I think so.
Nope, I'm not talking about Whole Foods Market AKA Whole Check, but whole ingredients - fresh fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts & seeds.
Vegan meal planning can be expensive (it used to be very expensive for us) but focusing on whole ingredients, planning your meals and having a well-stocked pantry will save you tons of money long-term.
We spend between $600-$650 a month on groceries for our family of 5. I shop once a week and usually work off a grocery list using recipes from cookbooks and blogs.
Some weeks I spend less than $100 on food for the whole week. No lie. I find that I spend less when I have a well-stocked pantry of beans, legumes, rice, quinoa, flour, spices, canned tomatoes, oil, flax seed, canned coconut milk and nutritional yeast.
This didn't happen overnight for me, though. It took me a while to get the hang of meal planning because it was hard not seeing meat as the center of a meal. The good news is, I was willing to experiment and made the decision early on that I wanted this lifestyle to work long-term for our family.
I wrote a post a while ago talking about a few of my go-to meals that not only save time but also tons of money. Check it out here.
What about your grocery bill? Do you save money by sticking to a lot of whole foods?