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!
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.
It’s almost embarrassing to admit, but I just got giddy at the thought of getting a glimpse into someone else’s food budget and haul for a Whole30. Also love that you’ll be showing your readers that it can be less expensive to eat clean. I hear about how expensive real food is all. the. time.
I look forward to these details. I’m going to need to figure out my own way of doing this in a few weeks so any data is good data at this time.
Thanks for taking the time to analyze your Whole30 adventure!
Holly, thanks for this. I love these kind of posts. I still haven’t done a whole 30. This is so inspirational!
Hmm, I did feel like we spent more doing Whole 30, but maybe it just felt like more because we had to shop more to ensure we had a lot of fresh ingredients. Definitely saved money on booze, that’s FOR SURE.
I can’t wait to read about your groceries! My husband and I have done a few W30s-and we agree-we do spend less on groceries. My husband loves snacking stuff-and all that adds up! Also agree with your point you simply end up eating less-not intentionally, it just comes naturally.
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Yes! So true. I wrote a blog post about saving money on the Whole30 as well (long time ago). Went from $770 spent on food to $496. Mostly because my Starbucks habit had to go. Plus the booze and eating out as much.
But i still had people tell me that they couldn’t do the Whole30 because it was expensive. Cause sure, if you eat nothing but boxed crap that you bought with coupons, real food is going to be more expensive. Sigh.
Good luck with your Whole30! I’ve been thinking of doing a real food challenge in March. Mostly because I eat beans, lentils and white rice now…But I could probably stand to give up the gluten-free chocolate muffins for a bit.
PS. I’m binging on your blog posts tonight. Haven’t had time to read blogs since you started your Whole30. Got some catching up to do.
That’s exactly where I was — we were eating a lot of convenience foods and gluten free “treats” and I thought it was time for a reset. They’re always fun. Challenging, but you feel so darn GOOD at the end!