Here are my Top 11 Frugal Gluten-free Foods to Buy at Aldi, plus other allergy-friendly frugal foods to buy! Helps keep my grocery budget under control and our family healthy! Also enjoy my Ultimate Guide to Shopping at Aldi.
Do you have a hard time finding frugal foods for a gluten-free diet?
We eat a real food diet, which means homemade meals from scratch with lots of fresh veggies, fruits, oatmeal, and homemade baked goods like chocolate chip scones, and yellow cake mix (both gluten-free!).
Since my daughter is sensitive to gluten, and it is very nice to have frugal options for gluten free items…we have found lots of healthy and frugal alternatives at Aldi.
These are some of my best finds for gluten-free foods to buy at your local Aldi store!
Top 11 Frugal Gluten-free Foods to Buy at Aldi
Fresh produce is naturally gluten free
This one tops my list and for good reason: It’s an entire food group and we eat tons of it!
As with any grocery store, I carefully scrutinize all the produce I buy. There are times when I have to forgo something on my list because the quality just isn’t there. But most of the time, I fill up my cart with loads of high quality fresh fruits and veggies because Aldi has great prices on great tasting in-season produce. They even have very good prices on organic produce.
Some of my favorite buys include:
- butternut squash and spaghetti squash
- romaine lettuce package
- apples
- avocados
- blueberries
- blackberries
Frozen berries
Blueberries, strawberries and peaches are great to keep on hand for smoothies, muffins and homemade sorbet. You could add them to homemade applesauce, or bake a berry pie in the middle of winter!
Shop for Rice at Aldi – a frugal GF grain
Probably the most frugal food item on the planet, rice costs just pennies per batch. My son likes to eat it for breakfast topped with butter and brown sugar in place of oatmeal.
To help pinch pennies, we could make homemade rice milk, or combine with #7 below and turn plain rice into a festive side dish of Spanish rice. It’s also the key ingredient for using up random leftovers in the fridge! Either white rice or brown rice are great!
Potatoes
Always frugal and always a hit when roasted with a little olive oil, made into soup, into buttermilk bread or even for healing a spider bite! You could even make your own potato chips and avoid eating the national brands that are filled with hydrogenated oils!
Dairy products of all kinds are a great buy at Aldi
There are so many delicious things you can make with milk and cheese! Homemade pudding, cheesy homemade GF pizza… Homemade yogurt, or you can make kefir too. Don’t forget, there are more ways to save on cheese besides buying a brick!
Fish
Aldi offers frozen wild salmon (here is my recipe for blackened salmon) and tilapia at great prices for money savings on your grocery bill – as compared to other retailers.
Canned tomato products
Aldi’s organic diced tomatoes are $2.00 for 28 oz. The conventional type is only 1.50¢. We use these constantly in chili, tomato soup, and Mexican-style dishes like Spanish rice.
Rice cakes – a great gf snack
For people who cannot eat Aldi brand gluten free bread, rice cakes are a good option. A fun option is to make rice cake pizza with toppings as a sandwich substitute.
GF pasta
I did a happy dance when Aldi started carrying their own GF pasta! Pasta is perfect for those nights when you need an easy dinner. Of course, I still make 2 batches, which is a good strategy for managing food allergies around a family meal.
Buy your dried beans at Aldi
Aldi carries dried black beans, and other types of dried beans! There are a million tasty and frugal things you can do with beans. Here, the Harvard Medical School says that beans are a cheap and nutritious addition to a healthy diet!
Popcorn
Did you know stove-popped popcorn keeps well (if it’s not gobbled up, that is)? I like to send a container of popcorn in school lunches for a fun treat, perfect for homemade lunchables.
This is such a yummy and frugal snack and the Aldi price is much better than national or other store brands. Need I say more?
Depending on whether or not you’re managing other food allergies, Aldi has lots of other frugal real food items too.
