var json_comments = new Array("
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nataku8_e30
April 27, 2009 7:00 PM
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I think last time I was in the grocery store, a standard pack of generic saltines (a box with 4 \"rows\" of crackers) was about $0.88. It's definitely hard to beat that.

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Outrun1986
April 27, 2009 11:52 PM
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@nataku83: They are between 89 and 1.29 here at Aldi so no they are not very expensive. Other stores are expensive for them though.

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FigNinja
April 27, 2009 8:44 PM
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@nataku83:

I think if I wanted saltines, I'd just buy them at the store. If I wanted those fussy artisan crackers to serve with a really good cheese, I'd be tempted to make my own. Or if I wanted something special like gluten-free I might try to come up with a yummy way to do that.

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Chris Walters
April 27, 2009 7:06 PM
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@nataku83: I paid between $3-4 for generic saltines at the local Key Food last month. Clearly I'm shopping in the wrong place.

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DePaulBlueDemon
April 27, 2009 9:49 PM
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@Chris Walters:

I just bought Target brand saltines for $.99 (standard 1 lb box).

The Nabisco variety was somewhere around ~$4.00 so I know exactly what you're talking about.

The store-brand ones taste just like the name-brand counterparts, though, so I was happy. :)

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sponica
April 27, 2009 7:48 PM
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@Chris Walters: I'm gathering that you (much like me) are just LIVING in a more expensive place. I must say of the three stores I frequent, key is generally the most affordable when it comes to the whole price vs crowd/time dilemma. Sure Pathmark might be cheaper, but unless I'm there @ 4 AM it's going to be a zoo.
I sort of look forward to the land of cheaper living in NH come the end of May.

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Frank Murphy
April 27, 2009 7:45 PM
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@Chris Walters: Key Food isn't really known for value or quality.

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sponica
April 27, 2009 7:50 PM
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@Frank Murphy: I think it might depend on which one you go to. I wouldn't trade my 5th Ave one for ANYTHING. It's usually about 30-40 cents cheaper than the Associated a couple blocks away...and it has beer. Lots and lots of beer.
I do love the 24 hour pathmark though...i'd love it even more if it wasn't always a freaking zoo.

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kateblack
April 28, 2009 1:05 AM
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@sponica: The 5th Ave Key Foods near Gorilla Coffee? I've been there.

- My favorite cereal is $1 more there than it is at Whole Foods.
- Eggs (especially free range varieties) are more expensive than at Whole Foods.
- Limes are 200% the price of limes at C-Town.
- 100% cranberry juice is $3-ish more per bottle than it was at a Key Foods on Montague St in Brooklyn Heights. (They also hide non-HFCS juices in a random \"exotic foods\" aisle, which is weird.)

My impression of that store is that if you're buying beer & junk, it's probably cheaper than a bodega. But it's not a deal for most stuff I eat.

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Megan Squier
April 27, 2009 7:29 PM
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@Chris Walters: Yes you are; I usually buy my groceries at Kroger and a few rural mom and pop type places and I've never seen saltines that high! Use the run of the mill, middle of the road grocery store for the basics.

I grew up low income and my mom would have never gone into a high end grocery store. It was always Food Lion, Wal-Mart or a mom & pop place.

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kateblack
April 27, 2009 7:36 PM
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@Megan Squier: The mom & pop groceries in NYC are usually about as expensive as an extremely high end suburban grocery store.

I just buy fewer convenience foods.

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Megan Squier
April 27, 2009 7:45 PM
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@kateblack: I live in rural Alabama and the local grocery stores in the small towns are pretty low priced. I'm about 20 minutes north of Huntsville and the place down the road from me is very good with prices.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:35 PM
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@Megan Squier: \"high-end\" is such a weird term though. Wegmans could be considered high-end, but a lot of times I get better deals there than I do at a regular grocery store like Bloom (which is owned by Food Lion) or Giant Eagle.

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Megan Squier
April 27, 2009 7:46 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: I'm talking prices for basics. All I know is scratch cooking.

