Vegetarian here (well, pescaterian). When you bring in lot of vegetarian/vegan processed foods into your diet costs go up in general, even if you are conscientious and watch for sales. I think that is true for vegan cheese (which I don’t eat anyway because they contain nuts, but also a lot of vegans eat a lot of nuts in general and nuts are expensive both in terms of cost and environmentally), but also if you buy a lot of meat substitutes. I might buy meat substitute very rarely (crumbles maybe, if I want to make Italian beef and noodles, for nostalgia), but definitely less than once a month. Some folks buy all kinds of fake beef, chicken, “patties”, whatever. If you make the vast majority of that yourself, costs are way lower. The only meat substitute I eat is seitan, which I make myself (it is way cheaper to make yourself), and I do eat tofu, which I have also started making myself. I’ve been pescatarian for probably 15 years now, and over the past 3 years my groceries (excluding alcohol (which is a very rare cost) and coffee) have been around $100/month. (Part of that is due to the garden I grow in the summer (and obviously which has an associated cost), but not entirely.)
(Hummus and vegetables or bread/crackers are a great snack. Homemade granola too (cheaper and you can control what goes in it (no nuts for me). And just straight up fruit also.)
Ahhh yes, good reminder that I don’t tend to buy a lot of nuts. I love them, they are great fast protein, but they are SO EXPENSIVE - the only thing I regularly get is peanut butter for quick snax and peanut sauce which runs me $2.99 a jar, every month or so. So I tend to get my protein from legumes and tofu.
(btw @CalBal- there are lots of vegan cheeses that are nut-free on the market now if you need to look for any reason!)
I pretty much never buy processed fake meat other than soyrizo, which is $2.50 for enough for 4 servings of nachos (the only thing we use it for).
Today is hard. I ate all my work food and I’m this close to going across the street to the gas station and getting one of those jarred starbucks frappes and some junk food.
I was offsite at work today and didn’t feel it would be appropriate to brown bag given the folks I was with, so I ate an expensive & disappointing sandwich, and then soothed feelings and got energy for the afternoon sessions with a Tim Hortons mocha. I am looking forward to having my me-made lunch tomorrow.
Thanks for all the menu suggestions, people! It has been useful. I’ve been making breakfast-for-dinner, consisting of eggs (used 2 from the list the first night, bought fresh eggs for nights 2&3), tomatoes, feta, bacon, potatoes, and onions.
Let’s see how I’ve done with the list this week:
Finished:
.1. a small amount of lemon pie filling. finished 1/3, ate on honey bread
4. a few slices of sharp cheddar cheese finished 1/2
8. one pear eaten 1/5
17. two eggs, best by 12/24 used 1/5
Wasted:
3. about 6 egg whites. decided not to risk it
unnumbered: a tub of hummus that I’d thought was unopened. It was partially eaten, and fuzzy.
Remaining:
2. an opened tub of sour cream.
5. half a package of hard salami. Ate about half this week
6. a half pound of prosciutto. Ate about half this week
7. about 2 pounds of grapes, green and red. Making slow progress, but they aren’t mushy yet
9. 5 apples (one golden delicious, the remainder honeycrisp)
10. the rest of the bag of clementines eating about one per day
11. grape tomatoesUsed 3/4 this week. One more breakfast plate will do it. Edit: finished 1/8
12. three ribs celery - designated for lentil soup. Starting to get soft, so need to make soup soon.
13. a bag of sweet onions - Used 2; many remain. Need to chop and freeze some this week
14. most of a bag of baby carrots - some will go in the soup, others need hummus
15. two pounds of potatoes used 2; 4-5 left
16. about a cup of cranberry sauce - no decision made on this yet
18. a tub of feta cheese crumbles. The package says best by 7/19, but it hasn’t been opened so I think it is still ok. Opened this week - no evidence of spoilage so have been eating. about 1/2 used now.
New this week: some things I forgot to list in the beginning, and some shelf-stable items that I don’t want to get stale:
19. a small block of smoked cheddar, from mid-November
20. about a pint of OJ, exp 12/31. Would like to use by mid-month.
21. an unopened package of bacon, exp 12/23/19 - used 3/4 this week. One meal left.
