• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

can you low-carb on a tight budget?

V

Vikki1981

Member
Messages
19
Location
N.E England
just wondering if you can low carb on a budget, what type of things are you allowed/not allowed, very interested in low carbing as i need to lose some weight, but i am also very confused by it ...sorry for being a bit dense :oops:

Thanks x
 
You definitely CAN lo-carb on a budget. Your freezer is your friend! Buy meat when it is on special
offer and freeze it - defrost when required.

Avoid:

Bread
Pasta
Rice
Starchy veg (Parsnips, carrots, potatoes, etc...)

A basic "store cupboard" list for lo-carbing is:

Butter
Cream
Cheese (Soft/hard/cream, etc...)
Eggs
Green vegetables (and many other, non-starchy vegetables)
Stock cubes (for soups, etc...)
Fish/shellfish
Meat (Chicken, Pork, Beef, Lamb, Game, etc...)
Nuts
Full fat yoghurt (full fat usually means less sugar/carbs)
Mushrooms
Tofu
Strawberries/Blackberries/Raspberries/Blueberries (Berries are low enough in sugar to be allowed on most lo-carb regimes).
GOOD oils (Olive Oil, Coconut oil, Avacado, Mayonaise, etc...)

Even snacking is a treat when you lo-carb:

sliced meat
hard boiled eggs
Nuts (NOT Cashew or Peanuts...)
Sliced peppers w/lo-carb dips (garlic mayo, egg mayoniase, salsa, etc...)
 
Why not peanuts Patch? Recent newspaper article I saw yesterday about peanuts below...

"Plenty of evidence suggests that eating peanuts can protect against diabetes and other metabolic syndromes, notably gallstones. Studies produced by the University of Toronto and published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2008 say the effect may be due to beneficial changes in the numbers of fat cells (lipids) in the blood, plus less cell damage and inflammation...."30g a day recommended.

I have not found peanuts to have any detrimental effect on my blood sugar or weight despite eating more than 30g a day, sometimes. The salted variety is not an issue either, i.e in relation to blood pressure although I may occasionally have unsalted varieties or wash the salt off under a tap. I dont think a few cashew nuts will do any harm either and I find go well with a dish such as chicken and cashew nuts.
 
Peanuts and cashews have more carbs than any other type of nut. Lucky you if you can eat 'em without any adverse effects!
 
Wholesome fresh foods are usually cheaper than their processed derivatives. Your butcher and greengrocer are your friends.
Hana
 
Low carbing can definitely be achieved on a budget. Mainly because you can't eat much carby stuff you used to love before.

Look for vegetable deals. The other week I saw broccoli on offer for 20p each at my local Sainsburys for instance. I brought 5!
 
I suppose it all depends on your actual budget ? According to some I am not a low carber - I reduce carb. Considering what I used to eat a while ago I am low carbing though whatever any books or 'gurus' say. My daily level of carbs varies between 60-80g at the moment.
Not ultra low but low all the same. I use low GI/GL mostly as it takes account of the actual effect that everything has on my Bg levels - the main thing that I need to consider to control my own Bg levels without having to worry too much about how and what I am eating at any one time.

I eat all the things that Patch eats but can include the things he avoids. I eat small portions of White/Brown bread, Rice, root veg and Pasta - not a problem if you count your carbs carefully. I eat all sorts of Nuts too. I'm like Hana - a reduced carber.

My local Butcher and Greengrocer are the place I get 90% of my food from. All healthy and nutritious foods. My budget suits me and has at times been very low. I too take advantage of the offers at the butchers and Greengrocers. Get it when its cheap and plentiful and freeze for use later on.
 
I am a pensioner low carber and after bringing up 4 kids I always used to fill em up with carbs ,but my shopping has had to change I find that buying good quality meat but serving slightly smaller portions and buying seasonal veg from local greengrocers or farmers markets .Also searching for B.O.G.O.F.s and freezing the free one :lol: Cooking double portions and freezing saves fuel costs.If you visit markets at the end of the day you can find bargains you can always cook and freeze veg if you have too much or make veg soup or stock which freezes really well.Hope this helps.
CAROL
 
Thankyou for your replies and advice, more so on the do's & dont's (ty patch) i suppose the peanut/cashew debate will rely solely on my own bg levels, but i have found this infomation very helpful, if theres anymore things low carb(ers) can/ can not eat the suggestions would be much appreciated, again thankyou for your help.

Vikki :D
 
With regard to budget, the thing that pushes it up is buying cold sliced meat, for sure. I bet most people would buy the raw meat and cook it. And indeed, I do for dinners without fail, but for brekkies and lunch when I want meat with whatever, it almost has to be ready bought (zilch or trace carb - you have to watch the packets!) because cooking and freezing costs make it nearly as expensive to buy raw and time is an issue for me. If you take into account fuel and the time for cooking various meats separately, cooling, slicing, freezing, defrosting etc, it doesn't work for me. I have a job to do too! Others will manage and disagree with me, but that's where I find the money can go, since you ask. We are looking into changing our already-quite-large fridge freezer for a huge larder fridge and a slightly bigger separate freezer – that's the most obvious change brought about by my dietary needs and made worse by being 30 miles from shops! You could add the cost of that in too!
DG
 
Patch said:
Peanuts and cashews have more carbs than any other type of nut. Lucky you if you can eat 'em without any adverse effects!
Click to expand...


Patch, I have some salted peanuts here, my wife eats them, too much salt for me :D

But the carbs are listed as 8g per 100g so a 25g portion is 2g not that high surely? And it says low GI on the packet :D

I wouldn't have thought that 2g carbs would affect anyone's bg that much:?:
 
Sid,

you mention peanuts have too much salt for you and occasionally I see people also mention this as a reason not to eat them. Indeed, as we all now know too much salt isn't healthy re BP but aren't unsalted varieties avaialble in the UK? (I'm abroad at present).
If I ever do buy the salted peanuts, (usually a large bag from Poundland lasts ages) then I just rinse a portion in a sieve under the tap & dry with a paper towel. There's usually still some residual salt left but 90% has washed away.


Sid Bonkers said:
Patch said:
Peanuts and cashews have more carbs than any other type of nut. Lucky you if you can eat 'em without any adverse effects!
Click to expand...


Patch, I have some salted peanuts here, my wife eats them, too much salt for me :D

But the carbs are listed as 8g per 100g so a 25g portion is 2g not that high surely? And it says low GI on the packet :D

I wouldn't have thought that 2g carbs would affect anyone's bg that much:?:
Click to expand...
 
I too find it too expensive to go on a low carb diet. I don't know where all this cheap meat is coming from but there's certainly none where I come from. I've found all meat and fish to be too much money when on a low budget, except for tinned fish. As for cheese, 'in the old days' cheese was the proper stuff, a protein food with only a trace of carbo due to the chemical process, but this processed stuff sends my sugar up! There are carbs in it now, and I've read that not only is the actual process of making it, different, but dried powder milk is often used.
 
For cheaper meat, try, chicken wings or thighs and belly pork. All reasonably priced and delicious basis for meals. My local Waitrose[It does have a budget range nowadays :D ] often has offers on beef or lamb mince. Then of course there's liver, which is highly nutritious.
I was going to say that you don't get fillet steak on a budget,but actually I did a couple of weeks ago at a local butcher's.
As someone else wrote. You can save by reducing portions too. We actually don't need much protein.
Next idea is learn to cook like Granny did. A meat loaf can be as tasty as a joint. and buying a bigger joint and using it all week is pretty economical.
If you are not well off it helps if ou are clever. My 92 year old Mum lives well on £6000 a year.
Hana
 
Back
Top