If you’re gluten free like me, you know that it isn’t cheap. I’ve found a way to develop a gluten free meal plan on a budget, week after week, and I want to show you how!
Gluten Free Meal Plan
Food allergies, food sensitivities, and Celiac disease are tricky. We’re gluten free in our home because my oldest son and I are sensitive to gluten, me in part due to my autoimmune disease. My other two sons and husband can eat gluten but due to worries of cross contamination during meal prep we have made the decision to have the whole family be gluten free, at least at home.
We came to this difficult conclusion after my oldest and I had been on a strict gluten-free diet for years and yet testing indicated that we both were somehow ingesting gluten and our bodies weren’t liking it!
Five people on a gluten free diet is expensive, that’s for sure.
It takes a lot of planning, looking at sales, stocking up when things are on sale, buying fresh produce and meat, to ensure we are able to continue our gluten free lifestyle comfortably. We’ve found that one of the best ways to keep grocery costs down is to focus on naturally gluten-free foods, such as whole foods like chicken breast, fresh fruit, and vegetables.
My son and I are not only gluten free but also dairy free and soy free. I also have additional food sensitivities but we won’t get into those.
In addition to knowing what’s for dinner ahead of time, meal planning will also help with your grocery bill as you won’t be buying food you don’t plan on using within the next week and it’ll help cut down on food waste.
Meal Planning App/Website
When I had to start eating gluten free, and at the time I also cut out many other foods, I knew that we needed to meal plan in order to not go nuts. Part of that was because my go-to prior to being gluten free was frozen pizza, spaghetti, and other grain-heavy meals. Not to mention, when I first started eating this way, I also was in my first trimester of my first pregnancy and had intense cravings that I couldn’t satisfy due to dietary restrictions and just as intense food aversions.
First we started meal planning on paper but soon that wasn’t cutting it, it was causing more angst than it was worth.
I was incredibly happy when I found Plan to Eat, a website and an app where I could keep all of my recipes, meal plan for every meal, and it would automatically populate a complete grocery list!
This was lifechanging, seriously.
There is a small cost for Plan to Eat but you can try it out with a free trial. I always renew during their Black Friday sale which is half off! Though even when it’s not half off, it’s so reasonably priced when you think about how much you use it, it’s worth every penny!
Try plan to eat for free with my affiliate link below!
Below you can see some screen shots of the meal planner on the left and the grocery list it automatically made on the right.
Gluten Free Shopping at Grocery Stores
The best way to complete gluten free shopping at grocery stores is to shop around the outer aisles where the fresh food is instead of the inner aisles where the processed foods are. Common ingredients such as olive oil, green beans, potatoes, a whole chicken, sweet potato, and meats are naturally gluten free foods that can help be a base for easy meals within your meal plan.
Shop sales when you can, even Target has deals on meat and other fresh foods from time to time. There are some gluten free staples that you may choose to purchase that are within the inner aisles of the grocery stores such as black beans, brown rice, white rice, gluten free flour, gluten-free bread, coconut milk, corn tortillas, vegetable oils or olive oil, peanut butter, and chickpeas are good options.
Beware of hidden sources of gluten such as soy sauce, processed foods that haven’t been made in a gluten free facility such as the store brand of gluten free foods, that may not agree with your gluten free needs. Whether you’re highly sensitive to gluten or not depends on your own body. My son and I don’t have celiac disease, ‘just’ non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but tests have shown that our bodies are highly sensitive to small amounts of gluten so we have to be incredibly careful. The more careful you have to be, the more expensive it’ll be unfortunately.
However, you can still be gluten free on a rather affordable grocery budget if you plan ahead.
Gluten Free Planning Strategies
In addition to buying wholesome ingredients instead of processed gluten free foods, you can save money by planning not only dinner recipes but also breakfast recipes and lunch recipes to have on hand to choose from.
Cheap gluten-free meals include
- Rice, chicken breast, and fresh vegetables
- Black beans in the instant pot, chicken breast, and vegetables
- Hamburger patty and potatoes or fries
- Tuna on rice with cucumbers on the side
- Chicken and potatoes
- Turkey and mashed potatoes
Meal Prep Tips
- Meal prep ahead of time to make days worth of lunches so you don’t have to think about it everyday or possibly go out to eat.
- Prep vegetables before the week starts so you can just grab and go your favorite veggies instead of grabbing that bag of chips!
- Cook from scratch with these whole foods that you’ve purchased.
- If you can, stock up when grocery items are on sale and freeze what you won’t use right away.
Compare Grocery Prices
The good news is, gluten free eating can still result in satisfying meals and not completely upending your whole food budget.
One way we’ve continued to do this is to compare grocery prices between the grocery stores that we frequent. Admittedly, the linked blog posts do include some gluten-containing foods as this comparison is for everyone, but you get the gist.
Click the images below to see the most up to date grocery price comparisons, as well as a way you can conduct your own grocery price comparisons!
Ordering Online
Though choosing to not consume gluten free processed foods is your best bet for overall health and cost, if you do want some comforts such as gluten-free animal crackers, cookies, bread, candy, and so much more, I suggest checking out Vitacost.com.
Vitacost has become my #1 place to shop for gluten free processed foods for my kids and myself. It’s nice to have a treat sometimes!
Throughout my parenting journey with 3 kids on a single income, I have become an expert in living comfortably within our means without feeling restricted and I will help you do the same.
I'm a former school psychologist who left my career to stay home with my children, hence the one-income family and needing to adapt to that mentality while still living comfortably.