When money is short, eating healthy can become daunting. Fortunately, the vegan lifestyle tends to be cheaper than a meat eating one. However, a vegetarian diet can be expensive if you fail to plan, budget or be practical about how you buy your food. In this article, we provide you with 5 tips to help you enjoy a successful, tasty budget friendly vegan lifestyle.
Tip #1: Buy In Bulk
Buying your vegetables and fruits in bulk will save money. We recommend making use of your local farmer’s market, which will save you money by cutting out the middleman. Another option is to make use of a delivery service, where you get a box of vegetables and fruit delivered to your doorstep on a weekly or monthly basis.
A unique challenge for vegans is to get a full complement of amino acids. Most vegan proteins are missing one or more of the essential amino acids. You can ensure that you are getting them by investing in a quality vegan protein powder blend that combines different protein sources.
Tip #2: Buy Organic Selectively
Buying organic foods is great for your overall health. However, they are also expensive. When you are on a budget, you do not have to go organic on every food you eat. Here is a list of ten foods that are considered to be clean, even when they are not organic:
- Onions
- Pineapples
- Avocado
- Kiwifruit
- Asparagus
- Cabbage
- Sweet Potatoes
- Sweet Peas
- Watermelon
- Eggplant
Tip# 3: Make it Yourself
You can save a considerable amount of money by packing your own vegan foods rather than buying them premade from the grocery store. For instance, making your own kale chips can save you as much as $6:00 over buying them from the store.
Here is a simple kale chip recipe for you:
Ingredients
- Bunch of kale
- 1 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbsp sherry vinegar
- Pinch of sea salt
Method
- Preheat the oven 50 350 degrees F.
- Cut off the inner ribs of the kale leaf and throw them away.
- Tear the kale leaves into potato chip sized pieces.
- Wash the kale pieces and then pat them dry with a paper towel.
- Place the kale pieces in a resealable bag.
- Add half of the olive oil, Seal the bag and squeeze it to cover all of the kale pieces with the oil.
- Add the rest of the oil and continue to squeeze the bag for 15 seconds.
- Unseal the bag and sprinkle the vinegar over the kales pieces.
- Reseal the bag and shake it to evenly distribute the vinegar.
- Remove the kale leaves from the bag and lay them out on a baking sheet.
- Cook in the oven for 35 minutes or until the kale chips are nice and crisp.
- Season with sea salt and enjoy.
Tip #4: Avoid ‘Vegan’ Foods
Food manufacturers have, not surprisingly, cashed in on the vegan craze by producing all sorts of ready made ‘vegan’ products. These may be vegan alternatives to such things as sausages. The problems are that you don’t have any control over what goes into the product and that is expensive. In fact, it is probably the proliferation of these products that has led to the belief that eating vegan is expensive.
By making your own meals, you should be able to keep each serving down to around two dollar per day.
Tip #5: Grow Your Own Food
Growing your own fruits and vegetables will save you a heap of money. It will also provide you with the immense satisfaction of producing your own food. Even if you don’t have a yard in which to grow your vegetables, you can still set up a herb planter box.