Day 3 - The challenge begins

Today was Day 3 of my first Whole30.

I've already started a tentative shopping list for next weekend and it includes some things that fell off my list last weekend because of prices.  For instance, dill was 3.47 or something for a small jar at Walmart.  At Natural Abundance, the local food coop, dill is sold in bulk for 1.47/oz.  I'm definitely going there for my spices.

Natural Abundance also has Coconut Secret coconut aminos, so I'll be having trouble talking myself out of blowing my whole budget or shopping early for those.

The hardest part right now is not blowing the budget and buying all the things I just found now instead of later.  I tentatively priced everything, but didn't write it down, so I'll have to go back and write down prices so I can plan accordingly, yes, I'm leaving my wallet home when I do that.

The good budget news is that I shouldn't have to buy meat next week, so I have a little bit of wiggle room for pantry items that will last more than 1 week.  I think my produce will be about $10 and I'll need a new bottle of olive oil.

I did blow the budget a little and spent some discretionary money on an immersion blender to make mayonnaise.  It's going to be a good investment, but I could have lived without it.  Homemade mayo is delicious.

Countdown to Saturday shopping: 3 days.

Day 1 - Planning, Shoppping and Meal Prep

I know, the program as written encourages a couple days of planning, but I do my implementation before I've burned all my energy for a project. Therefore, Day 1 is planning, shopping and meal prep for the week.

Before shopping the list looked like this:

• canned sweet potatoes
• almond flour
• fresh parsley
• scallions
• dried dill
• whole chicken
• cabbage coleslaw
• sesame oil
• 2 doz eggs
• frozen vegetables


After shopping:

• Eggs 18ct x 2 @ 1.76ea   
• These were 20 cents more than the 12ct packages, so I bought a little more.  I'll either eat more eggs this week or have a dozen or so to carry over to next week.
• 3 lbs sweet potatoes for $2.94,
•  all the canned sweet potatoes were in syrup and a no go.
• Red Cabbage 1.8lb for 1.51
• cheaper than the preshredded coleslaw for a larger amount and I like cabbage.
• 1 bag frozen chopped spinach @ 1.44
• 1 bag frozen green beans @ 0.98
• 1 bag frozen kale @ 1.44
• 1 bag frozen carrots @ 0.98
• looking back buying whole carrots and cooking them would have been cheaper at 1 lb for 0.76
• light olive oil @ 3.92
• sesame oil was double that, this will work
• whole chicken 5 lb @ 1.07 lb
• I'm going to make bone broth this week and store it for soups in future weeks.  Otherwise the whole chicken isn't a good bang for your buck.  

Why the differences?  Well, sesame oil turned out to be $8 a bottle at the cheapest I could find it.  Dill was $4 for a teeny bottle and I don't use it that often, it was just for one recipe.  Since I didn't get the dill, the recipe I was using it for was out and I no longer needed almond flour or parsley.  The scallions would have been nice, but I didn't see them at Walmart and I was close enough to my budget that a bundle would have put me over.  

This week's grand total:  $24.79

I also inventoried my pantry and fridge/freezer to find out what I already had.  This influenced my shopping.

In the freezer:

• 2.5 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast
• A large but unknown quantity of pork roast
• 1/2 lb hamburger divided into 2 single servings
• a bag of green beans that is 1/3 full

In the fridge:

• fermented green beans 1 qt
• fermented carrots 1/2 quart
• compliant hot sauce

In the pantry:

• tomato sauce 
• canned pumpkin
• 2 cans wild caught salmon
• cacao powder (It is 100% cocoa)
• sesame seeds
• coconut oil
• spices that I haven't inventoried yet.
• tea

The meat especially puts me on track to make it through the month, the pork roasts are huge and while I'm not a fan of pork, I won't have to buy as much meat as I thought for at least a couple of weeks.  This week I used the extra to buy a whole chicken for bone broth.  Next week, I might invest in some dill and almond flour for the salmon cakes printed in It Starts With Food.

What I plan on eating this week is Chicken Chili Verde using a recipe from my childhood, substituting sweet potato for the beans and Egg Roll in a bowl.  I still need to plan a 3rd meal with what I have on hand, because I don't really want scrambled eggs in the morning.  I might actually eat the chili in the morning and save the eggs for the evenings.  

And that's what week one on $25 a week looks like.

Beginning in 2017...

I've been eyeballing the Whole30 diet for a couple years now, but I've always been intimidated by it. I'm used to eating Taco Bell for one or two meals a day and skipping meals like breakfast entirely. In the last three years, I've gained 50 pounds and have generally felt less well than I have in years past. I have a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia in addition to the depression and anxiety that have hounded me for my entire life. My Whole30 goals: To eat within my budget which is $25 a week. To hopefully reduce some of the fibromyalgia symptoms To reduce the blood sugar spikes and crashes that make my anxiety worse. The reason I'm working on $25 a week is that my boyfriend has been buying all my meals and I really haven't had to budget for food, so I haven't budgeted for food, you see where this is going. My intent here is to post tips on how to do a Whole30 program on $25 a week. I probably won't post original recipes, but I may share links to onse that I've tried. What I will do is post before and after shopping lists and what I paid for items. I'll also post what I ended the week with so I hopefully come to a medium where my prepared food is gone, but maybe I have a little frozen food left. The idea behind this is to use what I have first or justify buying more. For instance, I'm starting this week with 2.5lbs of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but I wanted to make bone broth, so I did get a whole chicken for my first week. Challenges as I see them are getting enough protein without losing my vegetables. Another challenge will be finding what I need for the price I need it at. Here's to a healthier January.