Special Diets Without Going Broke
March 30, 2009 by Jenn @ Frugal Upstate
Filed under Frugal Food
I always say that groceries are one of the areas where it is easiest for most families to trim the budget. Fairly simple changes can have a huge impact-eat out a few days less a week, substitute in cheaper cuts of meat, buy on sale, buy store brands. . . . before you know it you’ve shaved a respectable amount off your monthly bill.
But it seems like any kind of special diet (be it for weight loss, philosophical reasons or medical necessity) totally blow that out of the water. So how can you save money when you are on a special diet? That’s the question we are attacking on this Monday’s episode of Frugal Coast2Coast-Special Diets, on a Budget. To help us we have the lovely Amanda from Mrs. W’s Kitchen, a diabetic food blogger.
March 30th 8:30pm EST/5:30pm PST
I have to admit, I’ve never had to shop for a special diet before! I really need help from you-my fantastic readers! If you have time tonight stop by the show and offer your expertise, either by calling in to the show or by sharing with us in the chat room.
So do you have any tips for saving money when dealing with a special diet? Please, put them in the comments here so we can share them with everyone on the show tonight! Ditto for any questions. . add them here and we’ll try to answer them on the air.
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I think its very worth it to learn how to make your own rice/almond/oat milk if you have those dietary restrictions. I have tried a few recipes, and with tweaking for personal preference you can make a pitcher of rice milk for about 50 cents worth of ingredients and some time. Almond will of course cost the most, but does contain calcium. And oat milk tastes the most like skim milk, so its great for cereal. Even if you have to buy a blender to make them, they will pay for themselves very quickly. (Note: A little box of rice milk costs about $3 or so and they rarely have coupons or go on sale. Its almost impossible to buy oat or almond milk unless you have a specialty health store or get it online.)
Shop around ! I was stunned to find Peapod had lunchmeat without nitrates in it. I’ve even seen nitrate free bacon and meat at Aldi.
I shop at about 4 different stores per month, and wait for the sales on particular items. I once caught a whole pork roast on sale for 5.00. it fed us for 4 meals!
I also found that my local organic store was much cheaper than Jewel for MSG free broth.
Becca & Anon-Thanks for the comments guys! I appreciate you taking the time to give me some of your real life expertise. We did bring up both issues on the show.
I have to say that I feel blessed to not have any allergies in the family-but then again, so many of these things are discovered later in life these days.