photo from Wegmans

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Grocery prices keep going higher. Many of us don’t have a lot of time to go to several different store in a quest to find the lowest priced items. It’s a challenge to stay on a food budget. Earlier this year, several interns worked with me on a project to develop low-cost vegan menus. The interns’ task was to go to supermarkets and check prices on a long list of vegan foods. They visited supermarkets in person and virtually in different areas of the United States. Based, in part, on what they found, here are some ideas for lower cost vegan shopping.

1. Store brands are often lower priced and are nutritionally similar to name brands. There may be some cases where you prefer a more expensive name brand because of taste or another quality but in many cases, the less expensive store brand is quite acceptable.
2. A lower price does not necessarily mean it’s the best buy. One intern learned about this when pricing frozen vegetables. Yes, a 12-ounce package of frozen corn cost less than 1-pound package but the price per ounce was lower for the larger package. If you know you’ll use the larger package and it costs less per ounce, you’ll save money in the long-term.
3. Sometimes it makes sense to purchase a smaller package size. We found a gallon jug of soy sauce cost less per ounce than a smaller bottle, but you may not need a gallon of soy sauce.
4. In contrast to the last time we looked at prices of vegan groceries, we found it was significantly cheaper to buy refrigerated soymilk compared to shelf-stable soymilk. For a family of four, a week’s worth of refrigerated soymilk ranged from 14% to 75% less expensive than a week’s worth of shelf-stable soymilk.
5. Your time is valuable. Often price variations between stores even out with some items costing more at one store and other items costing more at the other. If your time is limited, choose one store where you like the prices and the quality and shop there most of the time instead of trying to go to several stores in search of the lowest price.
6. For foods that are staples in a vegan diet, perhaps tofu and canned beans, if you have storage space and the expiration date on the tofu is a month or more out, you may decide to buy a month’s worth of these foods at a time at the area store with the lowest price.
7. Bags of produce (apples, onions, potatoes, oranges, for example) are often less expensive per pound than single fruits or vegetables. If your family will eat the larger amount, a bag of produce can offer savings.
8. Check the price of frozen vegetables. Especially for produce that wasn’t in season, we found that frozen vegetables cost less than fresh.

For more ideas for low-cost vegan eating see:

How Can I Eat Vegan on a Budget?

Food Economics: Canned Beans versus Cooked Dried Beans

Low-cost Vegan Menus

Vegan at the Dollar Tree

Egg Replacers: Good for Animals and the Planet and Your Budget