Is it expensive to be vegan?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

If you buy more whole natural foods it shouldn't be expensive.
Yes, buying excessive fake meats and dairy products will be expensive. But if you just focus on buying vegetables, fruits, seeds/nuts, and beans, it shouldn't be expensive at all.
Here are some basics you'll want to always have at your house:

-Cereal. Aim for WHOLE grains and no added sugars (regular Cheerios are great)
-Calcium sources. Soy or almond milk. Dark green vegetables.
-Beans. Black beans, kidney beans, vegetarian refried beans are great. High in protein.
-Nuts/seeds such as almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, ect. Just make sure nothing is roasted.
-Dark green vegetables. Spinach, broccoli, cucumber, ect.
-Colorful fruits. Apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, pineapple, tomatoes, ect.
-Whole grains. Look at an ingredients list of a grain product. The longer the list, the more processed it is and worse it is for you. Aim for WHOLE grain bread (you should actually see little seeds when looking at each slice).

Try following the vegan food pyramid for extra help: http://www.chooseveg.com/vegan-food-pyra…

It certainly doesn't need to be expensive, and in my own personal case it isn't expensive.

I don't buy a lot of faux-animal-flesh - practically none, in fact, so there's a huge chunk of the food budget removed. I don't buy vitamin/mineral tablets either. Another big slice taken out.

While I'd love to buy just organic foods, I'm practical enough to know that it would send me broke very quickly, so I only buy organic when the price fits within my budgetary constraints.

Buying things "in bulk" saves you a lot of money in the long run. "In bulk" seems to have 2 different meanings - some people use it exclusively to mean buying loose produce with no packaging, but I (and most others) use it to mean buying large quantities of a product, usually with packaging (such as a 20 kilogram sack of rice or a 30 litre drum of vegetable oil).

Buying dried beans and other legumes will work out cheaper than buying them in cans.

Buying fruit and vegetables when they are in season and on special is the best time. Check out the "reduced to clear" section for even more savings (you'd probably need to consume most of those within a couple of days).

Prices vary greatly sometimes, depending on where you shop. Tofu, for instance, will be high-priced in a healthfood shop, medium-priced in a supermarket, and low-priced at Asian grocers. Shop around. You can get small packets (500 grams to 1 kilogram) of dried beans in a supermarket, but if you look in an Indian shop, you can get bags of double those sizes or more (and cheaper, and in more variety). The big sacks of rice (and flour), you can find in Indian and Asian (Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc.) shops much more readily than you can find them in normal supermarkets. A family of 4 would make short work of a small (1 or 2 kilograms) bag of rice, so you need at least a 10 kilogram sack.

Vegan!

I guess this is a subjective question that could have had more details. What do you consider a fortune? My family of four spends an average of $100 a week on groceries. We have two cookbooks that focus on cheap, easy to obtain ingredients. "Supermarket Vegan" and "Vegan on the Cheap". Both of these are awesome and we use these two cookbooks most often. We usually focus on bean-based meals and tend to get canned beans as it's quicker and can sit in the pantry for a quick, thrown-together meal in under 15 minutes. Canned beans and tomatoes are the two major things we buy. I think the most expensive thing we get is bread from the bakery in Walmart because most other bread has milk or eggs in it. We splurge on $2-$3 bread but that's always the most expensive item we get. We usually keep stocked on potatoes and onions and garlic as well. One other thing I suggest keeping stocked is frozen veggie mixes like broccoli and cauliflower or asparagus stirfry with bell peppers. These are great to throw into a stew or chowder or casserole you feel may be lacking in variety of nutrients. If you have beans, onions, potatoes, frozen veggies, and some cumin or turmeric you can make a great chowder. All for about $2 a serving.
Also, if you have any additional questions you can email me through my answers account and I'd be glad to answer.

Vegan.

Well it all depends on what you're buying. Meat and dairy substitutes are expensive, as well as convenience items like microwave dinners and the like. However, I find it inexpensive to buy fresh whole foods and produce items. Instead of buying up a lot of fake meat, try and cook meals with beans, eggplant and mushrooms--they have a satisfying and hearty texture that I enjoy on those rare occasions I crave the texture of meat.
Also, organic foods will be more expensive than regular at a supermarket. Sorry, it is a sad fact!

yes it can be but it is so much better for you and I feed 4 people to but we eat less because it is loaded with fiber more beans and boca and morning star lots of peppers tofu is cheep and you can make dishes with tofu soda noodles is the best good luck

It can be... if you shop at stores like Whole Foods a lot (aka Whole Paycheck) then it can easily be expensive.

For me, no it isnt.

no it's not