£7 a day the Paleo way

beanielou

VfM4meplse wrote: »

£7 a day on groceries? Are you nuts?!

Or just eating nuts

Eta: I should add that my own long-term eating habits (ie barely eating, and v rarely cooking) are starting to cause me some health problems.

This says it all.

elantan

lessonlearned wrote: »

I eat largely paleo too for health reasons....and I also take a range of supplements on medical advice. Sorry I am a bit confused ......is that £7 a day just for you or for 4.

Actually I dont think £7 a day for 4 of you is unreasonable. Food prices are definitely increasing. If you have an Aldi or Lidl they will save you a lot of money. I am a coffee snob and I love Aldis coffee.

Do you have A garden. You could grow berries, salads and vegetables, herbs etc. That should help at least in summer. Maybe freeze any surplus.

Good luck.

it's £7 a day just for me, will be great if we could chat Paleo ? I could do with some support and advice on that front

Mr El is £7 a day as well ... only he was more than that today

VfM4meplse

beanielou wrote: »

[/B]

This says it all.

I have to say I was shocked at how dreadful I have lately, I can pretty much pin it on diet although I've never been a big eater.

Mum brought lunch over yesterday and I cooked for the first time in ?8 weeks this evening - big batch of spicy butternut squash soup, so I had a small bowl of that before freezing the rest. Actually, if cavemen cooked I think this is Paleo (or would have been, minus the bread roll I had with it)

JingsMyBucket

Elantan I eat low(er) carb so I get what you mean about paying more for certain things. I would take advantage of yellow sticker deals in your local stores. The discounted prices I see listed here on the boards always shocks me regarding how cheap can be in the U.K.

lessonlearned

elantan wrote: »

it's £7 a day just for me, will be great if we could chat Paleo ? I could do with some support and advice on that front

Mr El is £7 a day as well ... only he was more than that today

Hi Elantan. I would be more than happy to chat paleo with you, either here or PM whichever you prefer.

A little about me........I am 66, a widow and in reasonably good nick.

I always had stomach problems, as far back as I can remember, with stomach ulcers at 17, IBS and GERD. The ulcers healed but I was still stuck with IBS And GERD. My GP prescribed Protein Pump Inhibitors to cut down the stomach acid which helped with the GERD for a while but I still struggled with IBS. Eventually the PPIs lost their effectiveness and the GERD returned with a vengeance.

This was whilst I was looking after my terminally ill husband so I just put it down to stress. Then the fibromyalgia started. Fun. :rotfl:

My husband died and I decided it was time to start caring for myself and began to address my own health issues. By this time I also had adrenal fatigue and my thyroid was playing up. Yes I was a wreck......

I had already began to realise that many of my problems could in fact be diet related because I noticed that wheat seemed to bother me. I tried to go gluten free but it did not have the desired effect.

Eventually I saw a nutritionist. I followed the advice to the letter and I am pleased to say I am now much healthier. I no longer need any medication and I am largely symptom free apart from the fibro which is steadily improving.

I now avoid all grains, including rice and whilst true paleo means no dairy I do have some because I think it helps keep up my calcium levels. I tend to try and stick to lacto free dairy whenever possible.
I also avoid starchy carbs such as white potatoes. I am supposed to avoid all nightshade plants but I find I can tolerate them in moderation.

Luckily I am not coeliac so I can indulge in the odd grain based meal now and again without disastrous results. However I soon know if I have overdone it, my body tells me in no uncertain terms.

I appreciate that a paleo way of eating does cost more. Wheat is cheap and when it becomes the basis of most of your meals, ie breakfast cereals, bread, pasta etc then you can live very cheaply indeed. Meat and fish (I see you do not eat fish) do cost more than cereal based foods.

I will sign off now, I am currently in a hotel, just about to check out. I will be travelling home later and will be happy to talk more on the subject.

I was forced to have a wheat day yesterday so this morning I do have a headache. I do find that food on the go, restaurants and cafes are often very wheat based so eating out can be a problem at times.

But eating paleo at home is easy and with a bit of planning can be done on a budget, not as cheap as pasta and pizza of course, but definitely doable. I am sure you can get under £7 a day (not counting supplements).

We can talk later.......

spadoosh

Buy yourself this book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Free-Collins-Richard-Mabey/dp/0007183038

Youll be hard pushed to find a better source to source free paleo foods.

If youre time rich and money poor theres many ways you can save money / improve food quality from simple things like churning your own butter (you cant beat on taste freshly churned butter and i can drink the buttermilk until the cows come home. although not paleo) to a full on potagers garden. Allotments. Things like kale can add up and are so easily grown particularly perennial varieties. Same with fruits, apples and pears grow very easily in this country. I rifle through brambles once a year and it saves me £50 a year in blackberries assuming i would buy a pack a week (reality its probably less, a handful goes on some porridge once a week but to do the same id be wasting more food and spending more or just not eating as many blackberries).

elantan

lessonlearned wrote: »

Hi Elantan. I would be more than happy to chat paleo with you, either here or PM whichever you prefer.

A little about me........I am 66, a widow and in reasonably good nick.

I always had stomach problems, as far back as I can remember, with stomach ulcers at 17, IBS and GERD. The ulcers healed but I was still stuck with IBS And GERD. My GP prescribed Protein Pump Inhibitors to cut down the stomach acid which helped with the GERD for a while but I still struggled with IBS. Eventually the PPIs lost their effectiveness and the GERD returned with a vengeance.

