#gluten free on a budget

[swagging-back-to]

it should be a cut and dry case if you go to a restaurant and get glutened by them. and by case i mean criminal. not just suing for damages and distress.

[dexnola]

How to cut costs on a gluten-free diet

Actually several of these principles work on anyone's diet, or another type of allergen diet, but gluten free is what I know and what I serve.

My household consists of me and my partner; she's gluten intolerant and I am not. Our grocery budget is $120 a week (including standard household consumables like soap, paper towels, etc. that I also buy at the grocery store) and we could actually tighten that up more if we worked even a little harder at it. I do most of the cooking and shopping for our household so I thought I would share what it is I'm doing.

Eat as many "regular" items as possible

If there is a gluten free version of an item and a "regular" one that contains wheat, normally the gluten free version is twice the price. So one simple way to cut costs is to buy fewer of them. Some examples are packaged GF cookies and crackers, frozen prepared dinners, canned soups that say gluten free in big letters... basically anything that is marketed as GLUTEN FREE and says GLUTEN FREE in great big letters on the front of the package.

There are lots of items that are labeled "gluten free" but aren't marketed as such. Ketchup is often labeled gluten free somewhere on the package, but there's no such thing as "regular" ketchup that normally contains gluten. Those are fine to buy.

The worst offenders are bread and baked goods in general. Gluten free bread is very expensive. Don't buy things like frozen prepared cakes; gluten free cake mix or brownie mix is the better buy.

Here are some "regular"/inexpensive foods that are naturally gluten free:

rice; avoid pre-seasoned rice mix things

potatoes [regular and sweet potatoes]

corn tortillas (plain corn taco shells and tortilla chips are also easy to get GF)

all manner of fruits and vegetables [fresh, canned, frozen w/o sauce/other extras]

peanut butter

milk and dairy products in general

beans; dry or in cans

meat, especially plain fresh or frozen meat without extra marinades, seasoning, or obviously breading

fish [frozen and canned are least expensive]

I still buy special gluten-free stuff, but

it isn't the bulk of our diet

when reasonable, I let my partner eat them and I eat the regular version (e.g. I still buy wheat sandwich bread for myself)

i put in extra work to find the lowest price; comparing different stores, couponing, stocking up when I find a deal, etc.

Speaking of which,

Figure out what stores are the cheapest near you

A key part of this sentence is "near you." I do most of my grocery shopping at two stores that are 10 or 15 minutes away from my house. They are on the same street and in close proximity of each other. As you compare prices, keep in mind which places are realistically convenient enough to shop at based on where you live, work, and spend time.

I prefer a data driven approach and so have a spreadsheet with the prices of lots of items I buy. Doing it this way, you find that while no store has the lowest price on everything, it's easy to find a store that has an overall lower price on most items.

When comparing prices, remember to compare based on the cost per ounce or cost per pound or similar, not just the package.

In my experience, shopping at more than one store is the easiest way to balance many factors including price, selection, convenience, and quality. Most weeks I go to these two stores:

Wegmans: huge selection of items, low prices on some things, but higher to middling on others; lots of choices for GF items and things like special spices or vegetables that I need just once in a while

Aldi: smaller selection, but easily the least expensive on most regular groceries

I used to live near Publix, which is expensive overall but had a big selection and lots of BOGO sales where they would sell certain items at a loss. I would stalk the sale paper online every week and if they had something I ate at a low cost, I would go to Publix just to buy those items in quantity and then leave to go get the rest of my groceries at Aldi or somewhere else cheaper.

Use sales to stock up on stuff you eat when it's cheaper

For example, If I read the sale paper for the Aldi and I notice butter is $3/lb or less, when it's usually more like $4, I'm buying at least two if not three or four packages and putting some in the freezer, even if we're not low on butter.

This goes double and triple for any special gluten free item. Stock up.

Don't stock beyond your means. Start small as you study your household's patterns of consumption. Start with items that are not perishable: things in cans and boxes, already-frozen items. Also, only stock up on stuff that you know your family already likes.

When you are planning meals to eat, choose based on what you have stocked; shop your house first! Then go to the store to fill in the gaps.

Be prepared to eat at home on days you don't want to cook.

There are always going to be some days when you can't or don't want to cook. You get sick, you're too tired, whatever.

Eating restaurant food (takeout, delivery, or dine in) is extremely expensive and comes with a lot of risks regarding gluten. This is best avoided. Eating out will kill your budget faster than anything else you could do.

This is one time when I don't mind buying a specialty GF item, because while they do cost more than the meals I normally make, they are cheaper than eating out and also safer from a gluten standpoint. I don't mind spending an extra dollar at the store to insulate me from spending ten dollars later.

