Thinking about goingvegan, but concerned that it’stoo expensive?
It’s a common misconception, but we’re here to help.
In this guide toliving vegan on a budget, you’ll learn the following…
- How to make calories work for your wallet (I promise that sentence will make sense later).
- The cheap staple foods you should be buying in bulk.
- How to shop for produce on the cheap.
- Supermarket tricks used by experienced vegan shoppers.
- How to make your own nut milks rather than wasting money.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Is Going Vegan “Too Expensive�
One of the most common objections that I get to going vegan is that it’s “too expensive.â€
However, when you break it down, you would think that the logical thing to do would be to have the opposite reaction.
Just think about it for a second: In order to produce a portion of meat or any other animal products that animal must be fed plant foods (and lots of them).Therefore, consuming the plant foods directly yourselfshould be cheaperthan filtering the plants through an animal to create a piece of meat or glass of milk.
Keep More of These and Your Health at the Same Time
For whatever reason, the word “vegan†seems to make people think of super expensive specialty foods that they see in a lone aisle or corner of their local grocery store.And from an outsider’s point of view, it’s completely understandable to think that eating vegan is more expensive.
Many specialty prepared vegan foodsaremore expensive than their meat-based counterparts.The reasons for this are many and quite complex, but the main are:
- Government subsidies to the animal agriculture industry.
- A lack of supply and demand for these specialty products.
- Companies purposely marking-up their vegan products trying to appeal to the “higher end†consumer.
But now that we’ve got that out of the way – let’s get back to the core question:
“Is going vegan (in a healthful way) going to increase your grocery budget?â€
The answer: Heck no!
In fact, when done correctly, you’ll be eating clean and saving green.
Becoming a Smart Consumer
Much like anything in life that you want to do well, you’re going to have to put in a little bit of effort to move yourself out of the SAD (Standard American Diet) category.
Standard American Diet Practitioner
Many people move though the grocery store do so with blinders over their eyes, just throwing anything and everything in the cart that appeals to their most basic urges and visual cues.
There’s a reason why food companies invest so heavily in packaging.They have a small window to catch your attention in the aisle and the ones with the biggest bucks are going to have the resources to know how to impact you on a subconscious level.
It is your job to overcome this barrage of urges and visual cues and to become asmart consumer!
Once you do this, I promise you that going vegan is going to be as good for your bank account as it is for your health!
Understanding Calories in Relation to Budget
Most of the time when people talk about calories it’s in more of a negative context: eating fewer of them to lose weight.
While eating fewer calories may be necessary for shedding pounds – that does not mean that you should be making your buying decisions based on low calorie counts.
In fact, you should be doing the opposite.
Cutting calories happens in the kitchen, not in the grocery store.
When you’re shopping on a budget, you’re trying to achieve a balance of calories, nutrients, and cost.
For example:
A bottle of oil has a ton of calories in it, but very few nutrients.
A head of greens has a ton of nutrients in it, but very few calories.
Neither of these options are going to be ideal as main staples of your diet.
Side note: You should be eating lots of greens and we’ll show you how to shop for produce later on in the article, but on a budget its going to be difficult for them to make up a majority of your calories because their cost per calorie is so high.
You’d have to eat truckloads of greens just to meet your daily caloric needs and the functions/processes in your body that require vitamins and nutrients would quickly be hindered if you just drank oil.
The solution?
Embrace what I like to call the staple foods of a budget vegan diet!
Your Staple Foods
Grains, Beans, Starches, Legumes
It’s grains, starches, beans/legumes, and root vegetables that are going to give you the perfect balance between calories, nutrients and most importantly – cost.
To make things easy, I’ve compiled a list of a bunch of items that fall within this category so that you can start to think of ideas foryour next vegan grocery list.
Beans and Legumes Galore!
Beans/Legumes
- Black Beans
- Fava Beans
- Kidney Beans,
- Lima Beans
- Chickpeas (garbanzos)
- Lentils
- Peas (Split, Black Eyed, etc)
Root Vegetables/Starches
- Potatoes (Yams, Sweet, Purple, White, etc)
- Rutabaega
- Turnip
- Parsnips
- Beets
- Fennel
- Yucca
These staples are going to give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to cost, calories, and nutrients, and can also be used in so many ways that can be delicious (more on recipe examples later).
Pay attention to the prices on these items next time you’re in the super market.
They are going to be your best friends when it comes to getting an adequate amount of calories and nutrients.
Just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about (without going too deep into the nutrition side of things) I’ve done a few Google searches to illustrate the nutritional impact of these foods.
For ease of reading, everything is measured out to one cup.
Nutrition Facts cited fromWikipedia
You can see above that cup for cup –sweet potatoes and lentils are the bestin offering you a decent amount of calories as well as micronutrients as compared to white rice and kale.
White rice is almost completely void of any micronutrients while kale would just be way too expensive to meet all of your caloric needs.
Nuts & Seeds (Cashews, Almonds, Pecans, Pumpkin Seeds, etc.)
Nuts are one of the healthiest ways to get fats and other essential nutrients on a vegan diet and allow you to make both sweet and savory dishes.That being said, we felt that they deserved their very own section.
Nuts can be kind of expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing.I would also recommend doing a bit of local and online research before figuring out your best source for nuts because the prices can vary quite a bit, but most likely the cheapest place you’re going to find nuts is online.
Go Nuts for a Sane Amount of Money
We recommend sites like Amazon,Nuts.comand Jet for placing bulk orders.
Remember that even if something ships free, the shipping is built into the cost of the item.
That being said, if you’re shopping online for groceries, you need to go big or go home.The savings are going to come because of the bulk options that you cannot find at your local supermarket.
