It seems like these days there is no shortage of different diets to choose from.  Gluten-free,  dairy free,  Paleo, ketogenic…the list goes on.  Some people choose to go on one eating plan,  others have to.

If everyone in a family is on the same plan it may not seem too challenging for your budget.  But what if your not? What if you’re trying to balance different dietary needs while maintaining a budget? Impossible? Not at all! Buy it does take a little work and planning.

Carefully planning your menu if the key to successfully managing your budget and the dietary needs of your family. Here are my top 3 tips for balancing very different dietary needs while staying within budget.

1. Identify what the dietary needs of your family members are.  It is helpful to note what they can eat,  what they can’t,  as well as how much of certain macro nutrients (fast,  protein, carbs) they need in a day.

I’ve been able to successfully do this when my family was at one time a mix of what I consider to be a normal diet,  dairy/soy free, and ketogenic.

We are currently a mix of normal and lower carb/ketogenic.

2. Build your meals around food that everyone can eat.

This isn’t hard with a little planning. Think about what main items everyone can eat.  Build your meal around your protein source. Then your veggies.

When I was dairy/soy free I would prep meals that had no dairy or soy and add in the dairy at the end for the family members who could/wanted to have it. This would look like taco meat cooked and seasoned then the cheese and other dairy based toppings being added to the tacos when being served.  When my husband went on the ketogenic diet his taco shell was replaced with a shell made from cheese.

Now that dairy is ok for everyone we still follow a similar pattern of basing the meals around the same ingredients.  An example of this is lasagna.  The main part of the dish is the sauce,  meat,  and cheese filling.  For my husband and I we will have ours made with zucchini noodles or stuffed into a bell pepper.  The kids could eat it the same way or the traditional way with noddles.

Because the meal was created with the same base ingredients it stayed within the budget set.  I aim to keep all meals at around $10 or less. Some meals are a little more (lasagna falls into this category) and some tend to be much less (tacos).

3. Eat the same meal and add different sides

You can make the same meal and add variety by serving a different side/sides.

In my household my husband and I are trying to watch our carb intake.  One of my family’s favorite low carb meals is a bacon cheeseburger casserole.  I make it for the entire family and can give my children a side of French fries as a treat or put their serving on a bun like a regular burger.

Another example is low carb meatloaf served with potatoes or rice for those who want the carbs.

These tips will still work well if you want to plan a special treat such as going out to eat or for treat.  Spending a little time making a list of the different restaurants that can accommodate dietary needs/restrictions will make it easy to pick a place to go when you want to go out.

As more and more people have started to adopt eating plans such as low carb and gluten free more and more restaurants have adapted their menus to accommodate. I recently found a frozen yogurt shop with low carb frozen yogurt.

My 3 tips have allowed me to successfully manage our families budget while meeting our very different needs for the better part of the past 3 years.