Eating healthy on a budget..

1) make your own 100 calorie packs from bulk. Itll be cheaper.
2) buy frozen fruits & veggies

This is a hard one because gluten free can be so costly (we have a lot of them in my extended family).
Don't do 100 calorie snacks? We don't buy any processed food anymore (made the change last year), so make all snacks and such and package ourselves. You save a good 75% that way.
In re. to gluten free, instead of buying the food substitutes made with rice flour, tapioca starch etc that are so costly, can you learn to just change the food to eat those things? I have adjusted so we don't eat breads, crackers etc like that.
We no longer eat lovely fruits like grapes etc because their prices keeps around the $3.00 per lb, so instead apples, oranges, bananas, and whatever else is on sale - the apples at $6.00 per bag still add up when you have 6 people eating them 1-2x a day!

You may have to change the style of what you eat (not that I know what you currently eat).

Rice is gluten free, potatoes are glutent free they should be your main staples for dinners. You can get gluten free breakfast ideas, many cereals are GF, corn flakes, bran flakes ect. Is Oatmeal GF? Because you can buy unprocessed oats very cheaply and make your own oatmeal for breakfast. The only thing you then need is gluten free bread - 1 loaf should last your daughter a weeks worth of sami's.

Buy frozen veges if you can. Not only do frozen veges lock in nutrients because they are flash frozen, but you reduce waste (they don't turn to slime if you don't eat them for two weeks). Buy in bulk and separate out into individual portions for the family, much cheaper than buying smaller individual portions. Plan a head. Use dried beans and lentils for proteins (check the web for recipes and ideas) some of my favourite ideas are to use beans and lentils to bulk out meat dishes as to save money.

There is a challenge out there called the $27 (I think?) or try google-ing pantry challenge. The idea being there is food in our pantries that we haven't used.

Sorry to hear about your job! As a single income family (single mom of 2) I understand the challenge to shop!

I personally find that junk/snacks/processed foods cost more than veggies and fruit. I am starting to phase it out of our home, but if I do buy it I try to do so at a Costco type place where it is cheaper for larger amounts.

Just some things I have been doing which aren't gluten free or maybe even what you are hoping to find... but I am on a money diet myself so will throw them out there.

1. frozen juice, not juice boxes for my kids lunch
2. buy in bulk and do my own portions (ie almonds)
3. buy 2 dozen eggs, and eat a hard boiled egg as a snack
4. buy what's on sale even if you don't want it (ie, I ditched greek yogurt this week for the 35cal stuff because it was cheaper)
5. lots of fruits and veggies
6. my kids love pizza, so I buy them $3 frozen pizza from walmart instead of ordering out
7. I look for the meat on sale. Last week I bought 1kg of ground chicken for $5 even though I wanted hamburger
8. I try no name over brand name (unless I know it's gross, ie ketchup)

I have an app on my phone where you plug in quantity and price for items A and B, and it tells you the better deal. I may spend more money today to buy bulk, but it lasts a lot longer.

Also, in my town they have the 'good food box' you pay like $20 for a huge amount of fruits/veggies. I wouldn't be able to eat it all before it spoils but a good deal. Not sure if your area has something similar.

I'm sorry to hear about your job. My diet is very inexpensive and I'm never hungry. I'm not sure children or a family would care for it, but here goes.

My diet base is brown rice (which is gluten free) and lentils. The protein in 1 cup of lentils = the protein of 3 eggs. I don't buy canned food. A bag of lentils in the grocery store costs $1.20, even less if I go to the health food store and buy in bulk. Dried beans are a lot cheaper than canned, last forever on the shelf, are sodium free, etc. Lentils don't have to be soaked and cook in about 30 minutes. Other beans are great, too, but you have to soak most of them.

I add steamed, blanched, or stir-fried veggies... some of my favorites are broccoli (which will fill you up), butternut or acorn squash, vidalia onions, and everything else! Once in a while I will eat a boiled egg for a snack. 99 percent of the time I just buy apples for fruit.... they are lower in sugar than a lot of other fruit and more filling.

For breakfast, I eat steel cut oats (more filling and tastier than regular oatmeal) and a diced apple.

Condiments: tamari and toasted/dry roasted sesame seeds (I buy the sesame seeds in a health food store.... the grocery just has the small, expensive jars in the spice area).

Fruit is expensive. Veggies are cheap. You don't really need fruit if you are getting plenty of veg. Try going to a market stall rather than the store. If you really need fruit, frozen such as berries etc work out much cheaper than fresh and have the benefit that there is no waste due to it going off.

As for cheap protein - fish, ham or pork, oats

invest in a BJ's membership (or some other wholesale store). I get super cheap fruits and veggies as well as meat.

8lb. bag of grapefruit for $5,
huge bag of good-quality frozen green beans for like $6
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are always $1.99lb, and sometimes even less.

I have to pass up some of the good deals because I live alone and most of the produce would go bad way before I could finish it, but for a family I bet you could save a ton.