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exconsumer9
April 27, 2009 7:01 PM
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I'd like to see these broken down in terms of time as well. If it costs me 3 hours I could have been working, that changes the amount I would have saved.

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Anonymous
April 29, 2009 12:45 AM
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@exconsumer9: And no. That common old myth presupposes that you spend every waking moment working, and you don't. No one does. Sorry, you maybe put in 6 revenue producing hours in a day. If cooking something interferes with one of those hours, maybe you've got a point. But more likely you would be replacing sleeping, watching tv, or staring out the window. That myth needs to die a quick death.

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chrisjames
April 28, 2009 1:27 PM
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@exconsumer9: I do most of my cooking and preparing between 5-7pm on weekdays and in the early afternoon on weekends. If I look back at the last ten years of my life, I figure I've otherwise occupied those times with TV and video games. Any other activities are exceptions, and as I grow older, the exceptions are becoming few and far between. I'm not trying to cut anyone down here, but I'd guess most people are much the same in that they have some excessively habitual down-time like this.

Calculating $/hr in a time-value analysis as the amount of money you could have made working is flawed in that, in these situations, it's often unlikely you'd be working anyway. Correct time-value analysis means calculating the amount of money you would make (save) while performing one specific task, like making jam, over another, like insulating your house. You should ask yourself what is the likelihood that if you decide making your own food isn't worth it, then you actually start on insulating the house, or get a second job, or instead turn to the TV.

Technically, \"time-value\" should be \"resource-value,\" where time is a resource, as well as exertion, base cost, and more. I could get a second job to help me through graduate school, but I already do so much just to keep my funding. I don't have the time or energy for more work, nor the need as I make enough to live comfortably. I instead look for ways to cut spending, like making my own food in my free time (trust me, it's far less taxing than any part-time job or freelance work). $/hr as strict time spent working is wrong in so many ways (especially with my salary :( ).

$7/hr, $15/hr, or (heh) $50/hour? I count my non-vacation free time as $0/hr, as I'm sure most people do (and rightly so).

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razremytuxbuddy
April 28, 2009 2:37 PM
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@chrisjames: I think you put that all very well. The 200+ comments here make me think too many people doth protest too much. I usually spend a few minutes each weekend dumping mix and water into the bread machine and pushing the start button, then prepare a casserole for freezing, or cut up a pack of fresh veggies to keep in the fridge for the week. I prep a week's worth of lunches at the same time.

I think a simple food prep routine (the key words here are \"simple\" and \"routine\") and keeping a simple grocery list are essential to making it all work.

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ShariC
April 28, 2009 6:39 AM
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@exconsumer9: Time is not equally valuable. Most people can't work 16 hours a day because the demand simply is not there for them. I think that looking at any activity as potential time spent earning more money is unrealistic.

Also, doing things for yourself is pretty cathartic. Cooking in particular can be seen more as an act of creativity or relaxation. It's not a drag like actual work can be, and it's certainly mentally more freeing.

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babyruthless
April 28, 2009 12:54 AM
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@ToddBradley: That's a tad simplistic, though a good sentiment. I am a graduate student, and have found that the opportunity cost of my free time is about $50/hour--that's the lowest price I can charge for tutoring undergrads that doesn't leave me resentful halfway through for them wasting my time. I cannot find anyone to pay me $50/hour very often, so I don't do much private tutoring. However, I love cooking--on weekends I make bread, beer, and the occasional batch of blackberry jam. Do I figure in the $50/hour? No, for two reasons.
1) I require $50 to be compensated for doing something I find somewhat tedious, i.e., tutoring. However, I enjoy brewing up a batch of delicious beer, so I'm willing to do that for free. Heck, if I'd planned on doing a little homebrew one fine Saturday, and someone wanted tutoring, I might charge them $75.
2) I can't actually get $50 very often, so it seems a little ridiculous to account that as the monetary value of my time--my jam doesn't cost an extra $150 for three hours of work, because, lets be honest, I wouldn't get that much anyway. Just because I would work for $50 doesn't mean that I can

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ToddBradley
April 27, 2009 10:31 PM
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@exconsumer9: Yup, time is money for anyone except the unemployed or unemployable. That's why most of us buy our clothes instead of sewing them, and why Jiffy Lube is so popular even though changing the oil in the car is no harder than doing the laundry.

