Diabetic high fat low carb cheap meals

MortgageMamma

Hi Everyone

I am diabetic and have been following the high fat low carb diet and regular exercise for the past 2 months (albeit not rigidly enough!) I have had quite a lot of success in that I have lost 2 stone, gained muscle mass, built up exercise tolerance and stabilised blood sugars. I've got more energy and focus than I can ever remember. We are literally hardly ever hungry.

However, there is a problem - its costing me a small fortune. (my husband is also following the diet). Our shopping bill is around £150-170 a week for a family of 5 and its not sustainable in the long term.

We've dropped down a brand and try to make an effort with bogoffs and yellow sticker stuff yet I'm still struggling to get the bill down. We've tried shopping in Asda, Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and the problem is when shopping in the budget supermarkets we have to go elsewhere for other stuff so don't end up saving anything.

To make matters worse, my 10 month old pup has a raw diet and we spend £10 on dog food and £8 on cat food (4 cats) each week.

We want to continue on this HFLC diet as its done wonders but need helping getting the costs down. Here is an example day

Breakfast - bacon or sausage scrambled eggs mushrooms tomato
Dinner - watery soup with chicken/veg/broth or cheese omelette
Tea - some form of meat with salad or veg, none of few carbs
supper - usually some form of chicken/ribs or chops (no carbs)

Full cream in coffees, water or sugar free juice

Snacks - oranges, 70% chocolate, brazil or macademia nuts, bio yogurt with fruit, crisps, olives, dolmades, stuffed jalapenos, boiled eggs

I would be really grateful if someone could make a suggestion how to keep costs down as I still have 5 stone to lose and hubby has 7 stone

lollyfin

If you google budget paleo meals you will find loads of ideas. Amazon also have a budget paleo book that I think was free on kindle that has some good meals in it.
Home bargains sells a good coconut oil that's less than half the price that tesco sells it.

Slinky

4 meals a day and snacks on top? I think there's some room for savings by cutting out a meal.

My average day is

Full fat greek yogurt with blueberries/cherries/home made fruit compote. The fruit is either frozen or dried

Lunch - soup, usually lentil & bacon or cauliflower and chedder or butternut squash. In the summer I have salad with olive oil dressing plus cheese or eggs or tinned mackrel.

Dinners - spagless bol (spaghetti bolognese with pasta replaced by cauli rice), chicken in a cream, leek & cheese sauce with cauli rice, cheese, tomato & mushroom omelette

If I do fancy something in between it's usually a small handful of oily nuts, a piece of cheese or some 74% dark chocolate after dinner.

I've also started to try and eat only within a 10 hour window so effectively you get 14 hours fasting overnight, this was found to be beneficial with weight loss even if you make no other changes to your diet in Trust Me I'm a Doctor on TV recently.

MandM90

No wonder you're hardly hungry...that does seem an awful lot of food for one person. Obviously this is your docs territory but could you work on reducing your appetites?


I tend to have a banana for breakfast, a small Tupperware pot of leftovers for lunch and a hot supper. No snacks, just water. I'm far from skinny but slap bang in the middle of 'normal' BMI (in fact I'd like to lose some weight for summer)


I'd start by identifying the cheapest sources for what you need. Go around the supermarket and look at the price/kg for different meats and veggies then base your meals around them e.g. Basics Cooking Bacon...could that be fried before you chuck in the eggs to make a big scramble rather than the more expensive whole cuts on the side?

MortgageMamma

Hi

We do have big appetites but we are big people at the moment. I am 17 stone and my husband is about 25. We both work from home so have plenty of time for cooking. I have a tendency for hypoglacemia so I have to eat small and regular. Husband has no excuse lol.

I've given some thought to whats been said and I can see four meals a day is a lot even if low carb. I'm going to start by cutting lunch out (which I view as just water with veg floating in it, i.e. soup). That will save us £1 a day to start with so £7 there. I've also just done a prelim online shop with asda and swapped the dogs beef mince for chicken liver and chappie - a few carbs won't hurt her. that's saved me £6. And I've dropped her usual 2 x 400g of sardines to 2 x 200g of sprats - half the price again so another £1 saved there. I've put 3 x 60p cooking bacons in so that's saved £5 and bought cheaper eggs saving £2. Downgraded the cordial to save £1.50 and swapped the usual sausages to frozen ones saving £2.

All in all saved £25 approx. so far, just need to trim a few more bits

Slinky it sounds like your diet is very similar to mine, with the exception of the fruits which I am not allowed. Do you make your own cauli rice as I've seen it in the supermarket and its £1.99 a packet....

MallyGirl

I feed my dogs raw and spend about £10 a week on each but they are 35kg dogs - is yours a large/giant breed? I buy frozen raw food from a pet shop - cheaper than online as I don't get hit for delivery.

MortgageMamma

MallyGirl wrote: »

I feed my dogs raw and spend about £10 a week on each but they are 35kg dogs - is yours a large/giant breed? I buy frozen raw food from a pet shop - cheaper than online as I don't get hit for delivery.

Hi, she's a cocker spaniel she's under 10kg as only 10 months old, she gets none carb scraps as well but like most dogs is "constantly hungry" - been thinking about getting a friend for her from a charity rescue but I need to know I can feed it and pay vets bills first

MallyGirl

I pay 79p each for 1lb frozen blocks of raw chicken, turkey, beef, lamb or 'mixed meat' each containing a decent ratio of meat to bone to offal (80:10:10) and the same price for green tripe. Venison, duck, pheasant and fish are a bit more. I could not afford to feed mine on supermarket meat as they have 3.5lbs of meat a day between them. I think you could save money by buying the pet food elsewhere.

mardatha

I use a lot of broccoli and cauli as fillers. Cook as normal but then put in a piedish in oven with butter and double cream poured over, cheese sprinkled on top, heat through for 20 mins.

mardatha

Remember things like mackeral and sardines too, they are high fat carb free and cheap.

Slinky

MortgageMamma wrote: »

Slinky it sounds like your diet is very similar to mine, with the exception of the fruits which I am not allowed. Do you make your own cauli rice as I've seen it in the supermarket and its £1.99 a packet....

I make my own. Large cauli is £1.50 in Tesco. Slice a few florets into a hand blender and blitz for about 10 seconds a time. About 3/4 pint is enough for 2 of us. Microwave for about 4 1/2 mins on high, doesn't need any water providing you've washed the cauli first. I sometimes put a knob of butter on top after cooking.

A large cauli usually lasts about 3 meals.