Welcome back to my newest obsession: all things Whole 30. As I mentioned in my Clean Slate post, I’m a jump all in, ask questions later kind of gal, so when I’ve committed to something I tend to go a leeeetle bit crazy at the beginning. I’ve been immersed in the Whole 30 world and I’m absolutely fascinated by how creative you can get with ingredients and foods that are actually good for you and taste delicious.
Anyhow – I want to share the entire journey with you from both a healthy lifestyle perspective AND a budgeting perspective. I set a goal to do this entire Whole 30 for under $500 so I’m going to check in each week with a list of our meal plans, what we bought, and what we spent. So here goes nothin’!
Our First Whole 30 Shopping Trip: Stocking Up
Thrive Market
If you’re planning on doing a Whole 30 anytime soon, let me introduce you to your new BFF: Thrive Market. It is an online market place that specializes in healthy, wholesome foods at literally a fraction of the cost. There is an annual membership fee of $59.95 BUT you get the first 30 days for free AND you get 20% off your first three orders! Last time I checked, Whole 30 is 30 days, and three orders from Thrive Market will definitely get you stocked on some essentials at a fraction of what you pay for it at your local grocery store or Whole Foods. It is definitely WORTH IT!
You can check out Thrive Market with this link and get 25% off your first order (and then 20% off two orders after that!)
Here is what we grabbed on our first order!
- Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo – perfect to add both healthy fats AND flavor to oven baked fries, hamburger patties, breakfast hash, and basically errrthang.
- French Vanilla Nutpods – because yes, I HAVE TO HAVE SOMETHING CREAMY IN MY COFFEE. Sue me.
- Vanilla Coconut Collagen Fuel – I’m getting this to add a scoop to my coffee every day instead of sugar for a boost of collagen and flavor.
- Red Boat Fish Sauce – Our plan is to eat a lot of Asian foods during this so my friend Callie told me this is a must have to add great flavor to our Asian dishes.
- Thrive Market Organic Coconut Aminos – I’m told this is the Whole30 version of soy sauce – so again for our Asian dishes.
- 4th & Heart Pink Himalayan Sea Salt + Garlic Grass Fed Ghee – I’m stocking up on this to cook with, put over a baked sweet or white potato, and I’m going to grab the Vanilla version to put in my coffee.
PS: I have Organic Coconut Milk and Organic Apple Cider Vinegar in my cart for my next order!
Aldi:
Thank you GOD for Aldi because their inexpensive produce is going to be essential to staying within our budget!!! Here is what I grabbed there this week as well as the prices!
Red Grapes – $.99/pound – total of $2.14
Limes – 7 @ $.19 each – total of 1.33
Avocados – 6 @ $.49 each – total of 2.94
Cilantro – 2 @ $.38 each – total of $.78
Bananas – $.44/pound – total of $1.42
Tri-Color Peppers – 2 @ $2.99 – total of $5.98
Cucumbers – 5 @ $.39 – total of $1.95
Guacamole – $2.99
Ground Cumin – $1.19
Toasted Sesame Oil – $5.99
Paprika – $1.19
Sweet Potatoes (3 pounds) – $2.79
Organic Apple Cider Vinegar – $1.99
Onion Powder – $1.19
Organic Coconut Oil – $4.49
Organic Chipotle Lime Salsa – $2.29
Organic Double Fire Roasted Salsa – $2.29
Organic Mixed Greens – $2.49
Organic Baby Spinach – $2.49
Large Eggs – 2 Dozen @ $.98 – total of $1.96
Unsweetened Almond Milk – $1.99/half gallon
Belle Vie Sparkling Lime Water – $2.47/12-pack
Trader Joe’s:
Trader Joe’s has a lot of Whole 30 compliant options for very inexpensive -(the coconut milk was the cheapest I could find it!). The raw almonds were also the best price and I used those to make almond butter.
Raw Almonds – $5.99/lb
Blanched Almond Flour – $7.49
Riced Cauliflower – $2.49
Riced Brocolli – $2.29
Nutritional Yeast – $2.99
Organic Full Fat Coconut Milk – $1.69
Garlic & Herb Chicken Sausage – 2 @ $3.99 – total of $7.98
Bell Pepper – 2 @ $.79 – total of $1.58
Sprouts:
I had never been to a Sprouts before and shopped so I just wandered around and threw stuff in my cart that sounded good! Not a great method for grocery shopping… but I did get some good deals!
Strawberries – $5.00 for 3 pounds (weekly special)
Clementines – $2.98 for 2 pounds
Honeycrisp Apples – $.98/pound – total of $2.31
Peeled Garlic – $2.99 for about 30 cloves
Romaine Lettuce – $.99 for one head
Jumbo Black Olives – $1.69
Organic Chicken Stock – $3.89
Tomato Paste – $1.88
GTS Kombucha – $6.38
H-E-B:
Medjool Dates – I bought these from the bulk section of the grocery store – 2 dates for $.56
Applegate Organic Chicken & Apple Sausage – 2 @ $6.99 – total of $13.98
Larabars – 10 for $7.44 (they are $.93/each and were on sale buy 4, get one free)
Pederson Whole30 Bacon – 4 @ $5.99 – total of $23.96
Applegate All Natural Hot Dogs – 2 @ $4.99 – total of $9.88
Kroger:
Tessemae’s Avocado Ranch Dressing: $4.99
More Applegate All Natural Hot Dogs – because they were only $2.99 a package! I bought 3!
Items in bold are things that were not intended for that week’s meal plan!
Okay HI! If you’ve made it this far you deserve a hug and maybe a glass of wine! I decided to cook three main meals each week and just double or triple the recipe so we could eat it all week. Here is what our first “week” (Thursday through Monday) Looked like:
Breakfast:
Egg Casserole with spinach, chicken & apple sausage, and red peppers, topped with salsa, a slice of bacon, and served with a side of fruit.
Lunch:
Taco lettuce wraps with salsa and guacamole, spanish cauliflower rice (tried this with broccoli rice and I do not recommend it)
Dinner:
Cilantro lime chicken/fish (chicken for me, tilapia for Chris) with roasted potatoes, salad, and a half an avocado.
All told, I spent about $254 to stock up on some must haves and cover our first week of recipes. (Full disclosure – I started this post about week before I finished it, back when I was feeling way more optimistic about my budget!). Now that we are two shopping trips in, I do not thing we will be able to do it for less than $500 but I’m still up for the challenge of doing it as inexpensively as possible!
I am pretty well stocked up on meats (we have several packages of compliant sausage and bacon in our freezer) so I think we will live off those for a couple of weeks before buying anything else! My husband also has a freezer full of venison that I’m willing to cook for him (but not eat, no thanks!) so that will help us out as well!
I’ll be back to share more updates and costs as we go along!
I love that you shared this and I'm so proud of you for diving head first into Whole30! As soon as I saw you were doing it, I was excited to see how you would work your budget with the (annoyingly expensive) cost of eating healthy, whole foods. We don't have any of those stores here in Hawaii, Whole Foods is about as good as it gets, but I'm so eager to see how well you guys do!