After months of a super-fast lifestyle and breaking every law of ketogenics, I'm tired and broken. I know tons of info on LC and have a full library of books on my shelves to remind me, but I need a buddy or two to help me get back on track.

My bold request: I have a budget of $130 per week to feed a family of 5. We do get a 10% employees discount on Kroger items, which will help some... I'd like someone to help me make a meal plan that may fit into a budget that size. Obviously prices vary by location, but I'd like to at least be in the ball park.

My restrictions: I'd like to stay away from as much processed crap as I can. I'm fine making my own sauces and such. Also, I'd love to hit induction numbers for a few weeks, but at this point anything would be progress.

Thanks for any advice, links, encouraging words, or anything you feel might be helpful! ~Ty

Family of five means children. Diet would largely consist of ground beef, chicken, potatoes, rice, eggs, milk, bananas, orange juice and ice cream, and canned green beans. Once a week get the $6 pizza at Little Caesar's. Each meal should have a meat serving (beef, chicken, eggs) and a starch or fruit serving. The children need whole milk.
Basically you have $130/(five times 21 meals) approximately $1.25 per person per meal. Ain't gonna happen. Can you go on food stamps? Otherwise, beans and rice, which is not low carb.

Poopstick. this is what I've been up against trying to work this out. What about frozen veggies, and value packs of meats? I hate that our world is built on cheap processed junk.

*we're a family of 5: 2 adults, kids: 8, 5, 2.

I agree with your math, but some meals will be much less, like breakfast of eggs and cheese or meat would be a few bucks under budget. Dinner leftovers make good lunches and so on. I think I have a little more breathing room, but not much for sure.

That is food stamp levels, which is $3 per person per day. It's do-able with planning, cooking, and not going out hardly ever. Also not serving others like taking things to a pot luck. I know from doing a "food stamp challenge" once.

Can you shop the markdown days at Kroger? Like the last day for meat, for example, some stores mark down the meat, and then you get your 10% discount.

Medium eggs get you more protein per dollar, if you can find them.

One really cheap alternative for vegetables, and this is weird but ok I'm in Portland: go to a feed store and buy a bag of oats in bulk, then sprout them. You can serve in stir frys, soups and salad. Sprouts are a non starchy veg; it's not the starchy grain any more. Or if you can do a small garden patch it's amazing what you can get out of it.

Also

If I was on a really tight budget, I would be eating different meals than my family since they don't have to eat low carb.

Spot-on seejay. That's pretty much our plan, they do have "manager specials" where items are close to expiration and thus discounted for quick sale. I'd love to have my own garden, but I have no experience whatsoever, and I'm sure would have costs to start-up.

Elfie, I wish I could just do my own thing, but my wife and I are both in great need of a health fix and my oldest is already showing signs of insulin resistance. This has to be a family WOE.

Well, hopefully you can feed your family better than Matt is suggesting. I can't really help you out too much, I don't have experience or have prices memorized.

But I can tell you a couple of cheap things I get:

Whole chicken (.99 a pound -- maybe cheaper elsewhere in the country) You can butcher them yourself. I taught myself how with youtube videos. There are a lot of really super chicken recipes.

Eggs: Super cheap protein. Learn how to make low carb lemon curd or lemon custard. Good stuff! I get Jumbos for $1.79 here. I don't think mediums are cheaper than that. Out of eggs you can make crepes (dilute the egg with water so it makes a thin batter. Turn by flipping... need a non-stick pan). You can make lemon custard/curd, frittata, quiche, bread-like things... and more.

Frozen veggies are always good, but sometimes I can find fresh veggies in season that are cheaper. Look for sales. Cheese seems kind of expensive these days, but if you can find it cheap maybe make something like a vegetable/cheese quiche?

Pork shoulder aka picnic aka butt is usually a pretty low price item. You can cook it in the oven or crockpot. Low and slow is the way to cook it. It has lots of connective tissue which dissolves into gelatin when you cook it correctly.

