Reducing Your Grocery Bill

I've been Vegetarian for a few years now and one of the biggest advantages is the reduction in my weekly grocery bill. When you exclude animal products from your meal plan you save quite a bit of money.

Let's look at my grocery bill over a sample two-week period:


Week One:

Lettuce - $2.69

Nutella chocolate - $3.89

Pasta - $3.58

Soy Milk - $3.89

Bread - $2.00

Veggie burgers - $4.99

Total (with taxes) = $21.04


Week Two:

Lettuce - $2.69

Pasta - $3.58

Apples - $4.99

Bread - $2.99

Trail mix - $6.29

Total (with taxes) = $20.54


Now, some things you would buy occasionally, like laundry detergent, soap, paper towels, garbage bags, miscellaneous food items, etc. So, when factoring these extra costs in, I average about $25-30 per week, or $100-120 per month for groceries, plus household extras. That's just for a single person though (myself). For a family, the grocery bill would obviously be higher.

By the way, I almost never buy snacks such as chips, crackers, or other treats, which can really add to the grocery bill. I can honestly say that after many years of enjoying more than my share of treats and junk food, I can now live without them. I just focus on the basic foods now and that's all I need. But maybe I'll buy a treat now and then :-)

One other thing I do which saves me a lot of money on food is I almost never eat out. I always prepare my meals myself. If were to eat out once, that by itself would almost be one weeks worth of groceries, in terms of cost. This really adds up if you're in the habit of always eating out because maybe you're too tired from work to make your own meals, or whatever. This brings me to the next point.

Being a Vegetarian, or Vegan, means you don't have to cook and prepare your meals as much. If you buy meat, or eggs that usually takes more time to prepare. But admittedly I'm closer to being Vegan than Vegetarian so I don't even buy eggs. So the only time I cook is when I make pasta, which usually lasts me for a few days anyway.