The Plant Based Budget

The Budget Plant Based Parent

When our family switched to a plant based diet, we expected our food bill to drop significantly. It did not. At least not immediately. While we do have many many blessings in this beautiful life of ours, wealth doesn’t seem to be an immediate one, and thusly, budgeting is required. I don’t say that begrudgingly but rather with the mindset that we have been blessed to have the income to be able to budget out our groceries. At first, in all honesty, I sucked at it! We use a cash system and I ran out of food and money before the week was up causing all sorts of stress. I don’t wish that on you which is why I am here admitting the mistakes I made in hopes that you might take these morsels of advise and avoid the same mistakes. And that is exactly how I am going to outline this for you. 

Mistake #1 Not Making a Meal Plan

If you ask my husband, mother in law or really anyone I am related to at the beginning of our life together they might tell you that I was not a very organized person. Organization quite simply does not come naturally to me and I have to work quite hard to keep our crazy home and life running smoothly. Menu planning was a huge huge step in cutting our food costs. We buy what we need for the week we need it. Being that we are on a plant based diet, plants don’t often last super long even in the fridge so planning what veggies and fruits we need cuts out both waste and unnecessary spent money. Our meals include lots of veggies, fruits, nuts, beans as well as a few pantry items. Our menu board is not fancy at home, all it includes is dinner every night for a week as we eat often very similar breakfasts and lunches. I plan to post these weekly meal plans as I make them on Wednesdays in upcoming posts. Bottom line, planning a little leads to savings and really doesn’t take that much of your time or energy.

Mistake #2 Not Knowing Your Own Staples

I don’t eat Beyond Burgers. Or canned olives. Or walnuts. Its just not what we eat in our home. We do eat a lot of bananas. They are always on the list. Bread too. My kids enjoy toast in the morning. If you think about it, your family too has specific foods that they really enjoy and somethings that they just don’t. My friend never buys chickpeas as her family just doesn’t really care for them. Our family eats chickpeas probably twice a week. Once you find your own rhythm of cooking, make a list of the things that your family considers staples. If your hubby eats chips and salsa pretty much everyday for night snack then that is a staple item on your list. The reason that I make a list of staples is because when I see them on sale, I will take advantage as much as I can and purchase larger quantities of that particular item. There are lots of seasonal foods that we do enjoy but only for a short time. I try to spend about 60-70% of my weekly grocery budget on “staples” and the rest on seasonal items that we enjoy but aren’t always on the menu. 

Mistake #3 Not Storing Food in an Organized and Correct Way

Until this year, I stored my tomatoes in the fridge. Like our whole almost 10 years of marriage, I put tomatoes in the fridge. Then piled on top lettuce, carrots, celery and all the other produce in the fridge. I would forget that the tomatoes are there or they would bruise or squish completely and when I needed them, I had to buy new ones. This was both very very wasteful and ended up costing twice for the same produce. I don’t know when I saw the light for this but eventually, I did. Now my tomatoes are stored on the top rack of my fruit basket….shelf…thingy. Away from the bananas (they ripen everything quickly) where they are safe and don’t rot as fast. There are tons of tips and tricks out there for making produce last longer. I often buy avocados…a ton when they are on sale but then fridge them when they get ripe and they last so much longer in a good state. Perhaps in the future I will write a post about storing foods where they should be. Organizing food too is important. I don’t know about you, but I completely forget that I have certain foods till I dig deep through my fridge or pantry and find them spoiled. I have reorganized both places so that I can see everything easily and foods I use most often are front and centre. I also use a lot of labeled mason jars to store things such as dried fruit, beans and treats so that they keep the longest and I can find things easily. I don’t buy too much of something often anymore and I use produce instead of losing it in the back of my fridge. 

Mistake #4 Menu Planning according to whatever I “feel like”

I do sometimes put foods on the menu that I just like or crave but I don’t plan my whole menu around what I am craving. I look at the flyers, whats on sale and whats in season instead. So I don’t plan for watermelon salad in November because a watermelon is $8.19 right now. Its not in season and costs three times as much as it does in the summer.I might however, plan for a mango salad as mangos are in season in November and tend to be cheaper and better quality. I also might muse that tofu happens to be half price so we might have a couple dishes this week that contain tofu. It takes such a short time to look at flyers and see whats the cheapest out there then planning the meals for that. I usually plan out my menus on Wednesday when the flyer comes out then shop on the Friday when the sales begin. Just planning my week like this has saved us quite a bit on money just with a little more organization. 

