UK Is 'Vegan' Expensive?

Going vegan is not expensive in my experience. I understand how individuals could perceive vegan food as expensive. A pound of ground beef is frequently less expensive than a pound of fresh grapes.

I am the king of cheap. I can feed a vegan family of four for $50 per week. My family currently spends about $100 a week on food. The little extras like fresh fruits and vegetables makes eating more enjoyable.

An individual can only eat so many fresh fruits and vegetables in a day. Eating too many fresh fruits and vegetables will force you to sit on the toilet all day long. I know from experience what a pound of grapes can do to my digestive system.

If an individual really needs to save money, then s/he should cut other expenses such as eating at restaurants, driving expensive cars for long distances, or living in a large house. Reducing these expenses is much easier than reducing food costs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Emma JC and David3
Living in Ohio I agree---but I don't know Nairobi!
or New York City

Eating a vegan whole food plant-based menu is not expensive
Total cost is what matters in the end. If you account for the time required it gets pretty costly, depending on your income level. For example, an hour a day spent cooking instead of spending an extra hour working (or resting so I can be more productive tomorrow) would cost me hundreds of dollars. So if I can find a good vegan meal prep service or a vegan restaurant, it is cheaper.

PS. It's the same logic that I use with regards to volunteering at places like animal shelters/rescues. If I spend that time doing my regular job, I can donate that money to them and they would hire people who'd actually do a better job than I would.
 
Maybe seems a bit expensive to start with since you definetly will have to stock up on herbs and spices if you wanna go vegan.... but if you stick to the basics and dont buy the fancy stuff invented for rich vacation time vegans...

...I bet you even gonna end up saving money!
 
Maybe seems a bit expensive to start with since you definetly will have to stock up on herbs and spices if you wanna go vegan.... but if you stick to the basics and dont buy the fancy stuff invented for rich vacation time vegans...

...I bet you even gonna end up saving money!

Herbs and spices not necessary. I've never owned any. I do have inexpensive sauces in the refrigerator - tomato sauce, mustard, soy sauce, Mexican salsa.
.
 
How much it costs to go vegan depends on how you go vegan. If you subtitute meat for processed meat alternatives, it is more expensive (and less healthy), but if you use unrefined/unprocessed foods e.g. lentils, not only is it healthier, but it is cheaper. Egg alternatives are the same - commercial ones are more expensive e.g. Ener-G egg replacer, but unprocessed ones are usually cheaper e.g. flaxseeds.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Emma JC
How much it costs to go vegan depends on how you go vegan. If you subtitute meat for processed meat alternatives, it is more expensive (and less healthy)
Not necessarily. When you compare organic meat or fish to fake meats the fake meat might no longer be the more expensive one. Same with fish. At least in Germany fake meats have become less expensive during the last years with more companies offering vegan and/or vegetarian fake foods.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Emma JC
Total cost is what matters in the end. If you account for the time required it gets pretty costly, depending on your income level.
This.

Honestly? I never would prepare everything from scratch. I'd rather work overtime, spend an hour biking or running, on my yoga mat or just reading a book.

Food preparing is very low on my priority list. I don't like shopping, cooking and meal prepping and I literally hate the cleaning up afterwards.

I use lots of convenience products like frozen vegetables, get a veg/fruit delivery weekly even though it's more expensive than shopping for the stuff myself and single portion organic vegan soups are definitely way more expensive than cooking the soup myself but I'm simply not interested in cooking and don't want to spend my time with it.

Yes, all this making from scratch is pretty cool if you like to do it but let's face it: there are enough people that don't want to be bothered with this and companies are reacting accordingly to it, trying to satisfy their customer's desire for convenience food that's different from the 1980's canned Ravioli or fast food burger that's around since ages.

Already prepped salads, fruit bowls... makes vegan life more expensive but also easier.
 
How much it costs to go vegan depends on how you go vegan. If you subtitute meat for processed meat alternatives, it is more expensive (and less healthy), but if you use unrefined/unprocessed foods e.g. lentils, not only is it healthier, but it is cheaper. Egg alternatives are the same - commercial ones are more expensive e.g. Ener-G egg replacer, but unprocessed ones are usually cheaper e.g. flaxseeds.
I don't consider ener-g to be too expensive, since it lasts for a long time. I guess flax seeds would be cheaper. A box of ener-g would expire before I use it all.
 
