Failing the 21$/day Vegan Challenge.

To find out more about the 21$/day vegan challenge, and why, please visit Vegan Hope. Especially this post.

Let’s just straight out say it, it can be expensive to eat healthy. It can be even more expensive to eat locally or organically. One walk through the grocery store, and you can see, cheap simple carbohydrates vs expensive fruits and veggies. A visit to the farmer’s market can be mindboggling when you look at some of the prices of fresh vegetables or prepared items. I’m not knocking them, I do see the value of supporting local organic farmers over supporting large multinational corporations, and I love my weekly walk through at the farmers market because I love the atmosphere and I love talking to other people that are passionate about food. But it can get pricey very quickly.

My last few days have been interesting. Monday morning I went over to Superstore, and picked up a few things with the budget in mind. My thoughts primarily focused on getting adequate protein and carbohydrates. I thought that was interesting because I looked at fruits and vegetables as an indulgence rather then a necessity.

What did I buy:
– organic cornmeal muffin mix (1 package makes 12) – $2.50
– organic couscous (it was the same price as the regular kind) – $2.50
– a large package of extra firm tofu – 1.89
– Pasta – 1.97
– can of spaghetti sauce – .99
– zucchini – 1.29

Taxes were about 7 cents, the plus side of eating the way I do, I don’t pay taxes on most of the foods I eat.

Lunch and Breakfast were fresh cornmeal muffins. Dinner on both nights was pasta with spaghetti sauce, with half of a sliced zucchini and some diced tofu. It was simple but filling.

Tuesday evening I was going to go to a movie with a friend, I said no to going for Tofulatti at Block 1921, because it didn’t fit within my budget. Seeing a movie in the theater also seemed extravagant, so we watched a movie in the park on my netbook, and we got snacks from the grocery store nearby.

I had picked up a coupon for peanut butter from the Spread the Feeling fundraiser for the Edmonton Food Bank on Saturday.Normally this jar would have cost 6.49, but I got it for free. And two bananas for 51 cents.

Things weren’t going terribly, but then Wednesday afternoon I found out I needed to head to Toronto for a few days, and if there is one thing that isn’t very easy, it’s eating on a budget while out of the house. Of course, I took the bus to Toronto, from Edmonton, so just scrounging up food on the way ended up being around $13 on it’s own.

I got in at about 5:50 am this morning, and I’m happy to be here, but I’m bowing out of the challenge, but I do appreciate what it tried to teach.

Categories:21 dollar a week challengeedmontontorontotravelling