It is often said that good food is expensive, while unhealthy food is cheap. Today, I’m going to show you how you can eat healthy, eat paleo, for $150 a month, about $5 a day. It’s not as cheap as KD (which would come to about $70/month with milk and butter) or ramen (of which you could eat 4 a day for <$30/month), but it’s much healthier and far more satisfying.
It is also said eating healthy takes too long too prepare. That is also incorrect, I spend about 15 minutes a day preparing food, and most of that is spent surfing the net.
This will require some small upfront investment, specifically a Costco card. It’s $55/year in Canada; it’s probably less in the US, not a big deal and it will save you a lot of money in the end. This will also require a decent kitchen knife, get one if you don’t have one. (Believe me, cutting some of this meat without a decent knife is a, literally, painful experience).
Cost: $5/month.
Drink
Cost: negligible.
In fact, if you drink just one 2L of pop every two days, I just saved you about $30/month for a single $10 investment.
Dinner
Go to Costco, to the meat section.
Find the ; it’ll be about $20-25 for about 10lbs. This works out to about 15-20 portions of just over a half pound each. That’s about $1.50 per meal.
Cost: $0 ($20-30/month, if you must).
Prep Time: None (5-20 min/per day depending on how you prep the eggs).
Snacks
For snacks, bananas, apples, and other fruits are a few bucks for a large bushel, a large box of berries is usually only a few bucks (prices vary, so always check which are currently cheap), bags of dark chocolate squares are <$10, a 12-pack of Greek Yogurt is about $12, and large bags of almonds are $15. Mix and match as you like; the non-perishables in Costco size will usually be good for a couple of months.
Cost: Variable, $10-30.
Prep time: Negligible.
If you add breakfast it’s about $145-155. About $5 a day.
When you add snacks and condiments, it’s about $140-$175. About $5-6 a day.
If you add both it is about $150-$200/month. About $5-7 a day.
That’s cheaper than a single Big Mac Meal. In fact, you can eat healthy for a whole day for the price of a Starbuck’s coffee.
Total prep time is about 2 hours a month and 20 minutes a day.
You really can eat healthy, real food for relatively low cost with little time investment.
Saving More
If $5 a day is too rich for your blood, you can save even more by:
You could probably eat paleo for under $100/month if you tried. That’s just over $3 per day.
I have done this once or twice when facing self-imposed financial restrictions; sometimes you just need ammo more than food.
Now, this is my base. I generally buy more than this. I like BBQ ribs in the summer and both yogurt and jerky as a snack. I also keep a supply of Coke and some chips for when friends come over; the occasional family BBQ can also get expensive. The berries usually tempt me, so I almost always buy more than I eat.
But all that is luxury I choose because I can afford it.
Just because you can eat cheap, does not mean you have to; you can always buy better cuts of meat or organic food or extra snacks, or whatever.
But just because you are on a limited budget does not mean you can’t eat healthy (unless it is exceedingly limited). Also, saving money for better things than food is nice.
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