See what your diet choice costs over the years.

A vegetarian grocery bill is usually cheaper than a meat-based one. The gap depends on your weekly shop, where you live, and how many meat substitutes you buy. This calculator takes your weekly spend on both styles of eating and projects the long-term difference across your chosen horizon, then shows what that gap could become if invested.

Typical households spend roughly 15-25 more per week on a meat-heavy shop than on a plant-based one, though substitutes like plant-based mince or dairy alternatives narrow the gap. Over 20 years at a 7% return, a 15 weekly difference invested instead of spent compounds into roughly 33,000. The calculation ignores eating out, delivery, and health costs, which often move in the same direction.

Use the tool as a rough planning estimate, not a strict budget. Many people eat a mixed diet and swap specific meals rather than a full switch. The weekly difference figure is the most useful output for decisions like starting a flexitarian habit one day a week.

Quick example

With meat-based weekly grocery spend of 90 and vegetarian weekly grocery spend of 70 (plus time horizon of 20 and investment return of 7%), the result is 20,800.00. Change any figure and watch the output shift — it's often more useful to see the pattern than to memorise the formula.

Which inputs matter most

You enter Meat-Based Weekly Grocery Spend, Vegetarian Weekly Grocery Spend, Time Horizon, and Investment Return (if saved). Two inputs usually tip the answer one way or the other. Identify which ones matter most by flipping each value past a round threshold and watching whether the winning option changes.

What's happening under the hood

Weekly difference multiplied by 52 weeks, then by years, with a parallel future-value annuity calculation on the monthly saved difference. The formula is listed in full below. If the number looks off, you can retrace the calculation by hand — that's the point of showing the working.

Making this stick

The number the tool produces is only useful if you act on it. The simplest habit that works: automate the savings transfer on payday, then spend what's left. Everyone who's told you "pay yourself first" was right; the math here is what makes the first number concrete.

What this doesn't capture

Budgets are snapshots of intent. Real spending includes irregular costs: birthdays, one-off repairs, the occasional bad week. Tracking actual spending for a month before fixing any budget usually reveals 10–20% that didn't make the original plan.