Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!! - PaleoHacks.com

Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-19T19:58:15Z

Hi Hackers... OK so I'm a studet living in Manchester UK, need some help. My budget is about £20 a week for my shopping and I find it quite hard to stay paleo at times. This is what I bought this week:

£5 of chicken legs from the market (which is about a carrier bag full) not free ranged.. some liver (£2) and one packet of kidneys (£1).. £3, 15 free ranged eggs. £1 for a sirloin steak. £3 on pork roast. £1 on a pig skin to make home made pork scratchings.. then i spent the rest (£4ish) on onions, garlic, lard for cooking, broccoli, cabbage and sweet potatoes..

I do IF now and again through the week by skipping the odd meal. I'm just kind of worried that the meat I'm buying is not of great quality :/ but this is the best i can do on my budget.. if anyone has any tips/advice on how to make it better or stretch it out more i would be grateful..

Answer by Whirl for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-19T20:13:02Z

That sounds like your doing alright there. I get all my meat from the market too, but because it's not the best quality it will more than likely have a high mega 6 to omega 3 ratio , so what I do is just supplement on omega 3's. It's not ideal but it's better than nothing myprotein.com do omega 3's for a pretty descent price to. Again not the best but it's better than nothing. FYI I am also on a tight budget.

Answer by JayJay for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-19T20:24:23Z

I'm UK based (and studied at Manc too!), probably average spending £20-25 a week maybe. I've had great progess and am on course for reversing my nervous system disabilities. You have just got to do the best you can with what you've got.

I get frozen basics range chicken- I don't eat the skin (there's some that say its ok though), but this is what I do- Sainsburys do a 1kg bag for about £4. I'll often eat gelatin with the chicken. I get the Now Foods one (I buy it in bulk online- I don't know how viable this is if you are living in halls, but if you make friends with the staff they probably will keep an eye on it well for you- but stick to stable products) and make say a special hot chocolate. This gives a better profile then just muscle meat. Cheap Kidneys/Liver- some say its ok, but I'm slightly concerned about any negatives of the lesser quality versions of these so am avoiding for now due to not wanting to risk my health situation (but maybe others here may know more and give it the thumbs up).

I use the bones from my basics chicken - I freeze them and then use them to make a bone broth (again contentious but I scoop off the fat from the final product due to the poor quality of the animals). If you like and can tolerate coconut products they are a great way to get cheap high calorie fats and are pretty versatile. They're a mainstay for me.

If I was more mobile, I'd probably try and make friends with a local butchers and get scrap bones of grassfed meat, and use this as broth and also the after fat as a lard too.

I'll eat a lot of tinned fish, as its cheaper. There are some drawbacks, but for now it works well and I can really feel the difference. Because meat is grain fed etc- this is a way to help get a better omega 3-6 ratio. Obviously one has to be careful of mercury etc (though Chris Kresser argues the selenium levels in fish negate this). But I'll tend to stick to the lower levelled mercury fish that are on the cheaper end. If you search online you'll find lists of the ones with the lowest parts per million. You can also use fish oil (another contentious one), but obviously more expense (I've read its best to get high quality fish oils due to possible contaminants. Something like Carlsons- which is about £30 though for 90 servings/days)-which would add £2.50 onto your weekly budget. With high omega 3 fish, you get the omegas and protein for a meal in one. Plus n=1, it seems to be more effective for me then just the oil (again Kresser I think argues reasons for this if I recall correctly). You can pick up cans of sardines petty cheaply, a few of those a week could help the o3 profile- which seems to be a "weakness" of your current diet potentially

On veggies, brocolli, cauliflower etc are good as they generally seem to have less pesticides (though in my opinion the testing on this is sparce so take with a pinch of salt), and rotate others that are reported as having higher levels (like kale) The only organic thing I get is garlic- which I feel makes a significant difference in power,taste and smell.

Eggs - if you can tolerate are great.

I can't do this- but if you live near food shops, its worth working out their local patterns for putting things on sale and habitually going in at these times. One of my friends did this. And would find meats and veggies with sell by date for that day really really cheap

For spices - organic is supposed to be better because they are non-irridated, but I generally get the conventional ones for taste and will upgrade some of them soon though.

Eventually when I'm better I'd budget for more for food, but for now this is working well. I'm doing the best with what I can, but definately plan on spending more in the future.

Does that £20 include toiletries etc too? How much do you spend there. You can save a chunk there too when you find alternatives to more expensive (and full of rubbish) bath products for example and put that to food too potentially

Remember, alot of the "power" of Paleo comes from what you don't eat. So you're getting tons of benefit there alone but if you can spend more I would, but if you can't don't beat yourself up- as its still really powerful!

Answer by PhysiqueRescue for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-19T21:43:30Z

Grass-fed ground beef and organ meats. Pastured Pork is inexpensive as well. Buy the whole chicken and use all the parts. The I.F. works for me as well to eliminate a meal and get down to two a day.

-Matt
PhysiqueRescue.com

Answer by Jimmy for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-19T23:33:16Z

Aldi does some great quality meats/poultry/fish for very cheap, pack of 5 pork steaks for £1.49 which i always grill for breakfast, pack of beef steaks for £1.49 etc, really good shop which is where I go very often just to load up on proteins. As somebody said above, tinned fish is very cheap and I get that in bucketloads, so much tinned mackerel in my cupboards its hard to see anything else. I go with a lot of tinned carrots also, only 20p per tin from most supermarkets so thats always good to go

Answer by Suz - Paleo Oz for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-20T01:02:45Z

I think you've done really well with that shop.

I expect you already go to the market just before it closes - I find most things massively reduced at the end of the day.

Also recommend buying cheap cuts of meat and bones from a friendly butcher rather than popular (expensive) cuts.

If you could find some other students to pool together with I think you'd manage to buy a wider variety of higher quality foods and your money would go further. The other benefit of a pool would be that you could share the cooking and shopping - less work and more time for everyone.

Not sure whether you live in halls (which would be easier) or have a freezer?

Answer by oijn for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-20T01:21:36Z

frozen veggies at sainsbury's are 1GBP for 1kg get some minced beef or lamb as well for 4-6GBP for 1 kg

Answer by Laulet for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-20T06:35:01Z

It is certainly difficult trying to budget for one on a paleo diet. Frozen veg can sometimes be cheaper in bulk, and as others have already mentioned, you seem to be doing well! +1 for home made pork scratchings, too.

I'm studying in the West Midlands, and have directly contacted local farms who are willing to deliver for a small fee, and buying from the source helps cost-wise. I also use Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's website, http://www.rivercottage.net/forum/, to source good quality veg and meat, as well as the Soil Association (http://www.soilassociation.org/). I tend to buy in large quantities - i.e. spend 30 quid in one go and then not buy anything for a week, it can help stretch out the meat if you have access to a freezer. If you make friends with your butcher sometimes they'll recommend cheaper cuts or give you bits free, especially the offal parts that no one seems to buy!

Answer by Jean for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-09-20T06:54:03Z

Slightly off topic - I've found Knight's Castille soap in B & M stores for £1 for 5 bars. It's the most basic soap you can get without spending a fortune and doesn't irritate my skin at all. Edited to add - still some unpronounceable ingredients but no SLS which is what I have a problem with.

Answer by David for Budget Shopping UK, Help Needed please!!

2012-10-14T19:19:40Z

Aldi do a Super 6 fruit & veg promotion so you can get access to good quality well priced fruit and veg.