I think the memberships are about $50, but it will pay for itself in like 2 shopping trips.

I guess this depends on where you live but I know around me they have farmer's markets. The fruits and veggies are super cheap i struggle to spend over $10.00 (because they won't take my card unless i purchase more than that) the only problem is that this produce seems to spoil much quicker then grocery store food (i assume lack of preservatives?) even our local Kaiser medical office has a farmer's market day where people come and sell their produce and sometimes nuts and other goods in their parking lot. We also have 99 cents only stores and normally i would be weirded out getting produce there but I have actually seen the produce being delivered while i'm shopping there and it's pretty good. A six pack of tomatoes for 99cents or a three pack of bell peppers... I can't find those prices in my local grocery stores.

We have a pretty tight food budget these days, and I cope largely by making everything from scratch. Dried beans are great if you use the no-soak method that takes 90 minutes in the oven:

http://www.thepauperedchef.com/2009/06/90-minute-no-soak-beans.html

(2 pieces of bacon cooked in the pan before the beans go in makes them much better!)

Chicken thighs and drumsticks are usually much cheaper than chicken breasts, and really the nutritional difference isn't all that significant.

100 grams of chicken thigh: 209 calories, 11 grams of fat, 26 grams of protein, 7% RDA iron, 238 mg potassium
100 grams of chicken breast: 165 calories, 4 grams of fat, 31 grams of protein, 6% RDA iron, 256 mg potassium

Buy chicken thighs and drumsticks in bulk, split them up and freeze them in packs of 4 or 5 at a time.

Buy lower cost vegetables in their crudest form. The more they are cut up and prepared, the more expensive they will be. Carrots+onions+celery forms the base of most soups and stews and other savory dishes, and they are very affordable if you buy them in their whole form.

Use *all* of your fruit. If you have a couple of apples that have gone a little mushy and your family doesn't want to eat them any more, chop them up and throw them into a dessert. Same with bananas. Invest in some gluten free all purpose flour and xantham gum and you can make most recipes for baked goods, with some modifications. (I ate gluten free for about 4 years.)

Purchase fruits and veggies in season. Right now strawberries can be pretty inexpensive. In mid-summer, peaches and nectarines. In the fall, apples are a better deal. In the winter, oranges.

Pay attention to how much things weigh. For example, a pound of mushrooms can be pretty expensive ($2.99 or so) but a pound of mushrooms is a *lot* because they don't weigh anything. You can probably afford to buy enough to go with dinner.

Cottage cheese is usually pretty inexpensive and is an easy way to punch up the amount of protein in your meals. (Throw it into a pasta dish and it functions pretty much like ricotta.) Chunk light tuna is also an inexpensive way to get some lean protein. 1 cup gluten free pasta + 1 can drained chunk light tuna + 1/2 cup cottage cheese + 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms + 1 tbsp parmesan cheese = "tuna casserole."

Rice and potatoes are naturally gluten free and usually less expensive than buying gluten free pasta. Buy what you can afford (and what your family will eat) and don't sweat it if it's not brown rice.

Use what you have. If you've got a half a bag of tortilla chips that have gone a bit stale, crumble those up and use them as a coating for chicken, etc. Google is your best friend: you can find a recipe for just about any random ingredient you've got sitting around in your kitchen. I don't throw away much food these days, because there's always something that can be made from it.

It's the season for farmers markets. I just bought 2 pounds of spinach and 2 pounds of asparagus for $5 and it's an organic local farmer :-)

I just read an article about a guy who lost a ton of weight buying his food at the 99cent store: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/yourbestfitness/99-cent-diet-could-it-work-you

If you have a farmers market near you, check that out for good, inexpensive healthy foods. Lots of times if you go at the end of the day, vendors will discount their food further because they don't want to haul it all back.

I didn't read the above responses.

Do you have a farmer's market, or something like it near you? We have a store here called Top Tomato, and it's a chain in the NY/NJ area. Their fruits and veggies usually cost 1/2 or LESS of what the grocery store charges. And if you find a local grown farmer's market, it's even cheaper. I haven't bought fruits or veggies from a grocery store in months.

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. It's rough economy wise for a lot of us. I agree with the person who said to look into bountiful baskets. The produce from that is very good and in some places you can opt for organic. During this time, if you haven't already, check into food stamps. If you qualify that will help you.
Also, since you do gluten free, check out www.heavenlyhomemakers.com and www.hillbillyhousewife.com. Both have gluten free options in their recipes as well as eating healthy on a budget.
Eggs, beans, and in season produce are fairly inexpensive. Cook from scratch as much as possible. Homemade soups, even during the summer months, are filling, healthy, and you can make them gluten free.

Great ideas. Keep them coming xx

I love all the responses so far. I am challenged to make things from 'scratch' sometimes. My life gets so hectic and it is easier to make a Boca burger sandwich...but for a little extra time, I can have veggies and rice with beans. I tend to eat on the run too much.

When I get back from vacation, I want to follow some of the great advice from this thread!