My Budget

OK so to be frank my budget might be a bit more for food then someone else in my position. I make about 200 a week and the arrangement at home is that i buy my food and pay my bills that I don't have to pay rent since my dad's former job gives us enough in unemployment to cover their things. Between paying for school which is about 150 a month and my phone bill of 155 that takes about two weeks of pay to cover not to mention my credit card that i keep forgetting to pay and will throw about 100 at when I have remembered and have the money. that leaves me a pretty good food budget but I try to spilt it so that i can afford other things or save for my move to Berkley with my faithful genie pig The Papoose who hasn't met food she wont eat well besides mushrooms.

So i guess you've figured I have about 800 a month coming in. If it was just me and I had rent and all to pay I would need to be section 8 to just have a place to live or a roommate. at least 500 goes to bills on most months because i do try to help with cable phone and Internet as well as the electric bills. that's 300 for anything else I need. 150 I try to save. So that's 150 for grocery's a month.

Yes this can be done. Yes you can eat well and vegan on it a month.

Bulk sections at Whole foods and shopping with coupons in their savings paper (yes they have one) Help me load up on things that aren't in the local super market. As for them My local one is shop right as well as Auldi which has non name brand foods and I've found many fun treats for myself there that would cost more at Wholefoods.


Simple rules I follow:

Recently I've tried to give up soy things but since I'm allergic to coconut it makes it hard to switch over. But when it comes to my milk substitute I find that shopping around is best and when I can I use the coupons given to the shopper club members to help cut down the costs.

Next shop in bulk. The local grocery has what they call a Can Can sale. Its a chance a few times a year to stock up on can goods. As much as I prefer fresh canned is a great way to save a bit of money and have it around. Three different kinds of beans , chili powder, maybe a fresh pepper and if you have it some TVP makes a pretty kick ass chili that can be frozen and eaten over time to save on your a good bit of money how many things can you say would cost you 5 bucks and you get at least 3 meals out of it and it taste great.

Next I don't think I will ever stress bulk enough when it comes to Whole Foods, it saves money and helps you be a bit more Eco friendly if your like me and go to the dollor store an get your own containers to hold your bounty in. Same can be said about their fresh nut butters but I would also check your local markets. I'm lucky enough to live in an area right now that its a short train ride into a major city where I can go to markets as well as have access to a family that over my 6 years of being vegan have gotten into farmers markets and farm stand even more so then when i was a kid. These too are money savers.

If you have a planter box and a green thumb growing your own herbs is a good way to get into gardening and learning how to care for outdoor plants. Saddly my schedual at times is hectic enough for me to forget about them and I've had more then one good plant pulled up by my grandmother who lives with us and is just a bit nutty.

Lastly the WalMart. I'm a punker and I have a taste for outlandish looking things. Which in it self is ok if your a size 0 and can afford Hot Topic, I can't so places like WalMart and Target become havens for me to get things I want a a low price. I tend to shop out of season when I do for clothing because for 20 bucks that I can sperate I can sometimes get a new hoodie or a pair of boots that are non leather and to my tastes pretty cheaply. They are also good for the running in for a few can goods or thing like taco shells or pizza crusts when my tastes are calling for one of them.

Also another thing with WalMart is that some still sell fabric, not much ant most are being fased out but that could be a time to stock on things to make your vegan home more you as well.

See I told you it wouldn't be all about food but how to be a vegan on a very tight budget.

Next up Libations!

Hungry Young and Poor

This being our initial blog together I wanted to introduce myself and let everyone know about me and how we will be going over the adventures of cooking vegan on the tightest budget I can think of. $7.25 minimum wage an hour on less then 40 hours a week. Now before you think this is someone looking for sympathy, its not.

In 2008 I was a a recent art school grad but like a lot of people in my class work came well... very hard or never. So after my dad lost his job about a month after my graduating I pushed aside my dreams of going to L.A. and becoming a graphic designer. Sadly my only job at the time was working at a liquor store. Though I had been there for years they refused to pay me more and i was already working mine and the other guy that had just quit shift. So I kept looking for anything that would work in my Field. Nothing did. So I became depressed and started questioning myself my life and my choices. Like a lot of people who came out in 2008 we felt the crush of the economic downturn and wanted to do something with our lives. That something didn't include my regimen of eating vegan junk food and watching Planet Green 24/7 and wishing I could cook more things from Whole Foods like Chef Emeril.

So after two years and still working retail, though no longer in liquor I decided to change things. A lot of people when they find out I'm vegan wonder how I do it. How i actually make things work on the money I have and living with two people that aren't vegan.

The answer is normally its not easy. But food is a passion of mine. Trust me one can't have gotten to my weight in high school with out food being a passion. It hasn't changed just because I changed to a curtly free lifestyle. I still watch the Food Network on my times off and kinda drool or sit and think, "Well I can make that and use this for that and that for this.".

I have a binder filled with recipes I've either tired or want to that I've gathered from different places on line and VegNews that I want to turn into easy ways for a single vegan to cook them.

So in the long and short of it this is going to be a shared culinary adventure, not that it will all be about food. I want to let people know how I've lived on this little of a budget and been happy with it all, (well except the fact that WalMart becomes more of an annoying friend then a hated foe). So hopefully we can share some tips and laugh at some of the weird things I come up with.

So what do you say, shall we cook?