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Frugal Food Allergy Living is coming to a close, although I have decided to extend it a little longer with one additional topic.  If there is a topic that you would like to see featured, please let me know in the comment section.  You can find more on living a frugally with food allergies at The Willing Cook.

From the original post on Food Allergies and Budgets:

Prepare Food from Scratch
Avoid pre-packaged or processed foods, even allergy-friendly foods.  They are pricey and generally not the healthiest for you, especially when avoiding multiple allergens.  Stick with fresh meat and produce, dry beans, bulk rice, and oats, for example.

Eating “whole foods” seems to be all the rave these days in healthy circles.  There are many websites dedicated to “whole food,” as well as grocery stores and restaurants.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines whole food as “a natural food and especially an unprocessed one (as a vegetable or fruit).” It is simply preparing food from scratch or homemade, although there are many variations of this (avoiding buying processed foods versus milling own flour, making homemade yogurt, raising chickens, etc.).

Preparing food from scratch becomes a necessity when living with food allergies, rather than a simple exception.

• Most prepackaged food has one allergen or another in it.  Just read the labels and you will see all the “contains.”
• The most common allergens found in prepackaged food is dairy, wheat, soy and corn.  Not to mention the preservatives and artificial colors and flavors added to prepackaged foods.
• Even so-called “allergy-friendly” pre-packaged foods that are becoming more common on the grocery shelves are not necessarily good for you.  Furthermore, they are really expensive.  You can make a homemade version for a lot less.
• Try making a similar version as the pre-packaged allergy-friendly foods at home.  For example, instead of buying allergy-friendly pre-packaged cookies or cake mixes, I make them homemade.  I make a couple dozen cupcakes at a time and individually freeze them.  When my son goes to a birthday party, I take a cupcake out of the freezer, spread on some icing that I keep in the refrigerator and he’s off to a birthday party.  You can do the same thing with cookie dough.  Make a batch or two ahead of time, freeze them, and bake as needed.
• There are exceptions to this rule.  If you want some prepackaged foods for convenience sake, just make sure you read the labels carefully.

Frugal Living and Preparing Food from Scratch

• It is true that there often better deals in the grocery ads or more coupons available for processed foods.  But is their a potential cost to your health?
• If your family is stuck on convenient, pre-packaged foods, I encourage you to sit down with a calculator, pen and paper and do a line-item price comparison for each meal for a week.  Here is a spreadsheet example below.

• If you stick to buying the fresh foods that are on sale, manager-specials and in-season produce, you may be surprised at the cost savings.  You will get much better quality as well as more healthy choices.
• Remember to buy extra fruit and vegetables when it is in-season and freeze it for those winter months.
• We are looking into having fresh, quality meat by buying a cow or pig straight from a farmer.  Find family or friends who would like to split up the cost and quantity of buying a whole animal.  Keep in mind that you will need extra freezer space for this option.

Now, I am by no means a purist.  I don’t make everything homemade all the time, but I try to as often as possible.  It is cheaper, healthier and safer for food allergies.  On Friday, I will give a short run-down on “safe” prepackaged foods that I usually have in our home.  Be sure to check in.

Are there any foods that you only buy pre-made? Are there foods that you choose to make from scratch? I’d love to hear your comments on this topic.

Next week: How Frugal Food Allergy Living is easier with a well-stocked pantry.

You can see all the posts in this series by clicking on Frugal Food Allergy Living series.  You can find more about living with food allergies on a budget at The Willing Cook.

“Shop Around” is part five of our series from the original Food Allergies and Budgets post:

Do not be product or store loyal, if possible.  Shop at many stores in order to get the best deals (Asian grocers, Aldi, Costco, etc).

While shopping around to get the best deal is not a new concept to anyone who sticks closely to a grocery budget, I find this to be particularly true when shopping with food allergies.  Most new food allergy shoppers (or non-food allergy shoppers) believe you are stuck to shopping only at one very expensive specialty shop.  This is not the case.  (You can read the series on where I shop and where I purchase particular allergy-friendly foods at The Willing Cook.  You can find this series in the category “budget tips” on the sidebar.)

Benefits to Shopping at Multiple Stores:

• You are able to shop the grocery ads to get the best prices.
• You can take advantage of the cheaper store brands that are allergy friendly.  For example, Costco carries a lot of allergy-friendly foods that are Kirkland brand.  Of course, the same goes for Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods that carry their own brand of food and are often allergy-friendly.
• Don’t stop with the “specialty” stores.  The big supermarket brands can often have store brand allergy-friendly food as well.  You just have to read the labels.  For example, Meijer carries a great selection of Meijer Organics and Meijer Naturals food that are sometimes allergy-friendly.
• Asian supermarkets often carry gluten-free flours or whole grains that you can make into homemade gluten-free flour that cost much less than the pre-packaged gluten-free flours at the big chain stores.
• There are also local health food stores or fresh produce markets that can offer good deals on allergy-friendly products as well.  I have found some of these stores to be particularly good at offering “manager special” deals.