Some ideas for solving this problem:

naturally GF convenience food that can be tossed in the oven or microwave (at Aldi I have found GF frozen shepherd's pie, sometimes can get frozen tamales, instant mashed potatoes, canned soup etc.)

build a repertoire of meals that are made from "ingredients" but are less work than whatever you normally do; what this means is up to you, for some people it's a dump-in-instant-pot type meal, or maybe a microwaved baked potato and a bag of frozen veggies... at my place I make nachos once a week because they're extra easy.

special GF convenience items like frozen pizza or lasagna

Cheapest of all: make a lot of something on purpose and freeze meal-size portions for later. Soups, stews, and casseroles are all top choices. You can also do things like brown a lot of ground beef and then freeze it; later, you can make something like spaghetti sauce or sloppy joes and skip that first step. (Note that some people do ALL their cooking with this in mind and cook just once or twice a week, or even just once or twice per month, and eat out of the freezer the rest of the time.)

Keep a growth mindset. It might be that right now you are eating out a lot and your skills in the kitchen aren't great. Buying more convenience foods and assembling them at home still saves a lot of money. Once that's comfortable and you're used to the routine of getting food from the store then you can expand your repertoire of simple meals from normal ingredients, which builds your confidence so you can try making more things from scratch. Eating is complicated and eating with allergies/intolerances doesn't help. But it's doable. It can be done.

If I wanted to cut costs in my own household and reduce that $120 budget, I would...

buy fewer sodas and drinks in general.

set strict limits on GF bread. (like I'll only buy 1 loaf a month or something) work with partner to make sure she always has food for lunch and therefore doesn't care to make a sandwich.

Try reducing partner's cereal consumption; make other equally easy breakfast choices available; cereal is expensive

cook and freeze more homemade food and buy less convenience food.

prioritize cheaper fruits and vegetables. Decide on a price per lb limit that I want to stay within and stop buying stuff that is more than that (or buy them very infrequently). Things like apples, carrots, onions, bananas, cabbage, and broccoli tend to be cheaper

do the same thing for meat and also eat significantly less meat.

Hope I helped :)

[omnivorescookbook]

Pork Liver Stir Fry (炒猪肝) Cook this pork liver stir fry for an affordable and satisfying meal with tender juicy liver cooked with crunchy veggies in a rich brown sauce.

Recipe => https://omnivorescookbook.com/pork-liver-stir-fry/

[aurorashard]

Allergy discussion below the cut.

I'm so. Frustrated. Upset. So I called the allergist back to ask my few extra questions. I asked if I needed to avoid things that are made on shared equipment/in a facility that processes/may come into contact with egg, and the nurse said "yeah he says avoid all of it. If you have some contact accidentally, and you find out later, you know, if you have a reaction you know to avoid that." (Paraphrased). So I explained that, I have no idea what my reaction is, and we are assuming it's a GI reaction, which makes it harder to know because I have other GI problems. And she was just like "well if you have a reaction, you'll know you need to avoid that stuff." Like???? Are you listening to me???? I'm so frustrated and so upset. This is going to limit what I can buy even further, and I don't have the energy to cook all my own food from scratch, at the very least not until/if we can medicate my executive functioning again. I'm just so tired and sick of all this health bullshit. I already have so many food issues and stuff and now this and I'm just so tired. So fucking tired.

[glittergroovy]

thank u so much to whomever bought a shirt & tipped my kofi I love u 💖💖💖💖

[sufferthesea]

If anyone is gluten-free and/or diabetic, please drop your favorite recipes/cooking blogs below! I'm meal planning and can only find about 3 full recipes. Everything else is snacks or desserts.

[creatingfromchaos]

Effortless Eats: Nutritious Meals with 10 ingredients are less!

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[oidheadh-con-culainn]

i've been on the nhs gender clinic waiting list for four years and one month without yet having had a first appointment and the exact same doctors will see me in june as long as i'm willing to pay them another £180 on top of the £600 i've already paid to have strangers agree i'm trans and the £6000 i paid for surgery

[myrtaceaae]

Gluten free stuff is so expensive so I've just resigned myself to stomach aches everytime I eat :/

[daniel-eats]

Ep. 68: Ham Sandwich & Mac Salad 🥪 Ft. Bacon-Ham Love-Child.

[lowcostrecipes1]

Budget-Friendly Breakfast Delights: Delicious Breakfast Recipes on a Budget

Check out our assortment of mouthwatering delicious breakfast recipes that are affordable! These inexpensive and simple breakfast alternatives can help you get started on the right foot each day. We have affordable dishes that will satisfy both your taste buds and your pocketbook, ranging from airy pancakes to nutritious muesli. For more delectable and reasonably priced meal ideas, check out Low Cost Recipes!

[saucerfulofsins]

"I don't like gluten"

Immediate red flag tbh

[onefite]

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[mossiestpiglet]

Gluten free pretzels have saved me <3

[spicesavant]

How to Make Delicious and Healthy Orange Chicken at Home

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