Here are some of my other staples:
- Eggs
- Olive oil
- Walnuts, peanuts, whole almonds
- Old-fashioned oats (not gluten-free)
- Chocolate chips
- Pasta
- Unsweetened applesauce
- Natural peanut butter
- Uncured bacon
- Rye bread (a concession on busy days with no time to bake homemade bread).
We find it much simpler and healthier to choose whole-food alternatives that everyone can enjoy!
With that said, Aldi does have a number of prepared gluten-free foods that we love.
Their GF pretzels and crackers are delicious and I’ve had success with some of their GF baking mixes. But those things are highly processed and often contain lots of sugar (sigh). So we reserve those things for the times when I want to splurge on portable snacks or for special occasions.
Managing food allergies does require a little extra planning and preparation, but it certainly doesn’t have to destroy your grocery budget!
More on Shopping at Aldi:
- The Ultimate Guide to Shopping at Aldi
- Which is Cheaper? Costco vs Aldi
- Which is Cheaper? Walmart vs Aldi
- One Week $50 Aldi Meal Plan
Shopping for real food at other stores?
- Real Food at Costco
- Gluten Free Real Food at Costco
- Real Food at Trader Joe’s
- Real Food at the Dollar Store
Guy Cofield
Aldi came to our area a few months ago, and I’ve found good deals on products I like -coleslaw, cottage cheese, bratwurst. However, I am very sensitive to soy protein, and Aldi seems to have stuffed soy protein, unnecessarily, into all bread products. So I shop there only occasionally.
Tiffany
Thanks for sharing this Guy!
P Baxter
You say you’re gluten-free yet you eat rye bread. Rye contains gluten!
Tiffany
P – the author meant that rye bread is real food and is available at ALDI. As you’ll notice, there are other non-GF items listed in that list too, which is meant for those reading who aren’t necessarily GF.
Suzi
Aldi has such affordable produce! If I end up with a bad batch of fresh produce, they always take it back, give me a refund, and the opportunity to replace what was bad for free. We buy zucchini and yellow squash just about every visit and spiralize them in place of pasta. It also mixes in well with rice for stir fry meals. Thanks for the post!
Tiffany
What a great idea! I’ve seen both of those there recently and I think I’m getting a spiralizer for my birthday. 😉 Cheers to more veggies!
CareyB
That sounds yummy! So you use it for say spaghetti? With spaghetti sauce? I’d love more ideas on this. I’ve got a daughter with celiac disease and it’s not easy on my budget:(.
Heather (contributing author)
Zucchini noodles are great! They aren’t exactly the same as pasta, but it does help give some variety to all the veggies.
Suzi
Carey- yes- we serve the sauce right over the spiraled zucchini noodles….similar to how some people do this over spaghetti squash. You can steam the zucchini noodles or microwave them for a couple of minutes to get them warm and a little softer before topping them with sauce. I think meat sauce works best, but a flavorful marinara works too! Our kids prefer the regular semolina pasta, but perhaps you’ll have better luck with your daughter!
Kayla
Is the shredded mozzarella cheese gluten free? I’m still new the the gluten free diet and haven’t figured everything out yet.
Tiffany
Cheese is naturally gluten free, but if you’re celiac, you’ll want to look at the packaging for any allergy warnings.
ea-builder.net
Thank you for sharing all those details about actually how you can prepare some meals for a diet without gluten.
Kristen @ Smithspirations
We used to shop solely at Aldi, but then stopped years ago because we switched to a local chain that also offers great discounts. However, I keep seeing these great deals posted and would love to get back to an Aldi to check them out again!
Stephanie @ SixFiguresUnder
Oh I miss Aldi! We lived close to an Aldi during our law school years. Now, in California- land of no Aldi- we spend $300/month on groceries instead of $200. Aldi has such great prices on in-season produce!!
Aldi, if you’re listening, come to California!!
