Special diets on a budget

JennyP

I can't drink because of my liver and will never be able to
Makes life cheaper but I miss it.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

When you look at it in plain language (rather than the airy-fairy, make-millions-from-looking-pretty-at-age-27-on-a-Photoshopped-book-cover stuff), you are going to be choosing to eat everything except dairy and processed/packet foods.

If you drink tea and coffee, remember to ensure that a lighter brew of tea tastes lovely as it is and coffee needs to have hot, but never boiling, water, to ensure it doesn't taste bitter. If you can't adjust to it straight away, stick to herbal teas from somewhere like Teapigs rather than Twinings or PG and hot water with a slice of bashed up ginger and lemon juice is warming and comforting in cold weather. Making herbal infusions, such as mint, is much tastier than using bags, too - a nice cup (maybe a glass one?) puts you in mind of the Instagram element of treating yourself, too.

If you eat meat, making good stock (IG version = bone broth) is great for making soups or even for drinking. If not, invest in some good veg stock cubes - normal veg, mushroom, onion, are all incredibly useful for adding flavour. Adding a potato to veggies for blending up with stock to make soup ensures they still feel creamy without dairy or flour added.

Homemade soup is your friend. As are fresh and dried herbs and spices. Grow pots on your windowsill throughout the year and keep a good few lumps of ginger in the freezer for immediate grating or making the aforementioned ginger & lemon.


That famous trend of vegetable pasta has been something I've done since I was a teenager, just with courgette and a peeler, not a fancy tool. Vegan pesto is easy to get hold of in the supermarket.

Tinned pulses are great before you get used to planning to soak and cook things, and make sure you have supplies of dried things that don't need soaking.

And try for not having prepackaged refined sugar before you go anywhere near the 'no sweetness shall ever pass my lips' thing - fruit and a supply of good dried dates will pick you up without a slightly scary binge upon an entire packet of value custard creams before you've got out of the supermarket car park at some point later in your menstrual cycle, which will make you feel greedy, embarrassed and rather sick, and having sugar that you choose to add to things that you are cooking makes things taste good and will be considerably less than you will find in any jar. We're biologically programmed to like sweet things for good reason - to deny yourself that totally is to fight against survival instincts; you just don't have to have it in the form and quantities modern Western humans are used to it.


If you've suddenly stopped having lots of high refined carbs in your diet, you could begin to feel a little rough - ignore the 'detox cleanse' woo-woo - your body is having to adapt to getting its sugar from complex carbs instead of getting instant hits, your tummy could protest at a massive increase in fibre, especially if you don't normally drink much water and you've cut out tea and coffee due to the difference in taste without milk, and you could get a caffeine withdrawal headache for the same reason. But you don't have to feel ill - it's not a rite of passage/a spiritual purge - just have something sweet, have a black coffee, whatever it is that you need to feel better.


You're choosing to eat these things - veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, grains that don't contain gluten, meat, fish, eggs - it's not deprivation - it's your choice. Enjoy it, whether it cures anything, reduces symptoms or just tastes nice!

JennyP

Wow, Jojo. I feel really inspired now.
Just remembered that we have a spiralizer that we have never even used.
I buy gluten free, MSG free kallo cubes when they're on special offer and we already grow basil on our window ledge (favourite herb!)

maddiemay

If you enjoy baking, I do, look at the blog for Gluten Free Alchemist. Kate the author is coeliac as is her young daughter. She has trialled and perfected masses of recipes and shares them freely on her blog.

It does involve buying a number of different "flours" and blending them to suit the recipe, but here (in the sticks) everything is available from 2 indie health food shops and H&B.

The cheese scones, sweet scones, Gluten free brown bread (breadmaker or manual), perfectly fluffy GF oat bread, two cheese, chorizo and walnut biscuits are staples for me. OH who is not GF happily eats all of these. I have tried a few of the sweet things, but have a savoury rather than a sweet tooth.

I have no affiliation, just a very satisfied reader who hates the taste of most bought GF offerings.

culpepper

I choose to be dairy free. A few years back I was having stomach pain issues and did a DIY elimination diet for about a month.
Everything dairy affects me even lactose free so its worth thinking about if the problem is not gone when eliminating lactose but not dairy.
We stock up on vitalite or one of the 'pure' spreads when they go on offer for £1 and they work fine in baking.
Supermarket deli counters are now becoming more allergy friendly and label the gluten/dairy free things which is very useful.

Pewmouse

I'm vegan and it's easy on a budget, I actually find it cheaper. My SIL eats gluten free but her allergy is specific to wheat gluten so I've found that I can bake for her using spelt flour and that's fine for her so not sure if that would be something you could try?

Doom_and_Gloom

I'm vegan and gluten free.
I mostly buy things that are naturally without gluten. Rice, potatoes, buckwheat, quinoa, chickpea flour, buckwheat flour etc.
I do have to buy the GF oats, porridge is still cheap, and I buy Nutri-brex (like wheat biscuits but GF) when on offer. They make a good 'wheatabix' cake.
I do buy the GF self raise flour and GF pasta from time to time. I have lots of Bfree wraps in the freezer bought reduced, great for wraps, fajitas, burritos etc.

