Spring is almost here, you may be planning for a spring break trip and want to be beach ready, or maybe you are just interested in cleaning up your eating habits. Whatever the reason, you probably have stumbled onto the Whole30 food craze and now you are motivated to try it.
In principle, the change should be easy, there are only a few rules: No dairy, grains, legumes, soy, alcohol, and definitely NO SUGAR. Ok, maybe not so easy…
There are tons of recipes online, and a thousand and one articles about how to succeed in this 30 day challenge. However, no one mentions the cost! Unless you are a wiz in the kitchen and can spiral-ize your own noodles out of a carrot, you will probably have to resort to store bought varieties and they do NOT come cheap.
Here are my tips for keeping the costs reasonable:
- Buy in Bulk- You may be afraid of produce going bad before you get to it, but if it’s all you’ll be eating for a month, you will likely eat more of it faster than you realize. Eggs are allowed during Whole30, as are potatoes, which last quite awhile (and can be bought in bulk) and those will be STAPLES of your Whole30.
- Spices are your Friend- While making each of those million recipes SOUNDS like a great idea (most of them sound delicious!) you are NOT going to want to make a different entree for each and every meal each and every day. Not only would that drive your costs way up, but you will not feel like it! Keep some easy recipes on hand and add different spices to keep yourself from getting bored.
- Do Not Buy Prepackaged Fruits and Veggies- you can buy a pint of cut cantaloupe for $4.99 or you can buy a whole cantaloupe for $2.99 and get way more fruit out of it. Same with lettuce or broccoli. A bag of salad lettuce is usually around $2.59, and it goes bad in like two days. A head of lettuce is $0.99 and because you just rip off what you want, it lasts much longer!
- Potatoes- Potatoes are so cheap. And you can make so many things with them. So many delicious, easy, and yummy things. I love me some tatoes.
- Rewards Programs- most grocery stores have their own rewards cards, some of those stores allow you to get coupon deals (without cutting coupons!) just for having this magical card. Not only can those save you some money, but those same cards filled with sorcery can also have other perks like saving money at certain gas stations.
There you have it! Good luck with your Whole30 Challenge, you may need luck to keep away from the sweets, but now you will not need it to stick to your budget while you do!
Have you tried the Whole30 diet? Let us know in the comments below!
Until next time, wishing you all sugar and savings,
Taylor