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”