[nathanielksmith]

I agree; the article is fluff. I upvoted for the discussion.

My partner and I are vegan and it has long been our experience that it's a cheaper way to live, especially given that vegan staples like grains / legumes can be bought in bulk at low prices.

The way I think about it is that meat eaters tend to eat herbivores, meaning that if you're buying meat you're paying for both the production of plant life to feed some animal as well as the cost of raising / slaughtering / packaging that animal. A plant-based diet will always be less expensive as you are just eating the plant material that would otherwise be fed to a cow, pig, or whomever (a simplification, but a helpful one, I think).

Where it does get expensive is with processed cheese/meat alternatives (eg, Daiya and Gardein). My gut feeling is, though, that purchasing these occasionally would at most make our budget match (not exceed) that of a meat eater's.

In the end, saving money is one of the many, many reasons we are vegan.