Despite soaring food prices, Carrie, aka The Frugal Vegan UK, has proven that it’s possible to live vegan on a tight budget with a recent Aldi shopping trip.

The 29-year-old content creator from Bristol has been vegan for eight years and shares practical meal planning ideas, supermarket hauls and affordable vegan recipes on her YouTube channel.

Living with her non-vegan partner (who eats vegan at home), Carrie focuses on realism over perfection, making low-cost, nourishing meals that work in everyday life.

In her ‘£15’ series on YouTube, she takes on the challenge of creating 21 vegan meals for just £15. That covers breakfast, lunch and dinner for an entire week, or seven full days of plant-based eating on a serious budget.

In each video, she picks a different UK supermarket to try to shop vegan. This is what happened when she did her vegan weekly shop on a budget in Aldi.

£15 doesn't seem to go far these days, but it can still stretch to a week of vegan meals with a bit of planning. Photo © The Frugal Vegan UK

It sounds like a prohibitively strict budget, but Carrie was able to easily stay under £15 when shopping for vegan food in Aldi, especially as some products were reduced or swapped for a cheaper item.

Here’s where the budget went:

Note: Carrie used some cupboard staples such as spices and oil, but all major ingredients she used throughout the week were included within the £15 spend.

Carrie demonstrates the meals she made with her budget Aldi haul, including these Mexican-style vegan wraps. Photo © The Frugal Vegan UK

Carrie’s full vegan food shop came in comfortably under budget, and would have been just under at £14.93 if she had been able to spend the extra 50 pence on peanut butter instead of jam.

From her budget vegan Aldi haul, she made:

Despite a few swaps due to stock issues, the meals were satisfying, varied and entirely plant-based. She even managed to include vegan cheese for the first time in the challenge, thanks to Aldi’s surprisingly affordable pricing.

Carrie’s approach isn’t just about cutting costs; it’s about smart planning and flexibility. She offers practical advice for anyone trying to save money on vegan groceries without sacrificing flavour:

: Cheaper items often sell out, so, as Carrie says, you “need to be agile in your thinking.” When an item is out of stock, you need to be able to think on your feet and swap it for something similar in price and function.

Leftover ingredients from one week can roll into the next, as can leftover shopping budget. After a few good weeks, you’ll be able to include a treat in your weekly shop.

As shown in Carrie’s realistic vegan meal plan, your dinners don’t need to be different every day. Use a variety of seasonings or sides to keep things interesting.

Budgeting her weekly shop isn’t the only way Carrie keeps her vegan meal costs low. She also shares her experience with using Olio, a food-sharing app that reduces food waste.

In the video, she mentioned that she already had plenty of bread from using the app, so she didn’t buy more when at Aldi. However, to keep things true to life, she did include the 47 pence she would have spent in the week’s budget breakdown.

This means that by using the app, her vegan Aldi shopping would have been even more under budget. That’s impressive stuff.

Simple but nutritious meals are essential when cooking on a budget. Photo © The Frugal Vegan UK

Carrie’s content is a reminder that, particularly on a tight budget, veganism doesn’t have to be perfect. She acknowledges that some choices (like jam for breakfast every day) might not be nutritionally ideal long-term, but they work for short bursts when money’s tight.

“I think it’s just realistic… if it’s the only shop you can go to that week… you just have to make do with what they do have in,” she says.

With the cost of living crisis continuing to affect households across the UK, realistic vegan budgeting tips like these are a welcome reminder that plant-based eating can be both accessible and delicious, with no fancy ingredients or premium-priced health foods required.

See more of Carrie’s ‘£15’ series and other vegan budget tips on The Frugal Vegan UK YouTube Channel.

Featured photo © The Frugal Vegan UK