Back in April we asked you to submit pictures of what you and your Paleo families buy and eat in a week including food costs. This idea was based on the premise of the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats which looks at the diets and food costs of families around the world. I would like to say that we were ‘blown away’ and received hundreds of responses. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but we did get seven very good contributions. Thank you to all that submitted and here’s a look at ‘What the Paleo World Eats’:
#1 – Brad and his family: Brad, his wife, son and 8 month old daughter
Amount spent for the week: $191.79
Thoughts from Brad: “Putting your food on the table like that really puts it in perspective. That is what is going into my body this week. Crazy!”
#2 – Tarah and her husband
Amount spent for the week: $157.81
Thoughts from Tarah: “This weekly grocery shop is representative of my husband training for a Half Ironman and myself for a half marathon (i.e. – we put down a lot of food right now!)”
#3 – Monique and her daughter (Reston, Virginia)
Amount spent for the week: $115.89
Thoughts from Monique: “We buy 90% of our food at Trader Joe’s, our meat/poultry and eggs come mostly from Polyface. The rest is from Wholefoods, farmers market (when it’s the season) and maybe less than 5% at the regular supermarket.”
#4 – Chip: Just Chip!
Amount spent for the week: Not Specified.
Notes from Chip: Chip took pictures of a few of his meals instead of a weeks worth of groceries. It all looks REALLY good!
#5 – Lena and her family (7 people total)
Amount spent for the week: Not specified.
#6 -Suzanne and her family: Suzanne, her husband and 3 children (Netherlands)
Amount spent for the week: 170.00 Euro
Thoughts from Suzanne: “We really enjoyed taking these pictures.”
#7 – Heather and her family: Heather, her husband, son and baby that is nursing (Orlando, Florida)
Amount spent for the week: $141.74
Once again, A great big Thank You to all of our contributors for sharing with us “What the Paleo World Eats”!
Is anyone else hungry?
Esther says
It’s nice to see what other people are eating via their home photos. 🙂 Nice, thanks for sharing!
Primal toad says
Wow! It all looks so delicious! I think tat if you did this again the response would be much greater. People now see what it’s all about.
Amy Kubal says
That’s a great idea! We may try this again!! 🙂
Ariana says
Yes, I would definitely participate the next time around! I loved seeing what everyone was buying and eating.
Graham says
We’d totally do this! I’d like to see something come of all the money I spend! haha
Kenya says
I want to thank those that contributed! It is inspiring :). I’m thinking I’ll try keeping a food journal of what I buy each week over 2 months and worse what I throw away :/. Maybe it would also be cool to have photo’s of preparing the food together. Kinda show the putting Fun back into Food. Make it a shared activity instead of a chore. Lots of ideas running through my mind thanks to your contributions. Thanks again! ~Kenya
Katie says
Great post! I bookmarked your site so I’ll be back again when I have more time to look around 🙂
Jennifer says
I wish everyone said what they bought. I love ideas! Sometimes we get in a rut of the same things over and over. But these picture will be taken home and studied closer for sure for fun shopping this weekend. 🙂
Amy Kubal says
Some of them did list everything out and provided scans of store receipts – I didn’t include all of this due to space, but I’ve got it all and if we run this again I definitely want people to submit that information. It’s really interesting!
pbo says
Agree, we should do this a few times a year, maybe even once a season. Would be interesting to see if people ate more fruits in the summer, more tubers/squash in the winter.
I will definitely take part if we do it again 🙂
Ann Wendel says
I want Chip’s recipes! YUM! This was a great idea, so please do it again!
Bill says
I would like to know how much the gorilla in Suzanne’s family eats! Would not be cheap to feed a growing gorilla….
Great idea for the post tough, lets try it again.
Rachel says
Wow, Monique and Reston are really giving me an inferiority complex: I get about 95% of my groceries at the “regular supermarket”. Inspirational!
Suzie says
This is the perfect way to advertise Paleo. To the uninformed this lifestyle is often dismissed because they think Paleo is just about eating meat. All those colorful veggies look so yummy. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Kahiba says
It is very interesting seeing the actual food people eat and some of the pictures are inspiring.
If you do this again I would like to join in but it would be hard to supply receipts for a weeks worth of edible groceries as a lot of our food we either work for (fresh produce stall once a month) grow at home(poultry, eggs, citrus, some vegetables), or buy in bulk once or twice a year(meat, fish).
