For instance, a local butcher shop might offer local products, and will be more expensive. But you can offset the expense by only having meat dishes on, say, Sunday. That's just one strategy. Another is to use the left-overs in a next meal.
Historically, meat was expensive, and not eaten daily. For intsance, in the UK, "sunday roast" was originally exactly that: a meal that was only eaten on Sunday after service. Sheppard's pie was then a dish made from the left-overs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_roast
There's more to it then that, but it's a good idea to be aware that historic eating habits do yield many good ideas on how to move away from modern day meat consumption patterns predicated by the abundance cheap meat.
We reap what we sow. We’re killing Earth’s biosphere, and soon enough our own species will face its doom.
But hey, let’s get another bucket of chicken and keep stuffing our faces with hamburgers.
One semi-major home repair completely overtakes any savings on food, of course.
I went fully carnivore and it lead to various health improvements. While I moved away from it due to my foodie tendencies, I currently do consume mainly animal products.
I plan on doing a vegan experiment as well, but I am just not getting convinced by the vegans I listen to, so I need to do more research. As it stands, I believe eating meat that grew naturally (e.g grass fed beef as compared factory farming) is more healthy and sustainable than veganism.
People should check what's good for them instead of blindly following information they got by osmosis. Especially with regards to health.
Where will you publish the study?
This is general information.
We appear to have come to the same conclusion, so I'll leave it at that. Best of luck out there.
If you'd like to discuss any problems with widespread vegetarianism in India, which again, includes hundreds of millions of people, then I'm happy to continue this discussion.
This is very healthy. But make sure to take B12 if you're going vegetarian.
> Though deficiency for those starting out with adequate stores may take years to develop, the results of B12 deficiency can be devastating, with cases reported of paralysis, psychosis, blindness, and even death.
https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/vitamin-b12/
Edit: To the downvoters, care to explain?
Best is not to generalise and instead get a blood test to check vitamin levels. Talk to your GP.
Personally, I avoid fortified foods because I supplement with higher quality forms elsewhere. Neon yellow urine is not right.
This is a bit like the avocado toast nonsense though - a gym membership costs about $50 a month which is nothing compared to the near $2000 mortgage payments.
E.g. in SF, you'll pay $3500+ for housing, and salaries are largely adjusted for that level of expense. But your savings are "future money", and you can choose where to spend that. Saving $300 a month, $4k a year, can add up to sums that are significant in a lower cost of living area.
A laudable goal in terms of sustainability and health, but in most developed countries not a cost saving measure. Meat is way too cheap, and often forms part of the bargains supermarkets use to attract customers.
In the long term and the most pessimistic scenarios doing without meat may be cheaper though.
Where I live, this is no longer true; on the one side there was a big outrage at the super cheap meat (€3 / kilo at the lowest), pushing shops to sell meat at a higher price (and presumably better animal conditions, but I'm not convinced this is independently verified), on the other there's these certifications farmers can get for their animals' living conditions, and people are willing to pay extra for this.
Anyway, in our household, freezer vegetables are a staple. We tried fresh vegetables for a while, but there's a lot of stems (in e.g. broccoli) and it's not as fresh or affordable as the frozen stuff.
That said, I think that instead of raising the price of meat, they should lower the price, availability and diversity of vegetables.
I would also encourage people to avoid these "vegetarian meat alternatives"; they're kinda scammy in that the ingredients are cheap but they sell it at meat prices. It's a lazy vegetarian's option. If you want to avoid meat for whichever reason, learn to make meals without something that kinda looks like meat.
1kg carrots - 39p https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/morrisons-carrots-2...
2.5kg potatoes - £1 https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/morrisons-white-pot...
And so on. Vegetables are cheap. It's frustrating seeing people complain about food but not learn to cook. Making casserole is cheap.
You can make delicious, quick and easy food both with meat and with vegetables. If you try and cook a steak like vegetables, you will have poor results. If you try and cook vegetables like a steak, you will have poor results. If you treat each ingredient - meat, vegetable, or otherwise - in its own right and cook/season appropriately, then you can and will make excellent food.
Human beings have thrived eating meat for hundreds of thousands of years. And it's a lot harder to completely address all the nutritional requirements on a purely vegetarian diet, but not impossible.
Here are videos exploring studies about meat, which convinced me.
How is meat produced, if not agriculture?
In any case, agriculture barely employs anyone nowadays, with mechanization and animal factory-farms.
I pay several times more for my phone+internet per year than for my healthcare (and I have 2 separate chronic conditions)
What you don't pay for out of pocket, you do pay either in quality of care or through your taxes, one way or the other.
Retrospect is 20/20... (I'm making the assumption you have had young kids and are speaking from experience). I have spent loads of time with my kids in the last few years (more than many of my peers have) and at times think it has been to mine and (by association) their detriment. "all the time you possibly can" is just too emphatic-an aspiration to be realistic in the messy context of real life.
Regrets on some scale are inevitable so learning to accept them is important.
Balance is all.
In economic hard times, one mist be picky and learn how to eat anything available.
I'm in a situation getting similar to this Ask HN... I have a family that depends on my income (plus, it's very stable/secure, enjoyable, but unfortunately under market pay). If I find a better job, and things don't work out, we'd have virtually no household income... However, I was able to find a second job (which required honing one additional skill) to pull in $3000/year working a few nights a year... Which helps pay for unexpected expenses.
Try keto diet, or maybe even carnivore. Save yourself first, and then look up into saving the planet.
Plant-based meals require far fewer resources and is cheaper, which means maintaining societal stability when resources are becoming low - as there is more to go around.
A lot of farm land is being used to grow foods for livestock. We could use that land to grow food for ourselves.
I'd generally go for keto since that is more studied compared to strict carnivore.
> Plant-based meals require far fewer resources and is cheaper, which means maintaining societal stability when resources are becoming low - as there is more to go around.
But your health will (probably/maybe) be worse. There are ways to make cheap keto (ex: eating 10 eggs/day in my local area).
> A lot of farm land is being used to grow foods for livestock. We could use that land to grow food for ourselves.
Then eat grass-fed meat. I do so myself.
I'm not sure there is enough grassland in the world for everyone to eat grass-fed meat.
that you should do keto or carnivore. Feel free to read or believe the vegan doctors or the keto/carnivore ones. But I've made my choice and I ~mostly have been right in my life, including this. Feel free to become a psychiatrist/psychologist/sports-science and do your studies and bring a better way.
Until then, eat keto/carnivore with the best red meat you can afford. And then worry about the world. And humans are smart enough to fix this particular issue.
My bad. Then my answer is don't save by eating bad food. It will limit you more compared to the extra cash you'll save (unless you're poor and you have no choice).
In income terms, diversify away from a single source by learning new skills, training up in areas you're a bit rusty in, learning totally new ones.
In savings or investments: diversify where you put them, spread them around so you're not dependent on any one scenario.
In eating: eat more interesting and cheaper things. Become vegetarian, if you aren't already.
In exercise: drop any gym memberships, use things like body weight to train. Run one day, do yoga the next.
In your media consumption: diversify in sources but don't take this as a cue to read more. Read less, much less, but read better. Ignore social media, it's all b&&&&&t. Find one or two sources of media that are reasonably middle line, and read around a topic in a diverse way. Don't get sucked in to anything, least of all the disaster scenario stuff you'll find.
Last but most important: spend all the time you possibly can with your family. Make them your focus, not your income and "future". Be in the now as much as you possibly can. You'll only have this time with your (small) kids for a very, very short period. They'll be flying off soon. Be there for them.
Best of luck.