And dakotad555, even if you couldn't reasonably do a second full-time job, I bet you have some skills that you could apply to a part-time job if you wanted. On the high end, consulting. On the low end, washing dishes. I would wager that the only reason you don't spend your evenings washing dishes at Taco Bell is that you value your time more than the $7 an hour you'd get there. But if someone paid you $700 an hour, I bet you'd take that second job in a jiffy. Somewhere between $7 and $700 is your value of your own time, and that helps determine the TRUE cost of making your own saltine crackers or jam.

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Anonymous
April 29, 2009 2:50 AM
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@ToddBradley: Your argument disintegrates when the reality intrudes that MOST people do NOT EVER have billable hours outside their job, and NEVER will.Yes, you can put a \"personal\" value on your time, but that is not any way shape or form convertible into revenue. If you are billing, your time is monetarily worth ZERO. Go ahead and make the \"what time is worth to me\", but don't fall into the my time is worth X dollars trap. Very few are worth what they think they are.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 9:23 PM
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@exconsumer9: Also, a lot of things that take a long time to cook don't require much actual work or supervision. Something that takes 15 minutes to throw together than 4 hours of simmering with periodic stirring ... that's not great for a weeknight, but for a weekend you're bumming around the house, that's not actually a lot of time or work. (I'll go stir during commercials every half hour or so while watching football, say.)

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Fujikopez
April 27, 2009 9:08 PM
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@exconsumer9: It depends a lot on how much you value your time in general, and how much you value your time in the kitchen. I love to cook, so I would do it pro bono, ya know? ;)

Although I understand the sentiment that time is money, I think it's silly to put a dollar amount on your time if you're living it like you'd like to. Which in my case means making yummy food even if I can buy it right from the store.

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dakotad555
April 27, 2009 8:30 PM
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@exconsumer9:

My thoughts exactly. At $17\\hr take home, 3 hours of work = $51.00. That's some pretty expensive preserves.

However the Yogurt is very worth it since it doesn't require hours of work, and tastes that much better. I'm going to try making some this week I thick since I love my yogurt!

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orlo
April 27, 2009 9:03 PM
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@dakotad555: If someone will pay you to work as many hours as you like then it is indeed not worth doing anything yourself. I don't know why you'd even make the yogurt yourself when you could find someone else willing to make it for $10/h.

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FigNinja
April 27, 2009 8:46 PM
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@dakotad555:

That works if you can bill all your time and you would be doing billable work if you weren't cooking. I'm salaried and don't have enough time for a second job so I gauge whether my use of time is good based on how much free time I have and if I'm enjoying myself. This is why I have a house cleaner and a gardener but rarely eat out.

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juri squared
April 27, 2009 8:27 PM
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@exconsumer9: I made some granola last week (from a similar recipe) and it took no time at all. Mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients, mix it all together, and bake on a cookie sheet.

It also makes your house smell downright sinful. :D

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bohemian
April 27, 2009 9:24 PM
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@jurijuri: I found if you skip the maple syrup in Alton Brown's recipe and replace it with honey it drastically reduces the price. Home made granola from a good recipe makes most of the stuff at the store taste like cardboard. Many of the cheaper ones also have the dreaded corn syrup in them so the home made is superior and cheaper than the more expensive brands.

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AlteredBeast
April 27, 2009 7:02 PM
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I rarely cook, as I'm not the cook in my household, but I always like to try different things from scratch. Something simple, but amazing to make at home is your own butter. Very tasty!

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4 replies
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balthisar
April 27, 2009 9:50 PM
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@AlteredBeast: I never seem to find cream on sale, but I've made homemade butter once when I had leftover cream. Just did mine in the food processor. Dang, was it good!

