Budget Protein Sources

Do you know what budget protein sources you can afford? Learn how to focus on budget protein rather than the ones that will take you into overspending and debt.

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Protein is having a moment these days. Everyone’s talking about hitting their protein goals. 

It’s easy to get caught up in the flurry of protein chips, protein bars, and protein drinks and forget to consider the cost of budget protein sources. 

Do you know how much your “prots” are costing you? I honestly never stopped to think about it until Bryan asked me. 

You see, we’re both working on hitting protein goals now that we’re in our 50s and 60s. And since he’s a smart man, he wanted to make sure we do it in a way that supports not hinders our financial goals.

Knowing the best budget protein sources allows us to prioritize the lower cost proteins and feel good about our diet changes — both physically and financially. We know all too well how easy it is to justify overspending. Even on good things.

While the potential health improvements are hard to quantify in dollars and cents, you can only do so much when you’re on a budget. It’s not like we have all the money in the world to spend on food.

You know what I mean, right? We’ve got to manage our money wisely.

How to Determine Your Budget Protein Sources

The process to finding budget protein is pretty simple, though it does involve math.

1. List out your protein sources. I started with the things that we normally buy, including the generic as well as the fancy options I prefer. Then I included those extra expensive things like our favorite fast food options. 
2. Determine the grams of protein per portion size. This is pretty easy to do with a nutrition app or just googling. Results can vary, so if something doesn’t sound right, consult a few different sources.
3. Record the cost of the protein items. I did this per serving or ounce as applicable. You can easily search this by going to the grocery store website you normally shop. Keep in mind as prices change, so will your data.
4. Compute the price per gram of protein. This is as simple as dividing the cost of the portion by the number of grams of protein in that portion.

Possible Budget Protein Sources

As you can tell from my spreadsheet, we tend to focus on pretty simple protein foods that are  low in calories, saturated fat, and cholesterol. Opinions vary on what is considered healthy, so I’m in no way telling you what to do, just sharing what we’ve chosen to do.

Our favorite protein foods include:

• unflavored whey protein powder
• collagen peptides
• protein bars (Bryan likes Think while I prefer Built or Rx bars)
• cottage cheese
• greek yogurt
• eggs
• Baby bel light
• pinto, garbanzo, and black beans
• ground turkey
• lean ground beef
• chicken breast
• canned tuna

I didn’t include much in the way of plant protein other than beans because I was thinking more in line with what we normally eat. We eat a lot of veggies in general, so I’m just counting them as bonus fiber in our daily meals rather than counting them as part of our protein intake.

I also didn’t include peanut butter because our daughter is allergic. The kids enjoy almond butter, but it’s too high in calories for my needs.

Why It’s Important for You to Do the Math Yourself

I know it’s tempting to get your list of budget protein sources from the internet, but it’s important that you do the math yourself.

First, you may not like the options on someone’s list. For any meal plan to work, it needs to be foods you like! 

Second, prices vary from city to city, region to region, store to store.

Lastly, prices are always changing. Choose the proteins you love and regularly use and track their prices yourself so you can make the best decisions for YOU.

What to Do with the Information

Once you’ve figured out your budget protein options, use this information to your advantage. 

Build Better Meal Plans

Build your meal plans around the cheaper proteins so that you can keep your grocery bills in check.

For instance, at this writing, my cheapest sources of protein are quinoa, beans, chicken breast, protein powder, cottage cheese, and canned tuna. I’ll focus my meal planning on these budget protein sources.

A word about eggs: Currently, eggs are a volatile grocery item. If I can find them at $4/dozen or less, they are a budget protein. If not, they move into the sometimes food category.

As much as I love Good Culture cottage cheese, Built bars, and salmon, I’ll make those more a treat than everyday foods — unless I find better prices.

Identify Target Prices

Knowing prices on the foods you normally eat can help you identify a true sale. My most recent purchase of protein bars resulted in its being the most expensive protein on my list. Yikes! I had no idea.

I’ll be looking for sales and sources that give me a lower price on the foods I really love.

Obviously, your mileage may vary, but this is how you can identify budget protein options that will work for you.

Budget Protein Recipes

These are the recipes that I’m putting into regular rotation to help Bryan and I hit our protein goals.

Chicken Recipes – I can easily find boneless, skinless chicken breast for $4/pound or less, sometimes even the high end varieties. This makes it a go to for budget protein.

Tuna recipes – I love canned Albacore and it’s an easy pantry staple to keep on hand. Buying a bulk box at Costco currently pencils out as a good protein source, at half can per person, served occasionally due to the possible mercury content.

Quinoa recipes – I love how quinoa has come into its own over the years. I prefer it over rice as a side or in salads. Plus, I like to get quinoa flakes to add to granola, baked goods, and as a binder in meatballs and turkey burgers.

Bean recipes – Beans have always been a budget cook’s best friend. Canned beans rank as a budget protein, so you know you’ll save even more if you cook dry beans yourself.

Cottage cheese recipes – I love to have cottage cheese plain with fruit, but I use it all the time in baked goods (in place of some of the liquid), in egg dishes (instead of milk or cream), and in casseroles. Using an immersion blender does a great job at helping its consistency blend into foods better.

Protein powder recipes – While you can certainly just add protein powder to a smoothie and call it good, there are other things you can do with it to make it more of a meal. I typically substitute ½ cup unflavored whey protein powder for the flour in my baking recipes.