22. a small loaf of honey bread, gift from a neighborfinished 1/5
23. about half a head of broccoli, cut upeaten 1/4
24. 2/3 package of graham crackers
25. half a box of triscuits - finished 1/6
26. most of a bag of Aldi ginger cookies - making progress
27. dozen eggs, bought 1/5, best by 1/21 - 8 left
Plan for the week:
More breakfast for dinner. One more round will used up the bacon and tomatoes.
Lentil soup - will use carrots, celery, one onion, some unlisted stuff from the freezer (ham bone, sliced ham, spinach, tomato puree)
Scones - to use sour cream and maybe cranberry (if it is still ok)
I got on the eMeals free trial (for the keto / low carb menus)! So far I’m not sure if it’s going to work for me, but I’m going to stick out the free trial at least and do grocery delivery once through this system to give it a fair chance.
no food delivery yet
so far we’ve spent $52 on eating out that does not include mandatory work lunches for mr. flan
both times I ate out, it was with mr. flan or friends!
oh I totally forgot about the thing I was the most proud of! We came back from vacation, and I was immediately tempted to go to the grocery store to buy what I wanted to eat, but then we realized that our freezer was literally full from the last Costco trip we made, so for the past 4 days we’ve just eaten out of the freezer: Butternut squash soup from frozen bags of squash, chicken & zoodles from frozen bags of raw chicken and bags of zoodles, and wings from frozen bags of raw wings.
If we weren’t running out of coffee creamer I’d push this further. Still, this was a great reminder to eat what I actually have rather than frivolously crave and buy random groceries just because.
Tasty wins: sushi rice bowls with canned sardines from the pantry; potato tart with the last of the goat cheese and a last jar of caramelized onion relish from a few years ago
Kombucha is brewing. Once it’s ready to bottle I’ll pick one of our random herbal teas to flavor it.
I also have a ton of canned and frozen fruit. Time to make a pie or cobbler or something. I did start a batch of raspberry mead with half a bag of frozen berries. Bonus, it also used up a partial jar of honey. I don’t know why we had so many partially empty jars of honey, but now there’s one less of them!
It’s adapted from the fermented raspberry cider recipe in Batch, by Joel MacCharles and Dana Harrison.
Short version: crush raspberries and sugar together, leave at room temp to get a bit bubbly and fermented. Dissolve honey and warm water together, allow to cook, and add the raspberry ferment, top it off with an airlock and let it sit for a month or so.
Bottled fresh, it’s tasty, but if you let it sit a year it’s AMAZING. I also tried it with cherries last year and it was meh freshly bottled, but it’s really tasty now, one year later.
I brought most of the burritos, bagels, and at least one if the leftover curry dishes to a friend who’s been combatting a depression slump lately.
We ended up going to the grocery store and then cooking up some chicken and more asparagus. I didn’t spend any money and she made me take home a couple of chicken thighs and we felt productive so I call it a win and a fair tradeoff.
Coffee yesterday and coffee today, both external networking meetings. Lunch today also will be purchased, again a scheduled work related thing that alas cannot be expensed.
I have been told groceries this week are expensive because magnesium was on sale, and that is the only thing the shadowy one 's drs have agreed on.
Okay, squishy update: I don’t specifically keep track of food (what I eat/how often/how much) because micromanaging my intake has been massively unhealthy in the past.
That being said, I set my grocery budget to $300 for January, combined my coffee and dining out budget, set the dining out budget to $100.
I ate out last night because I unexpectedly stayed in town late to buy new tires as mine are shot, we’re expecting snow, and my commute is mostly rural roads.
I’ll likely buy a snack tonight and eat with my sister later. I have an hour in between work and therapy and don’t want to spend a hungry hour in therapy.
I tried two new alt meats (chorizo crumbles [Morningstar] and Qorn), and today had a reserve chik patty (Morningstar) with lunch. Highly processed veggies/fungi, but veggies all the same.
I keep forgetting how good fresh green beans are compared to canned.
I still have green beans/sweet potatoes/asparagus waiting for me at home.
I had some mango strips, mandarin oranges, and an apple this week in the “eat more fruit” goal.
Budget restrictions are not new goals, just reinforcing current goals with purchasing parameters.
