Low FODMAP on a Budget: 7-Day $75 Meal Plan With Grocery List

By the Caullie team · Published July 17, 2026 · Prices checked at Walmart, July 2026 (national prices; vary by store)

The low-FODMAP diet means cutting out onion, garlic, wheat, and other high-FODMAP foods. These are carbohydrates that are hard for some people to digest. They can trigger gut symptoms like bloating and pain. That's already a lot to plan around in the kitchen. It shouldn't also mean blowing your grocery budget. The NIH estimates that 12% of people in the United States have IBS. That's the condition low FODMAP is usually used to manage. Most of them still have rent and gas to pay for. This plan skips the specialty aisle. It's built on chicken, eggs, and canned tuna. These are naturally low FODMAP with no serving limit. The plan also uses rice, potatoes, and produce, kept to the portions Monash University has tested as safe.

Here's the short version: seven days of meals, one grocery list, about $75 at Walmart, and the calories for each meal, so you're not guessing. The whole plan and the priced grocery list are right here on this page. They're free, with no signup. Below, each ingredient has a price and a source for its calories. Any portion size that matters for staying low FODMAP is called out directly, because how much you eat matters as much as what you eat.

What "low FODMAP" means for this plan

FODMAP stands for carbohydrates that some people's guts absorb poorly. These then ferment in the gut and can cause bloating, gas, and pain, especially in people with IBS. Monash University in Australia identified these carbohydrates. It tests foods in a lab to set a safe portion for each one. Their protocol runs in three phases. First is a strict elimination phase, cutting high-FODMAP foods for 2–6 weeks to calm symptoms down. Next is a reintroduction phase, testing one FODMAP group at a time to find your actual triggers. Last is a personalization phase, where you keep eating whatever you tolerate. Monash is direct that the first phase shouldn't drag on: it's "just 2–6 weeks — it is not a diet for life." This plan is built for that window. It also uses gluten-free pasta, but gluten itself isn't the problem. Wheat's issue on low FODMAP is a carbohydrate called fructans, which has nothing to do with gluten. So a small amount of wheat is fine by portion. Going gluten-free here is just a shortcut that skips counting wheat servings. The diet itself doesn't require it.

Chicken, tuna, and eggs: the budget backbone

Plain animal protein is the easy part of this diet. Monash's own guidance on meat, seafood, and eggs is direct: "they are naturally low FODMAP!" You don't need to measure it out. That's a big reason this plan can hit $75. Chicken breast, eggs, and canned tuna are cheap per gram of protein. None of them have a serving limit the way legumes or produce do. Two catches come from the same source. Buy plain, unseasoned meat, since "marinated meats may contain high FODMAP ingredients, such as garlic, honey and applesauce," and for canned fish, stick to "unflavoured, canned fishes, such as tuna and salmon". Flavored pouches often aren't. This plan sticks to plain frozen chicken breast and canned tuna in water, unflavored, the whole way through. If you'd rather skip meat entirely, check out our low FODMAP vegetarian meal plan. It covers the same elimination phase with tofu, eggs, and portioned legumes.

The ~$75 grocery list (Walmart, July 2026)

Store-brand (Great Value) where it exists. Prices come from walmart.com listings checked in July 2026, so treat them as estimates. They'll vary by store and season. The chicken comes from a 5 lb frozen bag. This list counts the roughly 3.5 lb actually used across the week's meals, priced at the bag's per-pound rate. The rest carries into week two.

Assumes you already have salt, pepper, and dried herbs on hand (oregano and basil are low-FODMAP-friendly). Meals skip onion and garlic on purpose, the way the whole elimination phase does. A few items are bought in bigger packages than one week uses. These are the 5 lb chicken bag, canned lentils, rice, oats, rice cakes, olive oil, peanut butter, and maple syrup. Part of each carries into week two, which is why the next week costs less. Walmart prices are estimates and can vary by store and week.

Batch-cook these on day one (about 60 minutes)

• Roast or pan-sear about 2 lb of chicken breast: season with just salt, pepper, and olive oil — no marinade — and cook through. Slice half for bowls, cube the rest for the soup and stir-fry later in the week.
• Pot of rice (3 cups dry) to cover four separate meals.
• Roast a tray of potatoes (about half the 5 lb bag, cubed, tossed in oil) for hash, baked-potato dinners, and sides.
• Hard-boil 3–4 eggs for snacks and egg salad later in the week.

