It Can Be Overwhelming At First

Many people think that adopting a vegan lifestyle is expensive, but that’s simply not true. Much like any diet, the amount of money you spend largely depends on your daily food choices and ability to plan ahead. As a home cook who went vegan around three years ago, I’ve made many mistakes along the way, splurging on foods that I didn’t really need or buying items in too small of a quantity. Fortunately, now that I’ve got everything dialed in, I can confidently say that I spend less on food now than I did before the switch.

Here are 10 things that I used to spend way too much money on, and some practical tips to help you save! When people transition to a vegan lifestyle, they’re often advised to buy mock meats by brands such as Tofurkey and Gardein to help them recreate their favorite meals. While this isn’t bad advice per se, it’s not a great solution for your wallet long term.

Because of their limited supply, mock meats are usually pretty expensive. Eating them every meal can add up pretty quickly, especially if you’re feeding a family. I found this out the hard way when I went back through some of my credit card statements and receipts from my first few months being vegan. What I eventually came to realize is that I didn’t need to be buying these products all the time.

There are so many delicious meals that I could make that centered around whole-plant foods (fruits, veggies, beans, and legumes) that were far less expensive and way healthier. Take this chickpea salad sandwich for example. It’s filling, nutritious, cheap and can easily be served with a salad or baked potato as a main course.

Switching the main focus of a dish from a “traditional protein” to starches, legumes, and veggies takes some getting used to, but it’s actually what most humans have done throughout history. Before the industrial revolution, meat has always been rather scarce, since it had to be hunted and required far more resources to produce via agriculture. It can be overwhelming at first, but once you start experimenting, a whole new world of possibilities will open up.

As a side note: I don’t consider tofu to be a mock meat, considering it’s pretty cheap in most grocery stores, and made of 100% legumes. It’s also been a staple of Asian cuisine for centuries. Nutritional Yeast, AKA “Nooch,” is a staple in vegan cooking. If you’re not familiar, they’re basically just yellow flakes of yeast that give things a kick of umami or savoriness. At first, I was buying the stuff at Whole Foods and driving quite a long distance to do so.

What I eventually learned is that you can order a bulk bucket of the Nutritional Yeast online via sites like Amazon and Jet. Not only was it around half the price (per pound), but it also meant that I didn’t need to drive out of the way to find a specialty store.

Since it has an extremely long shelf life, I just keep a bucket in my pantry and re-order around every six to eight months. I suggest you do the same! Just like Nutritional Yeast, cashews are another one of those key ingredients that take vegan cuisine to the next level.

I use them for making creamy sauces (by soaking and blending), pie fillings, and to add a toasty crunch to stir-fry and salads. Like all nuts, cashews are typically only sold in 8 oz or 16 oz bags at the grocery store. As a result, the price per pound is almost double as what you can get if you buy them in bulk online.

Once I realized this, I started doing just that…ordering them in bags of 10 pounds. But then I realized that I could take it one step further. Rather than buying whole cashews, I started buying the cashew pieces, which are even cheaper. Since I mainly use them as an ingredient in other recipes it makes no difference to me whether they’re whole or broken up.

While almond butter isn’t necessarily a vegan thing, I found myself using it more on things like toast as a replacement for eggs and cheese. But the problem is that store-bought almond butter (which I prefer to be 100% almonds) is around double the cost of the raw materials. 15 per pound, even at bulk-discount stores like Costco.

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