How much do you spend in groceries per month?

[eanar3]

I'm new to vegetarianism, and I'm extremely curious about what you'all spend on your groceries. Does it seem that a vegan, vegetarian, or omin diet is most expensive? I know it depends on lots of different things. For example, there are 5 in my family. I'm the only veggie; the rest are omni (for now:)). We purchase all our grass-fed free range meat in bulk from a local farmer; and my husband hunts and fishes. We have a good-sized garden, and we can and freeze our excess. We also have an apple orchard out back, so we can lots of applesauce in the fall. When I buy produce in the store, most of it is organic. I buy most of our food in the health food sections of the grocery store. I buy Seventh Generation cleaning/laundry/paper products, or make my own. I end up spending about $450/month. This doesn't include vitamins/supplements, or my dog food, which is holistic and costs $35 for 50 lbs. every other month (we have a black lab). I know it's a sacrafice to eat and live this way, and I'm ALWAYS looking for ways to cut the bill! I loss leader shop for some things that I buy, and I do ALOT of cooking from scratch! I'm anticipating the bill being lower once the garden starts to produce.

Anyone wish to contribute???

Peace,
Ranae

[*AHIMSA*]

Your lifestyle (minus hunting and fishing) sounds idyllic to me! :)

I live in a city with no yard or outdoor space to grow anything, make most of my food at home and feed myself, a teenager and a giant who eats as much as 2 people. We spend about $600-$800 a month, buying all organic and buying what is on sale 99% of the time.

[SotallyTober]

It's just me and the man, plus his 13 year old daughter every other weekend. I'd say we spend about $65 a week.

[Ayrlin]

Family of 4 here, two vegetrarians and two Omni's, course the omni's get very little meat only a couple times a week.
I cook almost compleatly from scratch but I wont deny I buy premade pasta.
We have a garden and herb gardens.
We spend about 400$ a month on food and household stuff not counting the animal supplies but that number changes depending on how many foster animals are in my care that week.
Veggies and fruits are all organic, so is milk and eggs.

[Ducati]

I spend around $400 a month for myself and two dogs.

[SeaSiren]

I sounds like you have an ideal set up to have your own low cost organic veggies!

Vegan, high raw family of 4. We buy our produce from CSA and Health food store, and a few items at the major chain weekly. We spend between $180-$200 per week at those places which includes cleaning products.

Although I am working on lowering that bill once I learn more raw recipes. And also with the CSA we will most likely be receiving more food then we can use, which will be stored for furture use.

[Diana]

Stating what I spend won't mean anything to anyone who doesn't live in Switzerland. But I want to respond to the OP who somewhere in the first post asked whether people found it cheaper to be omni or vegetarian or vegan.

I found my grocery bills lessened GREATLY when I became vegetarian, but now that I'm vegan, they've gone up again a bit but not as much as when I was a dumb meat-eater.

But all this depends on the country one lives in, what is available in the shops, the season (winter, spring or whatever).

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

Like Diana said, actual dollar amounts aren't going to mean a lot. I live in an area of the country that supposedly has an incredibly high cost of living... I don't know whether this is true or not but I do spend what seems like a LOT on groceries - (Thinking wistfully how it used to be SOO much less when my kids were younger :brood: ).

My total is about 650$ a month on 4 of us (two teens that eat CONSTANTLY!) plus two cats and two dogs.

I do cook 90% from scratch and it's all pretty simple, basic stuff. But this includes vitamins, some cleaning supplies and a few "convenience" items to allow my kids to pack their own school lunches quickly, easily and without complaint.

I do have a garden in the summer, use coupons like crazy, shop Costco and get bread and potatoes from the Food Bank because I volunteer there every month - I still wish there were ways to cut back even more...

[madpoet]

2 adults, one dog and one cat, all vegan. We're on a tight budget and have found ways to save. We have a soymilk maker which saves us lots, we make chocolate soymilk, vanilla soymilk and plain soymilk. We're getting an ice cream maker this Summer to see if we can make our own soy ice cream which will also save us lots of money. We make most of our own bread, always fresh and healthier too, especially when we found out there was beef tallow and dairy in a lot of the canned biscuits and dairy in most bread. There are no totally veg restaurants close so we rarely eat out due to lack of selection and we hate to smell the animal flesh. We save also by using White Rain body wash, shampoo and conditioner(all their products are vegan and not tested on animals: http://www.whiterain.com/qna.asp ). We switched from Earth Balance to Blue Bonnet Light(vegan and no trans fat) which is less than half the price of Earth Balance. We do splurge on olive oil but, as a healthier alternative, we usually sautee in water and use banana baby food as an oil replacer in lots of baked products. We make most of our own cat and dog food, we were using Evolution but switched to TVP chunks with lots of vegetables added, sprinkled with vegecat and vegedog(vitamin/mineral supplement) which they love: http://www.veganstore.com/index-store.html?deptid=17074&parentid=13&stocknumber=262-C&page=1&itemsperpage=12
http://www.veganstore.com/index-store.html?deptid=17074&parentid=13&stocknumber=262-D&page=1&itemsperpage=12 We make all our own vegan dog biscuits and cat treats, no preservatives. We switched from Ener-G egg replacer to cornstarch(make a slurry with water) which works just as good. We do buy a lot of the faux meats like Boca Crumbles, Morningstar Steak and Chkn Strips, Boca Chkn patties and nuggets and Gimme Lean Soysage(I don't recommend processed stuff but we just can't help ourselves). We took a calculator when shopping once to add up the price for the same amount of meat compared to our faux meat and came out cheaper with our faux meats. We make our own juice since we found out most juices have vitamin D added usually from sheep wool, tastes better fresh anyway. We do use Jason toothpaste and deodorant. I'm still looking for a cheaper choice for both, anyone have suggestions? I've heard that Mitchum by revlon is vegan and revlon doesn't test on animals??

