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That's exactly what I do. I eat about 75% raw. So, from the time I wake up until dinner (I occasionally finish my daughter's tofu scramble), I typcially eat 100% raw. Dinner is usually cooked with a raw side or juice.
Now I am the primary shopper of a household of 3 (hubby and yr old daughter). I only buy organic foods that have a high pesticide level unless I find it at the farmer's market (celery, spinach, strawberries, potatoes, etc). Thick skinned foods I don't buy organic (broccoli, avocado, banana, etc).
I stock my pantry and fridge for items that will keep for a month at the beginning of the month (nuts, seeds, dates, nutritional yeast, braggs liquid amino, olive oil, dried spices, agave, gluten free pasta, rice, tofu) this is between $100-$150 depending on what I need.
Then about every 5-7 days I spend about $25-$30 on fresh produce.
The only disadvantage is that we go through a ton of commercial soy, almond, and rice milk because my hubby loves cereal and i use it for smoothies sometimes and I mean I have a 1 yr old-so I will exclude the cost of milk. But you're single so let's say you spend a max of $180 and $25 a week on produce that would be about $280. I think that's very reasonable for it to be the max, but I'm pretty sure you won't have to spend that much because I feed my family of 3 on that amount.
Lilburger - i know what you mean about the processed vegan foods - theyre so expensive, its the reason so many people tell me 'i couldnt afford to eat vegan.'
best way i know to save money -
go to a market and buy in bulk - a box of banana's, or a 5kg bag of spinach, whatever deals you can get, its so much cheaper than buying smaller amounts.
FREEZE the veges - either whole, or made up into smoothies.
semi-defrost the made up smoothies and then chuck them in the blender - icy and delicious!
frozen blended banana's with nut milk is delicious!
(freezing is okay right?)
Quite alot of people don't agree with freezing as they say it distroys the life force like cooking does. I think it could well be true but hey ho! I personally freeze a few things like berries, bananas, left over dehyrdated stuff, etc.
(But I'm not 100% raw and no purest so it doesn't bother me.)
sv3: I work in a laboratory, we use comercially avalible enzymes in our work, we keep them in the freezer, take them out use them and put them back, they work fine doing this 10's of times. A frozen plant will not still be alive because its cell walls burst when it freezes but the enzymes inside the cells are fine. Also cooking creates new and dangerous chemicals - like acrylamide- freezing does not do this.
Me and my boyfriend go to the store every week and spend $120 a week for two people.
120 x 4 = 480. Divided by 2 = 240.
So I spend $240 a month on groceries. I do supplement at work, but usually that is for splurges. I could live on $250-$300. Especially if i cut out coffee :) I know i don't spend alot more than this on food because I only make $300 a week.
How we do it is this. Today for instance.
Breakfast 2 plums. 3 carrots.
a small handful of cashews.
Water.
Lunch is oftentimes
1 avocado $1.50
1 organic mango $2
1 pepper $1.50
(i cheat and eat corn chips with those =$3.00) $8.00
Lunch is usually the most expensive for me.
Salad for dinner alot
Most of all these are veggies, cheap, and maybe topped with nut/nutrional yeast.
This is such an interesting thread. I bet it does make a big difference what regions people live in...for example..I live in small town northern Michigan and organic produce is outrageous here because we only have 2 small local-yokel type grocery stores...no department stores to give them a lil competition. However, I have found ways to save in other areas so I put that money into my food budget. I feed myself, my 10 year-old daughter and my 3 year-old son...my 10 month old baby is still almost exclusively nursed, other than some organic live carrot juice here and there...so really, it's a budget for 1 adult and 2 kids...I spend aprox $150.00 a week, but I spend next to nothing on laundry soap, shampoo, toothpastes etc...because I make my own. I buy as much organic as possible, and try to follow guidelines I found on Dr Ben Kim's site as far as pesticide levels in fruits n veggies. If it's a high level pesticide item we do without it until we can get it organically. It does go down during the summer, if we have a good enough summer for my garden to yield anything.