Eating vegan doesn’t have to be expensive. All of the cheap vegan meals here cost $5 or less for two servings!

Here’s an unexpected twist when you go vegan: non-vegans often feel compelled to tell you, unbidden, why they haven't made the leap. Since going vegan in 2006 I've heard countless reasons why veganism is too hard. The perceived price tag is high up on the list.
Related: Why do vegans eat "fake" meat and cheese? Isn't that unhealthy?
Why Going Vegan Seems Pricier than It Is
When you first go vegan, it can seem super expensive. Part of the problem is that you’re restocking your pantry with vegan staple ingredients.
The amount of nutritional yeast or agave nectar in a single recipe may not be much, but the bag, jar or bottle can seem expensive before you look at how many servings it contains.
Think about those grocery trips when you seem to be out of all of the staples, like ketchup, mustard, mayo, flour, salt, and spices. That’s an expensive shopping trip! But you only have to do that stocking up occasionally. And usually not all at once.
A recipe that calls for a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast might seem expensive when you include the cost of the whole bag. But that bag will last you for many meals.
Eating vegan, like eating in general, certainly can be expensive, but you don’t need a pantry full of maca and goji berries to eat vegan. Ingredients like beans, whole grains, and even fresh veggies can be incredibly budget-friendly.
In fact, there are lots of easy vegan meals that cost $5 or less for two servings. Here are some of my favorites.
Cheap Vegan Meals (with math!)
To calculate the 2-serving cost of the recipes below, I combined prices from my local Whole Foods with prices that I found online. Since Whole Foods produce can be pricey, some of these totals may even be overestimates!
Want receipts? You can check out a pdf of my calculations here.
Have a question? Tried this recipe? Share your thoughts!