is it REALLY cheaper to make food from scratch? - Page 2

[Norasmomma]

Well I also say it depends, but most of the time it is yes. I personally have bought the can of expensive tomatoes, but that was before we had to have a budget and just did whatever we wanted.

I saw a pp's saying how they stocked up on OG tomatoes when they were on sale, that's what I just recently did. Muir Glen big cans were 1.99, which is $2 off the price they are now. I bought 2 cases of 12 because we will use them. I also have gotten food at the dollar store, my recent scores were Barilla pasta, and OG chicken stock. A lot of the stuff is junk, but there are good deals and if you find them take advantage of them. I am also a big believer in Costco, depending on the area you are in there may be many OG/whole foods there. I always buy my olive oil, butter, and so much other foods from there. We go about once every 6-8 weeks because it is an hour and a half away. As many other posts have said buying meat and having a freezer are key. I have 2 pantries that are pretty much full. My reasons are more from a feast or famine perspective, my DH is really busy and then sometimes his jobs are far apart, so that's part of the reason I stock up so much. In the summer I freeze a ton of veggies from the farmer's market and make stock also.

The key as many have said load up on loss leaders, have a well stocked pantry, and you can really save money and eat very well.

[counterGOPI]

wow thank you mamas!!
ironica i know i know!! i normall yhave my own canned tomatoes but with my april baby my garen started very very late. we should have tomatoes in august or so.
i will check out our farmers market though! thank you for that suggestion.

im in awe of all you ladies, i ahve so much to learn!! thank you

[counterGOPI]

heres a list of meals we make weekly from scratch:

bbq pizza
potato cauliflower subji with pooris
pasta and sauce
black bean and sweet potato enchiladas

thats all my brain is remembering right now.
for breakfast EVERY day we havehome made pancakes and hashbrowns

so yeah our meals i guess lean more towards a slightly extravagent side huh?

[pixiewytch]

Okay, I don't even know what subji and pooris is and I consider myself a fairly sophisticated gal....but how in the heck do you manage to make homemade pancakes and hashbrowns every morning?! You are a goddess.

[counterGOPI]

subji is an indian dishand poorisare the bread that goes with it.

yeah our pancakes and hashbrowns... rool: when we 1st wake up is the only sane time in my house so i can actually cook. i make enough pancake batter on monday to last all week. the hashbrowns i cant make ahead though so they get made fresh every day. i make dinner alot of times in the morning too and then just reheat it at night.

[Tcarwyn]

I think in order to spend less money cooking from scratch you have to simplefy. if you are making complicated, out of season dishes with expensive ingredietns its gonna cost ya But making simple things from scratch can be way cheap, esp using all the tips listed in this thread. But simplefying is key, in my experience....

Tanya

[BetsyS]

If you are making the same meals every week, then you're in a really good place to economize.

You know that you use 28 ounces of canned tomatoes every week in your recipes, so if you buy 24 when they go on sale, that'll last you almost 6 months. That sort of thing. If you stock up on a different item every week, you should be able to get your grocery list down to dairy, fresh fruits/vegetables, and then whatever is on sale. When I do this, that's when I save the most money.

edited to add: your meals look pretty frugal to me. But, you might could tweak them some or make them more frugal. If you eat sweet potato enchiladas every week, then in the fall, during sweet potato season, you buy 100 lbs and root cellar or can them. OR.... in the summer, when it's not sweet potato season, you eat black bean and poblano enchiladas. Or in the spring, you eat bean and greens (spinach, chard, whatever's in season) enchiladas. That way, you're always eating produce that you bought at the lowest price (either by preserving or just eating what is in season).

[wildmonkeys]

I also think that if homemade or premade is more economical depends on how many you are feeding. Buying something premade might be more econmical than buying all of the ingredients to make it for 3-4 people, but the premade meals and portions rarely feed more than 3 people so if you are cooking for a larger group it often pays to make it from scratch $ wise.

I also feel like premade foods are worth our $ when they can be used to replace eating out/ordering in. A frozen lasagne is priceless to me on a day when the kids and I are so caught up in what we are doing that we don't want to cook and would have spend $$$ on ordering something, you know?

[Hellga]

I make pancakes from scratch nearly every morning too, but I cheat a bit...I have a big huge tub of homemade pancake mix in the cabinet, and I just have to add eggs, oil, and (i think) water to it to make awesome yummy buttermilk pancakes. One batch makes 8 full-sized pancakes, which coincidentally is the right amount for the two of us, and all that fits on our griddle.

Other things we do towards going all homemade:

The only beef we eat is ground beef, because we can't afford anything else. I never make hamburgers, so I buy ground beef in 10 pound rolls (only have ever found them at the local tiny grocery store, and they're from local non-corporate grass-fed cows) for like $11. I get out my biggest stock pot and dump in half the roll at a time, fry it all up, drain out the grease, and freeze the beef crumbles in sandwich size containers. Then, whenever I need ground beef (spaghetti, tacos, lasagna, etc.) all I have to do is put a container in the microwave and hit defrost. For just two of us, one container lasts through about 4 meals. That's alot of meals!

Recently I started doing the same with chicken. My parents raised me on canned chicken (blech!) because one can is cheaper than buying a package of chicken breasts and cooking one. However, I've started buying the Tyson no-hormones chicken breasts on sale at Dillons (I keep finding them buy on, get one free) and boiling them with some salt, a carrot or two, and a celery stick. Once they're falling apart, I pull them out of the water, tear them up, and free that. Two pounds of chicken, torn up, lasts us about 1 month. We use it in casseroles (yummy chicken and rice), chicken tacos, pasta, etc.

I don't cook totally from homemade, I do the "halfway homemade" thing, so the other things I need, like cream of mushroom soup, I buy in bulk at Sam's club. I got a tray of 12 cans of soup for like $7 recently. Not a bad deal at all! I also buy my pasta there, it comes in huuuuuge bags (like the size of a pillow) and I store some in a canister on the counter, then seal up the rest in the bag and store it on the bottom shelf of my microwave cart.

Making things from scratch is probably a bit cheaper for me than for most, because my husband will not eat veggies. I sometimes buy frozen spinach and hide a bit in his spaghetti, but that's about all I can manage. He doesn't like carrots, he doesn't like broccoli (unless it's drenched in cheese sauce), he doesn't like peas or green beans or anything like that. All I can get him to eat are tomatoes and corn on the cob. We get those from friends of the family on a fairly regular basis, so we don't spend much money there. I do buy frozen broccoli (does it count as not from scratch if it's just a plain frozen veggie?) and eat it myself, but I don't figure that into our meal budget. It's one of my snacks.