___ / ,_\ _| |_ |__ __| | |____ (_,_____| Being a Budget Vegan

Horticulture is one of those odd sectors that is high skill yet low pay, don't get me wrong I'd never go back to my previous careers (which is a shame as it does also mean my Degree and Masters were for nothing...but you live and learn!). I tell you this as it's a common misconception that being Vegan is expensive however I have not found this to be the case. Here's a few tips if for some reason your food bill has started to creep up. Meal Planning ---- -------- Plan you meals on either a weekly of fortnightly basis, a fortnightly basis will probably save you more money but it can be daunting. Personally I plan our meals on a weekly basis, I used to do fortnight to avoid shopping every week but found it a bit of a chore creating a 14 day meal plan. Use what ever method works for you, pen and paper, spreadsheet todo list anything is fine. I have two lists Meals and Shopping List. First think about your breakfasts and lunches: - Lunch We have the same lunch during the week (Mon-Fri), you don't have to another method is to plan each evening meal to have left overs and then have that the following day or the day after). In the winter we will have either a soup (usually root vegetables with lentils or pearl barley), some sort of noodle dish (noodles, kale, carrots, spring onion, miso paste, ginger, mushrooms and tofu) or your standard chilli with quinoa. In the summer it would be a salad dish with whatever is seasonal, plus grains and tofu or Seitan. - Breakfast As with lunch our breakfasts tend to be seasonal, winter is porridge, hemp and chia seeds, coca powder, mixed nuts and some sort of frozen berry, maple syrup and almond milk. In the summer it's soy or coconut yogurt, scoop of protein powder, hemp seeds, peaches (tinned), berries and nuts. Following this sort of plan (which might not be for everyone) means you only need to plan for 7 evening meals, and 2 lunches or as we do just 9 evening meals. When planning you meals try to pick meals that have crossover ingredients, this is economical, saves food waste and also means you're not traipsing through the supermarket for hours. Money Saved ----- ----- By not buying meat you'll be saving quite a bit of money, even with the heavily subsidised meat industry your £:Cal ratio is much better with a plant based diet, as is your £:Protein ratio. This is a comparison for 25g of Protein: ------------------------ORGANIC--------------------------------- Food |Quantity | Cost | Calories | S. Fat | Fiber ------------------+---------+------+----------+--------+-------- Org. Kidney Beans | 298g | £1.49| 378kcal | 0.60g | 19.0g Org. Tofu | 313g | £1.55| 450kcal | 3.44g | 3.1g Org. Beef Sirloin | 100g | £3.80| 250kcal | 5.00g | 0g ------------------+---NON-ORGANIC--+----------+--------+-------- Kidney Beans | 298g | £0.46| 378kcal | 0.60g | 19.0g Org. Tofu | 313g | £1.55| 450kcal | 3.44g | 3.1g Beef Sirloin | 100g | £3.00| 250kcal | 5.00g | 0g I've had to leave Organic Tofu in both comparisons as I don't think you can buy non-organic tofu as all the non-organic beans are used to feed animals...ironically. But as you can see a plant based diet will fill you up for longer (fiber), provide more energy (kcals), reduce your saturated fat intake and provide your protein for cheaper. My recommendation would be use the money your saving to buy organic products where possible, that way you know you're avoiding the chemicals that you would otherwise be eating as part of an animal based diet as well as reducing your impact on the environment. Buy in Bulk --- -- ---- This seems like a no brainer, but after a while you'll start to notice the things you frequently buy, each time you buy these staples at full price you're losing money. For us it's; chopped tomatoes, porridge oats, nuts, beans, grains, legumes, peanut butter, soy sauce, yeast extract, tea bags, soy and almond milk, whole grain rice and pasta...where to start?! We buy organic tomatoes from Costco 66p a tin v £1.33 at Tesco. If that's not an option (I have a costco membership for work) then wait until you get the money off your shop vouchers with clubcard or until they're on offer and stock up then. For all types of bean, I recommend buying dried beans and a pressure cooker from a charity shop. For reference per drained weight the Organic tinned kidney beans work out to be 50p per 100g the organic dried beans rehydrated work out to be 17p per 100g (that's assuming your organic beans were £1.20 per Tin [Tesco] and your dried beans were £26.19/kg [bwfo]). In essence stock up on non perishables at the cheapest price point without negating quality, inflation only seems to go up these days so the stuff is never going to be cheaper than it is today. You can extend this to all your household sundries not exclusively food, in doing so it generally means week to week you're just buying your fresh vegetables and fruit. Grow Food ---- ---- If your space allows grow food that you can use in you cooking, I'd recommend high yield crops (the F1 varieties) suitable for your climate, for us that's root veg, tomatoes, bean, leafy greens and peas.