Gluten-free budget shopping

Shopping gluten-free on a budget is actually really easy!  After first beginning a gluten-free diet, it seems overwhelming to go to the grocery store and read label after label.  Everything labeled "Gluten-Free!" is at least $5.00, and everything else seems out of the question.  It's easy to forget how much food is naturally gluten-free, simply because it's hard to not think about what you can't eat.  Bread, pasta, cereal, etc etc etc.  Forget about replacing these gluteny foods with gluten-free versions.  Stay out of the middle of the grocery store (except to grab essentials like rice, tea or coffee!) and play it safe on the perimeter.  This is where you will find naturally gluten-free foods like produce, meats, and cheeses.  Here are my top three shopping tips:

Plan ahead.
Look through your pantry and freezer and take note of what you could use during the week.  Create a weekly meal plan, using some of the items you already have, and write out what you need to purchase for each meal.

Collect savings.
Check store ads (available online, or you can pick one up while you are running errands) for sales and discounts, print out online coupons if you need to buy something like bread or pasta.  Udi's is offering a $1.00 coupon for their gluten-free bread, and Publix's current price is $3.99.  You could pay $2.99 for something that is typically around $5.00 at a health food store.  Publix also recently had Udi's on sale for $2.99 without a coupon, but it was only advertised in the store's weekly ad.

Smart sides.
Eat cheaper sides!  Think of all the great things you can do with rice (lemon rice, fried rice, coconut rice, rice-stuffed peppers or tomatoes, Spanish rice, or Arborio rice for an entire meal of risotto).  The favorite side in my house is a huge salad, and for many meals, the salad is the entire base (chicken Cesaer salad, Asian steak salad).  Potatoes are inexpensive (mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, sweet potato fries).  Examples could go on forever!

For this week, I first gave a good look at my pantry and freezer.  Here are a few items that stood out:
Corn tortillas
Lemon
Frozen corn
Corn meal (lots of corn products!)
Frozen edamame
Parmesan cheese
Quinoa linguine (I bought a case of this on Amazon.com for just over $25.00 with free shipping, saving $15.00 compared to what I would have paid buying each box individually from my health food store

From there, I figured out the week's meals:

I paid $40.00 total for the entire week's worth of dinners, and with two people it divides down to $4.00 per person, per meal.  Not too bad!  I try to make the proteins last since they are usually more expensive.  The frozen tilapia fillets I bought were $8.99, but this will be at least two meals worth (six fillets per bag).  The thin sirloin steak was a steal at $3.51, and huge flavor items like ginger, garlic, green onions, and limes were each under $1.00.  Cabot cheese was $1.98, and they are a proudly gluten-free company!  They even had a booth at the recent South Florida Gluten-free Expo in West Palm Beach.

Sticking to naturally gluten-free foods will cut your grocery costs, and you will feel better eating all these clean, healthy foods.