Chuck roast is generally the cheapest beef cut, I believe. Makes good hamburger if you grind it yourself. There's an Alton Brown video about how to grind your own hamburger on youtube, I believe. You'll need a food processor, or perhaps you have a hand-cranked grinder? My mom used to.

As a treat you could make egg crepes and put lemon custard in the middle. Buy big bottles of "Real Lemon" at your warehouse store. They're pretty cheap and that brand won a taste test from "Cooks Illustrated", winning out over fresh lemon juice.

Splenda or generic splenda has gotten pretty cheap. They have it at Walmart.

If you have spare freezer capacity then you can always buy on sale. It might even be useful to get a foodsaver (maybe a used one on ebay?) and bags. You can store stuff in a freezer much longer in vacuumed sealed bags.

Do you have options for going fishing, hunting, or growing some of your own veggies?

I'm sure others will pipe up with more suggestions.

Thanks Nancy! I actually didn't think about cuts of meat, and that helped a lot! I'm not sure how I feel about whole chicken, but I've heard this from many many people. I'll hit up the youtubes and see what I can find. I do have a hand grinder, and grinding is a wonderful idea, I'll give that a try this week.

Anyone have advice on what to grow at home vs store/farmers market? Again, I have no gardening experience.

If you get ground beef at Kroger for $2.40 per pound, then a quarter pound is 60 cents a person. Bananas are about 10 cents each. Add a potato, and you meet your budget, but it is not truly low carb, and the children need more, such as milk and a green vegetable.

I use cottage cheese and beef interchangeably for protein. Cost is a little higher than ground beef, but would meet the children's dairy requirement.

Yeah Matt, I'm not sure where potatoes and bananas are any kind of LC. We use whole milk, real butter, and coconut oil all the time, so that won't be a big change. I try to keep with healthy fats for my family whether I'm LCing or not.

We have a family of six and a budget of $150, but three of the kids eat dinner elsewhere two days a week. I'm the only one low carbing, though. I make potatoes, rice, pasta or homemade rolls for everyone else to have with the meals, and I just eat the protein & veggies. They also sometimes eat cereal for breakfast, and I might make them a wrap on a tortilla for lunch while I just eat the filling, but I also sometimes make them lower carb breakfasts and lunches like eggs or salads with meat & cheese. That's what I usually have. On a typical week I get lots of eggs & cheap, large blocks of cheese, get the cheapest cuts of meat (chicken thighs, pork shoulder), the cheapest veggies: lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans. Some days we do have a vegetarian dinner - quiche or fried tofu. I cook everything from scratch. We do have enough for some "luxuries" like hwc, spices, hot peppers, pastured butter. I also buy macadamia nuts & sunflower seeds in bulk. Sometimes we can find good deals on produce at the farmer's market in the summer, plus I grow some veggies at home - green beans, lettuce and garlic are easy ones to start with. We almost never buy beverages (except coffee) or go to restaurants. The kids qualify for free lunches at school, but of course those lunches were never very nutritious and have gotten worse - more "low fat" and therefore high carb - lately (they actually stopped offering 2% milk and started offering skim chocolate milk instead).
The main thing is to buy versatile, basic ingredients in large quantities and use the same thing several times (one head of cabbage makes two bowls of coleslaw, chicken makes soup and stir fry, etc.)

Any of the squashes are super simple to grow, cucumber, green beans and peas are also easy and kids like them. The only thing you need to do is to water them and keep the bugs off and you're all set. 7 dust is amazing to keep the bugs at bay but if you're trying to be organic there are lots of options - I think soapy water does it? something like that, just google it and you're in business.

It's getting late in the season for you to start now, I think. Not sure really. But things like zucchini, tomatoes are very easy to grow. You can make a raised planter out of fencing and 2x4's, or dig up a patch of earth. Save your kitchen waste (peels and such) and start composting to improve the soil. I also like growing herbs for seasoning foods. Fresh herbs are wonderful!

Google for tips on gardening. It is actually kind of fun. Maybe the kids can help out?