Emily Bloch
- My boyfriend and I spend about $415 on groceries every month.
- We are both vegan, and our grocery list usually includes fruit, vegetables, tofu, and vegan meat and cheese substitutes.
- Here’s a detailed list of exactly what we buy every month.
Mark and I are serious foodies, but we’re trying to eat in more.
Tonight, he’s making Beyond Burgers topped with fried green tomatoes and cabbage sauteed in red wine vinegar. Last week, it was a faux fried chicken made from wheat gluten. I decided I loved him when he told me the sandwich we ordered came with mac and cheese on top of it, but wanted to know if we should get a side of it, too.
Together, we’re a vegan millennial couple living in Jacksonville, Florida.
Even though we’ve been dating for a while, we just started officially living together under the same roof. We both went vegan for our love of animals — including our black lab Gypsy, who enjoys Mark’s cooking scraps alongside normal kibble — and our distaste for factory farming.
We’re both in the early stages of our careers with communications degrees, so we’re not exactly rolling in a money pit. We also rent right now, but hope to buy a house within the next few years, so we try to shop frugally and eat in whenever possible.
On a monthly basis, the two of us spend about $415 on groceries. We do the bulk of our shopping at Publix, but aren’t immune to the occasional Trader Joe’s impulse buys, and we also shop at some local markets around town. If you’ve ever wondered what a vegan eats in a typical month, we’re about to show you.
This is what our monthly grocery spending looks like.
Publix — every other week: $120 to $130
Rusty Clark ~ 100K Photos / Flickr
We shop at Publix, a regional grocer based in the Southeast, for most of our day-to-day foods.
Our basic produce and entree bases will come from there, along with most beverages, including our refrigerator staple: flavored seltzer water. I told you, we’re millennials. (But if it helps, we usually get it buy-one-get-one.)
I’m a sucker for a daily yogurt and you will always find stacks of tofu in our fridge that we use in scrambles, tacos, and more. We also irregularly buy things like olive oil, margarine, juices, hot sauce, and whatever interesting snack foods catch our eyes — which are not included in this breakdown.
There are only two of us, so we’re not buying in bulk, but we do look for deals when we can, and our average weekly savings comes out to around $20.
- Canned beans – $2.67
- Non-dairy milk – $2.89
- Wheat gluten – $7.29
- Flour – $2.00
- Nutritional yeast – $7.59
- Tomato sauce – $6 (this goes on sale often)
- Broccoli – $2.99
- Spinach – $2.99
- Bell peppers – $2.19
- Potatoes – $4.99
- Rice – $0.89
- Carrots – $0.99
- Bananas – $1.20
- Mushrooms – $3.69
- Lemons/limes – $1.00
- Collards – $4.99
- Cabbage – $3.00
- Romaine – $3.99
- Tofu – $5.98
- Vegan cheese – $4.99
- Vegan dressing – $2.99
- Sauces/marinades -$ 2.29
- Seltzer water – $5 (this goes on sale often)
- Coffee – $3.08
- Frozen meat substitutes – $9.98
- Frozen french fries – $4.49 (this goes on sale often)
- Non-dairy yogurt – $10
- Cereal – $4.99
- Pasta – $3.00
- Frozen berries – $4.99
- Non-dairy ice cream – $3.99
- Garlic – $0.89
- Onions – $1.15
- Breads – $2.97
- Tortillas – $2.85
- Tempeh – $3.99
- Crescent rolls – $3.87
Trader Joe’s — monthly: around $85
Getty Images/Michael Nagel
Mark never cared for Trader Joe’s until I came along. But with one perfectly stationed on my drive home from work, I make sure to pop in and get us some seasonal goodies, sauces, and dressings to pair with whatever he’s cooking.
They also have great deals on vegan meat substitutes compared to Publix. Items like Tofurky slices are usually a few dollars cheaper. Needless to say, he’s coming around.
- Chili-spiced dried mango – $2.00
- Garlic spread dip – $6.00
- Pasta – $3.00
- Cauliflower gnocchi – $5.38
- Açaí purée packet – $4.49
- Vegan kale pesto – $3.69
- Crackers – $2.49
- Granola – $3.49
- Protein bars – $12.90
- Blood oranges – $2.49
- Chips – $6.00
- Vegan meat substitutes – $10.00 (Tofurky, chorizo, meatless meatballs)
- Jam – $3.99
- Seasonings – $6.00
Local markets – weekly: $45 to $50
Emily Bloch
We love supporting local businesses, and if that doesn’t mean eating out, it often means getting items that we can incorporate into our own cooking.
Our favorite stops include local produce farms, a kombucha brewer, and a vegan meat butcher that somehow magically crafts faux meat and dairy substitutes like bacon, chicken salad, and even cheese sauces out of soy, wheat gluten, and other ingredients.
- Local vegan meat substitutes – $10.00
- Local vegan cheese substitute – $5.00
- 32-oz. growler fill of kombucha – $11.00
- Loaf of local sourdough – $6.00
- Seasonal produce – $15.00
- Local sauerkraut – $6.00
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Emily Bloch)