Eating gluten free on a budget

I have long extolled the advantages to your budget of meal planning. It saves a lot of money and time, and helps prevent food waste. Having recently given up gluten for health reasons, I have found it doubly important to plan all of my meals to help me eat gluten free on a budget.

It’s not just my meals I have been planning, though. To eat gluten free on a budget, I have been making a lot of cakes and cookies. This way, when I get a snack attack, I have something suitable at the ready.

Sorting out my symptoms

Part of my reason for giving up gluten is to finally sort the IBS issues that have plagued me for years. However, the real trigger point was being diagnosed with Graves’ disease (an over active thyroid) and arthritis at the same time.

Many health experts suggest that gluten, sugar and alcohol all cause inflammation in the body. So, I have stopped eating them all to see if I can improve some of my symptoms. Dairy can be another problem food. I am still eating it for now, as if I have lactose free milk I don’t appear to have an issue.

Busting the budget

The problem with eating commercially prepared gluten free foods is that they are super expensive. Despite being much more widely available, items such as bread, cakes, pasta and treats made with no gluten will still cost more than the gluten filled alternatives.

Annoyingly, they often don’t taste that good either. I resent paying so much more for things I enjoy eating so much less!

I am gradually finding ways to minimise the impact of eating gluten free on my finances, so I thought I would share how I am eating gluten free on a budget.

Tips to eat gluten free on a budget

1# Yellow sticker bargain hunting

As I have yet to crack making a gluten free loaf  I am happy with, I am buying ready made gluten free bread currently. My favourites so far are the Warburton’s tiger loaf, their soft brioche rolls and the Genius white bread. However, they are so expensive!

I have found that I can save a lot of money on gluten free bread by actively searching out products that are reduced for a quick sale. For example, my local Coop store charges £3.45 for six Warburton’s soft rolls (which are cheaper in Tesco at £3). However, I have discovered that they also mark down enthusiastically and recently found three packs for 45 pence each, which went into the freezer. 

I have also bagged two packs of gluten free pittas, a tiger loaf and crumpets, all at least a third cheaper than usual. My freezer is my best friend when it comes to preserving my finds.

If you are eating gluten free on a budget, find out when your supermarket does reductions and make a point of visiting. You are likely to find lots of other bargains too, such as yellow sticker fruit, veg, meat and dairy products.

Small Coop stores are favourite, but it is worth checking out larger supermarkets as well. I have found Sunday afternoons offer the most generous mark downs.

2 Making your own

Obviously making your own gluten free products takes time. However, I have found it pays to be organised and to batch cook. As I said previously, I have yet to successfully make a loaf that is worth the effort, but I make a lot of gluten free muffins and cookies. 

My two favourite recipes so far are these chocolate coconut haystack cookies from Sugar Free Londoner and these banana muffins from Castaway Kitchen. The latter freeze really well, so I make a big batch and freeze them. The cookies are so delicious that my non-gluten free eating family keep pinching them! I need to find a good hiding place at the back of the fridge when I make those. You can see me making the coconut cookies on my YouTube channel here. 

When I go out, I often take some of these with me to avoid the need to buy pricey gluten free snacks. 

3 Be prepared to experiment

I am finding that the only way for potential success when making gluten free on a budget is to just have a go. Each week I am trying at least one new recipe. Mostly they have been good, but some have been horrible (back to the bread – please share your fail safe recipes in the comments. I would love that!).

My experiments have lead to the following conclusions so far. This is only a short list as I am a relative beginner to gluten free baking, so please feel free to add your tips to the comments section.

• I have discovered that I prefer recipes containing almond and coconut flours, rather than ready made gluten free flours. These I find often taste dry and gritty.
• Xantham gum creates a bit of elasticity where gluten free flours are used. 
• You need an egg yolk added to gluten free pastry or it falls apart.
• Keto breads often work well as an alternative to shop bought loaves.

Good places to find recipes are the BBC Good Food site, Castaway Kitchen, Sugar Free Londoner and Gluten Free on a Shoestring (check out their pizza dough recipe here).

Be prepared to experiment widely to find recipes that suit your taste and budget.

4 Stock up

I have found it is helpful to my efforts to eat gluten free on a budget if I keep good stores of the basic ingredients I use often. Supermarkets all do good gluten free ranges nowadays, and items like flour, bakery products and pasta can be found quite cheaply.

According to this post by Gluten Free Shop Easy, Asda come out cheapest overall for gluten free products.

I have also discovered that it can be cheaper to purchase store cupboard ingredients in large quantities from retailers such as Grape Tree or Buy Wholefoods Online. Items like almond and coconut flours, which I use a lot, can be hard to find in a supermarket (especially if, like me, you mainly shop in Aldi or Lidl) so these sites are useful. They both have lots of other more unusual gluten free items such as chick pea flour, millet and tiger nut flour too.

If you keep good stores, you will always be able to throw a meal together, helping you stick to your budget.

So, these are some of the things I have been doing to help me eat gluten free on a budget. If you are an old hand at eating this sort of diet (especially if, like me, you are avoiding sugar too), I would be delighted if you would leave your tips in the comments below.

I am definitely feeling better for my new eating regime, and will continue to share my experience as I go.