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HogwartsAlum
April 28, 2009 1:23 AM
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@balthisar:

We made butter in Girl Scouts once, when I was a Brownie. Took turns shaking the jar, then ate the butter on bread. It was a very novel experience which I have never repeated, but it's nice to know that I could do it if I needed to.

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PunditGuy
April 27, 2009 7:25 PM
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@AlteredBeast: Couldn't be easier and definitely worth it when heavy cream is on sale. Plus, you get buttermilk out of the deal.

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catastrophegirl chooses not to fly
April 27, 2009 9:06 PM
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@PunditGuy: i once thought it couldn't be easier to make my own butter [jar, marble] and then i got an immersion blender. now sometimes i even add instant coffee and cocoa powder to make mocha flavored butter for spreading on croissants. takes under a minute.

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floraposte
April 28, 2009 3:49 AM
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@catastrophegirl: Oh, that is freakin' genius. You may have changed my life here.

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catastrophegirl chooses not to fly
April 28, 2009 4:48 AM
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@floraposte: it was an accident - like i suspect many acts of genius are. i whipped the cream too long. it was still good on the brownies anyway.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:02 PM
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I read this article last week, really great stuff, especially when it comes to bagels. What shops charge is absolutely outrageous. If I could just make about five or six bagels that would last two weeks, I'd do it. But I don't eat bagels (trying to cut down on the bread), so there goes that idea.

I have a giant bag of granola, and while I've learned my lesson (it's too big for one person to consume) I've incorporated it into so many things, including parfaits and cookies. I even eat it as a substitute for my cereal (I just add more milk because it's too sweet).

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lockdog
April 28, 2009 2:06 AM
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@pecan 3.14159265: Whatever you do, don't make your own. My wife is a pretty accomplished baker, and I'm not to shabby myself, so a few years ago we tried our hand at bagels. Don't get me wrong, they were cheap to make and delicious. You can't get real bagels in Kentucky, so it was great for me, but they were no were no where near good enough for all the work, mess and time it took. Doughnuts on the other hand are phenomenal when home-made, even if you cheat and bake them instead of frying.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 28, 2009 2:48 PM
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@lockdog: I'm a pretty avid baker, and I'm just not seeing the point of making my own bagels...I think it's mostly because I don't eat very many bagels at all, and I'll probably get a dozen and freeze them and just eat them once in a while because I can go through a dozen in about a month or two, and I can't justify buying one or two bagels at $3 from the local shop.

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ludwigk
April 27, 2009 9:46 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: Around here, Costo carries Noah's Bagels. They cost around $13/ dozen with 2 cream cheeses in store, or you can get them for $3/dozen from Costco, and get your own cream cheese.

Noah's cream cheeses are amazing, but they're not $10 - (cost of Philly spread) amazing.

At $3, buy, halve, and freeze is the way to go. If you halve them first, you don't need the microwave before toasting, I've found.

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Adam McKenna
April 27, 2009 7:37 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: Bagels can be frozen, 20-30 seconds in the microwave and they're ready to eat or be toasted. We do it all the time with bagels from Costco.

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tenners
April 27, 2009 9:45 PM
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@Adam McKenna: That's exactly what I do with my Costco bagels.

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LegoMan322
April 27, 2009 7:03 PM
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I think they would be about even. I personally need about 3 or 5 tries to probably get something even close to what I would want. So that is (time x groceries x impatience = 4 terrible creations) that probably were not worth my time.

I need cooking skills.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 7:10 PM
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@LegoMan322: You need people to practice on. That makes it so much funner. :) A lot of early attempts are more cosmetically ugly than not-tasty, and good friends will always excuse your cosmetic errors.

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RimkaIzumo
April 28, 2009 8:56 AM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): I do this all the time! My friends were a bit scared when my burnt-looking pecan pie came out of the oven, but it was heavenly!

Now if only I could figure out how to not burn the outside...

