Budget Vegan Books

The Topic: Buying your favorite vegan books with VegNews Associate Editor Jennifer Chen.

The Dish: Whenever I go to a bookstore, I head straight to the cookbook section and visually stuff myself silly with the recipes I read in vegan cookbooks. I don't know about you, but suddenly I want to buy every single book in sight. Vegan desserts! Dinner party menus! A whole book about waffles! But if I shell out my entire paycheck for cookbooks, I won't have cash for the actual groceries to make said delicious recipes. What's a budget gal to do? 

1. Make a list, check it twice. I keep a list on my iPhone of only the books I really want (as in, I will actually make the recipes at home). When I'm at my local used book shop, I can pull out my list and grab the books that I already know I want instead of going Supermarket Sweep-style and shoving the entire cooking section into a giant cart.

2. Half Price Veggie Books. This Amazon.com online shop has more than just cookbooks. From Quantum Wellness by Kathy Freston, Moby's book about Teany, to The Face on Your Plate, you can find top reads for 50 percent or more off.

3. Power of Powell's Books. If you've ever been to this bibliophile heaven, you understand the power of Powell's Books. The place is packed with new, used, and out-of-print editions of every book you could ever think of. Seriously. If you don't live in Portland, just hop online and sign up for the monthly newsletter and get offers for free shipping, sale prices, and exclusive deals. Even better, you can sell your books to them and they pay for the shipping!

4. Get used, get thrifty. My best scores have always come from my local bookstores or Out of the Closet thrift shops. I scored a hardcover copy of The Kind Diet for a friend's birthday for $15, snagged a copy of 1,000 Vegan Recipes for $13, and even found The Conscious Cook for $16. Go local, scour, and save.

5. Make your own cookbook. The best holiday gift I ever got was from my friend Diana. She made me a vegan cookbook by handwriting some of our favorite vegan recipes in a nice notebook. She pasted other recipes and left me room to add in my own favorites. Having her Italian mother's recipe for marinara sauce? Check. Having fun little notes in the margins from my friend? Priceless.

The Final Word: You can easily satisfy your love for books and saving cash. And with the extra dough from selling your books, you can whip up two fancy cupcake recipes from your gently used copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Guest Post: Cheap Traveling with Laura Beck

The Topic: Tight-Budget Traveling

The Dish: Today's special guest post is brought to you by everyone's favorite—and VN columnist—Laura Beck. To be honest, I go to her with the majority of life's tough questions, including where in San Francisco to get the best deals. She mysteriously knows all (which explains her gig as VN's prized advice-giver in "Ask Laura"), and is ready to share a bit of her travel savvy with you.

I’ve made it a habit of living beyond my means for as long as anyone can remember. My mom says I came out of the womb waving a platinum Am-Ex, and I haven’t looked back since (because ew, gross!). However, having chosen a career in non-profits that doesn’t exactly leave me living la vida Scrooge McDuck, I’ve had to curb my spendy ways. It sucks. The only place where I refuse to compromise is traveling for vegan food. If I can’t have road trips to Portland or weekends in New York City, I’ll seriously go Firestarter on everyone’s asses. I’ve found the best way to eat tons of food in exotic (to me) locales is travel on the hella cheap. The more you save on travel and accommodations, the more you can spend on Seitan Chimichurri at Candle 79, you feel me!?

Here are some ideas in list form because I am very helpful.

1. Sign up for TravelZoo’s weekly Top 20. You’ll get a weekly email with all the steal and deals for getting pretty much anywhere in the world. I’ve seen $600 Round Trip flights from SF to Tokyo and $100 4-star hotel rooms in Chicago on this thing. Seriously, the deals are ridiculous.
2. Kayak is a search engine that scours hundreds of travel sites at once. No more going to Orbitz and then Priceline and then Expedia, ad infinitum. Kayak takes care of them all in one click of the button. I love technology.
3. A great site that’s specifically for plane flights is AirfareWatchdog. It keeps you up-to-date on the lowest cost flights everywhere. Bonus: sign up for the newsletter, which gives you the latest info on cheapy flights leaving from your closest airport. Right now there’s a round trip flight from Portland to Maui for about $300. Let’s go!
4. The freaking coolest thing on the planet right now is Airbnb, an online marketplace allowing private residents to rent their homes (or lofts! Or apartments!). So cool. You can find deals that are way cheaper than most hotels and you’re staying in someone’s adorable home. To lessen the sketch factor, people can leave reviews of their stays. That way, you won’t be tricked into a staying in a shit box with the Manson family! You can search by price, space, and location to find your perfect home away from home. Looking for a loft in LA? Or a bungalow in Oahu? Airbnb will make it happen! Hotels are so 2009.
5. To go super cheap on accommodations, there’s always couch surfing! CouchSurfing is a pretty rad service that hooks you up with folks in other cities who are willing to let you crash on their couch (or floor, extra bed, etc.) for free. You can also pay it forward by offering up your couch too. The best part is, you can search by specifics, so you can even find fellow vegans to stay with! It’s even been known to breed love—the couple behind Cinnaholic met through CouchSurfing! True story.

The Final Word: Now, go forward and conquer the vast world out there, fellow vegans! Spread your message on compassion throughout the world (or just eat all the delicious vegan food! Whatever, I’m not judging you!). Just don’t forget to bring me back some vegan doughnuts from Ronald’s in Las Vegas (eclairs, preferably).

Vegan Happy Hour

The Topic: Happy Hour Specials

The Dish: Every budget-conscious consumer knows that staying in for dinner and drinks is a surefire way to save money. The cost of an at-home meal or affordable bottle of wine is disturbingly cheaper than their restaurant counterparts. But sometimes, you just need to get out of the house, revel in good service, and enjoy a drink with friends. Enter: fantastic summer happy hours.

Veg eateries across the country are holding amazing happy hours, and for the 9-to-5 group, the timing is just right. San Francisco favorite Millennium offers buy-one-get-one cocktails Monday through Thursday, and to sweeten the deal, they're throwing in a free appetizer. If you're in the Bay Area and haven't been to Millennium, you should probably go, but not until 5:30pm—when the discount kicks in. May I suggest the Fiery Grapefruit-Basil Margarita?

Philadelphia's Horizons runs an outdoor-seating happy hour from 5pm to 6pm Monday through Friday, and Portland, Ore.'s Papa G's offers not only food and drink specials every weekday, but free live music Wednesday through Friday. While you're in Portland, head to the all-vegan Bye and Bye for $1 off well drinks and dinner entrees, $2 chips and salsa, and $6 mason jar drafts. There is nothing I love more than drinking out of a mason jar—seriously.

The Final Word: This is just a small sample of what's available. Do you have a favorite local eatery or bar that's offering great summer specials? If you still would rather stay in than head out, Vegan Happy Hour has plenty of delicious-looking recipes to whip up for an evening in. Pair that with the Happy Hour How-To feature in our July+August issue (Flotastic, I love you), and you're all set.