It's a lot more costly to eat the products mentioned. Earth Balance 5 times as expensive as Gregg's or store brand margarine, for example. Daiya, about 4. It's expensive to be vegan, unless you only eat from scratch.

Good point. I agree that vegan products can be a lot more expensive. But this can actually benefit your health! If you stick to whole foods (dried beans and rice from the bins at the grocery store, etc) you will have an extremely healthy vegan diet. If you save the Coconut Bliss and Earth Balance and Daiya Cheese for special occasions, you'll have exceptional health!

One quick tip on getting fruits and veggies on the cheap - go to your local Farmer's Market, or if you have one in your area, Trader Joe's. The regular price of Trader Joe's organic spinach is $0.40 less than Safeway's conventional spinach in my town!

Regarding cost, while some vegan products are more expensive than the non-vegan ones, we need to remember also what vegans are NOT spending money on. In my area (Florida), Publix supermarket had these sale prices this week: NY Strip $7.99 lb; Porterhouse and Beef Tenderloin both $9.99 lb; 12 oz pack bacon $4.99...of course, chicken, esp. leg quarters are cheaper, but most meat eaters often buy the steaks and bacon.

Also, costs of meat eating, for many, go far beyond the grocery store--these costs often arise when people enter their 50s or even sooner: heart bypass surgeries for clogged arteries is one example. I was raised in Florida on Southern food: fried pork chops and fried chicken, gravy, beef roasts, collards with bacon grease--I am very familiar with the foods that many in my family still eat. But 5 of my cousins have had multiple bypass surgeries; I'm 60, have been vegan over 10 years, and am in excellent health: low bad cholesterol, high good cholesterol, and low tryglicerides (fat in blood).

So, as for cost, I'm not buying meat, and I'm not having to pay deductibles for doctors, hospitals, and surgeries, and I'm paying the cost in personal pain of those surgeries..even more importantly, I am not allowing non-human animals to pay the price in pain and death when their flesh is totally unnecessary for my good health.