Heading to the grocery store to find some gluten free food to fill the shelves can seem like an overwhelming task, particularly if you haven’t been doing it for very long. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. It also doesn’t have to wipe out your bank account. In fact, if you know where to shop and what to look for, you can make shopping trips much less stressful and time consuming.

There are actually a lot of foods that are naturally free of gluten. Most fresh fruits and vegetables fall into this category, as do meat, many kinds of cheeses, rice, beans and fish. Making these fresh foods the basis of your diet will make both your meal preparation and your grocery shopping much easier. Of course there are some specifically gluten free foods you’ll have to buy as well like bread and pasta. For the most part, though, you can buy the majority of your naturally celiac friendly foods in any grocery store.

Bulk Buying

Since many of these staples are available anywhere, you can save a lot of grocery money and cut down on the number of trips you make to the store by shopping at a discount store like Costco. While these types of stores don’t often carry many specialty gluten free products like bread, pasta and baked goods, they do sell many foods that are naturally free of gluten just like any other supermarket. Stock up on cans of beans, bags of rice, meat, fish, cheese, vegetables and spreads like peanut butter and hummus and you can skip those items on your next trip to the grocery store.

Online Retailers

Another way to keep your food cost under control is to order specialty items online. Things like bread or bread mix, pasta and other baked goods and mixes may or may not be available in your local grocery store. Even if you can find them, though, you’ll likely wind up paying a lot for them. There are quite a few websites that offer many of these products without gluten and will ship them directly to your house.

This is a great option, particularly if you live in an area where your grocery store options are limited. Not all of these websites offer products at a lower price than you would find in the store, though. Make sure you check and compare prices to see if you’re actually saving money before you buy. One particularly good option is Amazon.com, which offers a pretty extensive variety of gluten free products for decent prices. You can even get a reduced rate if you sign up for a monthly subscription for a product you go through a lot of.

Keeping it Simple

The best way to keep your food costs under control when you’re cutting gluten out of your diet is to stay away from prepared foods. The name brand products available in this category very rarely fit the bill. This means that you will have to buy specifically gluten free products. Not only are these products generally less healthy than the dishes you make yourself, they’ll usually cost much more. Stocking up on a bunch of gluten free prepared foods is an easy way to send your food costs through the roof in a hurry.