Eating a plant-based diet can actually make you save money when switching from an omnivore diet! and even if you are on a plant-based diet, there are things you can do to make further savings! I saved £ 679 last year, join me to know how I did it! This is also for those looking for vegan on a budget.
The two key things to do:
- Buy in bulk beans, rice, pasta, and everything you can.
- Make your own stuff, for example, your own plant-based milk, your own hummus.
Unfortunately, a lot of “famous” plant-based foods are very expensive, this is due to the amounts of marketing invested in turning them into the “desirable” meals when you are looking into plant-based options.
What can make your plant-based diet cheap?
The first thing is to know which plant-based foods are cheap. We created a separate list here so you can print it comfortably :).
- Make your own plant-based milk. Take for example our oat-milk recipe.
- Make your own condiments/seasonings, etc. Making hummus is super cheap, try our recipe.
- Planning meals ahead. If you plan ahead you will save money and time. For example, if you know you want to make a bean stew, maybe you know you have to prepare beans with a day or so of anticipation.
- Buying seasonal and local food. This food can be cheaper during their season and they are better for the environment and you support local businesses. Read more about this on this Lifehacker blog article.
- Prepare freezer-friendly recipes. This can be done in two ways: 1) perhaps you found amazing strawberries -or any other cool freezer-friendly food- on sale, but you can’t eat all of them right away, go ahead and freeze them! and 2) for your regular freezer-friendly meals, it will help you keep on track, eating healthy and cheap by not buying stuff during the week.
- Buying frozen food. Frozen veggies/fruits/meals can be cheaper and studies like this one conducted by the University of Georgia show that frozen food can have even more nutrients because they get frozen usually at the peak of their freshness whereas “fresh food” needs to be packaged and delivered.
What can make your plant-based diet expensive?
- Fake meats
- Vegan cheese
- “Fancy” condiments (like aminos)
- Nut milk
- Doing the opposite suggested above
Recommended equipment
Some equipment, although it implies spending some money at the start, it will pay off in the long run. I am putting here a very basic list so that you can decide which ones are suitable for your lifestyle.
- Blender. They can be used to make oat-milk, and other milks, making smoothies, purees, and so on. You do not need an expensive one, Oster is a good brand and my recommendation is this one priced at $ 40 bucks.
- Strain bags/towels. They are great for straining stuff (badum-ptss). Such as cauliflower-rice, oat-milk and other dishes. You really don’t need to buy that fancy bag from whole foods. I, for example, use a read tea towel to strain cauliflower rice and oat-milk.
- Food containers. You do not even need to buy them, you can re-purpose that coconut-oil glass jar to buy stuff in bulk such as coffee, grains, legumes, and so on. Other containers will allow you to store food in the fridge to plan ahead for the week.
- Manual chopper. They are not 100 % required, but it will save you time and perhaps encourage you to do prepare your own meals. I used this one for years.
How much can I save on a plant-based diet?
I saved £ 679 last year according to my calculations, of course, it is approximate, but trust me… it is doable! and I am not counting the savings you can make if you come from an omnivore diet. You also, have to take into account that I live in London.
To put it into perspective, these savings are equivalent to an extra nice holiday, a 4K TV, a mid-range laptop, a 3-day meditation retreat… you name it!
The savings will depend on your personal level and circumstances, maybe you are already doing all of the above! But I want you to be convinced that this is easy and doable, so I have put a table on the yearly savings I am making when I decide to stay on a tight budget:
| Food | Savings |
| Making my own oat-milk | £ 144 |
| Making my own hummus/baba ganoush | £ 120 |
| Buying seasonal | £ 50 |
| Bringing my own meal to work one extra time per week | £ 156 |
| Buying frozen spinach instead of fresh | £ 65 |
| Buying frozen berries instead of fresh | £ 72 |
| Buying on sale items | £ 72 |
| Total | £ 679 |
If you are curious about the math. Read my post about the oat milk, I made a similar calculation with hummus and baba ganoush. For bringing my own meal to work, I am estimating that my meals are around £ 3, and if I buy one, it will be around £ 6, so, per week I save 3, multiplied by 52 weeks, that’s £ 156 per year!
I love spinach, but fresh spinach is £ 1 whereas frozen is £ 1.5 but it lasts 4 times more than the fresh one. So, basically, I buy 4 packs of fresh spinach every 2 weeks or 1 pack of a frozen one. That’s a £ 2.5 savings every 2 weeks! I could go into details of the other stuff, but I think it is clear now 😊. Leave a comment if you want more details or tips on how to make more savings!
How cheap can you go per day?
I am able to spend around £ 2.2 per day on food. This will depend a lot on where you live. I can only tell you from my London experience. This is a very easy sample menu.
- Breakfast. Oats with oat milk an apple and some sunflower seeds (£ 0.6 approximately)
- Lunch. Chickpeas with stock powder, 1 tbsp of tahini and some garlic granules (£ 0.9 approximately)
- Dinner. Banana peanut butter on toast (£ 0.7 approximately)
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