January 29, 2015
I read many blogs about great ideas to save money but I always wonder…do these people keep up with this stuff? How does that work in a busy life, really?
I have written a few posts of my own about how to save money on this or that. This is the first in a series of posts in which I will update you on a ‘how to save money’ post. Did I stick with it? How difficult is it to do on a daily basis? Does it really save money?
#1 Going vegan
After watching Forks Over Knives, my husband suggested dropping meat and dairy. I spent the next week looking up some recipes and jumped right in! We were going to try to be completely vegan…
How did that work? It has been 3 years since we watched Forks Over Knives…
Being vegan did not stick very long.
- We have chickens so we never stopped eating eggs.
- It was more difficult to drop dairy than meat.
- We dropped milk (our pediatrician was none too pleased) but still eat grilled cheese once a week and eat cheese on our pizzas.
- We eat meat when we go out to eat and on people’s birthdays (and get sick right after). If we have left-over meat from holidays or birthdays, I’ll try to stretch it as long as possible (ham bone soup, cutting chicken/turkey up & freezing it in 2c bags for pot pies or pasta or enchiladas).
The original goal of dropping meat/going vegan was not to save money. It was to get healthy — eat more plant-based meals. We achieved that goal. Even though we eat eggs every day and eat meat and cheese occasionally, we eat a plant-based diet.
My kids don’t know they are not supposed to like salad or other veggies. They love when I make them ice cream (frozen bananas and blueberries in a blender).
Yes, if you offered them real ice cream or cookies or mac’n’cheese, they would jump at the chance. But, because their bodies are not used to those things, they get sick right after and they are starting to see the correlation.
An unexpected benefit of having a plant-based diet is how much money we have saved, not buying meat most of the year! Dried beans vs. meats is a HUGE price difference.
I know many women who would say their husbands would NEVER buy into a plant-based diet. I hear you. I certainly didn’t want to drop meat! I would encourage two things.
- You and your husband watch Forks Over Knives
- If that does not change his mind, talk to him about doing a meatless meal one night/week.
Conclusion: I guess we fail at being vegan. But we are healthier and save a bunch of money on food so it’s an overall win to me!
I am linking up with Simple Lives Thursday, Green Thumb Thursday, and the Farm Blog Hop— always looking for more ideas! 🙂
Who else wonders if those ‘Save Money!’ blogs really live up to the hype? Next post, I’ll be talking about Cloth Diapering and if/how it really saves money and is doable…
Gardening Without... 
Great job! Even if you’re not “a perfect vegan” eating MORE plant based meals is great for your health & your budget both. Not all members of our family are vegan, but when Lent comes we are – and we watch the grocery bill take a very steep plummet then! I’m always stunned when people think that it would be more expensive to be vegan than to eat meat. (BTW – our pediatrician has never pushed milk. Many docs I have spoken with agree that a vegan diet may be healthier than a standard diet. It’s just a personal opinion of the doctor one way or the other – generally speaking, they don’t receive ANY nutritional training in med school)
Thx! 🙂 Yes, it amazes me when people say eating healthy is more expensive than eating processed. When we buy processed, our bill skyrockets! And we have all lost a ton of weight to boot 🙂
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I love that you are showing the outcome and reasons for what you are doing (or not doing). We stretch our meals with beans (a lot) and I think once you get into a habit of doing it, your family stops noticing. One of the reasons I try to make more plant based meals is so I can afford grass fed beef and pastured chicken from a local farmer. If we eat less meat we can afford higher quality. Thanks for sharing with us at Simple Lives Thursday; hope to see you again this week.
thx! I love Simple Lives Thursday. I have learned SO much from the blog-hop 🙂 I hear ya on the quality meat. It is expensive! I am just realizing that being self-sufficient and being vegetarian is going to be impossible. We have a lot of land but we do not have enough to grow all of the beans we eat in a year! I am looking into growing our own meat to supplement all of our bean-eating (kinda backwards, i know) 🙂
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Great post! Now that I think about it, we usually have pasta or soup/salad one day a week….it would be so easy to just drop the meat from it. I wouldn’t tell the kids though! I’m sneaky like that! My kids are husband funny, they would protest if they knew I was doing it on purpose but if I don’t say a word they would just accept it as ‘this is today’s dinner’. lol
Thanks for linking up with Green Thumb Thursday last week! I hope you’ll join us again this week!
~Lisa M
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