Food allergies and grocery budgets - what do you do to keep costs down?

shaumom

texasredreb wrote: »

I have a lot of medicinal allergies (one of which is deadly) and also Latex, but luckily no food allergies. I recently subscribed to Imperfect Produce, which I've been enjoying. The only thing that has been a disappointment are the avocados. They were so bad, I seriously thought they were beets. I complained and they promptly refunded me. I also hit the local, seasonal produce stands and farmer's markets. Costco seems to have quality products in bulk.

Imperfect produce sounds so neat! But sadly not in my area. That's such a cool idea!

Sorry to hear about your own allergies - latex is a pain the butt, yeah?

shaumom

Athijade wrote: »

shaumom wrote: »

The biggest problem I have had with the IC stuff (and soy allergy) has been I have to cook. There are few frozen meals that are safe (and healthy) and convenient stuff is the same. Now, I love to cook, but I also have chronic fatigue so there are times my body doesn't WANT me to do anything... much less stand in the kitchen to make dinner. I meal prep my breakfast, lunch, and snack for the week on Sundays and I hope to start prepping ingredients for my dinners (but not pre cooking them) here soon.

Good luck to you and your family. If you have questions on the IC diet or on substitutions/recipes for it, let me know.

Glad that the diet has been so helpful, and holy cow, my daughter is so similar - she has fibro and they are checking for chronic fatigue syndrome. Much sympathy for the standing. She has been working on trying to figure out the best way to get food prep done, too.

good luck on introducing dinner prep!

shaumom

mstheglitch wrote: »

My allergy is ... herbs. Believe it or not. Oregano, rosemary, sage, etc. You have no idea how many food items contain herbs. Or the label says 'spices'. Like I can trust that. I haven't had a pre-made spaghetti sauce in years.

That is a tricky one! Do you know what the over-arcing reaction is to? Like, is it for foods under a certain family? Or...I know salicylates are a big issue for some folks and knock out almost all herbs, and I know myself I have to grow my own herbs as I seem to react to common unlisted preservatives for herbs and spices. And man, yes - everything freaking thing has spices and herbs, yeah?

I miss pre-made spices for myself, LOL.

mstheglitch wrote: »

I shop for the simple products. Take a look at the spaghetti sauce aisle and start realizing how many ingredients they contain. Honestly, the expensive foods sometimes have the most ridiculous amount of ingredients. That cheap can of food might have nothing but the most simple, basic ingredients. And I totally agree with the idea of growing your own garden. Can't be contaminated if you grow it yourself.

Oh I wish I could go for the cheap stuff! :-( The biggest issue we have with that is that we have a few really bad allergies to some foods (gluten being one of them) that are so commonly part of foods that it is hard to find equipment lines that it's not used on at some point. To ensure any processed food isn't cross-contaminated, we actually have to get food that is either certified as free from that allergen, or the company does the special protocols for cleaning that are more intense than normal, to prevent cross-contamination. Which of course makes the price for the product soar. :-/

But I know what you mean about the cheaper stuff containing less! We have had success in the realm of cleaners before, where the cheaper stuff had none of the 'extras' added, but with some folks in the family reacting to some of the extra chemicals, the cheaper stuff was actually better!

shaumom

WholeFoods4Lyfe wrote: »

I'm not sure where you live, but $150 should get you quite the bounty. I spend that per week and there are 6 of us

I so wish that was true for us (perhaps some of it is costs in our area, maybe?), but it has literally been difficult to find enough food - protein especially - to get everyone enough calories. :-(

WholeFoods4Lyfe wrote: »

With so many allergies, I think sticking to the exterior aisles of the grocery store would be your best bet and avoid the packaged foods as much as possible. Stick with things like meat, dairy, fruits, and veggies. Stay away from things like jarred sauces because they can be a landmine and either uses spices to flavor your foods or make the sauces yourself. Check out local Farmers Markets and CSA's for things like fresh, local fruits and veggies, grass fed beef, pastured pork and chicken, and local honey.

Yeah, that's pretty much what we do, at this point. There is very little in the way of pre-made foods that we can actually use, or if used, that more than one of us can use, you know?

But the increased costs, when we need to avoid allergens, extends into raw ingredients as well. Plain dried beans, plain whole grains, plain tofu, ground meat, plain raw nuts or seeds, even simple things like oils or baking powder - it is all more expensive because we have to get brands that make sure these are not cross-contaminated during processing, even though the processing might be pretty minimal.

Like, on weeks my son is getting his vegetarian protein primarily from beans, the cheapest beans I have been able to find (which are not cross-contaminated) are about $20 for the week. If he did, say, plain raw peanuts as his only protein, it would be $20 a week. Plain raw almonds would be about $40 weekly (if that was the only protein, of course).

I used to shop at farmer's markets, but we could no longer afford them. The CSA's would be lovely, but we have some more veg and fruit issues (I didn't bother mentioning them, because I usually just avoid and use something else, but cost is not as impacted) that half the time we can't use much in the box, you know?

Although we CAN use local honey for a couple of us, at least, woo hoo! ^_^

WholeFoods4Lyfe wrote: »

Good luck! It's not easy, but with some practice and diligence, you'll find that you can do this.

Thank you very much for the words of encouragement. Appreciated. :-)

shaumom

Crafty_camper123 wrote: »

For meat, are there any local farms or butchers you can get in contact with to be able to buy a whole animal?.

We actually have wanted to do this, but it's a long term project - need to save up to be able to afford the large amount, and save up to get a bigger freezer. But it is definitely something that I think would be helpful!!

shaumom

WholeFoods4Lyfe wrote: »

Something else I was thinking of. With your restrictions that you need to accommodate, maybe look in to a good Paleo cookbook, a lot of those ingredients are excluded in a Paleo diet. Maybe even look in to Autoimmune Paleo .

Oh yeah, when all this started, AIP and Paleo recipes were a lifesaver! I got so many ideas from them and still use them today. SO happy they are popular enough right now that it was easy to find!