An Ask the Readers question on Money Saving Mom about how to save money when you have food allergies in your household, has prompted me to write a post about it.

In 2006 our oldest son was diagnosed with milk and egg allergies, at six months.  He has since grown out of them as of last year (so yes, there is hope!).  He has been advised however to still avoid all nuts and fish for the next 2 years (until he is 5) and he doesn’t really like cow’s milk, cow’s milk cheese or egg, so we still buy things like sunflower butter, soy and rice milk, rice cheese, etc.

Granted, I’m far from being an expert, having only dealt with it a short while (compared to others), but I do have some advice.  I never found any magic bullet to saving money without spending all my time making things from scratch, but I did manage to feed my always-hungry boy without totally breaking the bank.

Resources

There are tons of resources on the internet if you take the time to Google what you are looking for.  Lots of great allergy sites, easy recipes and suggestions from other people in the same boat.

There are also lots of cookbooks, though I felt I found more success online as many of the recipes in the cookbooks were too complicated for me to bother with.  The one cookbook I did buy was the Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook and it has some really good recipes in there that I had success with.

Coupons

I emailed the companies of the products that I used regularly and asked for coupons.  I had pretty good success with this too and even do this with non allergy-free foods.  The majority of the time they would mail me a few coupons, often for free products too!

Some of the companies, with allergen-free foods, I had success emailing are:

• Tofutti
• Amy’s (the non-dairy, rice crust, soy cheese pizza is surprisingly tasty and the no-cheese, roasted veggie pizza is super yummy!)
• Fruitabu (Stretch Island Fruit Co.)
• Rice Dream

Other products often have coupons you can print from their website, like Enjoy Life Foods.  Enjoy Life products are a little pricey, but if you catch them on sale and have a coupon, they are not a bad deal.  That’s when I would stock up.

To me, some things like Enjoy Life are totally worth it for the convenience factor while I was still figuring everything out.  My son likes the chocolate cookies and the cinnamon granola best.

Bulk Discounts

Also, Whole Foods offers a 10% discount on anything you buy by the case.  I have bought shelf stable rice and soy milk by the case.  Just speak to someone at the store beforehand to make sure they have enough.

I have also heard that Costco has good prices on soy and rice milk, though I don’t have experience with them since I’m not a member.  If anyone has experience with allergen-free foods at Costco, please leave a comment and let us know.

Amazon also sells a lot of products, like Ener-G and Enjoy Life Foods in bulk.  If you don’t live near a store that sells these types of products and don’t really have time to make things from scratch (the biggest money saver, of course), then buying in bulk could help with some savings.  You might even be able to go in with another family or two who have similar allergies that are near you.

Cooking

I often just tried to stick to the basics and not get too fancy.  I am not a big cook and don’t like recipes with a million ingredients, so did a lot of simple recipes.  I will post some on here periodically, but rice and beans with veggies and simple meat and veggies goes a long way.

I also didn’t bake my own bread though I always wanted too.  I just never got around to it and didn’t have a bread maker.  I have one now (after I finally remembered my Mom had one she wasn’t using), so I will be making some soon.  I’m sure I could have saved quite a bit doing this and you could probably find a good deal on a used bread maker off Craigslist if you don’t already have one.  For the time involved, a bread maker would be worth it to me.

We also still have a whole box of Ener-G Egg Replacer so I still use it too.  It might seem expensive, but it lasts quite a while and I, personally, found it far easier than remembering the correct mixture with flax or pumpkin seeds or soy flour or whatever, though they apparently work well also.  Whole Foods and many other stores, like Kroger, carries this (and some other Ener-G foods).

Here are some of the other things that I made pretty regularly.

Breakfast

• Oatmeal with frozen fruit (I would stock up on frozen fruit when it went on sale and go fruit picking in the Summer)
• Plain yogurt with my own added fruit (far less sugar this way)
• Homemade waffles or Van’s waffles with fruit
• Toast with apple butter or avocado spread on it

Lunch/Dinner

• Sunflower butter (either Sunbutter or Trader Joe’s brand) and jam sandwiches are still a favorite around here for lunch
• SoyNut butter is another alternative for nutbutters
• Tortillas with turkey and either hummus, avocado, or rice cheese
• Always some fruit (one lucky side benefit to our son’s food allergies is that he is an AVID fruit eater)
• Soy yogurt
• Amy’s non-dairy burritos (I have found the best price at Target)
• Boca products have both a Vegan burger and Vegan crumbles
• soy or tofu dogs
• I have some easy recipes that I will post soon

Snacks (other than the obvious…fruit)

• Cheerios and various dried fruits (raisins, apples, cranberries, apricots are typical in our household)
• Enjoy Life Foods granola with cheerios and/or dried fruit
• Sliced bananas or apples with sunflower butter on them
• Carrots or cucumber and hummus for dipping
• Allergen-free crackers and pretzels – these are not the cheapest by any stretch, but can make your life easier for sure and if you buy in bulk you can get a better price.  We were able to use Newman’s Own pretzel (I usually got the spelt ones) successfully, but it might depend on the severity of your allergies if you want to try them or not.
• Mini-muffins (these blueberry ones are our favorite)
• Avocado slices
• Brown rice cakes (like Lundberg) with sunflower butter or apple butter spread
• Sweet Potato Oatmeal Squares

I will be posting some of our favorite snack and dinner recipes on here periodically.  Most are allergen-free since we’ve been cooking like that for three years and it’s still what my son prefers.  Really, most are healthier anyway, so we are all better off.

If you have any other questions that I haven’t covered or have a tip of your own, please leave a comment so we can all learn more.

Related posts:

1. Saving Money At Christmas

03/06/2009 | Food allergies, Healthy Living.

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