Exactly how much am I paying for Free From Food?


I am not sure how many of you will be interested in this post but I decided out of curiosity to tally up my Free From shopping. I wanted to see how much my allergies were costing me each week. I have picked the products I buy regularly that cater to my dairy and egg free diet. When comparing “normal” foods to Free From the advantage the regular shopper has is the choice between branded and own brand products. There can be considerable price differences. The supermarkets do have own branded Free From goods but they tend not to cater for my allergies as they are aimed at Gluten Free diets.

For my price comparison I have picked on Tesco because I shop there on a weekly basis. I have looked at their own brand products. Tesco has a three price structure - Value, Finest and one that falls between the two. It is the middle price that I looked at. I do think the three big supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury’s & Asda) have similar prices to one another when it comes to basic essentials. 

So here is my shopping list. 

Milk 
Alpro Chilled Soya Milk 1L £1.39
Kara Dairy Free (Chocolate flavour) £1.39
Tesco Pure Fresh Semi Skim 1L £1
Tesco Chocolate Milk 1L £1.22
Margarine
Pure Soya Spread 500g £1.40
Tesco Everyday Value Margarine 500g 75p 
Biscuits
Sunstart Shortbread 150g £1.40
Tesco Shortbread Fingers 250g 89p
Cereal
Natures Path Gluten Free Os £2.75
Tesco Multigrain Hoops 375g £1.15
Yoghurts
Alpro Yoghurt 4 x 125g £1.75
Tesco Yoghurt 6 x 125g £1
Chocolate
Dairy Free chocolate buttons 25g 45p
Tesco chocolate buttons 70g 36p
Sauces
Tiger Tiger Mayo 280g £1.59 
Tesco Mayonnaise 250ml 54p
Cheese
Tofutti chedder style slices 150g (8 slices) £2.19
Tofutti spread 225g £2.89
Tesco 10 cheese slices 200g £1
Tesco cheese spread 200g £1
Pasta
Dove Farm 500g £2
Tesco pasta 500g 95p

My Free From list totals £19.20 and the Own Brand equivalents come to £9.86. Wow! Now of course I knew I paid more but I did not realise exactly how much more it was.  I am very fortunate not to need Gluten Free bread as that would bump the total up by another £2-3 per loaf.  If I compared my prices to branded goods would I have matched the price? Maybe but even if this was the case did you notice package weights can be smaller for Free From food?  Another advantage non allergy shoppers have are the special offers across the store and Free From food never seems to be included.

This certainly was an interesting exercise for me but what do you think?




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