Absolutely
Only categories I see missing that I can think of would be coffee/tea, or beverages in general, and hot bar or preprepared meals.
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Ooh, adding beverages, thank you! (I thought of soda but mentally categorized that under “treats”–I think coffee/tea/lemon juice will be “beverages,” soda and prepared coffee drinks will be “treats.”)
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I don’t wanna.
But I need to!
My goal is to buy less takeout/fast food. Regardless of whether I prep it or the grocery store/food laborers prep it, I need to be eating at home and from my grocery budget more.
Rules:
- One Thai food order
- One pizza order
- One birthday order
- All other food I purchase must be from a grocery store, local bakery or local butcher
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I’m in. I’m aiming for less than $150 on groceries and using food from the freezer. My stretch goal will be trying to eat more variety. I’m in a bit of a food rut and just always prepare the same things. So, I want to try at least two new recipes during the month. Bonus goal: figure out a rotation of recipes that I can meal plan on a monthly basis with.
ETA: I have two food exceptions to my $ limit above. I’m supposed to buy a quarter beef in January if it’s processed and also will be buying my 6-month supply of almond flour. Since both of those are more for the rest of 2021 and not January, I’m not including them.
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I did this “track food by category” last in 2016, I think it might be time to do it again. I already track my grocery spending in three categories (“Treats”, “Groceries”,“Coffee/Tea”) but I am interested to see how much has changed with the unpredictable availability of cheap vegan protein sources (tofu, black beans) since the pandemic, and the inefficiency of our current shopping situation because of needing to minimize trips (not being able to price shop at different stores).
What are you using? I used a spreadsheet last time.
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Egg-Free Cheap food sources
So, for replacing eggs in baking, which I know is less of a concern, I recommend: ener-g egg replacer. One box is like $12 but it last approximately a bazillion years so it pays for itself quickly.
To replace eggs in dishes like scrambles, tofu is reasonably priced usually (go for extra firm for a scramble) - costs about $2 a pound depending on where you buy. Full of protein and very filling. If possible, find an asian soy specialty store (the one I go to is where all the thai and chinese restaurants shop) and you can get down to $.75/lb.
For breakfast dishes without egg, I recommend black beans. This is why I eat tacos for breakfast. Black beans have less protein than eggs, but they are also a complete protein and complex carb so they’re delicious nutrition packets. Also very cheap. It cost me about $.60 per morning for breakfast including the tortillas, beans, etc.
beans are MUCH MUCH cheaper if you get them dried and prepare them yourself than if you buy them canned. I love having a pressure cooker for this purpose because no longer do I have to soak them.
This is some breakfast ideas full of protein that don’t use egg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i2vXage-Jc
I find her videos on meal prep to be very affordable and they’re egg free: https://www.youtube.com/c/RainbowPlantLife/videos
I make my own hummus for snacks and it gets you a lot of protein combined with whatever you put it on (crackers, carrots, whatever). You can make it with fava beans or garbanzo beans depending on your preference and your
A lot of people use avocado to hit similar fat/protein ratios as eggs, this works well only if you live in a place that has cheap avocados. Here avocados are often $.50-$1 each during peak season. Less true in the midwest or northern Europe 
Essentially if you’re looking for protein: beans, hummus (make your own, very cheap), soy (lean towards unprocessed stuff like tofu/tempeh if you want to keep it cheap, the soy-imitation stuff is expensive).
If you’re looking for quick fuel: look for complex carbs like bananas, oats, etc.
Shopping seasonal really helps with produce-y things
if you want to know more about replacing eggs in baking, let me know!
- Signed,
A Person Who Used to Manage an Egg-Free Conference Kitchen for 100+ Daily Guests and handle a household food budget for 30 Hungry Vegans
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I plan to use a spreadsheet but if there are more convenient options I’d love to hear about them! I know I’m not bothering to break out “food” into a gazillion tiny categories in YNAB…
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I do really need to make hummus more, I think I’ve only done it twice
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All right, in for January and aiming to eat down the freezer/pantry since I’d built it up more than usual for plague concerns and given post-holiday worries this is about when I should start doing that anyway. Targeting $100 for fresh stuff, although I won’t include tips in that if I do any deliveries.
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Look towards anything middle eastern for delicious (usually) gluten-free vegetarian snacks. Rarely contain eggs as well.
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This year’s goals:
- Make weekly meal plans. I’ve been in a terrible food rut lately and always want something but I can’t think of anything that sounds good.
- Track our grocery spending in real time. It’s been getting wonky because we add items for our neighbors when we get pickup orders and they do the same for us, and then we settle up in cash, so the amount charged to the credit card doesn’t reflect our actual spending.
- Try four new recipes from cookbooks.
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I’m in!
- Track weekly grocery/food budget
- Try four new recipes, ideally one a week
- Make kale once a week. I have six fully grown plants, planted back in the March grocery panic of the early pandemic, and I haven’t done much with them recently.
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I’ve been using food budgeting/tracking/etc for a lot of my goals lately but I want to track food categories. Mr E wants to cut out sugar and caffeine from his diet starting Jan 1 to make more progress on his training goals so that will probably help keep our overall budget down. However it is looking more likely that we will have a baby on NYE or new years day (induction on NYE) so I don’t think he has thought through his caffeine goal very well
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My food spending is way up. Some of that is trying shop less often and reduce my exposure risk, which means not buying things on sale as much. I track, so I know how much it’s up by. I need to think about a couple of goals. Reducing costs will likely conflict with keeping my exposure low. I’m enjoying reading some of the ideas suggested here. I’ve got a little more than two days to figure out a goal.
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Ran the numbers, and during the pandemic we’ve averaged $289.72 a month on people food. I’m okay with that, especially since it includes my bulk purchases. So I’m going to focus on eating down some of the freezer supplies in January, and hopefully on organizing better in there. That’ll have a side effect of saving money, anyway.
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I really need to work on food waste. Does anyone have thoughts on the best way to track it?
It’s not ingredients spoiling that is the issue, it’s leftovers. We often end up with an odd amount of something leftover - not enough to be another meal, but too much to finish, and then it languishes in the fridge until the fridge is full of tupperwares full of these bits and bobs and there’s no room for the week’s groceries.
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I regularly make a big pot of soup or risotto and then have an odd amount. I’ll put whatever doesn’t fill a jar into a jar anyway, and freeze it (which I always do when I have more than a week’s worth). Then next time I have more of the same thing I fill up the jar with the odd amount left over. They might not be exactly the same, but they’re similar enough to mix together as one meal. Would that work for your odd leftovers?
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I’m joining to work on planning meals with things I already have in the pantry. I never meal plan, and often end up purchasing way too much fresh produce without any idea of how I will use it. I also want to reduce my budget over all because 2020 was my highest food spend ever and I need to cut it back a bit.
Specifically for Jan, I would like to stick to $150 budget which is lower than normal, but my fridge/freezer are packed and all I really need to purchase are fresh veggies, fruit and almond milk/eggs.
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Yes! HB is allergic to eggs, so would non-egg suggestions!
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