I buy long life vegan milks when on offer for £1, buy in bulk.
I did a bulk shop for vegan cheese at a shop that sells it a while back. Nice to have for certain things (pizzas, enchiladas etc) but not essential. Nutritional yeast is a staple of mine, I buy in bulk like most things to help keep costs down.
I buy the majority of my fruit and veg reduced. I use our freezers a lot.

Bulk cook. This saves not only on cooking cost but also means you have a suitable and a lot cheaper meal when you don't feel like cooking and tempted by a take away.
Meal plan. I sometimes re-jig due to reductions but meal planning is essential for my diet.
Bulk cooking quinoa/rice/potatoes for a few days and putting them in containers in the fridge to add with lunch or dinner. Basically meal prep. OH has to do the majority of my cooking as I'm disabled so this is great for him as it is less work. It also helps keep my weight stable as I have good food ready to eat as is or only needing to be microwaved.

I don't add a lot of sugar into my diet. I drink coffee black with no sugar, I drink tea with unsweetened vegan milk and no sugar or I'll drink a herbal tea.
I get most of my sugars from fruits and vegetables. Though that cake I mentioned had quite a lot of sugar I don't put in as much, instead of the cup it asks for I use 1/2-2/3 instead as I find sultanas in it sweet. Still a lot of sugar but as a treat worth it.

Yes I do this on a budget. For food and drink OH (he is omni with no food restrictions) and I usually work on a personal budget of £2.50 each per day. So £150 for 30 days and £155 for 31 days.
We end up with full freezers and a lot in the cupboard and that means the month budget can go down from time to time. November our bulk budget is £30, my personal budget is £30 and OH personal budget will be £50 for example. £40 less than usual for a 30 day month. I'll still eat well because the freezer will be where I'll be getting a lot of my food, same for OH.

Caterina

JennyP wrote: »

I did sugar free for a year and my taste buds did get used to it. Then I slipped one day and that was that.
Honey and other naturally sweet things aren't great for me - I need to avoid spikes in blood sugar. Apples, pears and berries are OK.
I will eat yoghurt as the yoghurt process gets rid of lactose.

It's spooky how it happens with sugar, isn't it? I went 2 years without any refined carbs, lost 2 stones without sacrifice or effort, felt on top of the world. Then my family pressurised me to have "just one bite, it won't hurt!" of a birthday cake that my s.i.l. had baked. To avoid giving offence I had a tiny piece. Didn't enjoy, but it kept the peace. That night for the first time in 2 years I woke up at 3am with the old familiar sugar cravings and it was all downhill from there. For me sugar is ike tobacco, a terribly addictive drug.

JennyP

My slip was when I had a bad chest infection. I was probably sucking on sugary cough sweets and then I fancied fruit juice and that was it. Hooked again.
Made delicious milkshake yesterday with homemade yoghurt, frozen summer fruits that have been in the freezer for ages and needed using and the tiniest bit of sugar. Very moreish.

moneyistooshorttomention

Caterina wrote: »

It's spooky how it happens with sugar, isn't it? I went 2 years without any refined carbs, lost 2 stones without sacrifice or effort, felt on top of the world. Then my family pressurised me to have "just one bite, it won't hurt!" of a birthday cake that my s.i.l. had baked. To avoid giving offence I had a tiny piece. Didn't enjoy, but it kept the peace. That night for the first time in 2 years I woke up at 3am with the old familiar sugar cravings and it was all downhill from there. For me sugar is ike tobacco, a terribly addictive drug.

I'd be interested to read further details on that - as to what you mean exactly by "sugar" and "refined carbs". I've interpreted it as literally no sugar (ie white sugar, brown sugar) and "refined carbs" as "no white rice, white flour, white pasta" and thought "That should mean that weight is just due to come off me too with no effort to speak of - just be patient". Is my interpretation correct?

I occasionally have something other than sugar to sweeten stuff (eg maple syrup or date syrup). Am, very occasionally, forced to eat white flour/white rice (ie if there's no healthy food around and it's mealtime - so I'm hungry).

Maybe it's what is in our individual genes re addicted to sugar? As it's not something I've any idea about personally - as I can eat the very occasional thing with sugar in (though it is VERY rare for me to do so) and it's not a problem. I'm not feeling the slightest wish for any more...

EDIT; Though I do agree it was absolutely wrong for your family to pressurise you at all into having food you had decided not to have. I wouldnt dream of pressurising anyone - they get asked once and, if it's a refusal, it's accepted and I don't expect to be pressured either (trying to think of when anyone tried to do so and can't).

Though, of course, there are other forms of pressurising - and a common one is that it's mealtime when one is at a social occasion or looking out for somewhere to eat a meal out - and there literally isnt any of "your" sort of food available. I think that is very naughty - and does lead to being forced to eat something one has chosen not to eat (as one will literally go hungry otherwise). I can think of a very recent example of that - staying at a (former) friends house and them saying there was only junk food available to eat in the kitchen - when I knew very well there was some "healthy enough" food there and they werent admitting it.