Vegan Battle turned into a War

So I've searched and read and asked questions and read and researched to read more about Vegan friendly foods and recipes.  Holy crap.  Anyone who chooses to eat this way amazes me to pieces.  I realize that some people have allergies and just can't eat a lot of things, that makes sense but to choose this lifestyle, kudos to you.

Battle one: No Sugar.  I realize there is vegan friendly sugars but I can't afford them because for whatever reason everything seems to cost about $5 a bag/box/sack/container.  So the 4 or 5 items I typically use to bake will now cost me $25 instead of $6.  Okay, I'm poor and have to pay bills, I don't have that kind of money.  Typically, we spend about $35 - $45 a week on ALL of our groceries.  I can't justify spending 1/2 of our grocery money on 5 items to make one thing.

Battle two: No Chocolate. $6.38 for a pound of vegan carob chips that taste like dirt with coffee.  Enough said.

Battle three: No Dairy. I found a dairy free cream cheese.  Don't ask, there is a lot of soybean in it and it looks like the medium gel I use to thicken my acrylics.  Kinda smells like it too.  I can't explain the film it leaves in your mouth.  If you know the episode of Friends where Monica has to make things with a prototype of a ingredient called Mocolate, then this is my Mocolate.  I used very little and a lot of every other thing I could and it still tasted really bad.

War Began about 4:50pm and ended about 5:55pm.  It was well fought on both sides.  Sometimes you just can't beat the bland and tasteless.  I added enough Pumpkin Pie Spice for 3 large pies.  I came at it from the East with about a 1/2 of cup of Karo syrup.  Then I called for reinforcements with some cocoa powder.  Nothing could break the barriers of that wall down and I just had to pull out the troops before they were all disposed of.  I know when to call it quits.  Was I mad?  HELL YES!  I lost a lot of good fighters but that was unforeseen and almost too dirty a fight to mess with.  I really had no idea what I was up against.

Vegan War Victorious... this time.