Expensive lifestyle

Juan

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Joined
Jan 21, 2018
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Age
32
Lifestyle
  1. Vegetarian
One of the most difficult things I've found on being vegan is that is a more or less expensive when doing grocery shopping. My average groceries shopping expenses is $200/month. Recently I read that the average groceries spending in the US is approximately $337/month per household. I am the only one in my house hold, so I guess I should not pay that much. What are your thoughts? I try to monitor my groceries expenses using mint.com. How do you guys monitor your food expenses? Everybody is constantly telling me that being vegan is expensive and I want to prove them wrong.

Thank you before hand.
 
It really depends on what you are buying. Vegan alternatives to meat and dairy are going to be more expensive than just veggies, rice and beans. You can make your own meat substitutes using vital wheat gluten, beans and tvp. Buying only produce that is in season helps cut costs as well as buying frozen. Making meal plans helps to use everything that you buy if that's an issue for you.

I make meal plans and buy what we need for that and I make everything myself. We don't buy that much convenience foods unless we have the extra money for it. We try to keep to a budget of under 200 for two weeks. I have a family of three though and I buy stuff that my four year old wants to eat. I use an app for one of the stores I get most of our groceries from to help keep track of what I'm spending.
 
It probably varies a bit from country to country and whether not you live in a climate that allows things to be grown all year round and the presence of farmers markets etc. or if you have to rely heavily on imports and supermarkets... BUT, for me I wouldn't say it's cheap, but it's definitely cheaper than eating meats and other animal products.

No matter what you eat/buy I think it is important to not waste food but to plan accordingly and to utilise things like your freezer to make sure that you don't have to constantly buy things fresh. If I have bananas that I can tell are getting very ripe and I know I won't have a chance to eat them before they go bad then I chop them up and freeze them to use in smoothies later, just as a simple example. I live on my own too and I make sure to always bring packed lunches to work and that alone keeps down costs and when I go grocery shopping I always have a list that's based on my meal plan for the week and I don't go off track in the shop. I stick to my list.

I would estimate that I have cut my food expenses in half since I went vegan, but that's not only because of what each item costs in the supermarket, but also because I notice how I eat out less often, cook from scratch more and snack less. All of those things contribute as well, but where I live anyway, even meat substitutes are still way cheaper than getting actual meat.