Buying Gluten Free for Less Dough

Let’s face it, unless you are getting foods for your gluten free diet totally off the land, living gluten free is quite expensive. And if you are eating GF solely with fresh meats, veggies, fruits, GF grains – this article is not for you. Use the extra time you would have spent reading it to tend to your garden – stop here!

If, on the other hand, you enjoy a good loaf of pre-made bread or a bag of pretzels now and then – read on. It has not been easy coming up with ways to cut down on the cost of packaged gluten free foods. They are expensive. Here are a few strategies, however, that may save you a bundle of dough.

1. Don’t throw food away.

I have a rule that I only serve something once to my family. Once in its original form that is. Even if everyone loved it, I change it around and make it into something else. I call it “Caribbean Style,” named for a vacation my husband and I took to a Spa in St. Lucia years ago. Every day, dinner from the night before was transformed into a glorious soup, salad, quiche, casserole or wrap. I’ve carried that idea into my cooking at home. If we have grilled chicken one night, I call it Chicken Caribbean Style the second night and come up with something else to do with it. My kids never notice that they’ve seen it before, and my husband gives me that knowing smile. (If they ever read this, they’ll know my secret.)

This concept even works well if your gluten free experiment goes bad. Your bread recipe gone awry can turn into breadcrumbs, croutons or an awesome French Toast Casserole (we have 3 recipes to choose from here.) Flat cookies can turn into piecrust or ice cream toppings. Crunch them up and put them in the freezer to use later. A bland casserole can be the beginning of a fantastic soup. I recently turned a leftover GF chicken potpie and some leftover cauliflower into one of the best soups we’ve ever had.

2. Special order a case from your grocery store or health food store.

Many stores will special order a case of your favorite gluten free product and give you 10% off on it. Win/win. You don’t have to pay for shipping, and they don’t have to find shelf space for products that they are afraid they may not be able to sell, or have you clean off the shelf of their whole inventory.

I buy a case of Fast & Fresh Dairy Free, Gluten Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake for the microwave now and then and send it to my son who lives in a college dorm with no kitchen. One minute in the microwave and he has something tasty he can eat for breakfast or late night snack. When my local health food store gets it in, I buy it all and want more, so this works well for both of us and I save 10%.

3. Buy major national brands, when trusted.

Buying specifically gluten free brands is always more expensive than buying a naturally gluten free products from a large national brand. Food companies are becoming increasingly more allergy friendly. Many products are run on dedicated lines that never run gluten filled products, or have processes in place to help prevent cross-contamination. Confirming the process with an email or phone call can put your mind at ease in some cases and free you up to buy some much cheaper products that are often on sale at your grocery store.

Frito Lay is a great example of this principle. Their chips, especially their natural line, are often made from simple gluten free ingredients in less expensive and larger sizes which are much more affordable than a small bag of something specifically marketed to the gluten free. A bag of Natural Tostitos has an ingredient list of Whole Organic Yellow Corn, Sunflower Oil, and Sea Salt. That’s it.

Frito Lay recently sent me the following statement about their process: “While Frito-Lay does not have dedicated lines for gluten-free, the company takes great precautions to prevent cross-contamination. Each Frito-Lay facility has a seasoning matrix it follows to run unseasoned products first, followed by seasoned products. This matrix also governs which seasonings run at the same time. The lines and seasoning tumblers at each facility are wiped down between each run, and a more thorough cleaning is done before unseasoned products are run again.”

General Mills is becoming a good friend to the Gluten Free – look for Betty Crocker Gluten Free Mixes, Gluten Free Bisquick and Hamburger Helper, Chex Cereals, Potato Buds – all marked gluten free and hopefully more to come.

Kraft & Progresso – Kraft’s policy is to specifically call out gluten ingredients on their labels, so many of their items are at least free of gluten ingredients and Progresso is putting out more and more soups and sauces with “Gluten Free” printed on the back label.

