Can you eat eggs? Even the good ones are not that expensive in the US and they're like the perfect protein.

BTW I'm totally with you on this one, and I salute your efforts. I'm currently reading "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer and the whole factory farming thing is a horrible tragedy. I don't want to put any of my money in it, either.

Small fish (its wild afterall), shellfish, eggs, offal etc?

First off, I 100% applaud you for trying to source everything ethically. I try to, as well, and it can get difficult!

Have you looked into finding a farm nearby that will sell you their odd cuts? I'm actually headed down to farm about an hour away later today to stock up on grassfed lamb heart, lamb liver, beef liver and beef spleen for $3/lb, and pastured pig heart and liver for $2.50/lb. The farm is currently low on beef, but I'm a big fan of grassfed beef heart and tongue and where I get it in town it's $3.99/lb, which is still pretty cheap. Tongue and heart taste the most like the regular meat from the animal, so I definitely suggest trying to find a local source for those.
Edit: forgot to mention that you can also go to farmers' markets and specifically request these items from the meat vendors, or better yet call/email the vendors and ask them to bring the weird items to the farmer's market (make sure their price isn't ridiculous first, though). Because they're unpopular and don't sell as well, sometimes vendors don't even bother to bring them to the farmer's markets or at least don't advertise that they sell them, but ask and you shall (usually) receive.

Besides buying bones like Korion suggested, you might also want to look into buying pure gelatin - NOW Foods sells it for extremely cheap if you buy in bulk, but I'm also unsure as to how ethically they source it (their website says it comes from healthy cows, but doesn't everyone say that?). I trust them more than Knox, but I probably should have done more research before buying 5 lbs of their gelatin. Great Lakes is a more trust-worthy source, and still decently cheap.

If you have a Trader Joe's near you, their canned seafood is all wild-caught and BPA-free, and pretty inexpensive. Even if you don't have a Trader Joe's, whatever health-food store you go to probably has stuff like that in stock. TJ's also sells frozen Alaskan cod pieces for $3-something/lb which are pretty good.

Lastly, work on enjoying eggs. If I can do it, anyone can. Eating eggs everyday and loving it is something I thought would NEVER in a million years happen, and within 2 weeks I managed to get over my disgust. It's now normal for me to eat 8 eggs a day, and I frequently go over that number. :)

If you are not intending to be low carb (or have issues with potatoes), then potatoes are a decent balanced protein source. At 10% protein by calorie the ratio is not bad for a fairly active person. And adding small source of good sourced offal and gelatin from bones will make it a very balanced diet. Potatoes are not bad as a mineral source, either. And they are quite cheap and don't need a freezer.

US Wellness meats sells a "dog burger" for 4.19/lb (plus a bulk discount) - it's a mix of beef and organ meats. If I couldn't get grassfed meat locally, I would totally eat that.

Also, if you have any local CSAs, some of them also have stuff like eggs, and will let you lend a hand on the farm in exchange for a discount.

Also, to add to the suggestion for weird meats: I LOVE chicken feet, and they make a delicious stock. I just slow-cook them with some bay leaves and oregano and salt. Once you get over the fact that you're eating a foot, they're really crunchy and tasty.

When I made $10,000 a year in NYC (which sucks because offal/lard/marrow bones are trendy there, so you can't get it for cheap anymore), I got most of my meat through bartering. I did some marketing and grunt work for various CSAs (first one called the piggery and then I started my own meatshare). I got most of my meat for free and the rest for $4-$8 a lb.

I would question whether or not you need that much protein though. Even Low-carb advocate Dr. Rosedale recognizes how harmful that can be. And plenty of people lose weight on higher carb diets.

And this will sound bad, but I put my chest freezer on my credit card. It paid for itself within months, particularly since I had offered to sell meat from it, on commission. Also, when I bought whole animals, most farmers gave me the fat for free. A Rosedale low-carb lower-protein approach would probably be cheaper in many ways.

I also got a hunting license, hoping that would lead to some cheap protein, but I ended up not having time.

I LOVE this post. I'm saving it to my favorites. Thank you for asking this question because it's helpful for me as well. I love seeing that other people made it work, despite financial restraints. It gives me the motivation to venture out and try the same by getting close to farmers.

People have already mentioned it, but sardines are amazing. Wildplanet is the brand I get. My grocery stores doesn't sell the kind in spring water so I have to get the ones in tomato sauce...and it's too bad because the ones at the store are actually cheaper than bulk in amazon. It's a shame, but I just lightly rinse them off. They taste amazing. They're very meaty, dense, and nutritious.

I mostly live off of rotating between sardines and various seafood and pastured eggs. As someone else mentioned, "wild" doesn't necessarily mean sustainably caught. I use this guide to help me:

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_health.aspx It helps you make a choice that's both good for you and the environment.

I see that you're not a big fan of eggs. I have eggs everyday but can't have too much at once...but they are delicious!

1. Maybe you can make something like "egg drop soup" (paleo version of course) with bone broth. Egg thrown into a broth isn't very noticeable in taste.
2. If you do smoothies, you can throw in raw eggs too.
3. I sometimes get grass-fed humanely raised beef, but when I do, I make the pound stretch out by mixing it with eggs so that I get a bigger batch out of it. It's barely noticeable. I recently started to just use egg whites when I mix it into the beef and then separating it into portions for the week. Then when I reheat it, I throw a raw egg yolk on top. It is amazing.