My wife felt guilty because she spent lots of money on fresh fruits and vegetables today. I said that eating vegan is less expensive than chemotherapy or heart surgery.

I also said that fruits and vegetables have phytonutrients.

She said "What is that?"

I said, "I do not know. But, the crazy people at Vegan Forums claim they are good for you."
 
Some plant based foods can be very expensive during the off-season or if there is scarcity due to crop failure or poor rains. For instance, in my locality beef is way cheaper than some dark green leafy veggies.

And remember that the guys behind animal farming are always looking for ways to make dairy, poultry, etc more cheaper. But little to no personel even think of making food crops cheaper to produce.

In the United States, meat and dairy products are very cheap because they are so heavily subsidized through taxes. I wonder if the same is true in Nairobi? Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the US government (i.e. we taxpayers) was subsidizing beef production in Nairobi... sounds like something we would do.
 
For the price of 2 Beyond Meat burgers you can have 4 lean (grade A) Angus beef patty's or a lb of ground (grade A) turkey in Canada, so that kinda stuff is over priced. So having Beyond Meat in the meat section isn't gonna interest a meat eater. Actually today the price of a lb of lean grass fed ground NZ lamb was a little cheaper than the lb package of Beyond Meat ground, I think they call it mince in England.

Looking at some vegan cheese like slices is more than hard cheddar cheese and the vegan substitute has zero nutrition, people only buy it as a flavour and texture.

The price of one carton of soy beverage = two cows milk cartons. I can buy vegan mayonnaise by the same company that makes real mayonaise (Hellmann's) same price but the vegan jar is smaller.

So in that way vegan costs more. But you can eat cheaper vegan whole food and not organic.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Either that or meat is way too cheap.

But I agree. Fake meats and the like usually seem to be overpriced. At least I have the impression. It's only been a short time that fake meats have dropped in price a bit.
 
When comparing diets it is important to be consistent with each type--

organic vegan costs less than a diet of organic grass fed meats and dairy-and that would include produce!

conventional vegan costs less than conventional omni

junk food vegan however costs more than junk food omni

Too many people compare eating all wfpb diet with organically sourced produce with an omni diet of cheap meats and dairy, fast food, and processed food
 
Either that or meat is way too cheap.

But I agree. Fake meats and the like usually seem to be overpriced. At least I have the impression. It's only been a short time that fake meats have dropped in price a bit.
Generally unprocessed vegan foods are cheaper than meat e.g. in New Zealand, lentils cost ~ $10 per kg, and beef costs at least ~ $20 per kg. In restaurants, vegan foods also tend to be cheaper.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Emma JC
Either that or meat is way too cheap.

But I agree. Fake meats and the like usually seem to be overpriced. At least I have the impression. It's only been a short time that fake meats have dropped in price a bit.

The newer “hyper realistic” fake meats are expensive, but the semi-realistic veg burger patties are pretty cheap.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Emma JC
The newer “hyper realistic” fake meats are expensive, but the semi-realistic veg burger patties are pretty cheap.

and you can make your own burgers with black beans, lots of recipes out there and tofu makes a great meat substitute or seitan, as many here know

also even though the vegan versions of meat subs are more expensive I eat less of them at a time and eat a lot more potatoes and veggies or rice or pasta - we have just one Field Roast sausage each at a meal, usually, and a package of Gardein meatballs can last us 2 or 3 meals and a package is just $5 - even the facon tempeh, we eat just half of the package at a time whether it is with our beans on toast breakfast or on pizza, whereas in the past I would have a cooked a whole package of bacon

Emma JC
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lou
and you can make your own burgers with black beans, lots of recipes out there and tofu makes a great meat substitute or seitan, as many here know
Yes, one can. But not everyone wants to do this as others have already said. If you like to do this, do it. Many others have no interest in doing so, including me.

Vegan convenience food might be as unhealthy and expensive as omnivore convenience food - but it helps people with no interest in cooking/food preparing becoming and stay vegan.

No one is forced to eat vegan junk food but I wish people would understand that not every vegan is into the WFPB diet.