Oh, and one more thing, my daughter is allergic to eggs which is a real bummer because we can't eat as many eggs as we liked...

Thanks for the advice. We did try almond milk and she absolutely refused to drink it. And we can't do soy because it upsets her stomach and causes diarrea. I was going to get a vacuum sealer thingy with a coupon but then my printer went on the fritz and coupons.com wouldn't let me print another one, so I'm out of that for now. I'm looking for more coupons before I buy one at full price. I did buy a big pack of chicken breast this week and am going to portion it out and put it into freezer bags. Some of it will be used for kabobs the rest I'm not sure. It was a huge pack of large breasts with rib meat for $8. I know I'm suppose to buy bone in but I have to be honest and say I have no idea how to separate the meat and it kind of grosses me out. I also bought a big pack of stew meat for less than $10 that I'm going to use the large peices for kabobs and the smaller peices for either steak salads or "fajita night" sans tortilla lol but even that with ground beef and veggies was almost $40 for about 6 meals.

Thanks for the reply. I will look into the chicken legs. I also saw a huge package of chicken wings that looked really cheap, but since I was planning on making kabobs I skipped that for the big package of chick breasts. But maybe next time I'll try the quarters. I used to get the big bags of chicken with the frozen breast fillets. I'm betting there are tons of processed crap in those, but it won't hurt to at least look at the ingredients.

I appreciate everyone's advice. We do eat tons of bananas and apples are cheap to as are strawberries right now. It's hard because everything goes bad so quickly if it's not consumed.

I have found that zucchini is on sale right now and carrots are relatively cheap, so we stock up on those as well. I love peppers but they have been very pricey as of late, so I usually only get one or two for the entire two weeks, chop it and store the peices in ziplock bags.

Has anyone had any luck with Sam's club as far as meat? At this point I am definitely just looking to stick to the plan as much as we can afford and hopefully switch to grassfed later. Although i do try to buy antibiotic free as much as possible.

Thanks again for the replies

I want to thank everyone for the suggestions! I am trying to incorporate the ideas I received. I sat down and planned out my meals depending on what was on sale that week. I also started couponing. It's not very effective in regards to food items, but I was able to save money on nonfood items. On top of that I bought my first Bountiful Basket and am waiting to see whats in that on Friday.

My daughter is lactose intolerant I think? She can eat some cheeses but too much ice cream will make her sick (vomiting). I am not ready to wean her off of milk because she is a tremendously picky eater. Thereby she really does get most of her calories from milk. I have reduced the amount of milk she drinks, but there are days where she will refuse to eat anything but a few bites. She also had some wheat products last week after being wheat free for two weeks and her stomach has been hurting and she's had other problems. So now I have to take her into the pediatrician and have her tested for food allergies which means she has to continue to eat wheat to see if they tests show she's wheat intolerant. I wouldn't care of getting an actual diagnoses except that she'll be starting daycare in the fall and the only way I can bring food from home is with a doctors note because of food allergies. I'd rather avoid the drama and just have the note then fight with the daycare. And before you all bash the daycare it is a really good one even with the strict food policy.

In either case, she is drinking less milk and we will probably not go dairy free. But that is our personal decision after considering the information. That may change in the future, but for now we are still consuming dairy. I also switched over to olive oil, coconut oil and butter and this pay day I focused on purchasing meats and vegetables. I bought everything in bulk to be sorted and separated into individual servings.

I do live in the middle of nowhere but there aren't farms here. I live in West Texas in a dust bowl. There are ranches around here but no grassfed ones nearby that I could find. Most of the open land between here and anywhere is either barren (little vegatation) has wind farms. I've seen some cattle, but mostly goats, And usually less than ten in any group. It's hard to explain. I'm not from here and we are only here for another year, but it's surrounded by nothing. It's hard to explain and it's very conservative here so when you talk about eliminating grains and processed foods and chemicals people always have comments to make. I imagine it's like that everywhere but here its.... well.... i'd rather not say something I probably shouldn't.

I would have thought there would be more cattle available here but it doesn't seem so. A friend of mine told me about a friend of heres that found someone who was telling her about buying meat off of one of the ranchers. It's an hour drive but might be worth it. I asked her to find out how much I would have to buy and how much it would cost. I cannot afford a half of a cow right now no matter how much I stretch my pennies.

In any case, I'm doing what I can do eat Paleo and still have enough money and food to make it till the next pay day. We don't go out to eat and we don't drink alcohol. We haven't for years. We don't have cable and instead use Netflix for entertainment. We don't buy junk food and we don't entertain often either. We don't go out every weekend and are pretty much home bodies. My husband works, I am a full time student and we have two daughters 10 and 2 as well as several dogs. I have to work within my budget. I can't scrape together any more than I already am. So I am trying to stick to this lifestyle. I know how much better I feel when I don't eat all the processed crap. So I am committed but I can't afford anymore than I am. I am skipping the organic and grassfed at this point opting just to eliminate the junk and see how it goes. I know my daughters both feel better without the grains and I want them to continue feeling good.