People are always looking for ways to eat healthier. Especially since the pandemic as everyone is trying to boost their immunity to fight covid-19 and omicron. This has made veganism more trendy. A vegan diet is well-known for its health benefits and positive environmental impact.
As veganism has become more popular, there is more discussion about its pros and cons, including views on how expensive a vegan diet really is. If you open any vegan cookbook, you may come across all these expensive ingredients, such as almond milk, pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, maple syrup, vegan cheese, vegan yogurt, and many more.
Yes, these alternatives can cost you more than the non-vegan versions. But a vegan diet doesn’t have to be expensive when you know the right ways to spend on your groceries. You may wonder how and I’m here to tell you.
Buy Fresh Produce from Local Farmers’ Markets
Organic produce at the local farmers’ market is often cheaper than at the grocery store. This is because produce you’ll find in the grocery store has added costs, such as the price for packing, transport shipping fees, monthly store rental, and other expenses. Instead, the local farmers’ market isn’t paying for those services. Buying what’s in season from local farmers’ markets means that farmers sometimes have special deals on crops that are plentiful. Some sellers also offer quantity discounts when you buy more.
Make Your Own Meal Prep
There are plenty of meal prep companies that offer different kinds of diet meal plans such as keto, paleo, low carb, high protein, and of course, vegan meal kits. Technology makes the world a lot easier. It’s very convenient to get your foods ready and packed by these meal prep companies and have them sent to your house weekly. But this can add a lot to your food shopping bill.
If you want to save money ordering from a meal prep company, you can make your own meal prep during the weekend. Make food in a big batch, separate it into different food containers, and keep them in the freezer. By doing this, you can save a lot of money, and also prevent you from having a dilemma on what to eat.
Bring Lunch to Work
Cutting eating out at lunch can actually save you more than $50 a week, which can add up to $200 a month. Eating out, especially at a vegan restaurant can be really expensive. Try bringing your own lunch to work. This helps you control what you’re eating and move toward healthier food options, not to mention you can save a lot doing this. It’s totally fine to dine out once in a while or during any special occasion. But if you want to cut down on your food expenses, you may want to reduce how often you dine out.
Cut Down on Buying Vegan Processed Food
Like I mentioned, if you open any vegan cookbook, you’ll find it calling for those expensive ingredients of vegan cheese, maple syrup, vegan yogurt, and more. Some recipes may call for “seitan”, which is a meat substitute that resembles real meat texture. When you first try out a vegan diet, you might be too excited and tempted to buy meat substitutes like vegan sausage, vegan burger patty, vegan minced meat, vegan bacon, and more. In fact, these meat substitutes are a lot more expensive than real meat. Try switching to fresh vegetables and fruits. They’re a lot cheaper and healthier.
Try Out Quick and Easy Recipes
When you are at the beginning of the vegan diet, you most likely have no idea what to eat except a bowl of salad. At this time, you can be tempted to order food delivery from a vegan restaurant. This can hurt your wallet in the long run.
Thanks to the current technological world, you can get plenty of quick and easy vegan recipes online. Here are my tricks: pick 5 recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and rotate them every day. When you get bored of this list, pick another 5 new recipes and rotate. Doing this not only can improve your cooking skills but also increase your creativity playing around with the foods.
In summary
Whatever reasons you may have, it’s definitely possible to save money while being a vegan. By doing the tips and tricks I mentioned above, I’m sure you will get to cut down on your food expenses. Eat plant-based for the planet, your health, and your wallet.
