Vegan at Uni - advice?

Hi, I'm a vegetarian and have been considering going vegan for a long while now! I was wondering what other people's experiences of veganism at uni were - how do you manage in terms of budget, getting the right vitamins eg iron and B12, and even social life?
I'm going to be on a tight budget this upcoming year so the maximum I'm letting myself spend is £25 - and I eat a LOT.
I normally drink soy / almond milk anyway, I use sunflower spread instead of butter, but I find myself struggling to quit eggs and cheese! I don't know where to get a cheese substitute other than the soy cheese at tesco, which is quite expensive - does anyone have any suggestions?
Do you have any advice on starting out as a vegan?

Thanks!

whats the longest you've gone without cheese?

i thought i wouldnt be able to live without cheese but once i quit for a week or so i didnt miss it at all also the same story with cows milk

not a vegan myself but am gradually going in that direction, dont buy dairy anymore and eat hardly any meat

well i tried going vegan and i could cook vegan meals for cheapish but the problem was the vegan snacks and less basic food wete too expensive and id need about 40 quid a week to have interesting meals. Eating out is a big part of socializing so being a vegan can be difficult.

Hi there!

Currently, the only place I know where to get vegan cheese is Wholefoods Supermarket. They have plenty of food substitutes there; if you are in London it would be best to find one.

http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml#/search/vegan%20cheese

Asda seems to have some vegan cheese, but I'm not sure if that is too expensive for you?

You can go to markets to do your shopping where the food is relatively cheaper than supermarkets. I'd recommend this for fruits & veg because you need snacks but also the veg can make your meals seem more full.

What you should buy:
pasta
rice
(you can get these for cheap, especially in Asda)
pasta sauce
seasoning/spices
TOFU. (you can get this from Tesco, Asda etc in Tesco it's quite expensive because it's quite small.)
Some nuts perhaps (I prefer pistachio)
Sugar
Cereal (weetabix, kellogs should be good)
tomato paste
also you know you can have stuff like burritos, sushi (if you wanted to eat out)
Potatoes


That reminds me, if you happen to live near any Asian supermarkets they could be cheaper plus there's more stuff there you can get -- there are other meat substitutes called seitan and tempeh, apparently seitan is better than tofu.



*list looks a bit small but i suppose i'm forgetting some stuff lel*

This is so useful, thank you!!!!
How much would you say your grocery shop costs you per week? And how have you found leaving cheese and eggs etc?

I would say I'm not that much of a foodie so it wasn't as hard but I was quite annoyed at first because cheese was part of my main pasta meal but it's not that big a deal seeing as there are cheese substitutes and oh yeah, you'll find that a lot of your meals will be repetitive but that's not a bad thing because you can save money.

I spend £20 per week, and that goes down as well because the pasta+pasta sauce, rice -- I never finish that quickly so the things I only buy after are fruits, veg & other possible snacks.

This was great for me because whenever I had money left over I would have bought a load of junk.

I live in london and 20 pounds a week was nowhere near enough....

About a week as well It's so difficult when most vegetarian dishes these days come with copious amounts of cheese on them..... And I'll end up missing quorn soooo much!