How to save money with vegetarian meals

We switch out 2-3 meat-based dinners for vegetarian meals per week to save money for investments without cramping our lifestyle. You can, too!

This follows up from my post on budgeting. I’m assuming that you’re already working to a budget and are looking for ideas to free up some money for better things.

Don’t worry, I’m not here to preach and turn you vegan

“How do you tell if someone’s a vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you!”

Unknown – but relatable.

I have no problems with eating meat. I’m a big fan of a meat feast pizza. I cook a mean steak. BBQ? Nail it 95% of the time [there’s no 100% success rate with any barbecue-er, let’s face it]. Not really a concern for me. I agree that we should eat less of it for environmental reasons, but that’s not what I’m here to write about.

The problem with meat is that it’s so expensive. You want some chicken breast for your curry? That’s easily £1.80 for two of them (looking at the Tesco.com reviews, £1.80 doesn’t get you much). Beef steak strips for your stir fry? £3.80, please! You haven’t even added flavourings and you’re already a decent way through a fiver for two adults.

If you think back to my home page, the second pillar of my FIRE strategy is spend intentionally. I have to spend money on food, but money I spend on food that’s just a routine isn’t as fun as money I could spend on something awesome. Sure, I enjoy a decent meal, but it got me thinking: what if I could reduce the costs of a decent meal and still be happy with what I was eating?

Why we only eat 2-3 veggie meals per week

Financial independence is going to take us a long time. It can’t be too extreme. Sprinting at the start of a marathon just isn’t a smart tactic. If we committed to something severe, our chances of keeping it up were going to be pretty low. Ten years is a long time to do something you don’t want to do.

The problem with a lot of vegetarian food is that it tries so hard to be healthy. A little too hard. Fortunately, we found enough vegetarian meals that we liked to trickle them in at around 2-3 a week to save us cash without causing hardship.

Vegetarian food can be just as expensive if you’re not careful

If you try to replace meat for veggie or vegan substitutes, you’re not going to save much money. Allow me to present some examples.

This bag of Quorn pieces could totally replace chicken in a curry. I’ve actually done this, it tastes pretty good and you lose a lot of fat. For vegetarians with a moral stance on eating meat or for athletes in training, it’s a great option.

However, for financial independence, it’s no good. I’m trying to eat vegetarian meals that save money for investing. These are £1.75 and only replace the £1.80 chicken from earlier. I mean, great for dieting, not so helpful for what I’m trying to achieve.

How to save money by eating vegetarian meals

The answer to saving money through vegetarian meals is to find options that taste good despite not having meat in them, instead of by trying to find a fake meat substitute. For example, using edamame beans in thai curry, making falafel, or using mixed beans in a chili sauce instead of making chili con carne.

Let’s look at some examples.

Example 1: Thai red curry with frozen edamame beans

I’m lazy. When I make thai red curry, it’s literally a jar of sauce, a can of coconut milk, rice, some mixed vegetables and a protein. That’s about it. I used to use chicken because it’s often a cheap meat, but those £1.80 chicken breasts would only feed my partner and I for one serving.

Suggestion

Replace it with a few handfuls of frozen edamame beans. These are unprocessed soya beans and so far I’ve only found them in Sainsbury’s. However, I get about 8 servings per bag, which means one of these bad boys will feed 8 people and replace £7.20 of chicken. Not bad for £2! That’s about 50p to replace those £1.80 chicken breasts, a money saving of £1.30 just by eating a vegetarian meal. Not bad.

I like that there’s no long prep time. I boil them in the curry sauce, on the hob. Seems to work, takes less time to cook, still tastes good.

Example 2: Home made falafel

Falafel is one of my favourite foods in the world. It tastes dirty, like any decent street food should, but it’s just chickpeas mashed up with an egg, onions and spices, then deep fried.

I can’t really say that falafel has a direct competition, but we eat them in wraps with salad. I’m going to compare them with eating nandos piri-piri chicken, because they basically accompany the same things.

Suggestion

Under half price – and that’s if you actually eat 2 x chicken breasts as two grown adults. Eating vegetarian has saved money again, this time about £1.60 for two.

Example 3: Three bean chili

We also bulk cook, especially for this one, so our savings are quite huge. However, for simplicity, this example will work off using a single tin of mixed pulses to replace mince in a chili. I promise you won’t miss it, it still tastes like chili.

Suggestion

This is a more striking example. Chicken is cheap; eating vegetarian meals instead of chicken dinners does save you money, but it’s not much. Beef on the other hand… Here is a 74% saving for just switching out the cheap beef mince for the three bean salad.

Weekly total

The above vegetarian meal swaps would have saved us:

• Thai curry with edamame instead of chicken: saved £1.30.
• Falafel instead of Nandos chicken: saved £1.60.
• Three bean chili instead of chili con carne: saved £1.85.
• Total weekly saving = £4.75 for two people

None of these swaps was particularly complicated and all of them taste just as good – albeit a little different in texture – as their counterparts. Who doesn’t love falafel?! In the process we freed up £19 a month in our budget, barely even breaking a sweat and still eating like kings.

You might now be wondering what foods are in your meal rotation that could be switched out for vegetarian meal options. It’s a tempting money saving opportunity that could make the difference in the long term. I have some suggestions of things that I have found work pretty well during my experiments, which will hopefully give you a good base to build upon.

Vegetarian meal swaps that seem to work

1. Spicy curries

Curries are great and also disguise the fact that you’re eating a veggie meal. Favourites of mine include this aubergine curry recipe, chickpea biryani that I modified from a Bad Manners recipe book, and the above mentioned thai curry, for when a jar of curry is all you have patience for. When I’m cooking in batches with a slow cooker, I also have a good recipe for a sweet potato curry that does 4-6 big meals.

2. Food that’s meant to be vegetarian by design

I’m talking about recipes that were never meant to have meat or a meat substitute in them. Falafel, maybe cauli cheese, butternut squash risotto – that kind of thing. Not all of them satisfy anyone who isn’t fuelled by righteousness and determined to eat very few calories, so be warned.

3. Food that has added fats from somewhere else

Vegetarian meals, even ones that save money, are usually a hard sell because they don’t satisfy meat eaters. There’s a lot of fat content in meat, usually more than veg will have, which is one of the things that makes it so satisfying. I’ve found that meals with added fats are an easier sell. For example: a satay veggie stir fry (peanuts are pretty fatty). Frying and roasting usually give vegetables that “dirty” taste we all secretly crave. You don’t see many people turn down roast potatoes or chips at a meal.

How I use vegetarian meals to save money

I’m sure that a decent financial independence campaigner would take every penny of these savings and throw them into ETFs for a healthy bit of progress.

I… don’t. Well, not directly. Instead, I set a meal budget and use the veggie meals to come in under budget. With what’s left, we treat ourselves to a dirty takeaway or a meal out. That way, we get to treat ourselves, but instead of eating into savings when we do it and splurging we’re patiently rewarding ourselves for good discipline.

I’ve read quite a few social media discussions where people swear blind that they don’t do takeaways or meals out. I get it, they’re a “waste” of money if you’re thinking about the opportunity cost, but life is for living and if we can free up space within the budget to treat ourselves, why not? This way, I can be strict with my regular investment plan, and if I want to eat out one night I know that I’ve got to eat more vegetarian meals to save money and stay on budget.

One of the biggest enemies to an investment plan is giving up and splurging on a cheat day. If I incorporate a few cheaper vegetarian meals and save a bit of money, I don’t have to be tempted by cheat days. So far, so good!