We usually avg $350 monthly for us and our animal kids and we all eat pretty good.

[Invictus]

$500+ for 2 people, 3 cats, and 1 bunny. But food is one area I don't really scrimp on...

[Ducati]

I think most of you get by pretty cheap. I spend about $400 a month on groceries and I eat out several times a week. I tend to buy many of the Amy's Vegan TV dinners which can be expensive, but fast, easy, and good.

[Starblossom]

$30/week on myself. plus the occasional restaurant meal. So i'd say somewhere around 150-200 a month on food

[MaryC1999]

I feed 7, 4 adults and 3 kids (my mom and grandmother live with us due to disabilities), and I spend between $400-$500/month. Generally on the $400 side though, sometimes I get a little crazy with the veggies and push it up a little.
I spend about $40 or so more on cleaners. I spend about $40 a month on dog food and treats for my dalmatian.
I find veggie cooking to be lots cheaper than omni. If I could convince my family to veganize we could save a little more, right now I have to buy soy and dairy milk, a little dairy cheese, soy and dairy sour cream, etc. I'm buing doubles of a lot of staples to accomodate two diets so that eats up a little bit of money. I make tons from scratch too and I shop at several different stores a week to take advantage of the different sales combined with whatever pitiful amount of coupons I can salvage as useable. :)
Mary

[RunsWithFoxes]

$280/mo on average for one person. One restaurant meal per month.

If you do a search, you might uncover a previous extended thread on this subject.

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

Yeah, there is another thread exactly like it.

And yeah, mostly I prefer to use the old thread if it's still relevant - however, I answered this one because in the 6 or 8 months since that thread was up, I know MY amounts/situation have changed and I'm sure others have too - plus the turnover rate on VB is insane - people here today won't be posting in three weeks...and many people from that thread aren't around now either...

[meatless]

We spend about $600 a month for two adults (vegan and strict vegetarian). We buy between 50-75% organic.

[Ludi]

I don't keep track (shame on me) but I'm convinced I'm spending less on groceries now that we don't buy any meat. We usually only buy staples (flour, beans, rice, cornmeal, pasta, nuts) and luxury items (cheese, milk, salad dressings, spices, condiments, beer, some snack foods like chips). The only vegetables we buy are canned tomatoes & sauce, organic potatoes, and mushrooms. The rest we grow. I'm hoping to grow enough tomatoes and potatoes for us this year, but I wasn't successful growing mushrooms. Plus the spores/kits are expensive...

[pgor72]

Well, I have a lot of pets to feed -- and most of the time they eat better than me!

Dog food, goat food and people food... maybe 70-75 a week on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

[DreamWavez]

Between $20-40 a week for just me, mostly organic stuff, or at least it's all from my co-op, or local organic farms, ect.

[Ludi]

Oh dear, I wasn't counting animal food!

And I forgot to mention coffee, a big expense because we get organic fair trade. A vice, definitely, along with the beer.

And butter, forgot butter, another vice.

[karenlovessnow]

I spend about $800 a month on everything, easy.

[goettling]

I spend about $400 - $600. Guessing because I don't really keep track. I should.

[janie]

3-week old thread, I know. But I felt I could contribute. :)


I'm new to vegetarianism, and I'm extremely curious about what you'all spend on your groceries. Does it seem that a vegan, vegetarian, or omin diet is most expensive?

I noticed the biggest decrease in my grocery spending when I went from omni to vegetarian. I calculated that my costs went down about 25 percent. :hamster:

Since becoming vegan, I have saved myself about another 20 percent off of my veggie grocery bill.

I thought percentages would show more than giving numbers. Right now, I spend about $75 a week. My fiance and I saved about $200 a month on groceries from switching from omni to vegetarian to vegan (he's still vegetarian), so personally, an omni diet was more expensive for me.

[chiaraluna]

I spend $40-50 a week, just me, so $160-200 a month.

[fauxfire]

We spend, for myself and three omni males (ages 35, 8, and 2.5) on a good week...$45.00. ( a good week meaning "yay! we get to go get groceries") This roughly translates to mom (that's me) eating alot of peanut butter sandwiches. The guys eat meat (chicken patties, tuna casserole, steak on occasion, and what not) near every night, and of course there are lunches. I find that the severely processed stuff that is no good for anyone is the cheapest stuff. We buy what we can afford...and my meat alternatives, and assortment of fresh veggies is not in the budget.

When you live with and omni family, and are on a tight budget...the veg lifestyle seems very expensive. If I get to buy myself 10 dollars worth of "my food" I'm lucky....that being said...I can get a pack of four garden burgers for around $3 and that will get me through 2-4 days...it just depends.