Tempeh here in the West is artificially expensive so it costs the same as beef, but in Indonesia it's a fraction of the cost of beef.
(And some places have "textured vegetable protein" which is also very cheap but I'm not sure of the health status of it.)
We buy all sorts of rices, beans and other dried food in bulk, and then use a tiny bit of the money we save on exotic spices and other flavoring agents, like ginger or wasabi.