During (and after) COVID I did, however, use some vegan tricks to make my food budget go farther. Specifically, using tvp to stretch out the amount of ground beef I needed to buy. I buy medium ground beef and use about half as much as I would usually use, then I add in tvp which absorbs the fat from the ground beef and takes on its flavour. This works especially well for any dish requiring ground beef in a sauce. Disclaimer: tvp is made from soy.