Buy the canned lentils rinsed and drained straight from the can. Canning pulls most of the FODMAPs out into the liquid. That's why a ¼-cup (about 46 g) serving is low FODMAP, even though a larger amount of dry-cooked lentils isn't, per Monash's legume guidance.

The 7-day plan (~1,400–1,600 calories/day)

Calories here are approximate. They come from USDA FoodData Central entries for chicken breast, roasted (~165 kcal/100 g), white rice, cooked (~205 kcal/cup), egg, large (~72 kcal each), banana (~105 kcal medium), peanut butter (~191 kcal/2 tbsp), lentils (~58 kcal/¼ cup), strawberries (~21 kcal/65 g serve), oranges (~47 kcal/100 g), rolled oats (~389 kcal/100 g dry), carrots (~41 kcal/100 g), and olive oil (~119 kcal/tbsp). Canned tuna and green beans vary more depending on the source. So meals with them are marked "approx." and rounded down a bit to be safe. This is built for one moderately active adult. Use it as a starting point and adjust to your own goal.

Day totals run about 1,410–1,530 calories with this plan, within the stated range once you add up the meals. Adjust portions up or down for your own target.

Portion watch-outs

The most expensive mistake on a low FODMAP budget is eating the right food in the wrong amount. Several ingredients here are only safe up to a certain serving size. Go over it, and the same food can trigger symptoms. Monash updates these portion limits as foods get retested in the lab:

Serving sizes here reflect current Monash University guidance as of July 2026, from the dietitian sources linked above. These limits can shift as foods get retested. Check back if you're eating this way for more than a few weeks.

Easy swaps

Is meat really safe on the low FODMAP diet?

Yes. It's the easiest category on the whole diet. Monash's guidance states plainly that plain meat, poultry, fish, and eggs "are naturally low FODMAP". FODMAPs are carbohydrates, and protein and fat don't carry them. So there's no serving cap to track the way there is with produce or legumes. The catch is what gets added to the meat before it reaches your plate. Marinades, rubs, and pre-seasoned packages often include garlic, onion, honey, or applesauce, all high FODMAP. So the safe move is buying plain cuts and seasoning them yourself with salt, pepper, and low FODMAP herbs. The same goes for canned fish: plain tuna or salmon packed in water is safe, but "flavored" pouches can hide the same ingredients. This plan sticks to plain frozen chicken breast and unflavored canned tuna throughout.

Why do "safe" foods like tomatoes and peppers still need portion limits?

FODMAP content comes down to dose. The same carbohydrate can be harmless in a small amount and trigger symptoms in a larger one. That's exactly what Monash found when it tested roma tomatoes (safe around half a tomato) and red bell pepper (safe around ⅓ cup). It's also why a firm banana is fine whole. A fully ripe one only works in a third-sized piece, because ripening changes the carbohydrate content. Food lists that just label something "low FODMAP" or not tend to flatten all of this into a simple yes or no. It also means grocery budgeting for this diet is really portion budgeting. Buying two red peppers for a week of garnish-sized servings costs less. It also keeps you further from your symptom threshold than buying a stack of them for a stir-fry base.

How long should I eat this way?

Two to six weeks, then you move on. Monash designed the strict elimination phase to be short. It's explicit that this is "not a diet for life". Once your symptoms settle, the next phase is reintroduction. You test one FODMAP group at a time to find your actual triggers. Then you move to a personalized long-term diet that's far less restrictive than this one. Staying in strict elimination longer than you need to doesn't help. It can also make your diet unnecessarily narrow. If you're also trying to manage your weight during this stretch, treat calories and FODMAP restriction as two separate goals rather than combining them into one aggressive cut. Our guide on whether you can lose weight on the low FODMAP diet covers how to do both without undermining the elimination phase.

This article covers meal logistics and cost. It isn't medical advice. Ideally you'd follow the low FODMAP diet with guidance from a doctor or registered dietitian, especially for the reintroduction phase. FODMAP serving sizes reflect Monash University guidance as of July 2026, from the sources linked above. They can change as foods get retested. Calorie figures are approximate and come from the USDA FoodData Central entries linked above. Canned tuna and green beans are rounded down a bit because sources vary more for them. Prices are walmart.com listing estimates from July 2026 and will vary by store and season.