The most important piece…
Take a look at thecost per poundyou can find online versus the cost per pound in the grocery store as that should be your only means of measuring cost.If your local grocer is running a sale on nuts/seeds be sure to get the final calculation oncost per poundand compare that to the prices you can find for bulk nuts online.
​
TIP: Use your bulk nuts and a blender or food processor to make your own nut butters at home.It’s way cheaper than buying it at the store!​
Nutritional Yeast
Any experienced began cook knows that nutritional yeast is an absolute staple.It’s chock full of nutrients (and B-12 in most cases) and is the one of the few ingredients that is going to reliably give you that cheesy/umami flavor.It’s great for making vegan cheeses and even great just sprinkling on anything that you’re eating.
Nutritional Yeast Flakes
However, much like nuts, the prices for nutritional yeast can fluctuate greatly!
The price fluctuations can actually be worse than nuts because it’s still considered more of a specialty item and less of a commodity.
Check out this vegan starter kit
The stuff has a super long shelf life, so again you need to buy in bulk.
This 10 lb.bag is what I usually get from Amazon and it has saved me a lot of money and time.
Don’t be afraid to check multiple stores or listings on Amazon to see if you can find the best deal.
How to Shop for Produce
Just because produce isn’t going to make up the majority of your calories when shopping on a budget, it doesn’t mean that you should forget about it.
In fact, you should be trying to consume as much produce as possible (especially fruits and greens) as it fits your recipes and budget.Think of eating produce as more of an investment than a cost.You simply can’t find the phytonutrients and antioxidants your body desperately needs to prevent disease in any other food group.
That being said, let’s talk about a couple tips for getting produce at the least expensive price possible.
The Basics of Shopping Seasonal
The super market may seem like a magical place where all this great stuff comes together to be in one place for the taking (it’s quite amazing when you think about it).
However, it is still bound by the rules of economic forces.
When things are in greater abundance, they are more likely to be cheaper.
When things are scarce, they are more likely to be more expensive.
Get More Greens for Less Green
Couple these principles with the ease of production of the item as well as the distance they must travel and you’ll slowly begin to understand why some produce items are more expensive than others.
This is why understanding which produce items are in season and which ones aren’t is going to be critical to you saving money.
Items that are in season should be drastically cheaper than non-seasonal ones.
Don’t Be Scared of the Frozen Section
The video below goes over the current science on fresh vs.frozen produce.I suggest giving it a watch as its only 3 minutes.
As a basic overview though, fruits and vegetables that are frozen are normally done so shortly following the harvest.Fresh fruits and vegetables on your grocery shelves go through a process of transportation, light exposure, etc which takes a toll on how nutritious they are.
This is not to say that frozen is always better or vice versa, it just depends.
Can I Get All These Raspberries?
You can do this with fresh and frozen produce (and pretty much with anything else).
To make it easy, I’ve prepared a script of what you can say (be sure to be upbeat and friendly!).
“Hello there!I was wondering if I were to buy these items in a large enough quantity if you’d be able to offer me a percentage off?â€
That’s it.Just ask.The worst they can say is no!I’ve actually done this many times and have about a 75% success rate.
Only Buy What You Can Freeze, Jar, or Eat!
This rule mainly applies to fresh produce, because if it’s frozen you have a long window to consume it.
We’ve all been guilty of it.
You see a great deal on greens and buy way more than you’re capable of eating before they go bad.
Or maybe you thought you could eat them all, but didn’t account for meals that you were going to eat out, business trips, or any other occasion that knocks you out of your normal routine.
Basic rule of thumb: If you’re buying something perishable, ask yourself the hard questions, and be sure to consume it BEFORE your non-perishable items. Be sure to consider any events you have coming up that are going to mess with your normal schedule.
Some of these tips may be obvious to some readers, but for those who are just moving out and starting to do their own shopping, they are critical.
General Supermarket Rules
Understanding Unit Price
The unit price basically states the cost per X amount of an item.
Say you’re looking at 2 bottles of soy sauce (these numbers are purely for the sake of example).One is $3.99 and one is $4.99.Because the two bottles are not the same size, the unit price of the $3.99 one is ($5.00 per liter) while the $4.99 one is ($4.59 per liter).
Read Also: Is Soy Sauce Vegan?
This means that in terms of cost versus the amount you’re getting – the $4.99 soy sauce is cheaper.
However – BUYER BEWARE!
Unit prices can be very tricky.
However, there is absolutely no reason not to make these kinds of products yourself right in your own home for way cheaper!
Here’s a quick lesson in what you’re paying for…
A majority of the cost for these specialty items doesn’t come from the ingredients themselves.
In most cases, it comes from the following:
- The labor for crafting the item (in the case of mock meats).
- Because it’s heavy and costs money to transport (think nut milks)
- A mark-up for “brandingâ€.
Here are a few things that are easy to prep in bulk on your own if you don’t have the money to buy them regularly.
- You can make your own tofu for pennies on the dollar usinga tofu pressto mold curdled soy beans. Check out these picks for the best tofu press if you don’t already have one.
- Use high-powered blender along with a nut milk bag to create your favorite nut milks from scratch.You can create almond milk, cashew milk, and much more with full control over the texture and ingredients — for cheaper!
- Buy Vital Wheat Gluten from the store and use it to mold your own seitan!
A simple search online will reveal step by step and easy ways to accomplish all of this.
Hey, I’m Joey. I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid and love everything about it. You can find my writing about food, kitchen appliances (such as blenders) and much more. Thanks for stopping by!
Want to take all of the guess-work around going vegan?
Click here to check out the Vegan Starter Kit.
