Suggestions for the cheap vegan

[beforewisdom]

Still, any meat retrieved from the dumpster would be vegan in my opinion. Nevertheless, meat attracts flies and cockroaches. Thus, I do not want it in my home even if it is free.

Not to mention a lot of pathogens that could really screw your health up on a long term basis. Meat spoils very quickly.

 

[silva]

What does it mean to double food stamps when used at farmer’s markets.

I thought this was a government program, but looks like it's run by the farmers markets themselves:

https://produceperks.org/

Again though, try to find a farmers market in the middle of an urban setting.
The mission of Foods Not Bombs is to provide produce where it otherwise can be hard to find or afford

 

[VeganRachel]

You likely already know this, but the biggest factor in the cost of a diet is how much of your food you make yourself.

Prepared foods, packaged foods, and eating out drive up the cost of your diet.

The cheapest groceries:

* "dollar store" legumes, pasta, peanut butter ( only get unsalted, unsweetened ) and frozen vegetables
* sunflower seeds are amazingly cheap. They are an extremely good source of vitamin E, zinc, selenium, and other minerals. I would bet that
sunflower seeds ( get dry roasted, unsalted in supermarkets ) are also the easiest way to get these hard to get nutrients too.
* flax seeds ( ground ) are cheap. They provide many minerals and healthy types of fiber that will help lower your blood pressure. Many minerals too.
* HMart and other Asian markets offer amazingly cheap soy products, produce, and grains. May not be organic though, though that is changing.
* seasonal produce is cheaper.
* yams, sweet potatoes, cabbage, dried legumes, rice, pasta, peanut butter, frozen vegetables are the cheapest foods all year long.
* if you have the discipline and time to shop without buying make regular rounds at Whole Foods. They often have really good sales ( and quality )
on their "365" generic brand products.
* Vegan products at Aldi and COSTCO ( even without a membership ) are all the rage for the lower prices.

There are loads of "grocery haul" vegan videos on youtube and videos of how to eat for the most minimum cost.

I watched this interesting ~7 min PBS video about a book called "Good And Cheap".

The book started as part of a MA in Food Studies at New York University for Leanne Brown.

She wanted to teach people circa 2015 who were dependent on SNAP ( "food stamps" ) how to get better nutrition while staying within the limits of $4 a day per person.

She eventually compiled her recipes and tips into a book. You can buy it at the link above. Each copy you buy goes toward providing free copies to economically disadvantaged people. You can also go to the "Good And Cheap" link above and download a free PDF copy.

Most of the recipes are vegan, you can ignore the rest. It is worth the free downloads because the book is about grocery selection and cooking techniques to save money that can be applied to any diet.

Great food suggestions, those you listed are mostly whole (not processed) foods and are actually less expensive
as well as more nutritious. Most humans like grab and go processed foods but they do not seem to care that
they are much pricier than making their own from scratch or the produce section. Cheers.

 

[beforewisdom]

Great food suggestions, those you listed are mostly whole (not processed) foods and are actually less expensive
as well as more nutritious. Most humans like grab and go processed foods but they do not seem to care that
they are much pricier than making their own from scratch or the produce section. Cheers.

I do it myself. People get busy, tired, and distracted.

 

[Hog]

How long ago was that? If it was years ago you can't really compare prices.

He died about 5 years ago. He was incredibly cheap. He lived on $700 a month. He saved far more money than he spent per month. His one bedroom apartment was $500 dollars per month. I gave him my car about 10 years earlier. It was 4 years old and had 40,000 miles on it at the time I gave it to him.

The joke is that I thought he was totally broke when he died. He left a substantial amount of money for me when he died. That money is now in the stock market.

I remain inspired by his example to this day. I tell myself that all I need is a comfortable bed and good a good pair walking shoes to stay happy.

 

[Tom L.]

I forgot to mention something (which is weird because I often do this myself):

Fresh produce and baked goods are often sold at half the normal price or less on their last sale date. I usually wait until the store is about to close for the day, because my motive here is to keep something from going to waste. I check the produce's condition before I consider buying it, however. Some kinds of fresh produce (especially green leafy vegetables) can be very perishable, and there's not much point of eating them if their nutritional value is almost gone. For baked goods, it's much less of an issue. As I understand it, the last date of sale for these has a built-in safety factor so that it shouldn't go bad within 2 or 3 days after you purchase it. If you keep it in the refrigerator (or freezer compartment, to keep it even longer) you should be okay.

E.T.A.: I just used the Almighty Google search engine (for the phrase, "expiration dates for backed goods"- and it gave me good results, even though I mis-typed "baked"!!!). This link from the WebMD site should be reliable:

Food Expiration Dates: What to Know

Learn how to understand food expiration dates so you don’t throw away food before it goes bad.

www.webmd.com

 

[Maja]

A vegan diet is neither simple nor cheap - unless you want to be sick and deficient in nutrients. It's easier with a vegetarian diet

 

[beforewisdom]

A vegan diet is neither simple nor cheap - unless you want to be sick and deficient in nutrients. It's easier with a vegetarian diet

I've been a vegan for several decades.

I call bull ****

Zero disrespect to you and no insult meant.

 

[Emma JC]

A vegan diet is neither simple nor cheap - unless you want to be sick and deficient in nutrients. It's easier with a vegetarian diet

agreeing with @beforewisdom here - it is very simple and I am so thrilled that we are not buying expensive meats or eggs or cheeses anymore, it is much less expensive IMO

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Tom L.]

@Maja A vegan diet is more of a deviation from what most of us grew up with, and generally takes more getting used to. But most of the difficulty is in learning about new things to eat (and being careful about vitamin B-12, making sure you're getting enough D...). For example, I thought I was OK with vitamin D, but my doctor, who knew I'm vegan, checked me for that at my checkup about 10 years ago and found that I was very low, even though I had made sure to spend some time laying in my yard in my shorts on sunny days during the summer. Anyway, I think I read someplace that people who eat a more conventional diet often wind up short of D, too (maybe because they don't care for milk?).

 

[silva]

@Maja A vegan diet is more of a deviation from what most of us grew up with, and generally takes more getting used to. But most of the difficulty is in learning about new things to eat (and being careful about vitamin B-12, making sure you're getting enough D...). For example, I thought I was OK with vitamin D, but my doctor, who knew I'm vegan, checked me for that at my checkup about 10 years ago and found that I was very low, even though I had made sure to spend some time laying in my yard in my shorts on sunny days during the summer. Anyway, I think I read someplace that people who eat a more conventional diet often wind up short of D, too (maybe because they don't care for milk?).

People forget that dairy milk has no D unless it's fortified with D.

Yeah, people like to focus on what's more difficult going vegan, but it's mostly that they're so used to doing the chores of an omni diet they take them for granted
I was soooo happy giving up the nastiness of preparing flesh! Not to mention no worries of cross contamination, smell, and the whole cleanliness.
Going wfpb is a step further in ease, and for most, a better value. No oil, no mess. Cooking grains and beans and produce

Most dark leafy veg is by far a better source of nutrition compared to dairy for calcium and vit K, so yes vegan wins on dairy. Can't come up with anything good about egg other than brownies and angel cake

 

[Hog]

@ Maja - What nutrients are you most concerned about?

 

[beforewisdom]

Dairy products also have next to no iron.

People who go vegetarian and mostly replace meat with milk products often get anemic.

FYI cronometer.com is a food diary site ( and app ) that you can get a free account with. You type in what you eat, it tells you which nutrients you got, how much, and where you fell short.

Using it for a few weeks is a great way to clean up your diet.

 

[beancounter]

Grow some food?

Yes, this is the cheapest alternative.