When it comes to penny-pinching, the grocery budget is generally the first place most people start looking for a way to slash.
Unfortunately, for those of us on a gluten-free diet, slashing the grocery budget can sometimes seem next to impossible.
The average blog post, Pinterest tip, or television segment generally has little to offer when it comes to saving money on a specialty diets. But don’t lose heart. It can be done.
It is possible to eat a gluten-free diet without breaking the bank. Here are some tips to get your money-saving, creative juices flowing.
Summary of tips:
1) Shop your cupboards and check My Recipie Magic or another recipe site before you go to the store. Try to utilize what you have on hand for meals.
2) Mill your own flour and bake from scratch. Use unflavored gelatin instead of xanthan and guar gum. Here’s a super cheap gluten-free bread recipe to get you started.
3) Write to companies asking if they have any promotional coupons or a mailing list you could join. Always like and follow their Facebook pages.
4) Shop on sale days, our local health food store has a big sale the 2nd Tuesday of every month and annual customer appreciation days. Join health food stores mailing lists, like their Facebook pages too.
5) Asian food stores can sometimes carry great steals on gluten-free food like rice noodles, tapioca flour, rice flour, rice wraps (for eggrolls). Be especially careful if the labels are not in English.
6) Shop at one store, if it helps you save money. If you’re like me and spend $70 when you go into a store just to get one thing, you’ll do better shopping sales at just one store instead of multiple stores.
7) Take advantage of bulk Amazon purchases for the products you love, if they’re really cheaper. The best buys that I’ve found are Gluten-Free Bisquick, Gluten-Free Pasta, and Cup-For-Cup replacement flour.
8) Don’t buy specialty gluten-free snacks. You can generally save more money by eating naturally gluten-free foods.
9) Don’t buy gluten-free convenience meals, unless they’ll keep you from going out to eat.
10) Gluten-free foods that are always bargains:
- Rice
- Beans
- Marked down meat (providing it has no seasoning or added sauce)
- Frozen vegetables (providing they don’t have added seasoning or sauce)
- Produce that is always a bargain: bananas, apples, apples, potatoes, lettuce, and onions
- In-season produce (when spaghetti squash is in season this makes a cheaper substitute for gluten-free pasta)
- Rice cakes (always double check ingredients some brands contain barley, oats, and other sources of hidden gluten)
- Raisins
- Yogurt (make your own to save even more money)
- Cheeses including cottage cheese (I live in a dairy. I realize dairy products aren’t bargains everywhere.)
- Tortilla chips and salsa
- Corn tortilla wraps
- Nuts (these are generally cheaper than specialty gluten free snacks)
Let me know in the comments how you save money on gluten-free food and what your favorite buys are.
What great tips! I never thought of going to an Asian market and Amazon. I’m going to test some of these ideas out. Thanks for sharing.
Great tips!! We’re not exclusively GF, but I have found on the weeks we don’t eat a whole lot of gluten, we eat a whole lot more fresh fruits and vegetables.
My family practically lives on fruits and veggies, which is infinitely cheaper, and much more healthy than gluten free snack food.
Thanks for your post. Being gluten free, I know how expensive it can be. I’m excited about using unflavored gelatin as an alternative to guar gum. I’d never heard of that before. (Thanks for the printed list too. I’m not much into videos.)
I’ve never had gelatin fail me in a recipe. I’ve found it’s fairly cheap at most stores, except Walmart (go figure). At my local Kroger you can buy a large package (of 20 I think) for just a couple of dollars.
Do you just use the unflavored gelatin in the same amounts? I’m going to have to try this (when I run out of xanthan gum – I just ordered some this morning from Vitacost). Vitacost recently has started to be cheaper than amazon on some items. (or amazon doesn’t carry some for subscribe and save like potato starch and sorghum flour)
For a normal sized recipe (one that uses between 1-2 cups of flour) I generally use one packet of unflavored gelatin. I’ve never had it fail me, but it might take some experimentation to get the consistency you like. And of course gluten free flours never act the same way regular flours do, no matter what binders you use.
Very good ideas! I’ve been gluten free for about 7 months now, and it is much more expensive if I’m not careful!
I really appreciate your tips. We are just starting down this path and everything seems so expensive.
Thanks for sharing with us on Good Tip Tuesday – http://www.sherrylwilson.com/good-tips-tuesday-6/
We grow our own fruit and vegetables, that saves us lots. I bake and cook everything from scratch. My best discovery was that choux pastry tastes the same and is easy to bake. It makes a great Gougere, Profiteroles, etc.
Growing your own fruits and veggies would save a lot! I like to try to stock up in the summer at local u-pick farms :). What type of flour do you use for your choux pastry?
Gelatin sounds like a great idea. I’ve heard you can also use Chia seeds which will thicken just about anything and they bring great health benefits as well.
I also eat a lot of veggies and recently started harvesting the seeds and root ends of onions, garlic and celery (organic all since the others are rumored to have been treated so they won’t reproduce) and starting new plants in water then transplant to soil. My shopping bill came down some just from growing my own… and they are ALL growing in pots so they can come indoors when it gets cold.Thanks so much.
Love this site and the sharing of info.
Oh, also have found ,in a pinch, when I have to buy commercially made bread, that Canyon Bake house has the best, moistest G.F. bread I have ever tasted. Bonus… Target carries it. It’s usually found in the produce or freezer section of stores.