Carnivore diet on a budget? No way – says virtually everyone – meat is so expensive. While the Carnivore Diet might seem expensive and extravagant, the reality is most people that stick to the Carnivore Diet long-term find that they spend less money overall. How is that even possible you ask? Well, here are 13 top tips to show you that the Carnivore diet is not only affordable, but can be done on a budget:
How to do the Carnivore Diet on a budget: 13 Top Tips
- Create your budget
- Eat cheaper meat
- Eat cheaper cuts
- Buy on sale
- Buy markdowns
- Buy in bulk
- Buy from farmers
- Befriend your butcher
- Recycle (bones and fat)
- Store properly
- Count calories
- Eat more fat
- Fasting
How can I make the Carnivore Diet affordable?
1. Create Your Meat Budget
This sounds straightforward and it’s very easy to say my budget is $$XXX.XX per week. But this step is actually about determining your current food budget. If you underestimate what your current budget is, then you will likely despair that the Carnivore Diet is too expensive.
So create your current budget. Consider:
- How much do you spend at the grocery store each week
- How much do you spend on restaurants, take-away, or delivery
- How much do you spend on a quick afternoon snack from Starbucks
- Any other food related spend
The reality of the Carnivore Diet is that you are likely to be doing much more cooking at home. The cooking is quick and easy, but it’s inevitable that you will be cooking more. So if you are currently spending $25/week on Uber Eats, and $6.50 3x a week at a coffee shop, those are expenses that will likely disappear and can be reallocated to your meat budget.
Once you know your budget you can work to meet that budget and make the Carnivore Diet affordable for you.
2. Eat Cheaper Meat – What is the most cost-effective meat?
Beef is generally the preferred meat of most Carnivores but tends to be more expensive than other meats. Cheaper options can include pork, chicken and sometimes lamb if you’re into it.
Other Carnivore friendly options that are also budget-friendly include items like eggs, cheese and canned fish, such as sardines.
If beef is your preferred meat, it is generally more expensive, but there are ways to enjoy it quite affordably – see tip #3 below.
3. Eat Cheaper Cuts
Following the Carnivore Diet does not mean you need to eat prime rib every day. As much as I would certainly like to, that is well out of my budget. If you want to stick to beef, ground beef is going to be your cheapest option most of the time. Other more affordable cuts include anything that takes a long time to cook – think brisket, beef ribs, osso bucco and casserole beef.
Fortunately, the fattier cuts also tend to be more affordable than lean cuts. When eating a Carnivore Diet, you should aim for fattier cuts anyways, as eating too much lean meat will not provide the calories or energy you need.
4. Buy On Sale
This is pretty obvious, but when meat is on sale, stock up. Properly stored, meat can last 6-12 months in the freezer (see point 10). Breeze through the flyers or search online for the best deals.
5. Buy Markdowns
Markdowns happen when meat has a best before date on it, and it is “expiring” soon. Some people might balk at this, but it’s how I buy a lot of meat. There are a few keys to this.
First, get to know your local grocery store and their markdown cycle. For me, I will go to my grocery store between noon and 2pm. This is when the best markdowns occur because they want to sell as much as possible in the pre-dinner rush period (3-6pm). Another good time is the day before a public holiday when the grocery store will be closed.
Second, if you do spy a good deal inspect the package carefully. Make sure the meat looks decent, with no discoloration.
Finally, if not cooking immediately, repackage and freeze immediately. I suggest repackaging even if the item is already vacuum-sealed. I’ve been caught out a few times where it was probably fine, but because the meat stayed in it’s original packaging it went bad (as determined by the smell test).
6. Buy in Bulk
If items are on sale, it makes sense to buy them in bulk and store properly. Other bulk options can include shopping at Costco, Sam’s Club etc. Or bulk can mean purchasing a portion of an animal, such as half a cow. There is a big upfront cost to this so if you do not have the funds, investigate splitting the cost with friends and family.
7. Buy From Farmers
Farmers and ranchers are our direct connection to our food and it’s important to support them. You can find your local farmer here to see how you can buy meat direct from a farmer. Buying from a farmer allows you to buy the best quality you can afford.
You can buy in bulk, such as half a cow and this can make the top choice cuts way more affordable than a grocery store. If the upfront cost is too much, or you don’t have the storage, you can buy your cheaper cuts from the grocery store (such as ground beef) and save the farmers for the top quality choices, such as rib-eye. Buying individual cuts from your local farmer or rancher is generally comparable to buying them from the grocery store (though the benefit being that all profits go to the farmer)
8. Befriend Your Butcher
This one might be a bit unconventional but get to know your butcher. Shop regularly and get to know them. Whether that’s simply small talk, or actual befriending is up to you. After some time, you can let them know you’re always shopping there because you follow a carnivore diet. You might suggest that if they ever have any specials or anything they want to sell quickly, or cheaply they might contact you. Don’t expect to get amazing deals all the time, but a regular friendly customer is more likely to get good deals occasionally.
I’ve read quite a few stories where people have been able to get fat trimmings for virtually free, because it’s considered a waste product and they have a good relationship with their butcher. (Note – fat trimmings fried up in an air fryer are an amazing side dish to a meal)
9. Recycle (bones and fat)
Bone broth is quite the rage and for good reason. A quick Google search will yield a plethora of health benefits attributed to bone broth. When I have any meat with bones, I like to collect the bones and put them back into the freezer until there is enough to make a pot of bone broth. This basically gives you a free bone broth. It also cooks the bones down a bit so they are smaller, resulting in less waste for the garbage can.
