You'll be surprised that once you stop shopping the middle aisles of the grocery store you'll actually save money. I would say just buy the best quality you can. I know I should be buying grass-fed beef, but it's outrageously priced so I don't. I usually look at the sale flyers and decide on my meat purchases that way. (my husband hunts, so I use a lot of game meat too)

Local farm stands and farmers markets are good for cheap produce. Frozen vegetables are very reasonable and you can stock up on sale and not worry about them going bad.

I think you just need to buy the best you can while staying on budget. I splurge sometimes and get farm fresh eggs ($4/doz) and local bacon ($10.99/lb). But, definitely can't make a habit of that. Buy things on sale, then make big batches of somehting like soups, casseroles, etc. Freeze portions for future meals.

You got this!!

i stick paleo on about 20 a week and a few weeks are a little more with "splurges"

i shop the sale flyers and buy:

whole chickens for the crock pot, use the bones to make broth and use some chicken for soup, pull the chicken, freeze the extra
roast cuts of meats- usually you can get the grassfed beef for $5/lb and its good in the crock pot
costco has grassfed beef frozen for $5/lb
sprouts (so-cal grocery store) has the best produce prices- wednesdays are double ad days!
nuts- bulk bins
veggies/coconut products- asian markets
veggies- mexican markets
herbs- we grow our own
if you have a grocery outlet supermarket near you you can look- they often have applegate organic stuff for way cheap.

Its not that hard if you keep an eye on the mailers, plus ethnic grocery stores are pretty awesome...

every few weeks i spend extra stocking up on nuts, coconut or nut butters, and random "treats" like lara bars.

I'm always surprised by just how little food it actually takes to feed you when you're eating good wholesome foods! I find using the flyers and having a meal plan (or at least a vague idea of one) helps; I usually just buy whatever meats and veggies are on sale that week and eat those (usually a grocery trip can last me about 2 weeks before I start running out of food).

My breakfasts are usually eggs and bacon or sausages, lunches are usually leftovers, and dinners are often stir fries or roasts or a piece of meat with veggies on the side. I snack on nuts mostly.

I find that you really don't need to keep as much food in the house as most people are probably used to - like right now I've got some stuff in my freezer (2 bags of frozen berries, 1 bag of frozen mixed veggies, some frozen ground beef, some frozen pork chops and some frozen chicken as well as some frozen tomatoes from my summer garden), half a block of cheese (I'm Primal not Paleo so I do dairy), butter, some romaine lettuce, some apples, a few condiments, and eggs. Other than the only stuff in my kitchen is some rice, some potatoes, some onions, a few mixed nuts, sunflower seeds, olive oil, and dark chocolate. Oh, and some spices.

I like what everyone is saying here. Just remember, if you switch to paleo you are no longer buying things like cereal, chips, crackers, bread, mocha late's, cookies, candies, etc etc. all those things we mindlessly eat all day on TOP of our regularly scheduled meals.