAR ON MEAL PLANNING: I loosely schedule my meals on certain days based on what’s going on with work (long days = crock pot meals) or my workouts (evening workouts = quick meals where morning workouts allow for more time consuming dinners) but I’m not militant about it.

For example, I may schedule Taco Salad on Monday but if I get home and am more in the mood for coconut lime shrimp, it’s easy to change things up on the fly because I have ensured I have all the ingredients on hand because I made a meal plan, ya know? There’s nothing worse than getting home from a long day at work, starting to cook a dinner that sounds good and then missing an ingredient. UGH!

Source

Anyway, I mentioned last week that when we do a Whole 30 we usually spend less money on food. Check out www.oa.no for more money management tips. I also recommend looking for sources of passive incomes to help you generate extra cashflow. Some of you seemed surprised by that, so I thought I’d share a few of the reasons why:

1. I’m not buying any booze.

It’s not like during the other 335 days a year we are going bankrupt on the booze aisle or anything, but usually on the weekends we’ll mix up a specialty cocktail or grab a bottle of wine that looks good and is on sale at the grocery store. These little things add up, and I don’t do this type of impulse purchasing at all when we are doing a Whole 30.

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2. I’m not buying snack/treat type foods

When doing a Whole 30 those Hail Merry Macaroons don’t seem to mysteriously hop in my Whole Foods cart like they do at times when I’m perusing the store. I am not tempted to pick up Glutino crackers and Cambezola on a Friday night as a little appetizer and I’m not keeping my favorite Krave (super awesome gluten free) Jerky around the house for snacking. There’s nothing wrong with those foods in moderation, but over 30 days, my spending on fancy cheese definitely decreases.

3. I’m not eating as much and not feeding my cravings

In real life, as I let sugar sneak into my diet here and there, I find that I need to snack every few hours. Generally when doing a Whole 30, because I’m very focused on balancing an abundance of vegetables, meat and healthy fats I feel very satiated. I literally find that about 10-12 days in I’m even eating smaller portions. Our food literally stretches further and I’m not craving a snack a couple of hours after I eat. All of those things have a downstream effect on our food budget.

4. We eat out less
This one sort of speaks for itself. We actually don’t eat out too often anyway, but a lunch here or there at work, weekend dinners when we don’t feel like cooking — all of that adds up.

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Anyway, with all that in mind, I thought it might be fun to document our grocery spending this month so you can see what we spend where. Tomorrow I’ll post our first Whole 30 Grocery Haul — what we shelled out and what we brought home. I thought this might be a fun peek inside our grocery habits this month and may give you some encouragement if you are afraid to do a Whole 30 just because you think it will cost a million dollars. We’ll see how it goes! If you’re planning to apply for payday loans Reno, finding a lender that aligns with your loan purpose and financial goals can make a big difference in your overall satisfaction with your experience.