Saturday, April 5, 2008

Cooking from Scratch - Saving Money

Many of you may be wondering why I choose to cook as much of our food as I can "from scratch." Well, I wanted to address that today.

There are two main reasons I cook from scratch and much to your surprise it really doesn't take much extra time. I believe the little bit of time it does take is well worth the investment. So why do this?

The first reason I cook from scratch is to save money - Cooking this way saves money on the cost of food per person or per serving. Very few items packaged as "convenience foods" are low cost. The argument is that by using these products it makes our lives easier because they are "quick and easy" to prepare. However, by using things like my oven, crock-pot and other things, I can usually make meals for a lot less cost.

Let's see some examples:

Store bought bread is probably the biggest saver and runs about $1.59 per loaf but making your own is about $0.60 per loaf and it tastes much better.

Hamburger helper is about $2.00 per box but you can often get them on sale for $1.25. It usually takes two boxes to feed my family but the homemade version is about $2.00 worth of ingredients. This makes enough to feed my family of seven and have leftovers...of course; this does not add the cost of the ground beef or turkey.

This is just a couple of examples but you can also think about cookies, cakes, breads and muffins, soups and stews, even side dishes like vegetables are a lot cheaper if you prepare them yourself.

Next time we'll talk about the other reason I cook from scratch and why you may want to join me.

Have a great day!

Mavis D.

Do you have comments or suggestions? Let's hear them!

1 comment:

Lacy said...

I am going to give scratch cooking and freezer cooking a try, I really think it could save us money on our grocery budget. Thanks for posting your helpful tips!!!