Frugal living

The single most challenging thing I’ve had to do with a fixed EBT grocery budget is to provide my oldest daughter, Ace, with a gluten and dairy free diet. But it’s even more challenging than that. She is also corn and oat free, as well as restricted from a menagerie of fruits and veggies in accordance with the Feingold diet. Someday when I can finally start shopping for food online or in bulk stores I know that it will be so much easier to save money, but I can’t do either on EBT.

Part of what makes this even tougher on the grocery budget is that the majority of lower priced gluten free products have either corn or oats in them, so everything I buy must be carefully read to search for hidden ingredients.

Breakfast and lunch items are fairly straightforward. We eat a ton of eggs for breakfast, cooked with coconut oil or bacon grease. I can also use WIC to purchase Rice Chex or Rice Crispies for her. She gets her very own loaf of bread. It’s terribly expensive, but since she’s the only one using it, it lasts much longer. She eats ingredient safe lunch meat and dairy free cheese sandwiches, and as well as peanut butter and safe jelly sandwiches.

Dinner is a bit more complicated. The only time I make her a separate dish is when I use pasta in the meal, or am craving cheese. Otherwise, our dinner’s have been adapted to be GF and DF for the whole family. It’s just way less work for me that way, and she doesn’t have to feel different or left out.

So how do I make it work? First off, here are my GF and DF staples.

Coconut milk
Canned coconut milk
Coconut oil
DF cheese
DF yogurt
GF baking mix
Arrowroot powder
DF butter spread
Jovial rice pasta
GF bread
GF crackers
GF and DF cookies (only brought out when attending a party as her safe sub)
Olive oil

Pinterest has yielded many recipes for gluten and dairy free cooking, so that was my main go-to for new recipes in the beginning. Now I just sub coconut milk for regular milk, the gluten free flour mix for regular flour. For special occasion recipes, like cakes, I use Pamela’s Products gluten free mixes with great results.

I like using olive oil instead of coconut oil for my baked goods since it remains liquid when mixed with cold ingredients. I know some people think it gives a funny flavor, but I’ve never noticed it myself.

Arrowroot powder takes a bit of a learning curve, but was the easiest to learn how to replace corn starch and flour to thicken sauces and gravies. Here’s a good crash course on how to use arrowroot powder.

Jovial brand GF pastas continue to win out against all others for quality and flavor. They are a bit more expensive than the others, but I only cook a pasta dish every couple of weeks or so.

There are quite a few crackers available that fit into her diet restrictions, but Natural Truth brand from City Market has won out for price.

DF butter spread is our newest addition to the mix. It really helps Ace to not feel so different from the rest of the family when we use butter. But it might have to go if our EBT budgets gets dropped much more.

Do you have any diet restrictions? What has worked best to keep the budget down?

When you have children, birthdays are part of the territory.

So how do we keep parties special without breaking the bank? So far we have held 2 parties for our children, and did each one completely different. But each was also done in a way to make it fun, without the fuss. I hope these ideas will spark some imagination for you as well!

First off, for our family we have decided that having a party every single year is unnecessary. Especially since we have 4 children! So each child will have a party when they turn 5, 10, then 16. Each of our first two parties ended up being princess themed.

When daughter #1 turned 5, I planned our first party. Her new friend’s birthday was one day before her’s, so we combined their parties. That way, each family only had half as much work to do. I made the cake, crocheted crowns for the girls, and bought table settlings. I came up with 2 of the games. My friend brought snacks, made cardboard swords for the boys, and came up with another game for the children to play. She also bought prizes for the games from the dollar store.

Money spent for my half: cake mix, paper plates, cups, table cloth, and plastic ware. What I didn’t have to buy because we already had it: yarn for crowns, printer paper, ink, and tissue paper to make a Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Pony game.

This year I planned a party for our second daughter’s birthday. I made it even simpler this time. Since the girls were in school this year, we printed invitations on the computer, and sent them with her to hand out. We held the party at a local park this time. No stressing over getting the house cleaned up beforehand, or afterwards. Also, I didn’t have to plan any games or worry about buying prizes. The kids had a blast on the play equipment. We brought pretzels and pitchers of water with us. Way cheaper than buying water bottles or juice. We also made cupcakes, and handed out coloring sheets to her guests that had been printed at home.

What I bought this time: cake mix, pretzels, paper plates and cups. What I didn’t have to buy: location, invitations, coloring sheets.

So, as you can see, birthday party #2 was even cheaper than #1, and way less work. Even if we can’t afford a fancy event center, or even party decorations, we can always do something! And chances are, our kids will remember that year they got to have a special party, not that we paid an arm and a leg to have a super fancy one.

What have you done to keep parties affordable?

Gluten Free and Dairy Free on Food Stamps

Frugal Birthday Party Ideas