I follow a few GF pages on Facebook and one of them this morning shared an article on the real cost of buying gluten free food. I clicked on it and discovered it also had the cost of being dairy free. I'm assuming they've just done direct comparisons like 500g penne pasta for 85p and GF penne pasta £2. Or 1litre of UHT milk for 90p and 1 litre of Alpro milk £1.60 (all Sainsbury's prices).
They've worked out that if you swap to gluten free alternatives it will cost you £370.76 a year more. And if you go dairy free it will cost an extra £372.84. So if like me you're gluten and dairy free it costs a whopping extra £743.60 a year.
Or does it?
The article had 4 top tips for those on a budget and I'm pleased to say I do all of them!
1. Hunt for deals
You know I do love my yellow stickers ;-)
2. Think outside the box
Yep, I stick to naturally gluten free food (except for GF pasta, it's the only thing I'm willing to pay the extra for) but in the early days I did try a lot of GF products. I really wasn't impressed with the taste and felt they were not worth the money.
3. Cook from scratch
Oh yeah, always done that so no brainer there.
4. Freeze leftovers
I deliberately make enough for leftovers so I've always got an easy lunch to take to work. And you know how full my freezers are with food!!
So really my annual food budget shouldn't be more than anyone else's. It's something I'll be keeping a closer eye on in the future.
Yep, it's always nice to know we're doing it the sensible way.
ReplyDeleteI bet a lot of the folk that have been buying gluten or dairy free products just because it's fashionable to do so will be thinking twice about it now!
It's so much easier just to eat real food and concentrate on vegetables and simple foods than it is to try and plan a meal round some of the cardboard items they laughingly call gluten free alternatives isn't it.
we are the same with our daughter, so many things are GF, so instead of wasting money we cook from scratch, avoiding all the other unwanted extras in ready made things. I find we feel better by being GF, as for dairy free, I have avoided dairy for years, other than cheese, I could not give up cheese.
ReplyDeleteI just CANNOT give up cheese! I can tolerate a little goat's cheese so that is my treat. Sainsbury's do a very nice goat's milk Caemenbert. Mmmmmm!!
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