Need help with designing "keto on a budget" experiment

(Becky Stratton Cooper) #21

I am not an organ meat eater and we currently feed it to all our animals so as to cost down on feed costs.

(Becky Stratton Cooper) #22

We are not close enough to get crab, but we can get boat loads of salmon for free/cost of a license.

(Meeping up the Science!) #23

That is great too, though! Just make sure to get fat when it’s lean at least :slight_smile:

Beautiful country and good hunting, too.

(I want abs... olutely all the bacon) #24

This is fascinating @Fiorella and an interest for me. If you need a guinea pig to support your experiment I’m in. I don’t have anything to add at this point, but will read through this a few more times.

#25

Awesome! I will definitely reach out and share the test plan. :smiley:

(Sondra Rose) #26

@Fiorella, sounds like a great idea!

$13.53 seems really high to me for 75 g of protein, which is what I eat. 5’6", 125 pounds.

It may be that my foods costs are lower because I eat mostly zero carb and am lightly active in my 50s, so I have lower caloric needs.

For example, 3 organic burger patties from Costco covers my protein for $4. Add some cheese, bacon grease for cooking, heavy cream in my tea and a bit of dark chocolate = approx $6/day. I rarely go over $7 per day, even if I eat steak and eggs.

#27

The idea is to compete against a more global standard. For example, if an American who lives in a rural community without Cosco, or someone on this forum who lives in Asia or Africa, the test will not mean much. Depending on your geography, city-dweller versus rural, advanced versus developed nation, the circumstances are different. This is where the “Big Mac index” global economic comes to play. If someone eats eggs from backyard chickens, they virtually pay zero dollars per gram of protein. How is that going to teach us the value of a keto meal?

Another thing is I don’t want to eat the same thing everyday. Because many people will look at that and come to the conclusion of “pffft! Gross…I cannot eat the same thing every day for the rest of my life!” So, it has to be an eating plan that has variety in it. It would also be unfair for it to be 100% ZC…as this would eliminate a huge portion of the ketogenic community. There are people who cannot eat cheese, or people who will not eat pork for religious reasons, or others who only eat fish/seafood for animal protein. I want this to be more inclusive, and make people look at the results and see how it relates to them. Buying ground meat patties and cheese at Cosco is a no brainier cheaper than Big Mac…but, no one will take those obvious results seriously.

Besides, I’m going to see how low I can go, anyway. I will be measuring the gap between my food cost and the Big Mac index.

There is so much talk out there about how fast food and convenience packaged foods are so cheap and easy…well…we will see about that with this experiment.

(matt ) #28

I love everything about this post!

(Barb) #29

Hi there - I’m going to go through the rest of your thread in detail but I’m confused about something (as well as being intrigued and excited about your experiment!) why not use fat as the basis for price index… Or protein and fat?

(Dustin Cade) #30

What I would like to see an app that would allow input in for the stores in a persons area, the staple food items you buy on a normal basis, have them run current/ sale prices of those items… butter, Bacon, eggs, cheese, meats and such… I figure a way to allow for a more budget friendly is not factor in the grass fed, free range, cage free, organic items as they may be beneficial though may be not only intimidating but cost prohibitive to beginners… not just the cost of starting keto but the change in mind set, the time demands of either cooking every night or prepping enough to cover the week… add in children, multiple jobs, no help at home (single parent) lots of factors when selling the idea that keto is the way to go…

#31

Protein is the one macro that is most critical. So using it as a basis to compare cost of eating will be the easiest thing to do. The idea is not to get stuck in analysis paralysis…but just a simple metric as a comparator

(Alex Dipego) #32

Very curious about this. I eat $5 a day but that’s a ZC woe and it does restrict me to certain protein so hoping to see if variety exists.

#33

Yeah, this is why I want to do the test. We will see how difficult it is to prepare cost effective keto meals. It will test a lot of myths, like “it’s too expensive” or “it’s too difficult to prepare” or “it’s not yummy”…we shall see…

#34

Yeah, I’d like to consider other woe, too. Like pescatarians, carnivores, lactose intolerants, etc. I may do one meal of vegan. I will not do frutarian. …it is too restrictive from a protein perspective.

#35

Great i really like it
I have this amazing book that i use to customize my keto experiments (mostly because of budget hehhehe)

keto forum
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(mykittashi) #36

I just came across this thread and wondering if you did the experiment and posted the results under a different heading? Budget is becoming a much bigger issue for me, so this got my attention. Thanks in advance!

(Dani) #37

bump

(Diane) #38

I use the Flipp.com website or the Flipp app. You put in your zipecode, enter a search term (avocado, egg, butter, cream cheese, ground beef), and it brings up all the ads in your area with current sale prices. You can comparison shop really quickly for your staples. If you use the app, it will tell you when the prices expire. I found a couple of stores in my area with great prices I wasn’t aware of before! I find I can save lots of money by buying more of things when they are an especially good deal.