Frugal Fridays With Jen- Meatless Monday

Have you heard about the Meatless Monday movement lately?

There are certainly good healthy reasons to reduce meat consumption (less saturated fat, calories, and cholesterol) and environmental reasons (plant foods tend to have less environmental impact that animals raised for meat).

There is an additional plus as well- plant-based proteins, such as beans and legumes, are cheaper, and a great tool to reduce your weekly food budget.

We tend to have meatless dishes at least 4 days a week. When I was pregnant, I did increase my beef consumption to keep my hemoglobin levels up, and I was still able to maintain my $70 budget by making different spending choices. Now that the baby has been born, we are back to primarily meatless dishes, and it is easier to spend even less than $70 for a week. Since we prefer organic beef or chicken, this is even more true.

Just yesterday, I experimented with Black Bean Burritos, with great success. A can of black beans cost $0.69, and fed two adults. (Our two year old decided it was "yucky" and opted for a peanut butter sandwich.) Each tortilla cost $0.15, the can of Rotel tomatoes was $0.17 from a deal I found, we used half a pepper and half an onion, that I calculate to have cost $0.60, I used a third of a cream cheese that I got for $0.50, for a total of $0.17, cheddar cheese that I stockpiled when free, and some spices, cilantro, and teaspoon of oil that amounts to pennies. For two adults, the cost of this meal was around $2. If we had added ground beef to this dish, it would have increased the price by $2.50-$5, depending how much organic beef or bison we used.

For an interesting post calculating the cost per gram of protein of different beans and legumes, check here.

Another great post comparing the cost of dried beans and canned.

Would you participate in Meatless Mondays to save a few bucks, or are you die-hard meat eaters?