cooking pork here may be my last meet to this infaltion gets under control i keep trying to go vegan well the ones who drinks dairy and eat dairy and eggs
@raggie,
I think that is called lacto-ovo vegetarian.
Certainly beans and rice are relatively inexpensive forms of protein. Often stores will have "Loss leaders" where they sell products at wholesale, or even less, so that they can advertise a particularly low price to entice buyers to come into the store. Once there, they'll buy other items at full price.
I say this to suggest that you watch the advertisement flyers that they may send around. OR download the grocery store app, and check for coupons, or "digital" coupons. They can help you save significantly.
You have to watch the cost of vegetables. I don't think that they are necessarily less expensive than meats on sale. I am pretty sure that I have seen eggplant for $2.49 / lb. And meat loaf mix for $3.99 / lb. I imagine that you would get far more calories, and protein from the meatloaf, per lb.
Years ago when I was a vegetarian, the experts at the time felt that one should have 6 oz of red meat a week.