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LegoMan322
April 27, 2009 7:12 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): Know where I could pick up a few \"good friends\"? : )

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Applekid
April 27, 2009 9:00 PM
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@LegoMan322: You know those guys on the street corners with signs that say \"will work for food\"? Call their bluff.

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LegoMan322
April 27, 2009 7:25 PM
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@Keen314: Too much for shipping and handling.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 7:06 PM
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Very interesting, fun to read.

Incidentally, my mom made us granola cereal growing up -- oats, canola oil, honey, and wheat germ, baked in a slow oven. (Plus extras if you want them -- raisins, etc.) Healthy to the extreme and pretty damn cheap. The only store-bought cereal we were allowed was Cheerios and only when the granola ran out because mom, like, had the flu. Not only was it healthy and filling, but I absolutely can't eat anything sweeter than Cheerios or Rice Krispies for breakfast because they strike me as cloyingly, unnaturally sweet.

As for jam, it's sometimes promoted as something to do with fruit at the end of its life, but I find making a fruit syrup for pancakes (or pastry) is easier and cheaper. But then we're talking a pint of strawberries going bad, not a bushel of Meyer lemons. :)

(Speaking of pancakes, making your own pancake mix is DEFINITELY cheaper and can be much healthier.)

My neighbors soak fruit bits in brandy when they have lots of extra fruit. That's also tasty.

I want to try the yoghurt recipe now ... but it would probably gross out my husband.

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RimkaIzumo
April 28, 2009 9:00 AM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): I'm sort of curious how granola cereal works, do you just crumble up the granola, or does it come out finished all crumbly?

Or do you just eat it in large chunks? o_o hm...

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HogwartsAlum
April 28, 2009 1:25 AM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle):

Oh I LOVE Cheerios and Rice Krispies. I will eat them dry, like popcorn.

The fruit bits in brandy sound good. My mom used to make something similar for very fancy dinners, with mandarin orange slices and some kind of whiskey. I need to ask her what the heck that recipe was.

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spanky
April 27, 2009 7:23 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle):

I make my own yogurt all the time, and it's incredibly easy. I make mine in individual serving cups and I add powdered milk to the mix to get a custard (spoon) consistency, so it's ready to eat, no straining necessary.

And it doesn't require any special equipment or anything, so it's probably worth trying if you're interested at all.

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Crystal Wojcinski
April 27, 2009 7:19 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle):
Alton Brown Ala Good Eats gave me my own cottage cheese recipe but I doubt it changes the price much. However, it tastes worlds better than store bought cottage cheese which makes up for any possible difference in price.
[www.foodnetwork.com]


Btw if you are a foodie or want to make things from scratch (his pancake mix is awesome) Good Eats is a show to make some time for.

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trujunglist
April 27, 2009 10:52 PM
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@Crystal Wojcinski:

I love Good Eats and not just because he comes up with fabulous recipes that are very simple but turn out to be incredible. I'm very interested in the science of food because I want to know how this or that food will react under this or that condition. Then, I can take that knowledge and experiment with it myself. I think that's what Alton really wants; to impart the knowledge of what you can do with a food, so that his viewers can go out and do wonderful things that even he hasn't considered. Isn't that what a true foody really wants - to try new and wonderful flavors? He wants us all to understand our food and make it taste better so when he gets invited over to his house he doesn't have to sneak his food to the dog.

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fatcop
April 27, 2009 9:57 PM
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@Crystal Wojcinski: Good eats is the only show that's not in the \"This Old House\" genre that's on auto-record on the DVR.

Now if they would just release it in whole seasons....

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PriceIsWrong
April 27, 2009 7:07 PM
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It's going to vary from thing to thing. Soups and Stocks, definitely cheaper home made, and typically better, because you can tweak for taste.

But certain things like saltines, yeah, they are cheaper because they've perfected the machinery that makes them as cheap as they can with the least amount of work possible.

Now if you grow your own stuff, that's where you'll save some cash, depending on how crazy you get into it all.