All of the above points lead me to say that you cannot be brand loyal, unless you have to be.  Now, as far as allergies go, sometimes you have to be brand loyal.  In that case, that is fine.  But if you don’t have to be loyal to any particular brand, this is an area where you can save a lot of money.  Personally, there is rarely a difference between the name brand and store brand products.  In some cases, I prefer the store brand over the name brand.

Some of you might say, “I cannot go to multiple stores a week, especially with kids in tow or I work a full-time job.”  However, shopping at multiple stores does not have to become a 2nd job as long as there is a little planning involved.

1. Try to review the store ads for the upcoming week before planning your grocery shopping for the week.  You can then map out if you want to hit a couple of stores based on those ads.  If possible, avoid weekend grocery shopping because it is so busy.  Night time is a great time to have some peace and quiet in the store.
2. Make out a grocery list to save you time (especially if you have kids in tow).  This list will also help you stay focused on your budget with what is “needed” and not what can end up in your cart from “wandering.”
3. Be practical about shopping at multiple stores.  You have to take gas into consideration when driving from store to store.  If you only save a small amount on one product at one store but are purchasing multiple products from another store, it might be worth your time and gas to just buy everything at one store.  This is where planning ahead comes in handy.  Be smart about it.
4. Don’t hit every store, every week.  Costco/Sam’s Club, Trader Joe’s and Asian Grocers do not rotate sales, so you can plan a trip to those stores every 6 weeks or so (less for Asian stores if only buying flour/grains).  Try to stock up on their products to last you until your next trip.

What if you live in an area with only one store option?

• There is always online shopping.  Again, compare the prices.
• If there is a warehouse store or other specialty shop (Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s) in a city close by, figure out the gas-time-cost savings of making a trip there a couple of times a year to stock up.
• Don’t limit yourself to just grocery stores.  You can often find a small selection of allergy-friendly foods at Dollar Tree, Big Lots and Drug Stores.

So, I think that covers all my points for Shopping Around.  Is there anything that you would like to add?

Up next week in the Frugal Food Allergy Living Series: Avoid Restaurants

You can see all the posts in this series by clicking on Frugal Food Allergy Living series.  You can find more about living with food allergies on a budget at The Willing Cook.

Money Saving Mom featured my “Reader Tip” back in April.  I encourage you to read that post Make Gluten-free Flour Using Your Coffee Grinder.  Today, I will elaborate on those points a little further.

From the original post on Food Allergies and Budgets:

Pre-packaged gluten-free flours are pricey.  A coffee bean grinder and whole grains/nuts can be a wonderful way to save money and enjoy various “flour” dishes.  I have mentioned this on The Willing Cook website when I discussed my essential kitchen tools and more is to follow on the specifics of homemade flour in an upcoming post.

My husband has a wheat allergy, but no other glutens.  His allergy is not so severe that I have to only buy certified gluten-free oats.  Many oats on the market have a chance of being cross-contaminated with wheat (they interchange growing wheat and oats on the same field and use the same processing equipment), so most Celiac sufferers and severe wheat allergies have to use certified gluten-free oats.  (I can tell you that they are not cheap.)

Since oats are a staple in his diet, especially for breakfast, this was the first place we started making our own flour.  I could never come to terms with the high price of the pre-packaged wheat-free flours on the grocery shelf.   So I decided that we should try to make our own flour and thought our small coffee bean grinder would be a great place to start.  The money savings: oats already in the pantry and coffee bean grinder given to me as a birthday gift years ago — win-win budget savings.

Our first attempt was the wonderful recipe for date bars.  I thought oat flour would work great for the crumbly crust and top.  We were not disappointed (and we served them successfully to company too).  We followed this with ground rice flour for our gluten-free fish breading.  Again, we had a winner.

Over the years, we have successfully ground oats, white and brown rice, chickpeas, tapioca pearls, almonds, and even Rice Chex once when I was out of oats.  This experiment has helped us keep a trimmed budget because we don’t buy the pre-packaged gluten-free flours.

Braun Coffee Grinder is the brand that we own and it has worked nicely for us.  The one drawback is that the size is just over a half cup, so it doesn’t make large batches of flour.  (Not that you would want to make large batches for fear of it going rancid.)  There are larger coffee bean grinders on the market, such as Cuisinart DBM-8 and Bodum Bistro, but I do not have experience with them.

The other option, of course, is a grain mill.  I have heard wonderful reports from people who grind their own wheat flour in a grain mill.  They say there is nothing better than fresh baked bread made with freshly ground wheat.   Upon researching the options, I found a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer Grain Mill attachment and the Electric Wondermill Whisper Mill.  These options are much pricier, but would grind larger quantities of flour.

How does it work?

• You put the grain in your coffee grinder and grind it to the desired consistency.  Repeat as necessary until you reach the required amount.  That is it!

What are the actual savings of grinding your own gluten-free flour versus buying the pre-packaged flours?

