How budget friendly is this diet?

[thinking_thinly]

I have dabbled in a few other plans mentioned on this forum, but they are usually to cost intensive for me or have foods I can't eat (dairy intolerance mostly). I am on a college student budget (which means >30 dollars a week grocery budget) Is this a fairly budget friendly diet?

[calichris]

Very! You can eat anything you want within your calories, and because your "down day" calories are limited, most people wind up noticing a savings on the grocery bill just from doing most of their eating every other day.

[gotsomeold]

Originally Posted by calichris

Very! You can eat anything you want within your calories, and because your "down day" calories are limited, most people wind up noticing a savings on the grocery bill just from doing most of their eating every other day.

Ditto

[Carly]

Super budget friendly. Most down days my food costs 0-3$ for thee entire day, but on average less than a $1.50 each DD

1 large cucumber when not on sale is .99. I've been know to have a whole cucumber sliced thinly with SF rice vinegar and sea salt for bedtime snack (that is when I eat on DD)

And stuff that lasts more than a week- like almost 2 weeks:
1 pack of Kim's deli pops= $2
1 pack of LC cheese= $3
1 pack of turkey pepperoni= $3

The above is my normal DD meal/ snack.
Comes out to less than $2 a day and = 95 calories.

[mom23kids]

It can be very cheap Down days can be so simple-soups/broths, pickles, eggs etc etc. UD's can be what you normally eat. You really don't need to buy anythings special to make this way of eating work.

[zipp2play]

My husband and I follow this diet and our grocery bill has gone down considerably. Every other day we eat very little. We have had to scale way back on the size of recipes that we made. Before, we would make something and make extra to have leftovers the next day. On JUDDD the next day is typically a DD. We have learned, when we slip up and still make more....we then slate an UD to clean up leftovers! It actually works out great. I bet we save over $50 ++ a week. More if I would go back to our LC days!

On DD's I eat cottage cheese often, so we buy it in bulk when on sale!

[LoCarbGal]

I agree that the grocery bill has gone down. There are some specialty low cal items I've bought that seem high to me (LC cheese, SF creamer, shiritake noodles) but since you eat so little at a time, they don't turn out to be as expensive as they seem when you purchase them and have that sticker shock.

[KeirasMom]

What can be more budget friendly than eating regular foods and less of them?

[dawnyama]

Originally Posted by KeirasMom

What can be more budget friendly than eating regular foods and less of them?

This^^^^ I was thinking the same......

JUDDD is very budget friendly. No, the shakes are not necessary those first 2 weeks. Real food works well!

[jem51]

I can eat really well on $30/wk.

[stephdray]

My grocery budget has been slashed big time by this WOE. Part of it is that I used to eat low carb, so there is less to buy in terms of meat and dairy. Another part of it is that we eat substantially less.

I end up planning only three or four dinners a week. The rest is soup and salad or nothing.

[piratejenny]

If you buy a lot of specialty items, like shirataki noodles, it can add up...but if you eat lots of veggies, soup, egg whites (save the yolks for Up Days), it can really save you a lot of money!

As a college student--Do you have a kitchen? This diet can be a bit more difficult & require more planning if you can't cook for yourself or don't have adequate refrigerator/freezer space.

[canadiangirl]

Yes to all of the above! I still eat low carb on up days and even my grocery bill has gone down by about $40 a week! Low carb costs me a fortune when I am always eating like that!! JUDDD allows me to still enjoy my l/c foods but I only consume about 65% of what I used too!

[Avicenna]

Originally Posted by thinking_thinly

I have dabbled in a few other plans mentioned on this forum, but they are usually to cost intensive for me or have foods I can't eat (dairy intolerance mostly). I am on a college student budget (which means >30 dollars a week grocery budget) Is this a fairly budget friendly diet?

I just want to say I really sympathize with how food allergies/intolerances can make eating a lot more expensive. Many people rely on dairy products as a cheap protein or as a LC staple. However, if you can't eat butter, cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, canned soup, Atkins shakes (whey protein), breakfast cereal, then you have to eat something else, and that something else is usually more expensive!

(Especially if, like me, you have nut problems as well - peanut butter is very cheap; however, people like me would also drop dead from eating it)

(In my case I can eat dairy products which don't come from cows; however, these are usually at least 4x as expensive, so something which is cheap for many people - like pasta with cheese, pizza, ice cream, a cream based soup, or yogurt - is a luxury item for me.)

However, nonetheless... yes, this is a very budget friendly way of eating. I don't know the cost of living where you are or how much you can buy with $30 a week (that wouldn't get me very far where I live), but unless you eat practically nothing now, you're almost guaranteed to spend less!

[Hvrijssa]

You can eat the same things you are currently eating, but you will have to limit the portions sizes at the number of calories you are allowed to have on up days and down days. So you can still eat potatoes, sausages, chocolate, ice cream, etc but you will have to reduce the amounts to fit in your calories plan. As you will probably eat less you will probably spend less as well, unless you change the products you eat for more expensive ones.

Pat

[angie1]

Say hello to a thicker wallet with this WOE!

[Dakini]

Even using meal replacement drinks for DD, my costs are only $4.41 a day for my DD's. (That's less than 1/2 the price of my salads when I eat out.)

[mom23kids]

I do several small portions on my down days (eat or drink something every 1-2 hours). Just got back from the store and I spent $4 on two cans of soup that will be 4 servings (so 4 down days worth), a pkg of light rice cakes for $1.50 and it has 14 rice cakes so that will last me for 14 down days, and then some light cheese spread for $1.29, which will last me 6 down days (spread on some slimwich bread I got from the bread outlet the other day for .49!). I also bought a carton of coconut milk and sf pudding mix to make a pudding dessert and that's 4 down days worth (for a total of $3.50). Sooo, I spent a grand total of $10.29 for my next 4 down days, and the rice cakes and cheese will last longer than that That's including a splurge dessert! I already have everything else (pickles, chicken broth, cocoa mix, eggs etc etc). It takes a couple shopping trips to build up your down day staples but once you do you're only picking up a few things every week. Then for your up days you can eat how you normally do, or go low carb which is what I do.