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bohemian
April 27, 2009 9:29 PM
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@PriceIsWrong: We bought some store brand tomato soup when it was on sale, it is usually as good as Campbells. They clearly degraded the recipe though. What was in the can was a brown goo with a slight tomato after taste after you got past the corn syrup. Even the kids refused to eat it.

I found this cream of tomato soup recipe that is even better than Campbells and was not that hard to make. I will never buy canned tomato soup again.
[www.epicurious.com]

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FigNinja
April 27, 2009 7:26 PM
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@PriceIsWrong:

Good point about soup. Also, stock is using something you might ordinarily throw away: bones and the little bits of meat stuck to them. People used to take their stale bread and make croutons, migas, or even just bread crumbs for fillers and coatings. Now people throw away their bread and buy these things.

The crouton thing reminds me of another thing that people spend far more on than it takes to make: salad dressing. Why spend $5-$7 or so on a bottle of vinaigrette that's nowhere near as good as what I make myself. I'm going to use organic extra virgin olive oil and good vinegar. The store bought stuff will have canola or soy oil, thickeners, preservatives and sweeteners. Mine will be better for me and better tasting as well as cheaper.

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VA_White
April 27, 2009 7:07 PM
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There are a few things I buy but most things I make from scratch. It's healthier and cheaper 99% of the time. When it's not cheaper, I am happy to use real ingredients and not save money by purchasing products with artificial thickeners, corn syrup, and other chemical detritus.

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edison234
April 27, 2009 7:07 PM
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The best marshmallows that I ever had I made myself. Thank you, Alton Brown.

[www.foodnetwork.com]

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mewyn dyner
April 27, 2009 10:16 PM
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@edison234:

Huzzah. I do the same. I lost my taste for factory marshmallows long, long ago. On a whim I made a tray of AB's marshmallows (even if I loathe a food, I'll try it AB's way, I'm even opening up to olives) and it was pure heaven.

I'm even starting to experiment with flavors. Raspberry turned out ok, white chocolate was a total flop (turned into more a gummy candy) and chocolate was good.

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catastrophegirl chooses not to fly
April 27, 2009 10:36 PM
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@mewyn dyner:
hrm, i bought some caramel vanilla marshmallows last week and wrapped them in bacon, grilled them and dipped them in chocolate... i bet it would be soooo much better with homemade flavored marshmallows
[there were also bacon banana s'mores... mmmm]
[www.flickr.com]

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rockasocky
April 27, 2009 11:17 PM
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@catastrophegirl: You should post those pics to This is Why You're Fat

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catastrophegirl chooses not to fly
April 28, 2009 12:10 AM
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@rockasocky: yeah, i fully plan to, but i need to crop them and such and i just got back from vacation yesterday. there's a whole other set - we did the caramel bacon marshmallows twice and that set had better pictures but i didn't bring the SD card to work and my computer at home has been acting up ever since my friend 'made it faster' last weekend.

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chiggr
April 27, 2009 9:12 PM
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@edison234: If you like Alton, I'd suggest 'On Food and Cooking' by Harold Mcgee. It's not a cookbook, but just a book about everything food. And Alton gives Mcgee credit for most of the information on Good Eats.

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LegoMan322
April 27, 2009 7:39 PM
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@edison234: Tivo and Alton Brown are the best. 80 hour Tivo with 40 hours of just Alton Brown. The cookie and pancakes he makes are really really good.

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RBecho
April 27, 2009 7:47 PM
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@LegoMan322: My TiVo has a DVD burner, as of 2 weeks ago I had archived every Good Eats episode ever. Needless to say I am a little nutty.

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LegoMan322
April 27, 2009 11:37 PM
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@RBecho: nah...I think that is good. People thought I was crazy for tivoing the episodes then trying to make what he was doing.

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fatcop
April 27, 2009 9:58 PM
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@RBecho: Ok ok, how much you do you want?

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Jorgon
April 27, 2009 7:19 PM
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@edison234:
Agreed. Take them to the family get together. Add some flavoring, pepperment is great, mix crushed candy canes with the soft marshmallow.

