Comments on: Is going vegan more expensive than just being vegetarian?

By: John

John — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:33:04 +0000

Do you like the taste of cardboard? Yum, yum, huh.

By: smedrik

smedrik — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:42:21 +0000

Buying mock foods and subsitutes does get much more expensive.

You should learn how to prepare simple healthy meals from scratch using whole ingredients.

I find being a vegan very inexpensive, however I don’t eat mock cheeses, meats, yogurts……

Instead, I eat things like beans, fresh whole vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds.

It can get costly with cosmetics,

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:22:22 +0000

If you buy substitutes, then yes, it will be more expensive. I find that when I first switched it was expensive, but when I found out what staples and stuff I need to keep, it got less expensive. The only thing that wasn’t really more expensive, was milk substitute, soymilk and all. Mock cheeses are expensive, but often worth it if you’re a cheese addict. I’ve replaced a lot of those things in my diet for beans and my own fake meat and stuff, and I’ve found it to be cheaper.

In university, you’ll probably be on a meal plan and hopefully your university will have vegan options. If so, that’s wonderful, because your vegan options will cost the same as non-vegan options (i.e. you’re paying the same for every meal, regardless of whether it has meat or not) so many people are vegan in college easily (as long as being away from your family doesn’t make you lose your resolve).

Oh, and cosmetics, hygiene stuff is more expensive (Tom’s for soap is a cheap vegan brand. And Alba’s probably the cheapest facial hygiene, which isn’t that cheap, but not super expensive). DEVA vitamins, though are the cheapest vitamins ever. About 4 dollars a month using these vitamins. Cheapest you’ll find anywhere that are worth a darn.

By: C

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:43:21 +0000

It depends. If you consume a lot of processed foods, then yes it can be expensive. You go from eating cheese to buying a bunch of fake cheese it can get expensive. However, in general it is not more expensive if you’re buying whole, plant foods and you have a decent grocery. It’s helpful to figure out a place that relatively inexpensive produce and a grocery that has a good bulk section for grains, baking goods (flour, sugar, etc.) and nuts. You also want to know of a place that has decent prices for typically vegan foods that you won’t find in regular groceries like Earth Balance, tempeh, etc. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need three separate places to shop. Maybe you use Target for the produce and canned goods and Whole Foods/Trader Joes for everything else.

You also don’t need supplements, with maybe the exception of B12, and that’s only if you can’t find a fortified food you enjoying eating or manage to consume often enough. B12 can be found in some cereals, plant milks, nutritional yeast, etc. (I like it in Naked Juice form, but that gets expensive) All other nutrients can easily be consumed with a well balanced diet with lots of variety.

I’d also recommend either buying or borrowing from your library these books. I personally like to borrow all my cookbooks before I buy them because I hate spending 25 bucks on a cookbook I end up never looking at.

Vegan cookbooks:
Veganomicon
Vegan Planet
Vegan Brunch

The first and the last books have recipes that include no processed foods like fake cheese and boca burgers, you just make them yourself. Veganomicon even has labels for recipes that are “grocery friendly”, ie things you can find in a typical grocery store. This evening we had “Snobby Joes” (Sloppy Joes) which I used to make with Morningstar Farms soy crumbles. With this recipe, you use lentils, which are much less expensive (and better for you).

You can also get ideas from food blogs online. Some of my favs are:
http://101cookbooks.com [vegetarian with vegan recipes]
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com
http://vegweb.com [veg*n recipe database]
http://theppk.com
http://cestlavegan.com
http://vegandad.blogspot.com

Lastly, I recommend you gradually switch over. Find a plant milk you enjoy drinking or putting in your cereal, whether it be soy, rice, almond [my fav], hemp, etc. Start making yourself vegan meals and see how it goes. I’d also get off making/eat those mock meats. You can make better food yourself for less and it will be better for you. :)

Hope that helps!

@ The Lesser C’thuhlu: Find one legitimate case where a vegan’s organs were consumed by his/her body. Talk about ridiculous!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:56:46 +0000

No.

By: Paranormal Kitty

Paranormal Kitty — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:03:56 +0000

There’s not a big difference when it comes to groceries. But a lot of the vegan cosmetics are a lot more expensive than regular ones, especially if you’re used to buying really cheap stuff.

By: The Lesser C'thuhlu

The Lesser C'thuhlu — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:54:25 +0000

Very expensive, both for your bank account, and body. You will have to be hospitalized, when your organs start digesting themselves, and be put in a doctor induced coma. Your immune system will be weakened in a way similar to AIDS. Without meat, you will not receive the spirits of the dead aliens trapped on this planet, and your body will shut down. This would not be a problem for other species, but our bodies have evolved to need the spirits due to prolonged exposure to them.

By: friendofchip

friendofchip — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:49:24 +0000

no, cheese is pricey and dairy is pricey.
You don’t need the vegan burgers, all you have to do is get tofu )( cheap) and beans and legumes ( cheap) and miso paste ( cheap) and some TVP ( textured vegetables protein, avail in Asian markets) to make your own veg burgers, and stuff, because the Morningstar stuff is expensive.

You don’t need to take supplements to get folic acid and b12, they are in miso paste, Marmite, Vegemite, nori and seaweeds.
Go to a good Asian supermarket and find some good products like the fresh and baked tofu , which are way cheap. Dried beans are the cheapest thingg going…. all the mock meats are a little pricey for me, except cans of mock duck – I love that stuff, its so cheap and you can get it in any Asian market, it is SO good.!@

By: spinhello

spinhello — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:01:43 +0000

prolly
i mean those organic grocery stores have vegan food and those stores are so expensive…
takes a lot of time and effort to be vegetarian or vegan..gotta make sure you are getting all your nutrients and minerals etc

By: Katt

Katt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:27:23 +0000

It’s twice as hard to stay on but most products are few dollars more than normal food. Read the Skinny B!tch book for help with going vegan gives you lots of info.