4. Shop at large chain stores.

I always try to buy things in a physical store before checking online. I have Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods in my area as well as just about any other chain store you can think of. In fact, I have four Whole Foods stores within 15 minutes of my house, but I do have compassion if you don’t. If you live in a small town, that may not be an option for you very often, but even Target, Wal-Mart and Costco (or something like them) are good stores for filling in some gluten free items and many small towns have at least one of those nearby.

A Target near me has the following items that are marked gluten free, among others, Betty Crocker GF mixes and frostings, Cherry Brook Kitchens cake mixes and frostings, 5 Bob’s Red Mill Flours, Bob’s Cornbread Mix, Bob’s Bread Mix, Quinoa, Flaxseed Meal, various brand of fruit gushers and rollups, and Betty Crocker Potato Buds. They also have very inexpensive national brands like Frito Lay and Post cereals that are gluten free. I checked 4 different grocery stores, and Target was the least expensive on most of these items by far.

Costco had many more choices, but couldn’t even beat Target on most items. I found 20 items marked gluten free such as, Amy’s Organic Soups, TruRoots Organic Quinoa (4 lbs for $9.99!), Food Should Taste This Good Chips, Pacific Natural Foods GF Organic Free Range Chicken Broth – and more!

Trader Joe’s also has a selection of gluten free products. Many are their own brand and are tasty and affordable. Their GF brownie mix is only $2.99, as are many of their Organic GF soups in the 32 ounce box. That’s a lot of soup for $2.99!

Walmart, Kroger, Publix, Safeway and many other non-specialty chains are adding gluten free aisles and products without the mark-ups of the small, specialty chains.

5. Price Compare Online with Google Shopping

If you only want a few things, Use the “shopping” button on Google. Type in the product you want in the search box and push “shopping.” Sort that list “By price low to high,” and you have a quick price comparison. If any of those companies offer free shipping, it will say so as well. I tried it with Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour and found a 1 lb bag for $8.99 – that’s up to $4 less than it was on some of the other sites I was familiar with. I never would have found it without that handy “shopping” button.

6. Shop Online from stores that have no shipping charge when possible – or buy a lot at once to save on shipping.

If you are buying just a couple of products, shipping can often cost more than your order. One bag of Bob’s Almond Flour costs an average of $11 online and shipping, where I checked, was an average of $9 for UPS ground. If I need that ONE bag of flour sent to me UPS Next Day Air, it would cost $105.62 on www.glutenfreeplaza.com and $90.73 on www.glutenfreemall.com. Wow, I better plan ahead. CRAZY!

7. Buy in bulk online.

Buying in bulk online is a good way to save if you use a LOT of flour. You can even use the Google Shopping button for that if you know what you are looking for. I compared Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour in bulk on several major sites. You can buy a 1 lb. bag for an average of $11. You can buy 4 – 16 ounce bags for an average of $43 (cheapest is amazon.com at $36), which is about $10.75 per pound. You can also buy a 25 pound bag directly from Bob’s for $118. That’s $4.72 per pound – a HUGE savings, if you’d use it all.

8. Take Advantage of Frequent Buyer Deals

I found two great money saving frequent buyer deals.

www.Amazon.com has a product subscription plan called “Subscribe and Save.” Here’s how it works. For products you frequently buy, you can “subscribe” to have that product delivered at regular intervals. You choose the product you buy frequently and the delivery schedule. For example, 4 -16 ounce bags of Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal are regularly about $36. On the Subscribe and Save plan, you get them for $31 – a savings of $5 plus free shipping. You can cancel any time.

www.glutenfreemall.com has several ways to save. Check the Specials and Coupons tab before you place your order, which has selected items on sale for 20% off. If you buy 10 or more of the same item, you get 10% off. They have a reward points program. For each $100 you buy, for example, you get $10 of points that you can use on the next purchase, effectively giving you a 10% discount.

Good luck on your hunt for less expensive gluten free products. Hope this helps! If you have any other great ideas, add them in the comment box below.