Most people don't even think you can make marshmallows from scratch.

\"How do you make marshmallows? From other Marshmallows?\"

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JulesNoctambule
April 27, 2009 7:09 PM
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I've been teaching a friend how to cook and she tells me she's noticed her food budget going is farther as the amount of pre-prepared foods she buys decreases, yet she's never short of things to eat.

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icantreplyright
April 27, 2009 7:10 PM
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What about doing this with things people actually make? Is it cheaper to buy a $1 hamburger at Wendy's or should I buy hamburger, bread, ketchup, lettuce, mustard and make it myself? Time, electricity and waste would need to be included as well. THAT would be helpful. Who makes their own Jam (except those that do it for \"fun\")?

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babyruthless
April 28, 2009 1:06 AM
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@icantreplyright: I make my own jam. I do enjoy doing it, but I also find it cost effective. Also, I never liked jelly/jam until I visited Chile in college and had real blackberry jam. I still don't like and won't eat most commercial jelly/jam. Last summer, I went to a local U-Pick joint and got 2 gallons of blackberries for $20. Add in a few pounds of sugar, some pectin, and mason jar lids (the jars and bands are reusable, and I have gotten them from FreeCycle and Craigslist), and I'd say I spent ~$30. I wound up with 20 or so pints of jam, great for everyday eating, and also a great present. Think about it--a Christmas gift of out-of-season homemade jam--actual cost $2 or $3, but a perfectly respectable gift, especially if you pair it with a loaf of bread.


Also, making my own food allows me to avoid waste, not create it. I made pickles out of watermelon rind (that's usually trash, right?) and gave them to my grandfather--nothing has ever made an 84-year-old man as happy as those pickles. Again, cost: some spices and sugar and vinegar, plus some electricity for canning (I got the rind from a roommate, plus it was trash, right?) I bake my own bread and save the rinds for croutons, bread crumbs, and stuffing. Very little goes to waste in my house, which I am proud of.

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Tyler Laing
April 28, 2009 2:19 AM
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@babyruthless: Pickles out of watermelon rind? Just spices, sugar, vinegar?! I shall try this, good sir, simply because of the audacity.

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babyruthless
April 28, 2009 4:21 PM
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@Tyler Laing: Hells, yeah! You eat the pink part, peel off and throw away the hard green part, and then pickle the light green/whitish part. Here's the recipe I use:
[www.uga.edu]

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Wit is periodically disensouled
April 27, 2009 8:14 PM
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@icantreplyright: My family makes our own jam. It's not necessarily \"fun\" but we do it every year, several times a year, often using fruit from our own gardens. It's tasty and pretty much just something we've always done. Several generations get involved and everyone takes home stuff.

Every couple of years, we also make our own real maple syrup. That one saves a hell of a lot of money, although it is extremely time consuming.

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veg-o-matic
April 27, 2009 8:12 PM
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@icantreplyright: This reminds me of a recent, awful KFC (?) commercial wherein a \"family\" is \"challenged\" to buy all the ingredients for homemade fried chicken for under the KFC price of like $10 (or thereabouts).. Naturally, they're just not able to beat KFC's great family-friendly price!!!

Of course, comparing do-it-yourself to the fast-food unit price means that fast-food always wins.. except that with grocery store quantities, you could make more than enough for yourself now and in the future at comparable or cheaper prices.

Not to mention the health and labor issues..

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bohemian
April 27, 2009 9:39 PM
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@veg-o-matic: You forgot to add in the \"not getting food poisoning\" factor. We cut down on eating fast food and the incidence of people in the house having GI problems and food poisoning dropped to almost never. KFC was a huge problem, the last two times we had purchased it everyone ended up ill.