I noted a few of the comparisons that I researched for the Money Saving Mom guest post.  Here is a little more detail on where I find the best prices:

• Old-Fashioned Oats: The cheapest I have found is $1.99 for a 48oz can at Aldi.  Compared to Amazon’s price on oat flour, there is about a 50-80% savings.
• Almonds: Best price for whole almonds is at Costco or Sam’s Club.  If you can get them for $3.99/lb., that is a good price.  Recently, I have been buying my almond flour at Trader Joe’s as it is less than buying whole almonds and grinding them.  If you don’t have TJs, try grinding them yourself.
• Rice: I buy the large 25lb. bag of Basmati Rice at Costco.  Aldi used to carry brown rice for the best price, but they no longer do.  I now buy it at Costco.  We eat a lot of rice, so buying the large quantity is a good deal for us.  Over pre-packaged rice flour on Amazon, I save about 50%.
• I buy whole chickpeas and tapioca pearls at a local Asian grocer.  This saves me about 90% over the pre-packaged ground flours.

So, have I convinced you to grind your own gluten-free flour?  It truly is easy and economical.  If you already grind your own flour (gluten-free or not), do you have any tips to share?

Up next week in the Frugal Food Allergy Living series: Shop Around

So far in this guest post series has been Food Allergies and Budgets and Shopping Grocery Ads.  You can read more on the subject of food allergies at The Willing Cook, including budget & cooking tips, recipes, personal stories and more.

Today’s topic: Using Coupons to help your grocery budget, even when living with food allergies.  Since this is partially a coupon site, this is not news to most of you and probably old hat to many.  However, just because you have food allergies or Celiac doesn’t mean you have to throw all those coupons out the window (just some).  I hope that some of you will find good advice from this post today.  From the original post on Food Allergies and Budgets…

Coupons for allergy-friendly foods are few, but they aren’t completely non-existent.  When there is an allergy coupon, ask friends and family for their extra.  I do not purchase a Sunday paper because I don’t like buying it when I may barely break even.  A neighbor gives me her coupons or I check the recycling center.  Another resource is the online coupon sites.  Also, coupons for toiletry and household products can help reduce the budget.  Every dollar saved helps and it adds up!

Now, let’s break that down…

• First, coupon options:
  1. Sunday Newspaper
  2. Websites: Coupons.com, Redplum.com, Smartsource.com
  3. Coupon Blogs: Many of the grocery deal/coupon blogs have links to coupons.  I mentioned some of my favorite in grocery ad/coupon match ups in last weeks post.
  4. “Blinkies”: Coupon displays on grocery store shelves.
  5. Digital Coupons that are store-specific.
  6. Printable or printed store-specific coupons (ex., Whole Foods prints the“Whole Deal” and can be found in the store or on their website).
  7. Other Media: magazines, newspapers, periodicals, mailers, etc.

• Using the various outlets for coupons, you can find allergy-friendly food coupons, on occasion.  If online, print them quickly as they tend to run out of the number available quickly.
• Round up as many of the unused allergy-friendly coupons from the Sunday newspaper as you can from neighbors, family, friends, recycling centers, etc.  A good example are recent coupons for Silk Almond Milk.  A big couponing friend of mine buys 8 newspapers each week, but does not use the Almond Milk coupons.  I scored big time on these when they gave all 8 to me.  With these coupons and a recent sale at Kroger, I was able to get Silk Almond Milk for 99¢/half gallon.  We are still using up this stash of Almond Milk as they do not expire as quickly as cow’s milk.
• If you are like my family and are only able to snip a small number of coupons from the Sunday newspaper each week, you must decide if the cost of the newspaper outweighs the savings with the coupons.  If that is the case, you’re not helping your budget to buy the newspaper.  I have a neighbor who does not use her coupons, so she gives them to me.  You could ask family, friends or even check recycling centers.
• Coupons are not limited to just food.  You can save a lot of money in a year using coupons for health, toiletry and household items.

Advice on Using Coupons

• Just because you snip a coupon doesn’t mean you have to use it.  I will often cut out a coupon just in case I find a great deal on it when matched up with a sale.  There are many times when I allow coupons to expire (or I will place them on the grocery shelf for someone else’s use) because it’s not a product that I really need and it’s not a good enough price to warrant purchase.
• Along the same lines, using a coupon just because you have it can still have a negative affect on your budget.  If you don’t really need the item now, need the item in the future or plan to donate the item, why spend the money on it?  Many new couponers find themselves in this position where they buy things because they have the coupon and find at the end of the month that they’ve actually spent more with coupons than without.  Be careful of this trap!
• Try your best to hold onto a coupon until the item goes on sale, so that you can get the most bang for your buck.  You can often score free products this way.

Couponing Extras

• Many people donate or sell their extra coupons.  If you have a big stockpile of coupons, this might be a good avenue for you.
• If you find yourself stockpiling on items, especially household and toiletry items, consider donating them to non-profit organizations that help others.  With the recent tornadoes, there has been an outpouring of coupon-generated stockpiles for these needy people.

Do you have any additional tips about incorporating couponing into your food allergy budget?  Please share your ideas with us!

Next week: Frugal Food Allergy Living: Shop “Manager Specials”