Millennial Money: I saved $800 in 5 months by eating more plants

abcnews.go.com:

I never wanted to be a vegetarian, and definitely not a vegan, but after seeing a family member change their diet for health reasons and enjoy some incredible results, I decided to give it a shot

I tried going vegetarian once when I was in high school. My best friend was a vegetarian, and I was curious. I lasted only about four days. My downfall: a buffalo chicken sandwich. Since that ill-fated attempt, I’ve never tried to curb my meat consumption. It’s just too dang tasty.

But in 2022, a family member was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. In addition to taking new medications, they adopted a strict whole-food, plant-based diet in the hopes that it would improve their health. If diet could potentially help a serious disease, I figured maybe it could help my far less serious health issues. Why not try it?

And it worked.

What’s more, in addition to making me feel better, switching from a meat-heavy diet (eating meat nearly twice a day) to a plant-heavy diet (eating meat one to three times a week) saved me more than $800 over the course of five months.

AN ECONOMIC DIET

At first I wasn’t thrilled about eating salad over steak, but I loved how much money I was saving. And it turns out my case isn’t unique.

A 2021 study from Oxford University found that vegan diets reduced food costs by as much as one-third.

When you think about it, it makes sense: The average cost of a pound of ground beef was $5.23 in October 2023. If you replace that meat with chickpeas, you can expect to pay around a dollar for a 15.5-ounce can.

Toni Okamoto, founder of the blog Plant-Based on a Budget in Sacramento, California, says that many of her clients spend $40 to $50 a week per person on groceries while following her plant-based meal