The mere fact that I’m asking this is a really big deal. For the first 13 years of my life, I was a near-exclusive carnivore. My parents tried everything to get me to eat vegetables. I even starved myself for two days when I was about 10 because my parents put a bowl of vegetables in front of me at every meal and said that I couldn’t eat anything else until I finished the vegetables. I didn’t eat anything. Another time, I threw up on the table when they tried to get me to eat brocolli.
Anywho, I eat my vegetables now (I still hate broccolli…not even sure how to spell it), and I’m in a tight spot. My girlfriend’s Taiwanese (not so much a meat and potatoes country), so she’s fine with giving up meat. What I’ve been considering is just giving up meat, since it seems that that would be cheaper.
Do I have any reason to be thinking this? Could I just starting eating more tofu and peanuts, and cut down on my beef and horse (my new favorite here in France, it’s delicious!).
I don’t eat a lot of meat, mostly to reduce my saturated fat intake. It is nice that it’s less expensive. Beans are cheap as dirt, tofu is cheaper than meat, and vegetarian entrees cost less at restaurants.
Since I’ve cut down on meat, I’ve noticed what a total pain in the ass it is to cook with meat! You have to either use it within a few days of buying it, or freeze it, in which case you have to either remember to move it to the fridge to defrost it, or do an uneven job of it in the microwave, and then you have to treat it like a biohazard, and carefully wash everything it comes in contact with, and make sure it’s cooked all the way through . . .
All in all, I’d rather chop up a block of tofu or throw some beans in the pressure cooker, eh? We have meat once or twice a week, if that.
Why do you think you have to relabel yourself? “Giving up meat” seems like such a chore. Eat what you want. Eat (cheap) beans and tofu when you want, eat a (cheap) hamburger when you want. I don’t get the need for introspection and labels.
Podkayne, I found myself bemoaning the quick rotting time of fresh vegetables when I first started cooking with them more. Seems like compost waiting to happen, and I just can’t eat some of them before they go to mush. Meat is easy - freeze it until you’re ready for it. (My cheap cuts of meat, anyway. I don’t buy expensive steaks which shouldn’t be frozen.) I think it’s just a case of being familiar with your ingredients and knowing what to buy when. Meat or veggies, that just takes time and experience.
I don’t know of any vegetables that can’t stand a week in the crisper drawer. I never have problems with veggies going bad unless I plan badly and end up deferring meals for a week. Tofu’s good in the fridge for a couple weeks. And, naturally, (semi-)vegetarians are allowed to eat frozen vegetables, too, which you can just take them straight from the freezer, and microwave, steam, or boil without having to defrost them.
If you’re just looking to save money, I find the thing that has helped me cut back the grocery bill is just to buy my food each day. If this is an option for you, that is, if it takes an hour to drive to the nearest grocery store, never mind.
I have several grocery stores within a couple of blocks from me (so I get more exercise, as well), and I buy my groceries on a daily basis. I only buy the food I need for that day alone. I do not buy enough for leftovers (unless you really want leftovers or it’s going to storm the next day), and never buy enough that anything needs to be thrown out. That way, I can eat fresh vegetables every day, and I eat meat once or twice a week as well. I’m buying for two, but I manage to keep the daily total down to around $7-$10 (USD) per day - around $70 a week at the high end. We used to spend $140-$160 when we bought for the entire week, and we had more waste. Sometimes there is an extra $10-$20 tagged onto the monthly bill because of a necessity item or staple food (toothpaste, toilet paper, milk), but it has really saved us a lot of money in the long run. If I get something on sale and find I still have a few dollars in my daily limit, I pick up a treat that might last two or three days (cookies or a cake mix).
I’ve been vegetarian, and I’ve been omni… you can cut down on your bill if you are vegetarian, for certain, but as WhyNot points out, your veggies can spoil quickly if you don’t know how much you’re going to be eating. Buying your food daily (if possible) will help you get a better feel for how much you will eat at a sitting.
If you are going on rice and beans you are not going to beat that $ wise. If OTOH you are going to the fresh produce isle I would wag you would be spending more then some meats. Also it takes more vegi’s to get the same amount of energy as meat.
One of the cheaper meats you can get is chicken leg quarters, which for me comes around $0.69/lb, and as much as 1/2 of that during sales.
I agree with WhyNot. Vegetarianism can be cheaper, depending on your tastes, and as a vegetarian I totally recommend dropping meat, but I don’t see why you need to “become” a vegetarian in this case. Just get meat when it makes sense financially and don’t when it doesn’t. I can’t afford an iPod but that doesn’t mean I’m going to refuse when one shows up in a basket on my front step.
That said, vegetarianism is healthier and more responsible on the front of ecology, animal rights, and human rights. And damn tasty. So more power to you if you go that route.
If you stick to the cheaper cuts (such as chicken leg quarters and thighs) meat is one of the cheapest foods you can buy. It is also, as a previously posted pointed out, incredibly easy to avoid waste by freezing in useful portions.
JMHO, but I’ve VERY careful on my grocery budget, from a financial perspective you might do best reducing your meat purchases – buying only when the price dips below a certain level, say $1.50/lb – but not cutting it out completely. Then again, my grocery store chain (Safeway) runs absolutely absurd loss-leader sales on meat. So it does depend to an extent on your local stores whether meat is a value purchase for you. .
One of the best meat bargains I ever got was when I casually mentioned to an aquaintence that I like venison. Next thing you know, he gives me 25 lbs out of his deep freeze for free! (His daughter and wife won’t eat it) . Kept me in the Bambi meatloaf all winter, and kinda saved my bacon, pardon the really bad joke.
That’s what I’ve found too. I tried going veggie for a while. I don’t like beans at all so that made it harder. I also found that veggies that I had hated before tasted great when I bought the organic varieties.
So to get the same satisfaction out of veggie living as I did out of omni, I ended up spending $70-$100 more per month for two people. We now eat meat 2x/week and red meat 2x/month, spend under $200, and I feel we eat very well both nutritionally and culinarily (is that a word?)
Yeah, it really depends. Unfortunately, produce in most supermarkets is obscenely priced as a “luxury item” (try local ethnic markets for better prices). And there are infinite expensive goodies to spend your cash on. But on the other hand, 2,975 servings of beans and rice costs $20.00 at Costco. Personally I find that I save a lot of money because I eat out a lot and the veggie options are inevitably the cheapest options on the menu.
For years, I had the vague idea that somehow wouldn’t be “right” to shop at my local ethnic (Moroccan/Turkish) market. I thought I wouldn’t be welcome, or they wouldn’t speak Dutch, or all the meat would be hanging there with eyes bulging and covered in flies, “local Arab-desert-village-market-”-style.
Boy was I wrong!
Hygiene is at the same level as other stores. They sell all kinds of wonderful tasty stuff. And best of all: their produce. Ethnic produce markets often sell the crooked, but no less tasty cucumber, very cheap.
Ethnic markets aren’t the place to shop when you want to keep fruit and produce for a week in the fridge; but if you’re going to eat it in the next two days, produce is just right: ripe, colorful, full of taste. And prices are unbelievable"perhaps 30 % of the price of an normal supermarket.
Ethnic markets are great! I live near a number of Indian markets, and you can buy a freshly-made samosa at one of those for something like 50 cents, whereas across the street at a restaurant it’s something obscene like 6.00 for two.