Mistake #5 Not Buying Enough Items

We eat a lot of bananas. Like I mean A LOT of bananas. They are my kids’ go to snack and sometimes mine as well. So when we run out during the week it means an extra trip to the store where we spend more gas, money and time then we needed to if only I had bought enough. If its something you notice your family eats a lot of, then stock up on that item. I have no shame buying 30 bananas because I know my family will eat and enjoy them. In the same way, I stock up more on bread as I know that is also quickly consumed in our house. 

Mistake #6 Not Utilizing Our Freezer

Perhaps you live in a beautiful warm country where everything just grows all year round and fruit is always in season and there is farmers markets galore. I do not. As I write this, its November on the Canadian Prairies. Nothing grows naturally around here right now. Its minus 15…5 degrees for my American friends. Many many foods are not in season which means that even if I bought that watermelon previously mentioned, it would not taste as good nor would it be a nutritious as its seasonal counterpart. But this is where freezing comes in. As mentioned before this is a plant based family and plants supply us with life and MOST plants can be frozen and reheated when needed. So in the winter I tend to make a lot more soups, stews and smoothies because those frozen fruits and veggies are picked in their prime and frozen to preserve all their nutrients. Not only this but often times I make a double portion and freeze half to make for quick meals when they are needed. I also will cut and freeze unused portions of veggies that are on its way out so that it can be used later on. Way less waste.

Mistake #7 Buying “Vegan” Products

We often purchased fake cheese and meats as we transitioned from the Standard American Diet to a healthy plant based one. They are PRICY! I don’t know why but the second you slap the V word on a product it costs twice as much. Probably twice in the summer we bought something similar to Beyond Meat just to try it but honestly? Its fake. It just doesn’t taste like food and quite honestly, it just doesn’t have nutrient density that your body needs. Having said that, a treat once in a while doesn’t totally kill the body or budget but try not to make it a steady part of your diet. 

Mistake #8 Buying Condiments and Sauces

I am making a tons of sauces and salad dressings right now. I am working on solidifying recipes to including lots of the sauces and dressings we use. When we do make a stir fry sauce, we make a large quantity and either refrigerate or freeze what we don’t need for that meal to make other meals quick and easy. I do buy ketchup. I just haven’t found a recipe that I like as much. And mustard but most other sauces and dressings are homemade. Saves on the budget and allows us to control things that we don’t want in our sauces such as oils and chemicals that are unnecessary. Does it take more time? Yes. But it tastes better, is better for you, and for your budget. Its worth the time. 

Mistake #9 Choosing Complicated Dishes Often

I really like making my lasagna. The one I have listed on this website. Its SO tasty. It is however more expensive to make as the noodles I prefer cost about $7 CA for the box then the veggies, tofu and nutritional yeast and it all adds up. So I save this recipe for special occasions or company coming. I still enjoy it but I feel like I appreciate it more because it is considered a special dish. I do however often make soups, chill and curries (especially in winter) because the ingredients are very inexpensive and are nutritionally dense. Not only that, but spending hours in the kitchen so often becomes very wearing and I lose my passion for cooking. I use simple dishes such as Fasolatha-more often and complex dishes-less often. 

Mistake #10 Not Prepping Veggies

Ok so I am still working on incorporating this one but it simply makes sense. When we have veggies that just sit in our fridges we might be more incline to order something or purchase the “quick” version. I’m not saying there is a time and a place for purchasing the pre cut zucchini pasta and honestly just came through one myself. But what I am saying is that-most of the time- buy the whole version of the food, take it home and prep it yourself. Pre washing and cutting veggies makes healthy meals so much faster when you are in a pinch and you are less likely to waste the food if it is already prepped. It takes time and as such, I am still working to incorporate this tip into my weeks. Sometimes I am very good at it, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Eventually it will become habit. Something that my husband and I do sometimes is to put our fav show on a tablet and sit at the table, watch our show and chop chop chop! It makes it much more fun. 

Its super easy to make vegan very expensive, but use our budget mistakes to make your budget work for your family. There is no need for a healthy diet to cost crazy amounts of money. Our family of 5 in Canada eats comfortably at around $150/ week with some weeks getting to $160. This is compared to the average family of 5 omnivores currently spending $275/ week (according to a study done by Global News). That means we spend roughly 45% less on groceries then the average family here in Canada.