A concern many voice about the carnivore diet is that they have a perceived sense of extravagance and costs associated. While this can be true of any diet, you can easily manage this on a budget approach while still eating well and building up your health.
You just need to prepare a list and not shop on a whim and you then will have your targeted foods, this is why I have been subscribed to Butcher Box for almost 2 years.
How To Do The Carnivore Diet on a Budget: To do the carnivore diet on a budget means managing your foods and purchasing high-quality meats but at a good cost, looking at the clearance section is always a good start. Then assemble a simple but repeatable menu for the week and find the value purchases.
Lets explore what foods are in the lower cost side for effective budgeting and we will also jump into how to create a shopping list. We do have a simple PDF of the acceptable carnivore diet foods for quick checking on your phone (totally, absolutely free) that can help if you can't make a list.
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Most people who eat a carnivorous diet will possibly eat less than 3 meals, but the wide population is very used to a 3 meal per day eating plan.
Below is some inexpensive options to have at each meal of the day and gives you an idea of the incurred weekly cost if you were to take it out to 7 days, your prices will be different then mine so your mileage may vary and you should adjust as your area provides.
This cost is less than most spend on any breakfast at a McDonalds or other fast food locations. Many times people want to say more expensive but what they mean is that they miss having the ease of stopping somewhere as you have to prepare and cook everything.
When you look to budget for breakfast you really should focus on eggs, they are full of solid nutrition and typically a very good cost per meal as a dozen eggs at 2 per day will last around a week ($4).
This can have cheese added if you are someone who enjoys dairy, if you aren't eating dairy then you would want to look into other add-ons like bacon, ham, sausage or even ground beef or steak. (I love me some steak and eggs in the morning!)
Lunch is a zone that can vary per person, I personally will eat ground beef with egg or other spices, sometimes if splurging ground beef and cream cheese cooked together.
One thing you will want to look at is your serving sizes here, a pound of ground beef is around 4 4oz servings so the more you eat per meal the more you will need to purchase.
This is where it can become much more expensive, I know people like Dr Baker will have a ribeye often, at $15 on average in the grocery stores near me.
I wouldn't be able to afford this constantly but I would say treat yourself to maybe on every week or two. I prefer to use other cuts and extend my money further and stretch out my dollars.
This may be something you know already or quite possibly not, all the foods you want to choose from are contained in the outside ring of the supermarket.
The typical shopper will move into the inner areas of the grocery store which actually contain almost all of the man-made frankenfoods.
Frankenfoods are typically determined as anything that doesn't exist on the Earth as a natural creation, these foods are frequently built to trigger our reward sensors causing overeating through overstimulous.
Josh
While there can be options that would fit a carnivore diet that could be frankenfoods, I urge you to move past them and let yourself eat the more natural and real foods.
When you start eating these normal foods you will find your hunger satiated when this satiation starts to occur is when you start saving a lot of money on your groceries.
What do I mean by "groundhog" your meals? I mean aim to eat the same thing as this makes purchasing easier as the less variety the more you can focus on the quality and making sure you get a meal which you enjoy.
I would also like to say that you should change this up weekly at least otherwise you can cause food burnout, I don't want you to start hating a food because you eat it too often!
As you gain experience in a carnivore lifestyle you will start to increase the food choices and will have a better understanding when shopping how to manage what you like versus the cost.
Groundhog days just help you find a good place to have an assembled list on the foods you want and a predictable setup and preparation of those foods.
Doing a carnivorous diet, contrary to what many may suggest, doesn't require breaking the bank. In a great many ways the carnivore diet allows you to save more money over time, you cut down on weight and hunger along with your body becoming stronger.
I prefer to create all my meals on the weekend which will last me throughout the entire week when I do this I set myself up for success and I also have much fewer issues with adherence.
The goal is to set yourself up to not be hungry, not spend too much, and build up your ability to last long term on your new lifestyle.
If you read this far you are amazing! I would love to hear from you in the comments below if I helped you gain knowledge and useful information, additionally I would like to know if I got anything incorrect that you believe should be researched more and updated. As always to get the word out please join our new Carnivore Rx group on Facebook and share this out on social media!
