Just noticed a big difference in my grocery bill after 2 months of swapping meat for beans

I started using canned black beans instead of ground beef in my tacos back in early September. My weekly grocery bill went from about $85 down to $55, and I honestly don't miss the meat that much. The trick was adding some smoked paprika and cumin to give it that hearty flavor. Has anyone else tried cutting meat out of just one or two meals a week to save cash?

2 comments

2 Comments

samjohnson4d ago

Hold on, are we really comparing the same thing here? I swapped beef for beans a few years ago and my bill only dropped about 10 bucks a week, not thirty. You must have been buying really expensive ground beef or eating a ton of it. Also, have you factored in the sodium in canned beans versus fresh? I started getting bloated and had to switch to dry beans, which killed any time savings. It sounds like a win for you, but I wonder if the real savings came from cutting portion sizes, not just swapping the protein.

gavin_kelly914d ago

Is the sodium difference really that big between canned and fresh beans? I used to rinse canned beans pretty well and thought that took care of most of it, but maybe I was just used to the taste. The time thing is what gets me too. Soaking dry beans overnight is one thing, but then actually cooking them takes forever unless you have a pressure cooker. I think you're right that portion sizes might be the real story here. People tend to cut back on meat without realizing they're just eating less overall.

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