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Going gluten-free - where to start? - £200 voucher plus signed copies of Budget Gluten-free to be won

232 replies

CeriMumsnet · 18/02/2025 09:16

Going gluten-free can be a challenge, especially when it comes to budgeting. For those of you who are gluten-free, what would your top tips be? What are your favourite gluten-free products? How do you stick to a budget on a gluten-free diet?

And if you’re just starting or even have been following a gluten-free diet for a while what questions or concerns do you have? Becky Excell, author of new book Budget Gluten Free will be online in the next few weeks to answer some of your questions.

Everyone who posts on this thread by 18 March will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will win a £200 voucher plus a signed copy of Budget Gluten Free by Becky Excell. 9 runners up will also win a signed copy of the book.

*Don't forget to also take part in the poll below about the cost of a gluten-free weekly shop (according to Coeliac cost of living report 2024) - the answer will be revealed on this thread next week!

T&Cs

Going gluten-free - where to start? - £200 voucher plus signed copies of Budget Gluten-free to be won
Moonshine5 · 20/02/2025 23:55

Which countries would be best to visit on holiday to accommodate a gluten-free diet?

aveenobambino · 21/02/2025 00:15

Ahh love this thread - I'm coeliac. So much stuff i wish I'd known:

  • travel is tricky. Always have a variety of foods and snacks with you
  • airline gf meals can be horrendous. I was served a pair for dessert in first class
  • home baked cakes etc taste much better than shop bought gf cakes
  • toaster bags are brilliant at reducing cross contamination when using a toaster that's had non gf bread in it
  • drink plenty of water if you're glutened
  • Tesco now does a gf orzo and M&S gf bake your own cookies are incredible
  • you've got this!
Natsku · 21/02/2025 03:09

Zanzara · 20/02/2025 19:51

If you go to Spain, the Canary Isles or Portugal, you can get GF McDonalds. 😊🍔

Also Finland, probably the other Nordics too.

Natsku · 21/02/2025 03:10

Moonshine5 · 20/02/2025 23:55

Which countries would be best to visit on holiday to accommodate a gluten-free diet?

Finland caters for gluten free very well and I hear Italy does too.

Sparklystar · 21/02/2025 03:47

For us I got together a basic store cupboard I.e.floyr etc and started making a few bits and had fun along the way!

We also looked at food that is naturally gluten free and just buy a few bits that are specifically gluten free.

Also I now have a list of places we can eat that are gluten free to make eating out easier

DarkMode2025 · 21/02/2025 05:26

lozzerjam650 · 18/02/2025 18:17

If you can, invest in a Panasonic bread maker (one that has a GF setting). Not cheap, but worth it over time. Especially if you can get Juvela White Mix flour on prescription (which I know is a postcode lottery) but I get 7 x boxes under one prescription which makes 7 large and delicious loaves. I slice and freeze. Really nice.

I think this is what I might do, the price of gf bread is eyewatering. I'd love to know the markup on it.

DarkMode2025 · 21/02/2025 05:42

I mainly cook from scratch so just swapped some things to a GF version or naturally GF.

I was shocked at the price of GF Soy Sauce in the supermarket £3 for 150ml bottle that's £20 per ltr ...I go through a ton of that stuff so went searching online and got the same stuff in a 1lt bottle for £8.50 on Amazon so some savvy shopping is advisable.

bringonyourwreckingball · 21/02/2025 05:43

Italy is surprisingly good for gluten free, we found a really good range of products in quite a small supermarket in Sardinia

Moonshine5 · 21/02/2025 08:39

sharond101 · 19/02/2025 19:28

Find things naturally gluten free rather than advertised as such, like egg or rice noodles instead of wheat ones. So much cheaper.

Egg noodles contain wheat unless you make your own.

ButterOllocks · 21/02/2025 11:58

My DH is gluten intolerant - I find it soo difficult to make meals which we can all enjoy - and tend to make 2 different meals - I'd be really interested in this cook book to hopefully be able to make more meals for all of the family - I'm still learning.

Assumingthebest · 21/02/2025 12:18

mitogoshigg · 19/02/2025 08:03

Remember most foods do not contain gluten! Vegetables, meats, dairy, rice ... Avoid processed foods and buy a bread machine, there's lots of good recipes. Rice noodles are widely available and gf pasta

Yes, rice noodles are good for Chinese noodles dishes, pad thai etc.
Red lentil pasts.
Homemade flatbreads using just gf flour and plain yoghurt.

prawncocktailcrispss · 21/02/2025 12:50

What's the best app for scanning food when shopping - is there a filter on a supermarket website which can only show you gluten free?

NeverDropYourMooncup · 21/02/2025 13:21

Your starting point is Trust No One.

Over time, you'll begin to get a sense of who and which places and brands are likely to actually be aware of what gluten free means - but in that process, you'll have plenty of 'There's no meat in it' (but lots of wheat), 'Can't you just eat a bit less if you want to lose weight?' and assumptions that you'll be fine picking around the wheat containing products.

Never trust a buffet unless you're literally opening the packet - that GF dip would have been great were it not for the person before you who stuck a breadstick in it and cheese was fine until it was cut with the knife that was used to open a bread roll, as was the antipasti until somebody thought it would be nice to artistically arrange it on a platter with crackers, breadsticks, mini sausage rolls -and all of the fruit and olives you now can't eat, either.