Tiffany
Stephanie – are you close to Grocery Outlet? I think you might like the discounts you find there. 🙂
Maha
Sara , those prices that you are saying ( fruits and veggies ) are they for organic ones or just conventional ?! The reason I am asking is that I always make sure to buy organic or fresh from the farm produce and Aldi just opened few months ago near me but I had never the chance to stop by and shop and I want to make sure I am not gonna waste time by doing so 😉 and thank you anyway for all the great helpful informations your are giving us .
Janice
If you go to Aldi.com they have an ad. Make sure you have your area, though, I once went in for some amazing deals and was really disappointed. Prices seem to change often, although the conventional baby carrots and bananas seem to always remain the same.
Maha
Janice , thank you for the idea
Sandra
its a shame that Aldi do not have a large gluten free range like other large supermarkets there is only a few things. I would shop at Aldis more but I do not have to go to one then another for my Gluten free range of produce
Tiffany
Sandra – produce by default is gluten-free, and ALDI has a huge selection of GF pantry items!
Dori
The canned salmon at Aldi states it is Alaskan wild, and sells for $2.25 for a large can. Mine also carries the Simple Truth grass fed ground beef for $6.00 /pound($2.00 cheaper than Krogers)!
M.
Tiffany, thank you for this extensive Aldi’s list. I echo what Janice has posted about the fish. Not only does the fish come from “dirty” waters, it is pumped up with some chemical whose name eludes me at the moment. However, when I saw it on the package, I immediately thought, “I can’t pronounce this and have NO idea what it is. It should NOT be going into human bodies.” That was salmon, at a “good price” until I saw the chemical. Sigh.
Laraine
I lovecshopping at sldi , i dhop there first then i go to my regular grocery, my problem with any of the stores i refuse to buy ANY food product from china, have to also for farm raised, i only eat wild caught , read about farm raised you will change your mind when you see the double decker over crowded caged chickens pooping on tiop of the caged fisheries with the cat fish being bottom feeders again all crowded into the tanks and the talapia all eating the poop of the chicken in filthy water, as well as the shrimp that is injected with a clear gooy sustance similar to silicone that immediatelt expands the size of the fish , google it. But getting back to aldi i think their produce is great , dairy is also
Flo
I am with you on not eating farmed fish. Like yourself I only buy wild caught fish.
Products out of China is also something I avoid.
Janice
I too, got excited over the GF offerings. Pretzels are a splurge every couple of months. The pasta isn’t as good as Jovial’s, but then again, the price is SO much better!
I want to make a comment about the fish though (including the canned tuna, which changed recently). All their fish is coming from Chinese waters. China is known to have some of the most polluted waters in the world, so you are eating real pollution in your real food. I was really dissapointed when I read that. The Sea Best brand is the grocery store has the same issue.
I have noticed at our Aldis in AL that the produce is much better in the winter than the summer, so if you find these posts in the middle of summer,and are dissapointed with their produce quality, go back and try Aldi in the fall. Last month I got 3 lbs of yellow onions for $.49, and 10lbs of potatoes for $.99. You could tell from the smell of the potatoes they were most definitely not organic, but we scrubbed them well, and peeled them, and had healthy cheap food that really helped my bottom line that month. They are now selling several organic produce items in my area, but they tend to not be the dirty dozen, so I pass them by.
Darcy
I have been shopping at Aldi ever since it opened in my area years and years ago. And they keep getting better with what they offer. My husband and I just started buying the brown rice spaghetti and we love it.
Polly
I shop there especially for the “gluten free Plain Wraps”. I think it’s 6 for 3.99. Not cheap, but I make a warm bean quesadilla on my George Foreman for my son before school every morning. It’s much cheaper than buying the AMY’S gluten free burritos from the local market at $2.85-$3.00 each! And they don’t usually burst in the microwave like the Amy’s do!!! Once in a while I make him GF Mac and cheese from the box mix they offer. It was only $1.50 this week!!!
Tifanie Perry
Hello I was wondering if this is gluten free? I’m new at this so I am still trying to fig it all out and learn