Affording a ZC diet

[Midnight]

I've been lurking here for months. Ever since I had a debate with a friend about whether or not humans can live on a diet of meat only or needed vegetables I have been interested in zero carb diets. I reasoned if people didn't cook meat and ate some organs, tendons, marrow etc then humans could probably live off meat alone. After looking around online for answers I wound up on this website and became fascinated with the idea of a raw meat. Diet. I tried eating raw meat several times and it wasn't that big of a problem. Pork and the bone marrow I got from splitting lamb ribs was pretty tasty though I had to add pepper and salt to ground beef though. I've since gone back to the standard american junk diet because all meat diets were simply to costly.
          I'm a security guard in Columbus Ohio who is trying to afford going to school, paying off car payments, rent etc while getting paid jack crap. The meat I can afford is very low quality factory raised meat that tastes like garbage. The free ranged meats though are very expensive. I only have a budget of about $60-100 a month on food. How do you people afford a zero carb raw meat diet?

[RawZi]

... The free ranged meats though are very expensive. I only have a budget of about $60-100 a month on food. How do you people afford a zero carb raw meat diet?

    I know some people here who go to the butcher every morning and ask for the scraps of fat that they would otherwise throw away every morning after the day's butchering.  Some of them get it for free.  The store would have thrown it literally in the garbage at about ten A.M.  It is high in caloric value/energy and filling/satiating.  There's not much more protein many people need from there.  

    For meat, I personally usually get tough cuts like shoulder.  It's less expensive than other cuts, yet still from the same grass grazed animals.  I don't do zero carb though.

    For water, get a filter and reuse a bottle.  It's cheaper than storebought bottled water, and healthier than plain tap.

    Organs like heart are often inexpensive too.

[PaleoPhil]

For info on someone living on a plant-free diet, read Lex Rooker's journal.

In addition to seeking free or very cheap stuff from butchers you can fish and hunt. You could also supplement with Paleo plant foods until you can afford a raw animal food diet.

[goodsamaritan]

         I'm a security guard in Columbus Ohio who is trying to afford going to school, paying off car payments, rent etc while getting paid jack crap. The meat I can afford is very low quality factory raised meat that tastes like garbage. The free ranged meats though are very expensive. I only have a budget of about $60-100 a month on food. How do you people afford a zero carb raw meat diet?

$100 a month on food?  I live in Manila and the meats here are ultra cheap compared to the USA, but $100 on food is just not enough for me.

Maybe you need to re-prioritize your budget?

Lex says he only spends $300 / month using ground beef.

[TylerDurden]

In the early years of going rawpalaeo, I found a source of grassfed, organic beef liver and could get several kilos of it for free( no one else like the taste you see). Eventually, they insisted that I pay 2 pounds sterling a kilo for the liver but that was still pretty cheap. Organ-meats are  very cheap indeed by comparison to muscle-meats. I also heard of a few RVAFers who've simply quit city life and set up a farm of their own on the cheap(after all, once you buy the animal, all you have to have is enough land and grass for them to graze on, and you're set).

The way I see it, you shouldn't be embarking on this kind of diet unless you're very ill or you want to ward off the effects of old age. So, if neither applies, I would suggest sorting out the other issues first and doing this kind of diet a few years later.

[jessica]

The way I see it, you shouldn't be embarking on this kind of diet unless you're very ill or you want to ward off the effects of old age. So, if neither applies, I would suggest sorting out the other issues first and doing this kind of diet a few years later.