This was whilst I was looking after my terminally ill husband so I just put it down to stress. Then the fibromyalgia started. Fun. :rotfl:

My husband died and I decided it was time to start caring for myself and began to address my own health issues. By this time I also had adrenal fatigue and my thyroid was playing up. Yes I was a wreck......

I had already began to realise that many of my problems could in fact be diet related because I noticed that wheat seemed to bother me. I tried to go gluten free but it did not have the desired effect.

Eventually I saw a nutritionist. I followed the advice to the letter and I am pleased to say I am now much healthier. I no longer need any medication and I am largely symptom free apart from the fibro which is steadily improving.

I now avoid all grains, including rice and whilst true paleo means no dairy I do have some because I think it helps keep up my calcium levels. I tend to try and stick to lacto free dairy whenever possible.
I also avoid starchy carbs such as white potatoes. I am supposed to avoid all nightshade plants but I find I can tolerate them in moderation.

Luckily I am not coeliac so I can indulge in the odd grain based meal now and again without disastrous results. However I soon know if I have overdone it, my body tells me in no uncertain terms.

I appreciate that a paleo way of eating does cost more. Wheat is cheap and when it becomes the basis of most of your meals, ie breakfast cereals, bread, pasta etc then you can live very cheaply indeed. Meat and fish (I see you do not eat fish) do cost more than cereal based foods.

I will sign off now, I am currently in a hotel, just about to check out. I will be travelling home later and will be happy to talk more on the subject.

I was forced to have a wheat day yesterday so this morning I do have a headache. I do find that food on the go, restaurants and cafes are often very wheat based so eating out can be a problem at times.

But eating paleo at home is easy and with a bit of planning can be done on a budget, not as cheap as pasta and pizza of course, but definitely doable. I am sure you can get under £7 a day (not counting supplements).

We can talk later.......

It would be absolutely fantastic to chat, you appear to have a full wealth of combining health and food choices, something I am trying to get to grip with. I am finding its trying to get to the whole grass fed etc bit that I think will cost alot of money,

Although trying to be as Paleo as I can be I happen to have a husband that thinks bread is Paleo even though I have explained so many times it isnt.

My sister has recently been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and I tentatively suggested she look at nutrition last time we chatted, I hope she takes it on board but we will see.

elantan

spadoosh wrote: »

Buy yourself this book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Free-Collins-Richard-Mabey/dp/0007183038

Youll be hard pushed to find a better source to source free paleo foods.

If youre time rich and money poor theres many ways you can save money / improve food quality from simple things like churning your own butter (you cant beat on taste freshly churned butter and i can drink the buttermilk until the cows come home. although not paleo) to a full on potagers garden. Allotments. Things like kale can add up and are so easily grown particularly perennial varieties. Same with fruits, apples and pears grow very easily in this country. I rifle through brambles once a year and it saves me £50 a year in blackberries assuming i would buy a pack a week (reality its probably less, a handful goes on some porridge once a week but to do the same id be wasting more food and spending more or just not eating as many blackberries).

Sadly I am more the opposite, I am time poor and cash not so great but DO understand that £7 a day per person is for others a huge amount, I previously did grow my own vegetables and would love to get back into it all again, I will need to set up a watering system for this to happen though as we go away as often as we can and last years vegetables died from lack of watering.

I love growing things as well, I am not saying I am great at it but it does give me a great sense of satisfaction when I eat something I have personally grown.

Maybe this is something I need to re look at. thank you for the idea.

elantan

Ok today I have been cooking again, I am working a 12.5 hour day tomorrow and 10 hours the rest of the week so cooking wont be on my high priority list of things to do.

Things made today

1kg mince =£10
400g carrots =24p
3 onions=50p
Oxo cubes=40p
bisto=11p

total=£11.25
80p per portion

now this was the mince ... still have to work out the vegetables and the soup,

one thing I did discover was I have a big issue with portion control, how can I fix this? I'm thinking 125g of mince is a good portion, ( how much mince do we work out per person?) however, when I looked at that I noticed that wouldnt fill me even slightly so I measured out how much we would have as a portion. 300g was the answer so more than double.

This came about after yesterday when I noted the meal that should have been for 6 we made to do 4 meals, however, if I were to be totally truthful I will say realistically it was 2 portions, but we stretched it into 4.

so anyway the mince came to 1.8kg and I managed to portion it up into 14 portions, to me that is far too small but I am trying to get on top of this so it is an experiment kinda thing just now. it works out at 80p a portion .

Then I made

200g carrots =12p
100g turnip= 10p
200g cabbage=13p
butter 100g =80p
salt=15p
pepper=10p

total =£1.40
price per portion 70p

I divided this between two portions one for Mr El and one for myself for tomorrows dinner.

so dinner tomorrow is £1.50 but I reckon we are gonna be hungry tbh

p.s Lesson learned ... do you know of any Paloe bisto and oxo alternatives? I have never managed to source any

elantan

Soup

400g carrots= 24p
1 swede= 50p
3 onions =50p
garlic =15p
red lentils =21.5p
salt-10p
pepper=10p
stock cube =45p

total = £2.255
per portion =56p

now I measured out my flask, It holds 500ml and when I measured the soup it was 2ltrs so I will get 4 portions from my soup