Yesterday I wrote up my thoughts on finishing my January Whole30. They were fairly mixed, not feeling 100% satisfied with the results but hopeful that I’m on the right track. But I realized today that there was one more benefit that I forgot to mention. Something I hadn’t even thought of until I discovered it by accident.
With it being the first of the month, I paid my credit card bill and took a closer look at my statement. I’ve been using mint.com to track my spending and if you’ve never used it before, I highly recommend it. You can link up your credit card and bank statements to it, categorize each expense and then use it to track your habits.
Well, I found something very interesting.
For the month of December, this was before I started my Whole30, I spent:
- Groceries = $180
- Restaurants = $554
- Coffee Shops = $36
- Total = $770
Now by restaurants, I also mean the quick “fast food” places I buy my lunches at. Places like Protein Bar, Panera, Pret a Manger etc. So it includes both my weekly lunches and the occasional dinner outing with Jake or friends. Coffee shops means Starbucks.
For the month of January, during my Whole30, I spent:
- Groceries = $352
- Restaurants = $140
- Coffee Shops = $4
- Total = $496
As you can see, restaurants and coffee shops went down significantly. Mostly because I started bringing Whole30 approved lunches to work and brewed my own coffee. No more Starbucks lattes. Groceries, obviously went up. Which makes sense. But this month I also started experimenting with higher quality foods. The $352 includes grass-fed beef, organic vegetables, stocking up on paleo staples such as coconut milk and almond flour.
But overall, my total spending went down by close to $300 ($274 to be exact)!And this was all without me even trying to budget. I am in the unique situation where I can spend $350 on groceries, but it wasn’t always that way. Just last summer I found myself out of a job and with a quickly shrinking bank account. So I completely understand that some people might look at my numbers and freak out. But the point is, the number went down.
I found that eating real whole foods, cooking at home and bringing my lunches saved me money. A lot of it. Now, if you’re the type of person who has been buying cheap processed foods and is trying to move to paleo, you might see the number go up. Vegetables and meat will always be more expensive than Rice-A-Roni and cereal. I get it. But if you were like me, that just grabbed something from Starbucks or from the sandwich place down the street, it turns out that the Whole30 has more benefits than just your health.
painfreekitchen
painfreekitchen
painfreekitchen
painfreekitchen
painfreekitchen
painfreekitchen
This was great to see. A lot of our customers tell us they save money eating our grass fed meats but it is awesome to see real numbers from someone. Thanks for sharing!
I already do almost all of my cooking and coffee-making at home. The more paleo I eat, the more money I spend, ALWAYS. I go out to a restaurant (including picking up lunch) less than once a week, regardless of paleo or not. Meat costs more than beans and brown rice, period.
Hey Digamba. You’re absolutely right. Like I mentioned in my post, veggies and meat will always be more expensive than processed foods. That’s just an unfortunate truth. It’s sad that it’s more expensive to buy a gallon of milk than a liter of soda but that’s just the way it is. But it’s then our decision if the extra money is worth it. If it’s not, or if it’s not possible (trust me, I’ve been unemployed), then so be it. Sometimes it’s just about the small changes. I think there are far worse things we can feed our families than beans and brown rice. (Honestly, if you soak the beans, I can’t come up with a good reason not to eat them).
I just noticed that for me, I was eating out a lot before the Whole30, especially at lunches. Grabbing a quick salad at Panera was just so easy. So yeah, I saved money by doing the Whole30. But not everyone will. Good luck with your paleo experiment. Hopefully you will find other benefits even if you’re not saving money. And thanks for stopping by!