Veganism... does it save money?

So I said I was going to talk some about vegan eating... aaaaannnnnd here I go.

So I have been doing a bit of an experiment lately.  We ate mostly vegan for the month of August.  Not for the reasons you might think... not for all the reasons most people eat a vegan diet.  My number one reason is financial.

To feed this growing family, lately we have been spending anywhere from about $800-$1000 a month on groceries.  Insert all the wide-eyed emojis here.  Our budget line for restaurants is $250 per month, and we're pretty regularly maxing that out or going over there as well.

So the other day I happened upon my old Tightwad Gazette book lying on the floor (the girls like to read it... go figure) and I happened to flip open to the page where Amy describes feeding a family of 8 for $180 per month.  What the what???  I mean, those are 1990's prices so we can adjust a little bit for inflation, I think, but still.  I got to thinking... surely we can make some improvements here.

So then I flipped to the page where she gives a sample menu of what her family typically eats.  There were a lot of leftovers, which we are champions of here at the Sugar and Spice household-- we typically have very little food waste, so that's something.  The lunches were also similar, but the breakfasts-- that's where we differed.

Because my kids will choose cereal over pretty much any breakfast these days, that's one thing we go through pretty quickly.  And although I try to buy the lower sugar varieties (our favorites are Corn Chex or Rice Chex, plain Cheerios, and Kix) that tend to be less expensive, we're still spending over $10 per week on cereal, plus add to that all of the milk we go through and we're talking close to a $20 chunk of our weekly grocery bill right there.  The other (higher protein) option that everyone will eat readily is eggs and toast, so I tend to gravitate towards making that breakfast for everyone if I'm going to make something, since it's tough to justify putting in the effort of making a breakfast that only myself and M will eat.  We have been buying cage free, organic, pastured eggs these past few years and even at our local supermarket's awesome price of $3.50/dozen (the lowest price around that I've seen) that's also a sizeable chunk of our grocery bill, when you consider the fact that we often go through four dozen eggs in a week, and combine that with the fact that we buy Ezekiel bread at $4.50 per loaf for the toast (and usually go through 3-4 loaves per week).

I know, I know, you're probably thinking... why don't you just become less of a food snob and buy the regular supermarket bread or the mass-produced eggs you can get for $1 per dozen?

Well, I think you know enough about me to know that with allergies, food sensitivities and possible gut issues in the family, at this point I'm not really willing to compromise when it comes to putting chemicals or possible pesticides into my family's bodies.  We buy mostly organic and grass-fed, pastured, non GMO... you know, all the buzz words.  That's a choice I make and I know it costs us some money, but it's well worth the investment in my girls' long-term health, IMHO.

So, what's a Mama to do?  Is there a way to save money and still put quality ingredients in our bodies?

The answer, for me, has been a vegan diet.  I had been thinking about doing it as an experiment anyway to see if it would help with things like skin issues in our family.  The jury's still out on that, but I can say that my girls probably ate more vegetables during the month of August (whether knowingly or not, wink wink) than they have in the past two years of our lives.

I tried to get creative and find recipes that "bridged the gap" between the way we've been eating to plant-based (we were sort of halfway there already being mostly dairy-free for J).  Boy is it easy when the internet is such a wealth of great information on veganism and sites like Minimalist Baker and Oh She Glows that are chock-full of delicious recipes.

There has been surprisingly little uproar among the kids.  Miss L has definitely taken note of the fact that there's no cereal and very little milk in the house, and she has thoroughly informed me of this situation several times, but other than that I have been quite proud of their adventuresome spirits and willingness to try new things.  We have enjoyed some delicious meals like quinoa tacos, lentil burgers, and this fabulous zucchini pizza with fresh zucchini from our garden:

I confess that there were actually tears when the girls discovered that the "pizza" I was making was not the pizza to which they are accustomed, but they all rallied and tried some and two girls even went back for seconds.  Only one girl peeled off the veggies, too.  Win!

They have also been gobbling up this toddler pasta, to which I have been adding many pureed vegetables and nobody has said a thing.  I also have been using chickpea pasta which gives the girls a wonderful dose of protein and fiber (as opposed to regular wheat pasta) and it has a great mild flavor that pairs really well with most pasta dishes; I highly recommend it!

Our breakfasts have been a combination of made-from scratch things like muffins, oatmeal bake, waffles, and overnight oats.  Mostly no complaints, except for L and her cereal, but whenever we're having a breakfast she would normally opt out of and eat cereal, she has been willing to make herself a smoothie which is awesome.  For baking recipes that require eggs, so far I have used flax eggs very successfully in just about every recipe.

The weekly menu from the Tightwad Gazette featured lots of home-grown produce from their garden.  We have done some of that this year but I'd like to do even more and maybe freeze and can to venture into even more money-saving.

So what's the verdict?  Did we actually save money?  The answer is yes... sort of.  With extra things like birthday parties and day trips in our food budget for August, it was hard to tell from a big-picture standpoint.  I do know that my weekly trip to the grocery store was costing about $40 less than usual, so if you think about it from a groceries standpoint, that's a savings of roughly $160 per month.  It's not huge, but it's something.

Now, I'm not gonna lie.  Making lots of things from scratch and staying inventive to create things that the girls will like has definitely been more work for me in the kitchen.  I wish I could realistically say that I will always have the ability to be that productive in the kitchen, even during the busiest season, but that would be a lie.  So, although I'm convinced that this type of diet is probably the best for our bodies, simply because it cuts out everything but the most nutritious foods (fruits, vegetables, and legumes), I think it's probably not sustainable for us from a practical standpoint.  Nothing beats the ease of sticking some meat in the CrockPot.  Chopping vegetables and cooking from scratch is, sadly, just not something I have time for every single day.

So the reality is that we're falling somewhere in between now.  I'm trying to keep our meat consumption at dinner to once or twice per week, and we're including more plant-based options at lunch and breakfast too.  But if the occasional egg or bowl of cereal crosses the table, I'm not going to raise the red flag or anything.

So that, my friends, is my diatribe on food.  Are you snoring yet?  Here's a cute picture of a kiddo to bring us back around to more varied topics. :)

She's 2.  I can't even.  But more on that later.

Have a great week, friends!