New Study Shows Plant-Based Eating Helps Reduce Grocery Costs
Edited by The VEGPRENEUR Team
The average American household spends 7.9% of their income on groceries – and those with the lowest incomes spend on average almost a third of their disposable income on food. But how much more does it cost if you have a restricted diet – either by choice or necessity? New research by CouponBirds reveals the cost of groceries for dietary requirements.
Finding the average price of a basket of common groceries (spanning everything from fresh produce to canned goods and condiments) in three of the most popular supermarket chains in the U.S.: Walmart, Kroger, and Target. We then created these same baskets but for six common dietary requirements: vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, lactose-free, gluten-free and halal.
How the costs of diets in the U.S. compare
For a basket of 45 common grocery goods, the average cost for a weekly household shop, according to data from Walmart, Kroger, and Target, is $232.17. But what are the gross costs per diet and what percentage of the population follows these dietary types of restrictions?
Vegetarian diet
Being vegetarian (not eating meat products) can either be a personal choice or a common practice in certain religions – like Hinduism or Buddhism. Overall, 4% of the American population is estimated to be vegetarians. Vegetarians save $32.59 per weekly shop – the greatest saving in the study.
A total of 12 substitutions were made to cater to a vegetarian diet. These included plant-based alternatives to meat, but also popular substitutions for seafood dishes – like chickpeas for tuna.
*Some cheddar cheese is made with animal-derived rennet
Pescatarian diet
The only meat pescatarians eat is seafood, otherwise, their diet is vegetarian. Roughly 5% of the U.S. population are pescatarian. The pescatarian diet was found to be the second most affordable in the study, but where do these savings come from?
Pescatarians knocked off an average of $13.75 per week by substituting meat. In total, seven substitutions were made. All of the plant-based meat substitutions on the grocery list were cheaper on average than the original meat options.
*Some cheddar cheese is made with animal-derived rennet
Vegan diet
According to the vegan society, veganism (not consuming any animal products, like meat, dairy and eggs).Today, roughly 1% of the U.S. population are vegan. To cater to the vegan diet, plant-based alternatives to meat were found, seafood was omitted, and vegan alternatives for dairy products, breads and pastries, and snack foods were found.
For the full study including lactose-free, gluten-free and Halal diets: https://www.couponbirds.com/research/grocery-costs-by-diet-type
Methodology
Data was collected in December 2024 and January 2025. We focused on the top three grocery stores—Walmart, Kroger, and Target—for data collection. Costco was excluded from the analysis as it is primarily a wholesale retailer. We consulted an ESM article on the U.S. supermarket retail chains with the highest reported turnover:https://www.esmmagazine.com/retail/top-10-supermarket-retail-chains-in-the-united-states-238904
Filters were applied to products based on dietary requirements, particularly for halal, vegan, gluten-free, and other categories where applicable. A kosher diet was also initially included in the study, but the results were too limited to provide conclusive findings.
We then scraped data for a wide range of products across different categories in each grocery store. These products are representative of an average household grocery shop and are taken from a 2024 report by Drive Research:
This ensured comprehensive coverage and allowed for representative averages.
For the full methodology please see the landing page: https://www.couponbirds.com/research/grocery-costs-by-diet-type
About CouponBirds
Launching in 2012, the CouponBirds team decided to make finding online coupon codes fast and easy. After three years of researching and testing their ideas, they achieved their goal of building a free coupon code website, launching CouponBirds.com in 2015 so that consumers could find valuable coupons without wasting time or getting frustrated.
CouponBirds represents the easy-to-use and free coupon website that they would want for themselves.
Their mission is to help parents, students, and other online shoppers save money on their favorite products and services and continue to guide their efforts every day.
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