Eating Vegan on $3/day: Day 1

Posted on Facebook, August 10, 2015
Modified for this blog.

Peter K. put up an article about eating vegan on $21/week. When I read what the author ate, it seemed to lack protein and adequate calories and I thought it was possible to come up with something more balanced within the parameters she was working with. I may live to eat my words. I spent a few days visiting grocery stores, comparing prices, and planning out a menu. This may be a lot harder than I thought!

In my own defense: the author in the article described what she ate but didn't give details about how much, so we don't have information on total calories, how much protein she got, etc. I am using My Fitness Pal to evaluate my menu. I'm shooting for @ 1700 calories per day and a minimum of 50 g. of protein.

I made a batch of soy milk and a batch of chili from $.50/lb pinto beans I got form Ruler. (Thanks, Peter, for recommending them!) I think I'm going to be eating a lot of pinto beans this week! I carefully reviewed my shopping list (I went to Aldi's, Ruler, Schnucks, and even checked a few items at Whole Foods) to see where I can get the most bang for my buck. I'm basing my diet on beans, brown rice, tortillas, and kale (marked down to $.99/lb. at Ruler).

This is the article that started this project:

https://www.veganmainstream.com/2010/09/02/eating-vegan-on-21-00-a-week-the-food-stamp-budget/

I started on Sunday, August 9. Here's how it went:

Day #1:

Okay, this has taken an insane amount of planning & calculating. If you guys could see me with the calculator, the grocery receipts, my list of food prices (to calculate the cost of ingredients I already have based on if I were buying them today), and the way I'm writing everything down, juggling it all to try to make it work . . . well, you would think I'm off the deep end. And perhaps I am. What is obvious: fruits and vegetables are costly, even when they are cheap. I can have one cup of chili and four corn tortillas for $.53 and get 356 calories and 9 grams of protein, or 1 cup black bean soup and 1/2 cup of brown rice for $.39 and get 293 calories and 10 grams of protein. Or I can have a peach, that I found really cheap at $.69/lb., for $.46 and get 74 calories and mostly sugars.  [Note: prices were valid in August, 2015, in the city of St. Louis.]

Today's menu:

Breakfast:
3/4 cup bran flakes: $.10
1 c. homemade soy milk .04
1 banana: .15
Tea: .01
Total: $.30

Lunch:
Black beans & rice $.39
Kale .15
Sliced tomato 8 oz. .35
Tea .01
Total: $.90

Dinner:
Chili 1 c. $.26
4 corn tortillas .27
1 c. broccoli .22
1 peach (190g) .46
Total: $1.21

Snacks:
2 Tb. peanut butter w/
2 sticks celery           $.19
Carrots, 4 oz                .15
1/2 serving black beans & rice . 13
1 tortilla                      .07
Total:          $.54

Total for the day: $2.95 (barely made it!)

Nutritional content:
Calories: 1605
Protein: 59 g
Fat: 43 g
Carbs: [Alice note: this got overlooked, sorry, I'm not going back and recalculating]
Calcium: 49% RDA

For food items where you have to discard some of it (like the outer peel of the onion) I calculated the cost based on the gross weight before peeling but calculated the nutritional content on the usable part.. Estimated cost of spices is included in the recipe. Left out so far: cost of salt (I'll add it at the end of the week since it's too low to count) and cilantro, a bunch of which will last for a number of recipes (I'll add it at the end of the week). Clearly, though, I barely made it today. More beans, less fruit.

There were several times today I *really* wanted to have something that clearly would not fit into this. I managed to resist.

The author of the original article did not have a car and was restricted to stores within walking and bicycling distance. Although I checked the price of a few select items at Whole Foods (in some rare instances, they are actually the least expensive) I am restricting my shopping to groceries within walking or biking distance, though I am not walking or biking myself. One could potentially lower the cost on some non-perishable items by buying in bulk i.e. beans or rice in 25# sacks. (I have done this in the past.)



We've survived Day #1. Let's see how it goes on day #2.