when you dig into it it seems clear that people incur costs that would be better spent on donations, and so I don’t think it’s good reasoning.
I’ve thought a lot about this, because I’m serious about budgeting and try to spend as little money as possible to make more room for investments and donations. I also have a stressful job and don’t like to spend time cooking. I did not find it hard to switch to being vegan while keeping my food budget the same and maintaining a high-protein diet.
Pea protein is comparable in cost per gram protein to the cheapest animal products where I live, and it requires no cooking. Canned beans are a bit more expensive but still very cheap and also require no cooking. Grains, ramen and cereal are very cheap sources of calories. Plant milks are more expensive than cow’s milk, but still fit in my very low food budget. Necessary supplements like B12 are very cheap.
On a day-to-day basis, the only real cooking I do is things like pasta, which don’t take much time at all. I often go several weeks without doing any real cooking. I’d bet that I both spend substantially less money on food and substantially less time cooking than the vast majority of omnivores, while eating more protein.
As a vegan it’s also easy to avoid spending money in frivolous ways, like on expensive ready-to-eat snacks and e.g. DoorDash orders.
I haven’t had any health effects either, or any differences in how I feel day-to-day, after more than 1 year. Being vegan may have helped me maintain a lower weight after I dropped several pounds last year, but it’s hard to know the counterfactual.
I didn’t know coming in that being vegan would be easy; I decided to try it out for 1 month and then stuck with it when I “learned” how to do it. There’s definitely a learning curve, but I’d say that for some people who get the hang of it, reason (1) in Michael’s comment genuinely applies.
I don’t think one year is enough time to observe effects. Anecdotically, I think (but am not sure) that I started to have problems after three years of being a vegetarian.
I’ve thought a lot about this, because I’m serious about budgeting and try to spend as little money as possible to make more room for investments and donations. I also have a stressful job and don’t like to spend time cooking. I did not find it hard to switch to being vegan while keeping my food budget the same and maintaining a high-protein diet.
Pea protein is comparable in cost per gram protein to the cheapest animal products where I live, and it requires no cooking. Canned beans are a bit more expensive but still very cheap and also require no cooking. Grains, ramen and cereal are very cheap sources of calories. Plant milks are more expensive than cow’s milk, but still fit in my very low food budget. Necessary supplements like B12 are very cheap.
On a day-to-day basis, the only real cooking I do is things like pasta, which don’t take much time at all. I often go several weeks without doing any real cooking. I’d bet that I both spend substantially less money on food and substantially less time cooking than the vast majority of omnivores, while eating more protein.
As a vegan it’s also easy to avoid spending money in frivolous ways, like on expensive ready-to-eat snacks and e.g. DoorDash orders.
I haven’t had any health effects either, or any differences in how I feel day-to-day, after more than 1 year. Being vegan may have helped me maintain a lower weight after I dropped several pounds last year, but it’s hard to know the counterfactual.
I didn’t know coming in that being vegan would be easy; I decided to try it out for 1 month and then stuck with it when I “learned” how to do it. There’s definitely a learning curve, but I’d say that for some people who get the hang of it, reason (1) in Michael’s comment genuinely applies.
I don’t think one year is enough time to observe effects. Anecdotically, I think (but am not sure) that I started to have problems after three years of being a vegetarian.
What were your problems?