Low Carb On A Budget?

[DCUKMod]

Bones in supermarket this week about £2the butcher either gives them or charges pence for the more expensive lamb ones
Carol

Lamb bones are more expensive? They're by far my least favourite ones!

If I'm in there doing my weekly top up and Sunday roast shop, our bones are free. I can't think I've ever just bought bones at the butcher.

 

[carty]

Lamb is quite expensive at the moment but I have never been charged for bones by my butcher I find that as a regular customer even not spending much each week I get a good deal and excellent quality meat
Carol

 

[Hotpepper20000]

I find that sometimes there is a tendency to make things more complicated then needed.
Fatty Protein with above ground veggies. Done!!
No need for expensive flours and such.
Throw in some eggs a bit of cheese and that’s all LCHF is.

 

[lucylocket61]

I find that sometimes there is a tendency to make things more complicated then needed.
Fatty Protein with above ground veggies. Done!!
No need for expensive flours and such.
Throw in some eggs a bit of cheese and that’s all LCHF is.

sounds like my diet : )

 

[lovinglife]

@LornaFarrell Have a look at this thread it's an old one but has some good ideas, I did a virtual shop on Tesco for one person, £25 for 1 week just to see if it could be done, as I say it's an old thread so prices may be slightly different but it g- it's post number 15 or 16 in the thread

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/low-carb-on-a-tight-budget.98749/#post-1116149

 

[xfieldok]

I bought a load of different flours and stuff, cost quite a bit and hardly used any of them. My eating habits since going low carb are hugely different from before. I rarely snack. If peckish I have 30g peanuts.

 

[xfieldok]

I bought a load of different flours and stuff, cost quite a bit and hardly used any of them. My eating habits since going low carb are hugely different from before. I rarely snack. If peckish I have 30g peanuts.

 

[LooperCat]

It’s pretty expensive to do LC when you don’t eat meat or poultry though. I get fish reduced whenever I can but find myself having to substitute with vegan protein powder which is horrifically expensive (I can’t have cows dairy either, so the cheaper whey protein powders are out).

 

[Robbity]

[QUOTE="lucylocket61, post: 1849229, member:

you can use the chicken bones for broth stock so very little is wasted.[/QUOTE]
Yes I do use them too and not a bit is wasted - any scraps on the bones after cooking go to my two dogs and they get to lick the pan too - they reckon they're on to A Very Good Thing when they seen me ladling out the stock!

Robbity

 

[ringi]

I keep boxes of bones in the freezer that I keep adding to, then make a large batch of stock when I have filled up the freezer.

 

[ghost_whistler]

depends how much you eat. If you're eating one meal a day you can get away with less food. I tend to eat at least 600-700g meat a day.Anything less is not sufficient to satiate.

That's a lot of meat, and it comes to about £20 at least.

 

[bulkbiker]

depends how much you eat. If you're eating one meal a day you can get away with less food. I tend to eat at least 600-700g meat a day.Anything less is not sufficient to satiate.

That's a lot of meat, and it comes to about £20 at least.

Do you add any fat to that or just eat meat on its own?

 

[lucylocket61]

depends how much you eat. If you're eating one meal a day you can get away with less food. I tend to eat at least 600-700g meat a day.Anything less is not sufficient to satiate.

That's a lot of meat, and it comes to about £20 at least.

300g of chicken breast, from waitrose, is £4.80 each, so around £10 for 600g. 800g of lean steak mince is £10, even the top of the range rib eye steaks are only £21 per whole kilo. I cant work out where your £20 a day on protein comes into it.

 

[lucylocket61]

and half a dozen organic free range eggs is only 41p each. I can get a long way with eggs to keep my protein needs sorted.

 

[ickihun]

I find that sometimes there is a tendency to make things more complicated then needed.
Fatty Protein with above ground veggies. Done!!
No need for expensive flours and such.
Throw in some eggs a bit of cheese and that’s all LCHF is.

Totally agree.... until I get bored. Shame but true.
Then the trouble starts. Boredom.
In the past I've had to stay away from boring diet sheets. They bore me to tears.
Variety is what any nutritionist would advise. There is plenty of foods to choose from, even without carbs thou.

 

[ickihun]

I've given up trying to make low carb economical in our family of 4 where young kids aren't allowed a low carb diet.
It is what it is. It's about nutrition but in a low carb fashion mainly but not always.
Its not a low nutrition diet. Well shouldn't be otherwise all sorts become deficient.

Cost depends on availability. Always has been.
I know some of the new low fat cheeses are more expensive than high fat ones. Lidl in our area is slowly putting their prices up. On most things.
Morrisons own protein bread has jumped up twice in few months and is now no longer low carb per slice. I've stopped buying it and use ham slices as bread slice alternatives. Double the price of cheap white bread slices thou.

You have to be creative to make it a varied diet; economically.
Hats off to those who CAN do that. But that's not me. I've never been a baker nor cook. A basic meal and I'm your woman. Anything fancy, nope I'm quite old fashioned tom boyish. Slap it on. Presentation is to someone who has the time, too.
Pre mothering I paid for the fancy food in restaurants and hotels, still didn't make it.

I think my downfall is I put all of my households needs as important as my diet. I no longer have the childfree resources to cover a single person need.
That's life!

This however doesn't put me off trying to achieve the perfect low carb diet.

Eggs in any country is one of the cheapest protein. In times of little money I relied on eggs, frozen veg and cooking nuts.

 

[Moggely]

I actually did find lc a bit expensive but then again i do buy the best and since it's just my husband and myself it's really not a bother. You can buy cheap cuts of meat and such but I like the organic grass fed beef, free range chicken and organic eggs and we use a lot of eggs. Sometimes I also shop at the end of the day and you get marked down prices always a bonus but there are a lot of comments here with folks doing it quite cheaply.

 

[Mal37]

Agree on the meat and veggies front, but do have some sympathy when it comes to almond flour, coconut flour and seeds and nuts. The latter can be expensive.

I love celeriac, fresh veggies, avocado and spinach, particularly with eggs and canned tuna so there are some good options out there.

I love those too, and live on huge salads in Summer, alternating between Tuna and Mackeral to serve with them. I disagree about the nuts being expensive though ... as they replace sweets and chocolate which ARE often expensive, and I get through loads of nuts

 

[nellylemon]

I am almost vegetarian (chicken only), cannot eat fats as I have uncontrolable lipids, and don’t eat any type of fish. Anybody got any ideas? None of these are through my own making, I just don’t like meat or fish. Pretty difficult to do low carb without getting bored with salads (no dressings allowed due to fat content) or chicken with veggies. HELP!

 

[TriciaWs]

I find it more expensive because:
I don't eat red meat apart from a little bacon/ham occasionally
my other health conditions make it hard for me to cook, I can only stand for a sort time and can't chop veg easily so I have to buy pre-prepared veg (such as onions) and salads
even after my gallbladder was removed I struggle to eat eggs - one a day max.
I end up buying some ready made salads, ready to cook veg and fish - plus occasionally, for a bad week, ready cooked chicken - so even without coconut milk, flour and almond flour that all works out a lot more than my old food list.
So eating low carb can be as cheap, or cheaper, if you have access to decent shops, are a meat eater, can spend time in the kitchen doing extra cooking/clearing up - but that doesn't work for everyone.