Good luck and let me know if you run into new ideas. I'd love to learn more.

Definitely small fish. Goya brand sardines, octopus, squid, etc - great protein, mostly ethical, although canned - but cheap!

There are a few good brands of canned fish that I feel comfortable buysing. I know it's not ideal, but it's a good way to get nutrients without spending a ton of money. I get these two brands most often, in bulk via subscription at Amazon (for the best prices):

http://www.barharborfoods.com/wild-caught-fish.php

http://www.wildplanetfoods.com/

Edited to add: I also recommend sourcing some local/pastured offal. It tends to be inexpensive when compared to pastured muscle meat, and in general you get the most nutrition bang for your buck. (Also, you need less offal to get benefits.)

Probably the best will be grass-fed ground meat. Also, check your local butcher. They have lots of what they consider scrap (because no one wants it) that's both cheap and good for you. Lots of organ meats and such. Also, dark-meat poultry is usually really cheap, even at places like whole foods. If I were really constrained on my food budget, I'd look at:

-"Scrap" from the butcher -Grass-fed ground beef/bison (though bison is usually really expensive) -Dark meat chicken and turkey -Eggs - although the ethical eggs are generally quite expensive.

I would stay away from fake foods like protein powders. Eat Real Food. That's the most important thing for your health.

One other thing to consider: since food quality matters SO much to your health, it may make some sense to look at your budget again and move some money into food. That's what I did, I figured that my health is so important, that I'll give up other things for high-quality food.

Cheapest are going to be Mexican/Latino butchers and Asian butchers, BUT there's absolutely no indication of how the animals were raised, fed, or slaughtered (beyond buying live seafood at an Asian market and killing it yourself).

The next alternative is look for a middle-Eastern butcher (especially a Halal butcher). Halal and Kosher don't specify pastured or grass-fed, but they both have rigid requirements on raising, handling, feeding, and (especially) slaughtering animals.

Beyond that, check out the various tips around the web on shopping cheaply on Paleo (like Whole9's Paleo Poor article) or the question on here I can't find dealing with shopping on $7 a day, day to day.

As a side note, I remember one website mentioning check out Whole Foods near closing time, they'll put some of their day's overstock on sale (this would probably be really variable on location).

There's no need to pay that much for a freezer. Watch your local newspaper's classified ads section or go to some estate auctions. It shouldn't take too long to pick up a freezer for $100 or less.

Then find a local butcher -- one to which actual farmers deliver live animals. (Some butchers just get carcasses shipped in from the big slaughterhouses and cut them up the rest of the way.) You want a butcher who can hook you up with farmers you can meet and talk to. Look for one in a small town, if there are any near you.

Also, if your main concern is humane treatment of the animals, don't get too caught up on whether they're grass-fed or organic or whatnot. There are ranges in all those things, and only a few farmers go to the trouble to be 100% anything, and those tend to be the ones who are charging the most. The ones who aren't actively in the business of selling to those high-end niche markets will be harder to find, but they may have what you want at a much cheaper price.

My parents, for instance, raise some beef and pork for the family and to sell to other people. It's not their main focus, just a sideline for a little extra cash, so they don't advertise or do anything to spread the word. These animals are outside, getting plenty of sunlight and fresh air. The cattle are on pasture while there is any, and they get hay and silage in the winter, but they do give them some grain to keep energy up in the winter and fatten them up, as it's been done for generations. The hogs are on dirt (or pasture that they soon turn into dirt), but they get to root around for bugs and roots and things, and lie in mud and do all the piggy things they like to do. They don't use medication unless something is genuinely sick.

These animals have a great life, and they make some great meat. They don't fit any of the current buzzwords, though. When people buy one, by the time they pay my folks and the butcher, they end up paying about $2/pound for the whole thing. That's not just cheaper than the specialty places; that's cheaper than the factory-farmed stuff in the grocery store. And the butcher will give you extra liver, bones, and fat for free if you ask for it. There may not be any sources that cheap in your area, but you should be able to do much better than $9/pound. Good meat raised right is out there at a reasonable price, but you have to hunt for it.

This may sound bad but the first year going Paleo, my dad was unemployed, we just decided nutrition is far more important so we charged everything to the credit card. He got a job and now we have a surplus of money to buy local, grassfed meats and have payed off all our debts. Its mainly about making friends with your farmers. We are dedicated to one meat market, generally they offer us 3 steaks for 2 (huge tbones, ribeyes etc.) and are willing to cut us a deal because we support them. We probably are on the extreme end though. Roughly are food budget is $1200-$1300 dollars a month, however we gave up frivilous, unnecessary items to just eat good food.It all comes down to whats more important for you. We even have our dogs on a grain free, raw food diet. And trust me were not wealthy.

If you buy a small freezer and 1/4 beef on your CC and pay it off over half of the year it wouldn't cost you much and wouldn't add much to your monthly expenses.

Small fish doesn't have to come from a can, either. I was getting frozen mackerel for $2/lb -- cheap, ethical, and healthy to boot -- plus, I actually like the taste of oily fish (not everyone does).