Friday, February 25, 2011

Gluten Free Tax Deductions Decoded

This may be the best explanation of how to deduct the cost of gluten free food from your taxes. Thanks to the Gluten Free Cooking School blog for the great post. Excellent!

BUT, it's not really practical for me.

On a related point. It's funny. I have found myself NOT noticing the price of the specialty gluten free food that I buy. I simply don't look at the price tag at the grocery store. Now, I'm fortunate to have the means to stay on a gluten free diet without too much financial worry. But still, when I first adopted the gluten free diet, it became apparent that the grocery budget was going to expand instantly. And yes, it did. In my view, grocery shopping can be enough of a struggle without the added stress of examining prices. Essentially, I made the choice to buy the food I like and need. This means that I regularly pay $5 for a loaf of bread (a small loaf of bread!), $8 for a package of cookies, and $6 for ONE bottle of beer.

The upside is that I have found a lot of really good organic or all natural foods (because they typically contain fewer ingredients and are typically produced by smaller companies that can pay closer attention to dietary needs). The price of specialty gluten free foods is what makes it a great celebration among the gluten free community when a "main stream" product goes gluten free. For example, it was a huge deal when Chex cereal went gluten free. This meant that there was now a more affordable gluten free cereal option. $2 for a box of Chex versus typically double that for a specialty gluten free cereal.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

same here... I don't look at the prices, it's too depressing. BUT: the upside is I rarely buy processed foods with the exception of Udi's and Rudi's gluten free breads. As a result my diet is ever so much more healthful.

Unknown said...

same here... I don't look at the prices, it's too depressing. BUT: the upside is I rarely buy processed foods with the exception of Udi's and Rudi's gluten free breads. As a result my diet is ever so much more healthful.