Ballin’ on a Budget, Food Allergy Style

As someone who had to both feed herself and go through OIT on a college student’s budget, I can tell you that it can get pretty expensive pretty fast. Inflation keeps, well, inflating. Allergy friendly products are often more expensive to produce, leading to higher retail costs. And that’s not even including the stock of OIT food items you might need to keep around.

So how do we do it, you ask? Great question. Here are some things I did to keep my health and finances out of the red.

  1. Don’t be afraid of store brand items! If you need to save money for a specific brand of peanut free cookie or wheat free bread that’s on the pricier side, do it! Just adjust in other areas. Things like store brand milk, applesauce, and other essentials could free up space in your budget for the non negotiables.

  2. Shop sales and use coupons. Wait for sales and stock up on allergy friendly products. Sign up for your grocery store’s reward programs, the often come with discounts and coupons. Maybe an unsexy option, but an effective one!

  3. Make the freezer your friend. This is a must for anyone doing OIT for perishable food items. Peanut butter might be able to last half a century (just check your grandparents’ pantry), but cows milk and egg white go bad very quickly and specialty nut flours can go rancid after a few weeks. Portion out doses of cows milk or egg white in ice cube trays and freeze. Keep nuts or nut flours in the fridge or freezer to keep of rancidity.

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