As of yesterday, I will not be eating meat for the next month.
While it may not seem so, this decision has been a long time coming. I’ve been feeling some cognitive dissonance about eating meat for a pretty long time, but given all the other stuff that’s been going on in my life, I just sort of pushed those thoughts aside in favor of coping with with more pressing issues. But recently I’ve started to become a little bit grossed out by meat, and last week I pushed an otherwise delicious meal aside because the meat was making my skin crawl. That’s when I decided to try going meat-free for a month, just to see how it goes.
My overall decision to try out a meatless lifestyle has much more to do with my political and social attitudes than it does with health or finances, but I don’t write a blog about political or social issues. I do, however, write a blog about money. So I decided to run a short series about my meat-free experiment regarding how it impacts my spending on groceries. I’m not convinced that a vegetarian diet is cheaper than its carnivorous counterpart – vegetables and meat substitutes are fairly expensive and I’ll probably need a lot more of each in order to feel full. But I suppose only the numbers will tell, right?
Just so we’re clear going in, these are the foods I will not be eating for the next thirty days:
- Chicken and other types of poultry
- Beef
- Pork
- Any product derived from these foods (like chicken broth, for example)
I will be eating:
- Grains of all types
- Beans of all types
- Soy products
- All fruits and vegetables
- Dairy products
- Fish and shellfish
In other words, I’m going to be the least strict type of vegetarian.
So far, I’ve spent $35.06 on groceries, which should last me a week. What did I get for that sum? Among a few other staples, I bought:
- A bag of Trader Joe’s meatless meatballs – only $3.49!
- Pasta and sauce (you probably see where this is going)
- The veggies and other ingredients for this recipe
- Strawberries and bananas
- Half and half (for my coffee)
So that’s what’s going on in my food and financial world. I’ll be updating my progress on at least a weekly basis, so stay tuned!
Do you eat meat? If not, why?
