Food Stamps

[OptimisticMom42]

I'm looking for ideas on how to be gluten free on a budget. And I'm serious guys there isn't any money to send away for cases to save money per box. If I had hundreds to spend I wouldn't be asking. We use to eat macaroni, ramen noodles and kool aid when money got tight. Now what do we do?

Thanks RA

[Dixiebell]

www.talkaboutcuringautism.org

website TACA- Talk about curing autism

There is a page on a Glutenfree CF Diet on Food Stamps

[kareng]

Look around this site, we have had this discussion several times in the last month or 2.

Rice. You can make a bunch and reheat in the micro or with a little water. We like pasta sauce and cheese on the rice. Also, a can of beans, can of tomatoes or salsa, canned or frozen corn, cheese on top if you have it. Do they still distribute that delicious govt cheese? (if others in your family can eat it) You can get rice noodles really cheap at an Asian grocery and sometimes at a regular one.

Potatoes. Peanut butter on apples or bananas or, a favorite at my house, pb on a spoon.

Good luck.

[OptimisticMom42]

My friend fell and won't be able to go back to work for awhile. Not sure he'll have a job when he is able too. No insurance. This whole year has sucked. We have been doing the rice and cheese but it makes me dizzy so I think my sugar is off. The extended family has been bringing venison over. It's still bow season here. Yesterday I started looking for recipes for wild boar LOL cause they keep talking about those on the news.

So I'm off to the store to by beans, hmmm beans and venison soup, better get an onion (and matches for the scented candle!).

Thanks RA

[sa1937]

I've bought Heartland gluten-free pasta at Wal-Mart for $1.98 for 12 oz. Three different varieties available. I realize it's far more expensive that regular pasta but might work for an occasional pasta dinner.

Also I've bought Sam Mills gluten-free pasta at a local Mennonite-type shop for $1.98 a lb. I've also read that people have occasionally found it at Big Lots for less than that.

Someone previously suggested Aldi's for great buys on a lot of foods. We have Save-A-Lot stores here, too, with lots of cheaper prices...may be their own "off" brand but the store is always busy.

For baking Asian markets have various flours at prices I would consider dirt cheap.

Not know where you live, there might be similar type stores in your neighborhood.

[OptimisticMom42]

Someone previously suggested Aldi's for great buys on a lot of foods. We have Save-A-Lot stores here, too, with lots of cheaper prices...may be their own "off" brand but the store is always busy.

Not know where you live, there might be similar type stores in your neighborhood.

I drive past a Sav-a-lot on my way home from work. I've avoided it because the floors are always dirty and there are no bags but I guess I'll have to give it another shot. My neighbor used to take me to the Kroger an hour from here when my kids were little. It's an old store where people who have lived there for generations shop. I haven't been there in years. I'll have to give it another look also. Wonder what my neighbor is doing tomorrow?

Thanks RA

[OptimisticMom42]

www.talkaboutcuringautism.org

website TACA- Talk about curing autism

There is a page on a Glutenfree CF Diet on Food Stamps

They have some good ideas. I liked "make a menu" and "cook like grandma". Grandma has been making gluten free potato soup for the kids. That sounds wonderful right now. Think I'll call and ask for her recipe.

Thanks RA

[sa1937]

There is a Save-A-Lot store in a near-by town where I used to live but since I moved four years ago, I haven't been in there. It's certainly a bare bones store...nothing fancy. At that time (may still be true today ???), they always advertised bananas at 29 cents a lb. and generally had better overall prices on produce. And if you don't mind off-brands, there are bargains to be had. Good prices on frozen veggies, too. Meats didn't look bad either. If I had to watch every penny I spent, I'd still be shopping there today. I live alone so am not shopping for a family and that definitely makes a difference.

Last time I was in, they did provide plastic bags but before that I always kept a stash in my car to use instead of the boxes they had. That was not my usual store to shop at but it was the one closest to my house.

[Chiana]

In the past we have split the upfront membership cost of Sam's Club or Costco with friends and relatives. Then, the leader of the group compiles a list of foods each household needs, and picks it up. Everyone comes over and divvies up the 20lb. bags of green beans, etc. and splits the cost of the food. In Michigan, food stamps are on a card now called the Bridge Card. They work like pre-paid debit cards, so you can hand the leader of the group a few of them. We also buy a large number of turkeys around Thanksgiving when they are $.29 a pound, and fill our deep-freeze in the garage with them. We used to be a macaroni and cheese/ramen family as well, but I can't do it, and it's really not nutritionally sound over a long period of time. It's inexpensive meat/beans, rice/potato, and frozen-vegetable time for our family.

Once it hits summer, we grow our own food. Seeds are dirt cheap (seedlings are not, so grow from seed if you plan to do this.) During tomato harvest time, we can home-made marinara sauce and salsa for the winter. A few favorite plants come in with us for the winter in big pots. We get a couple of red bell peppers a day from the pepper plants we brought in this winter. We would never be able to afford bell peppers otherwise -- they are like $2 a pepper for the red ones here, right now. I grew them from seeds I got out of a grocery store bell pepper.

If anyone wants to do a seed exchange now or in the spring, send me a PM.

[Dixiebell]

So I'm off to the store to by beans, hmmm beans and venison soup, better get an onion (and matches for the scented candle!).

Thanks RA

Have you tried soaking the venison in salt water before cooking it? My father is a hunter and he always does this to draw some of the blood out which helps to take some of the gamey-ness away from it.

[jessicalw28]

I drive past a Sav-a-lot on my way home from work. I've avoided it because the floors are always dirty and there are no bags but I guess I'll have to give it another shot. My neighbor used to take me to the Kroger an hour from here when my kids were little. It's an old store where people who have lived there for generations shop. I haven't been there in years. I'll have to give it another look also. Wonder what my neighbor is doing tomorrow?

Thanks RA

The Kroger in my town has a natural foods section with gluten free options. Do you have Trader Joe's? You can get gluten-free foods there for pretty cheap.

[Emilushka]

Cheapest I can think of is rice, frozen veggies, and ground beef (try to find stuff that's a "manager's special" because it's knocked down in price, then immediately freeze/cook it).

Canned veggies might be on a better special than frozen at your grocery store.