i think it is important to incorporate the most of this diet into your life as is possible without being detrimental to your budget or other aspects of your livily hood.  why wait until you are suffering from degeneration or illness?  i think hooking up with a good butcher or a local farmer, buying in bulk and working with different cuts or meat/organs/soup or "dog" bones that are not as palatable to others is a great idea, maybe finding someone to go in on a huge side of meat or whatever cuts are on sale with and then store a bunch. 
if it is totally beyond your means i think it is still wise to avoid going back to a total junk food diet and focusing on a more clean diet of slow/low cooked meats(cheap cuts) root veggies(even organic ones are inexpensive, try to hook up with community supported agriculture/local health food stores) and minimal fruits.  if you must buying bulk beans/rice/buckwheat and seeds is also really inexpensive(check a local health food store)   still better for you then mcdonalds and cheetos:)  it is always important to take care of yourself and your curiousity towards this diet is probably an indication that it is something your body is needing

[Neone]

Buy your meat direct from farms, it will be the cheapest that way and you will also get to actually be at the farm and check it out to see if you like whats going on there.  Talk to the farmers, ask them a million questions.
You will be able to get organs cheap and easy since generally nobody wants them, and they're superior to muscle meat anyway.
Nobody wants fat so you can hastle people for that, but most grass fed stuff doesnt really have 'excess' fat anyway.

the most cost effective is if you have somewhere you can do your own butcher. I pay $125 for a sheep, and another $50 for the butcher.
The mutton lasts two people about two weeks, so if you could get a mutton for $125 and do your own butcher you could feed yourself for $60 a week there.

[PaleoPhil]

...if it is totally beyond your means i think it is still wise to avoid going back to a total junk food diet...

Exactly! Why eat a total junk food diet just because you can't afford an optimal diet. Instead, eat the best food you can afford and, as was suggested, make food a high priority in your budget. Americans used to spend a much higher percentage of their income on food than they do today. They paid more for higher quality foods 50 and more years ago. Since then we've convinced ourselves that cheaper is better when it comes to food and we try to "economize." I was one of those people who tried to economize on food and used meat as a "flavoring" instead of as a staple. I'm paying the price for it now. I wish I had invested more in food years ago. Don't make the same mistake I did.

[Midnight]

$100 a month on food?  I live in Manila and the meats here are ultra cheap compared to the USA, but $100 on food is just not enough for me.

Maybe you need to re-prioritize your budget?

Lex says he only spends $300 / month using ground beef.

Its not as bad as it sounds. I'm trying to pay off a car ASAP so I cut out fast food. My budget went down to about a $100 a month sans fast food. On weekends I hang out with my friends and they like to cook so I wind up getting free food from them. I've been looking up butchers around columbus and I found a few in my area that I plan on checking out as soon as the roads get plowed. Its funny, when I joked around with my friends about eating raw meats they acted as if you were guaranteed to get sick. About a year ago I went raw meat/egg for about a week to see if I could handle it or if I would get sick. My stomach handled it like a champ. Completely forgot butchers existed lol.

[klowcarb]

I'm zero carb and I eat entirely supermarket beef. I feel fantastic on it. I understand why some pay more for "grassfed" beef, but I don't think it is necessary, IMO.

[PaleoPhil]

And both grain-finished and grass-fed suet are rather cheap in my area. Usually less than a dollar a pound.

[Midnight]

And both grain-finished and grass-fed suet are rather cheap in my area. Usually less than a dollar a pound.

I tried eating suet once from giant eagle. It tasted like flaky wax and was gross. Does grass fed beef really make it taste that much better?

[PaleoPhil]

Well, I'm still not fond of plain suet, but I like raw-melted suet quite a bit and, yes, it is somewhat waxy, but melting it softens it up (unless you cook at high temps, which takes out so much water it gets hard again). If I had been raised on suet I would probably like it as is. It's also cheaper where I am than any butter I've seen.

[djr_81]

If I had been raised on suet I would probably like it as is.

After a couple months supplementing most meals with a bit of suet I've really developed a taste for it myself.
It is very waxy but it has some flavor and the chewing part is what I enjoy. It had been 7 or 8 years since I'd had chewing gum when I began eating raw paleo last August and I welcome the suet as a nice change in texture which I find akin to chewing gum. I also find it satiates my hunger best with no negatives.