“To contend that eating plant-based is too expensive is simply blind contempt prior to first-hand investigation.”
There is a very powerful, entrenched notion that eating plant-based is a lifestyle reserved for only the well-heeled elite.
But is this actually true?
To find out, my son Trapper and I visited six local markets to see what we could find for $25 or less.
Special thanks to Trapper Piatt for manning b-camera and helping out a ton on this project.
Thanks to Jake Shaw for his blog post reviewing all the items purchased in the video. Click here to read all about it.
Music on this one by Haukjem — check him out on Soundcloud & Facebook– he rocks.
Once again, and at the risk of sounding repetitive, I’m putting a ton of effort into building my presence on YouTube. So if you are digging the content, do me a solid — subscribe to my channel and I promise my movies will continue to get better.
I hope you enjoy this fun little movie in the spirit in which it was intended.
Peace + Plants,
I’ve always believed this. Seems painfully obvious to me, right? Has anyone ever glanced at the price of a bag of dry beans, or rice, or a potatoes? They practically give it away at the grocery store. A bunch of kale is freaking $0.99 Duh… Now go look at the prices in the meat section. This is not advanced mathematics here.
I don’t know why this perception exists. Boggles my mind.
Great video! I was blown away by the difference in purchase power from the first store to the last. Thanks to you and Trapper for putting this together. I really enjoyed it.
Jason, I agree. My sister-in-law claims it is too expensive, but she practically lived on McDonald’s $1 menu and other fast food soooo… Of course I think she was comparing organic prices in the grocery store versus standard fare. I found a market near us that has a mind boggling amount of fresh fruits and vegetables. Nirvana
Your right. My family has found that it is actually less expensive for us to eat more plant based foods. Veggies are much less expensive than meat.
What the “cost” argument masks is the increased prep and breakdown time to cook with a lot of veggies. ie too much cutting.
Also veggies are hard to freeze, so you have to plan a little bit before you cook for the week. When we first started to eat really healthy a lot of veggies we meant to cook went bad. NIce video, great interview on joe rogan, glad I heard you talk.
Maybe bring your own bags to the store next time to put your grocery in. That would help the invironment allot.
Nice video btw you let people see eating plantbased doesnt have to cost much.
am I missing something here? Living Vegan for $25 a day means just that eating for a day for $25 usually meaning 3 meals and possibly snacks, so when you buy a bag of Goji Berries or 3 juices for $25 what does that mean? Is that supposed to mean for 1 day breakfast lunch and dinner I will eat Goji berries? and for my next day 1 am going to have a juice for breakfast, then lunch and then dinner? That’s really not comparable to living $25 a day, I am a vegan and I would not want to just eat Goji berries for 1 day so again what’s the deal?
Did you watch the entire video?
I think you missed the premise. It’s not a video on how to eat vegan on $25 per day. It’s a video on what $25 will buy you at various different types of grocery retailers.
I stopped video after the juice okay makes sense now, had a question on your B12 which I think is the best around, you have it on sale right now for half the price which is awesome, If I buy 2 should the extra one be stored in the fridge until I am ready for it? or does it even matter, thanks
Tips to “cut” (he! he!) down prep time:
– A food processor than can slice, do julienne strips, grate, mix and chop.
– A mandolin is also a great kitchen tool to use (always use the guard to protect your fingers!).
– But best of all I find is to do it simple by having few different vegetables per meals or even just one, just variate from meal to meal. That helps a lot with prep time.
– Cook and freeze your beans in tin-canes-like quantity in reusable plastic bags like Zip Lock. Or buy a pressure cooker and make your own cans (I think you can do it as well without this expensive gadget, check it out…)
– Buying some frozen veggies like peas, sweet corn, spinach, etc.
– Cooking in big batches and freezing ready to warm up meals is wise because making a bigger batch of a dish takes so much less time then cooking twice. Because I live alone I try often make and freeze many home made tv-dinners (that I’m later so glad to have when I don’t have energy to cook!).
– Indeed many fruits and veg have a different texture after they have been frozen. So you have to experiment with different vegetable and see how they change texture and how much change you are ok with. If you have only vegetables to freeze (ie. not a whole dish) it’s always recommended to blanch then first.
– AND of course, every one’s favorite: a dishwasher machine!
I hope that can help a little bit.
Nice work guys. I would add wild plants to that, especially abundant, easy to spot dandelions.
They are all over the place, totally free, and are super good for your kidneys.
Try to pick the younger ones as the older ones are extremely bitter and will dominate the flavour of your smoothie, juice, salad, dressing or whatever you whip them into. However, the more bitter they are, the better they are at cleaning the kidneys.
Watch out for dog pee!
True, but I’d contend that you can ALSO eat vegan, and healthy vegan at that, on far less than $25/day/person. Between an electric pressure cooker, large bags of dried beans and organic brown rice from Costco, and sensible seasonal veggies, we do it all the time.