Cheap eating with intolerances?

[abundanceatangas]

I'm a new TM owner.  I convinced myself it was a good investment because my son is gluten intolerant and we use rice milk (not because we are necessarily intolerant to dairy - more of preference).

I have made the cyndi o'meara gluten free bread, and even grinding the grains for flour, I estimate it cost me around $3 a loaf, cheaper than we can buy gluten free bread fresh, but I generally pick up gf bread reduced at supermarket for $2.50 and freeze straight away.  I am pleased that I'm not using preservatives, but we get through nearly a loaf a day.

I have made the basic rice milk and it was yuk!  Jo's rice milk is yummy, but one thing that sold me, was that my demonstrator told me the rice milk would cost me about 10c a litre - uh-uh, the basic one would be around 20c, which is great; but pretty inedible, Jo's would be around $1 a litre, which is great, but not quite the savings I was imagining.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my purchase, but I would love some ideas of how others may cook with restrictions and save money by using the thermomix.

I understand we all have different ideas on what would constitute expensive/inexpensive.  We are on a pretty tight budget and would like to get our weekly shopping at $150 for four of us.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Deb

[Merlin]

I have Coeliac disease  and firstly I admit I haven't  done the rice milk yet as luckily we are all still dairy tolerant and choose to drink milk as my kids are still young.  I have made rice flour and almond flour etc and find overall the TM31 makes catering for gluten intolerance much cheaper than buying goods. I still have a large stockpile of gluten free flours and bread mixes that i am getting through so I haven't done the gluten free bread recipe yet in the cookbook. Our grocery bill has gone down heaps since buying the TM as we don't use nearly as much processed food and we tend to just buy only fresh meat, fruit, vegetables and staples such as sugar,eggs etc.  Admittedly, the money I save at the supermarket sometimes get spent on other things, like cookbooks, shoes etc!!! I found the TM to be very versatile in being able to cook gluten free recipes I was doing the conventional way. I cook quite a lot of meals from the meat  on the menu cookbook as I have 4yo twins and still want them to get their iron, protein etc. I also do a lot of the salads, soups etc and find that the ability to know exactly what is going into your food, controlling amount of seasoning etc is the biggest plus. You'll find that the possibilities of what you can do with your TM are endless. In my case I am the only person with Coeliac disease in the family but everyone else pretty much eats what I do and the time savings of cooking just the one meal with the TM are important for us, let alone the fact that there is far less washing up to do than I had previously.

[abundanceatangas]

Thanks Merlin, it's good to know other families are thriving with thermomix and coeliacs.