Italian restaurants are generally very good at understanding GF and South Indian ones can be very helpful due to the amount of foods that are inherently GF and made from fermented rice flour instead.

You'll also get used to which shops actually stock gluten free options beyond snack bars and cake - out of seven supermarkets in a three mile radius where I live, I have found one single GF sandwich on one occasion and on that same occasion, three GF frozen items.

GF will always be pushed out in favour of seasonal promotions - you can write off the entire Christmas period because if you find a store that actually sells more than a couple of snack bars and some cakes, everything will be swept off the shelves come November in favour of more party food. And if you place an order for a Christmas delivery, treat it as a child writing a list for Santa, as it's pretty much guaranteed that the GF panettone, Christmas cake, mincemeat and other products that weren't already marked Out of Stock on the day you placed your order will fail to arrive in much the same way as your Mr Frosty and a Pony never turned up on Christmas Day despite your carefully adding them to your list every year without fail.

If you sign up to Food Agency alerts, you'll get a message about six weeks later to tell you when a specifically gluten free product has been found to contain undeclared gluten. But you'll know all about it by then, it just confirms what you've experienced after eating.

Be aware that you may also have to avoid all oats, including gluten free ones, as it's possible that Avenin is an issue for you - and it's very common for the damage already done by gluten to cause lactose intolerance. Unfortunately, this eliminates the majority of dairy free alternatives, such as ice cream, as they normally contain gluten and/or oats.

If you cook from scratch at all times, take your own food and always plan for not being able to eat because your promised GF option has been cross contaminated or somebody else has taken a fancy to it, it's much simpler than to try to navigate all the preprepared options available at first - and the longer you go without something you've eaten all your life until diagnosis, the better an alternative tastes.

Floralnomad · 21/02/2025 13:41

I will say where I live ( SE) I can always guarantee to be able to find a gf sandwich in M&S . Another point is if you are coeliac as opposed to intolerant steer well clear of anything that says May Contain - this came up on a thread last week and somebody said they ignore May Contain , do it at your peril as my daughter has definitely had issues in the early days when we were a bit less observant .

TheSpottedZebra · 21/02/2025 14:41

My top tip is that (as long as you cool it properly), rice freezes really well, and can be reheated quickly. So you can buy big cheap bags of rice and cook in bulk.

wingslikeeagles · 21/02/2025 16:15

I've noticed my food shopping bills go up and my eating out spend go down (because even if there is a gf option I just don't fancy it). ANOTHER brownie, anyone?

I'm not celiac, just very intolerant, and I wish that places would offer more naturally gf food, so baked potatoes, omelettes etc. Most gf bread is just not worth eating, although the sandwich thin type roll isn't bad.

Going gluten-free - where to start? - £200 voucher plus signed copies of Budget Gluten-free to be won
wingslikeeagles · 21/02/2025 16:16

Not sure why my photo of the bread roll didn't attach! It's the Warbutoms one that I think is ok.

Doingitat40 · 21/02/2025 19:03

Agree with the picture above of the warburtons sliced soft white rolls, they are the only ones I’ve found that actually taste and feel like bread I would want to eat, I’ve actually used them for work sandwiches this week

as with many others, since being diagnosed coeliac 9 years ago, I have opted to try and eat foods that are naturally gluten free rather than the processed substitutes as they never taste very good

ive a couple of Becky’s previous books and my most used recipes is Yorkshire pudding and they come out just as good as homemade gluten puddings

DrCoconut · 21/02/2025 19:48

You will naturally save money by all the things you can't have as long as you don't try and replace like for like with GF aisle products which adds cost. Takeaways are a particularly big thing here, learn to make a good fakeaway of your favourites would be my advice. I serve ours in foil trays so it feels like the real thing.

daisychicken · 21/02/2025 20:10

I would love tips for on making better gf, dairy free, egg free and oat free pastry and decent gf, df, ef bread.

GF is hard enough but adding in dairy free and egg free plus oat free really limits options!

Sleepybumble · 21/02/2025 20:41

I rarely buy prepared foods as the gluten free versions are often so much more expensive. I cook almost all out meals from scratch to try to be more budget friendly.
I've pretty much cut bread out of our diet as it makes me cross that it's so expensive

raspberrykombucha · 21/02/2025 21:53

Cook from scratch, it's not as hard as you think it will be. I've recently gone gf and my diet is much cleaner as I don't eat snacks like chocolate, cakes and biscuits as much anymore.

raspberrykombucha · 21/02/2025 21:54

Cook from scratch, it's not as hard as you think it will be. I've recently gone gf and my diet is much cleaner as I don't eat snacks like chocolate, cakes and biscuits as much anymore.

KickHimInTheCrotch · 22/02/2025 07:51

DD is coeliac, I've found that keeping the house 95% gluten free is the easiest way to keep her safe and me sane. I keep standard cereal and a few sealed snacks and frozen bits in for DS stored separately, but otherwise we have no gluten in the house. I don't have any standard flour or bread so no risk of cross contamination in the toaster or cupboards. I couldn't handle having to think about it all the time if we tried to run a mixed kitchen.

KickHimInTheCrotch · 22/02/2025 07:58

I would really like someone to speak to schools about coeliac disease. DD isn't catered for properly at her secondary school at lunchtimes and her food tech lessons are a joke.