Introduction Tracy.

My name is Tracy and I am a wife and mother full time. I have three boys ages 11, (almost) 7 and 2.5 years old. I also have two dogs. My husband is active duty Army and we currently live near Ft. Bragg, NC.

I started trying out the Primal / Paleo lifestyle about a year ago. A friend online was doing her first Whole30 Challenge and got me interested. So I jumped on the bandwagon and did my own whole30. It was hard, but it was worth it. By the end I felt amazing. Unfortunately the day after I finished my 30 days, we had a series of tornadoes hit the area. The destruction caused a massive black-out for miles. We had no power for about 20 hours. Because I had been doing Whole30, I had cleaned out almost all of the non compliant food from my house. This mean in that 2o hours we had very little to eat. I did still have some bread for the kids, but I didn't want to eat it. Eventually I gave in and had some because I didn't have much choice. I was trying to not open the fridge or freezer to conserve what cold air was in there. (lost cause) The morning after, we still had no power, we ended up having to drive an hour away from our home to find a breakfast place that had power. I used this as an excuse to eat poorly. Everything fell apart after that.

My husband returned from his deployment to Iraq in August after having eaten as Primal / Paleo as possible over there. He was looking forward to eating this way for good.

When you are already living on a tight food budget, making the switch to Primal / Paleo can be scary. If you're already scraping the barrel with your food purchases and still consuming the SAD (Standard American Diet) you would think "There is no way I can afford to eat that way! It's expensive!!" and you're right. A loaf of bread is cheaper than a grassfed steak or a pound of grassfed ground beef. But, if you cut out all of the junk you're eating for snacks, in between meals, desserts, etc. You will find you have a lot more money to work with than you thought.

My friend Lauren and I got the idea for this blog because we both have families to care for, we both want to eat and live as healthy as possible and we're both on a budget. We don't live in the same area, or the same State for that matter. But that's what makes this a unique experience. We'll be able to offer meal budgeting ideas from two different perspectives, and I think we'll have a lot of fun doing it.

Guidelines/Tracy:
Post only Primal/Paleo meals with photos.
Post cost breakdowns by ingredients when possible.
Post total cost of meal at the end of each post when possible.
Link original recipe sources when applicable.

And that's it, I really hope you enjoy this new adventure with us!