Amanda says
Ooh! I want Monique’s recipes for those skewers and other things (guac? sweet potato chips?)
Orielwen says
I wasn’t looking at this site back in April. But I’d do this if you run it again.
Amy Kubal says
I’m going to run it again! 🙂
Lynn says
Yes, please do this again! I don’t often check in on the web site (sorry) so mention it on the podcast and I’ll contribute. I have wondered for years what my husband & I spend on food though it would be very hard to figure for a given time frame. We buy whole pigs, half steers, I grow a big garden in the summer, bulk goods from buying clubs, etc. Very little from the market. We eat almost nothing with a label; I buy coconut oil in gallons and transfer to small jars, our dairy comes raw and unlabeled, meat is butcher paper wrapped, I do a lot of fermenting…. I’d like to figure our yearly food cost, I’ll bet buying like we do is much less than the average couple eating a SAD diet of “cheap” food. And, way to go Chip – what colorful meals!!!
Monique DiCarlo says
Yes, guac sweet potato chips! Got the chips recipe here: http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2012/04/cinnamon-spiced-sweet-potato-and-carrot-chips/# and guac is easy with avocado, chopped tomato, onion, and fresh garlic, bit salt & pepper, fresh cilantro and lime juice. Skewers were just left over different meat pieces…
GiGi Eats Celebrities says
I love seeing this! I love seeing all the variety that PALEO has to offer! People think that it’s super restrictive but LOOK at all this food!! If you ever want to do another one of these blog posts, let me know and I will definitely supply you a photo of my grocery cart! 🙂 Spaghetti Squash, Salmon, Spinach… Oh yes, that sounds like my cart!
Karen says
Love this, now I am hungry.
It’s a great link to show those that are interested how easy and delicious it really is. thanks. 🙂
Amy says
I would definitely like to see more of what people spend and on what. That’s one of our seemingly perpetual arguments: how much to budget for groceries per week. I think my husband has an unrealistic expectation and he thinks I’m too much of a spender when it comes to food. I told him that since we don’t buy a lot of convince foods (boxed, prepared, processed), the cost is more expensive—but not too terribly so).
Christa Crawford Valency says
Wow- I find it very difficult to get through a week without spending more than $200.00 (for me and my husband). Do you know if these people buying organic/grass-fed/local foods? I usually shop at the farmers’ market, Trader Joes, and Sprouts, and our food costs much more than this. I wonder what I’m doing wrong!
Linda says
Loved this post! Posted it on fb so others could see what it actually looks like instead of just hearing about Paleo and thinking they will be so deprived. Awesome.
Niki says
Can’t wait to see and participate in the next one. I am just astonished at how little some of the grocery costs are. I am feeding a family of 6 and my groceries are upward of almost $400 per week. We have only begun our Paleo lifestyle 8 weeks ago and I’d like to think that it is high because of summer and the kids being home, however – I will be packing their lunch so not too much should change. The organic and grass fed meats are very expensive. Does anyone have a good online source? We just met with a landscape designer to change all of our backyard trees and plants into those that will produce for the family – “edible landscape”.
gina desoto says
I’m new to this as well. I only have $100 a wk. for grocery budget which includes toiletries, all other household items. It’d be nice to see meals on a budget. Would love to have “NAMES” for Chip’s meals – looked scrumptious and I’d look them up if I knew what to look for! Thanks!
eddie says
I eat 100% organic and paleo….costs 600-800 a month… ridiculas but what can you do
Jessica says
Great article, loved seeing some different shopping results for different families. There’s so much you could make for $100 ish a week at the top. And hopefully they will be batch cooking like I do. Using up alllll the food I buy is essential to save money.
lisa says
I am feeding a family of 6 and my groceries are upward of almost $400 per week. We have only begun our Paleo lifestyle 8 weeks ago and I’d like to think that it is high because of summer and the kids being home, however – I will be packing their lunch so not too much should change. The organic and grass fed meats are very expensive. Does anyone have a good online source? We just met with a landscape designer to change all of our backyard trees and plants into those that will produce for the family – “edible landscape”
Squatchy says
You might want to check what you might have available locally http://www.eatwild.com/products/index.html