A similar concept applies to fat. When I roast something in the oven, the roasting pan ends up full of juices and fat that has rendered off the meat. I pour this all into a ramekin and put it into the fridge to set. This is how I get “free” lard and tallow. I use this leftover lard and tallow to cook in, such as fried eggs, or a bit of fat in the pan if required for a steak. Or I whip it and use it as an edible fat in place of butter.
10. Store properly
The best way to store meat for a longer period is vacuum-sealed, in a freezer. The FDA recommends a freezer temperature of 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure there are no air bubbles. If you have ordered in bulk from a farmer and discover that some portions appear to have air in them, either reseal them with your vacuum sealer or put them at the top/in the front of your freezer to eat first. Most items this way should last 4-6 months, if not 6-12 months.
Note of caution – always engage the sniff test before consuming any meat that has been thawed (or any meat really). If meat is too old to eat and/or has spoiled, your nose will tell you.
11. Count calories
No – not in a conventional calorie-reduction manner. What I mean is to literally calculate the COST of calories. Due to the high nutrient and caloric density of meat (fat and protein) compared to the low caloric density of vegetables or some side dishes, it can be comparable, if not cheaper to eat fatty meat.
The table below lists common foods at how expensive per calorie they are. How many calories in 100g and the cost of 100g to work out the cost per calorie. These are my costs where I’m from and they might be different to your local area, so feel free to play around with these numbers.
| 100g | Butter | Tallow | Beef-Steak | Beef-Ground | Eggs | Broccoli | Salad | Pasta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 717 | 902 | 250 | 250 | 155 | 34 | 15 | 371 |
| Cost | $1.6 | $1 | $2 | $1.3 | $1.05 | $0.5 | $2 | $0.3 |
| Cost/calorie | .00232 | .00111 | .008 | .0052 | .00677 | .014701 | 0.13333 | .00081 |
| 2500/day | $5.58 | $2.77 | $20.00 | $13.00 | $16.94 | $36.76 | $333.33 | $2.02 |
The last line shows how much it would cost you to eat if you ate that sole food for your entire day of eating. Now take that with a grain of salt, as no item is going to be eaten in complete isolation (who eats 2500 calories of broccoli or plain pasta?) The point of this table is to show that eating a fatty meat diet is not going to be that much more expensive than a standard diet.
If we take those numbers and work out a day of eating, we can see that the Carnivore Diet is actually cheaper to a standard diet.
| Daily Calories | Butter | Tallow | Beef-Steak | Beef-Ground | Eggs | Salad | Pasta | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2500 | $2.23 | $8.00 | $3.39 | $13.62 | ||||
| 1900 | $0.45 | $2.60 | $3.39 | $6.67 | $0.40 | $13.50 |
Carnivore day – 2500 calories: 1000 calories of butter, 1000 calories of flank steak and 500 calories of eggs will cost $13.62. That will be quite satiating at roughly 190g of fat and 180g of protein.
Standard day – 1900 calories: 200 calories of butter, 500 calories of eggs for breakfast. 500 calories each of ground beef and pasta with 50 calories of a side salad for dinner. This standard day will cost you $13.50. Note that this doesn’t even include any sauces or dressings for the salad or the spaghetti and isn’t even equal to the calorie count above. You will very likely be hungry.
12. Eat More Fat
You can see from the first table in point 11 that fat is much cheaper per calorie than protein. By adjusting your ratio of protein to fat, you can make a dramatic difference in the cost of your daily food. If we compare 1 day of eating with different fat to protein ratios, we can calculate the difference.
Using the Carnivore day example above of 2500 calories, we will adjust our ratios.
The original example, (1000 calories butter, 1000 calories flank steak, 500 calories of eggs) works out to a ratio of about 70/30 fat to protein. This was about 190g fat and 180g protein and would cost roughly $13.62 daily.
To adjust the ratio to 80/20, it will reduce the costs. The higher fat day will include 1000 calories butter, 500 calories tallow, 500 calories flank steak, 500 calories eggs. This is about 224g fat and 124g protein. Higher fat would cost roughly $10.17 daily.
| Daily Calories | Butter | Tallow | Beef-Steak | Eggs | Total Cost | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2500 | $2.23 | $8.00 | $3.39 | $13.62 | 70/30 | |
| 2500 | $2.23 | $0.55 | $4.00 | $3.39 | $10.17 | 80/20 |
13. Fasting
Fasting is the ultimate budget trick. Obviously eating nothing is going to cost…..nothing. There are many studies and many proponents now of fasting being an amazing health hack. Make sure fasting is right for you (some people should not be fasting) and if it is, go for it. Whatever your fasting schedule, this is surely going to assist your budget.
Conclusion
There are definitely proven ways to make the Carnivore Diet affordable within your budget. Using these 13 tips above should allow you to follow the Carnivore Diet either at the same cost as your current diet, if not cheaper.
What are your tips for doing the Carnivore Diet on a budget? Do you have any additional ideas you can share?
Put these tips into action and start the Carnivore Diet affordably today. If you know someone who is thinking about the Carnivore Diet, please share this article to help them get started.
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