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edison234
April 27, 2009 7:56 PM
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@icantreplyright:
Simple break down of cost of hamburger when purchasing from grocery store:

Ingredient Quantity Cost Serving
Hamburger Buns 8ea $1.50 $0.1875
Grnd Beef 80/20 16oz $1.68 $0.21
Lettuce head $0.88 $0.0275
Ketchup 16oz $2.35 $0.0734375
Mustard 16oz $2.65 $0.0828125
Shredded Cheddar 16oz $2.49 $0.0778125
Pickles 32oz $3.00 $0.09375
Total -------> $0.7528125
Electric - $150/month = ~$5 a day, $.208333/hour
Grand Total: $0.9611455 with 1 hour of electricity paid.

Wendys sandwich = $.99 + gasoline to get there

2oz burger, precooked weight
Lettuce head estimated at 32 servings each
1/2 oz of ketchup, mustard, cheese
1oz of pickles

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ludwigk
April 27, 2009 10:20 PM
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@johnva: There is an inverse relationship that involves health vs. taste when cost is involved.

Fast food is engineered to be as good tasting and as brutally cheap as possible. It's not designed to be unhealthy, that's just a result. If fast food could be made healthier at the same cost and taste, what fast food company wouldn't do it?

In optimizing those two aspects, healthiness decreases naturally. So, to correct OP, there is an inverse relationship between health and taste when cost minimization is also a goal.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 11:31 PM
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@ludwigk: That's true. Personally, I think that many of the problems with obesity, over-consumption of food, adulteration of food with additives like HFCS, etc in America are a side effect of the this relentless focus on bringing the cost of food down. Perhaps food SHOULD be a bit more expensive, with more of a focus on quality. I doubt we're really doing \"the poor\" any real favors if the end result of making food cheap is that cheap food = unhealthy food.

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ludwigk
April 28, 2009 4:28 AM
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@johnva: You can make a convincing argument that food is indeed too cheap, by looking at the effects of modern industrial agriculture. Our food production methods today produce demonstrably inferior food to even just 20 years ago.

Modern meat production pumps animals full of antibiotics, plumps them up on cheap (subsidized) soy and corn. Through selective breeding, animals are more sedentary, mature faster, and increase in bulk, but the end result is a less healthful product that is higher in saturated fats, less flavorful, but cheaper per pound to produce.

Modern farming techniques over-fertilize, and don't rotate crops, and breed selectively for robustness and disease resistance rather than flavor, resulting in fruits and vegetables that grow faster, but contain less nutrients and are less tasty.

If you buy organic produce, go to a farmer's market, join a CSA, or plant a garden, those are ways of declaring food is too cheap and should cost more, but it should also be better, so there is an outlet for people who have made such a decision.

One thing that I'm really thankful for here in NorCal is that we have a lot of local farmers that produce varietal and heirloom tomatoes. In this modern world, a person could go their entire life without eating a real tomato.

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johnva
April 28, 2009 2:07 PM
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@ludwigk: I was a member of a CSA for several years, but it started to get a bit too expensive for us. I totally agree with the idea behind it, but we couldn't quite eat the volume of vegetables they gave us. And they had raised prices to the point where it was like twice as expensive for us as buying all the organic vegetables at Whole Foods that we could eat. But I do really like the concept.

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Applekid
April 27, 2009 9:14 PM
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@edison234: That breakdown made my inner analytical child squeal with delight.

One argument against, from a single man's standpoint, is that the pricier ingredients (beef, buns, cheese) are perishable. I'd need to have it on hand and ready. Beef can freeze, but not indefinitely and not nearly as long as it could in a simple freezer instead of dedicated fast-freezing technology. If I'm making a burger for one that opened bag of cheese (or block of cheese that I'm shredding per use) will go bad before I would want another burger. Buns? Three or four days and the mighty preservatives lose to the almighty bread-is-now-a-hockey-puck demons.

So, unless you're doing a cookout, the actual price per serving skyrockets when you consider the amount you would wind up tossing or scrambling to find use for before it goes bad.

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greyer
April 28, 2009 2:19 AM
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@Applekid: If you eat more than four burgers every six months you'll never waste any of a pound of frozen hamburger. Cheese freezes well, too, and some kinds keep months in the fridge anyway. Buns freeze, too, but I got hooked on refrigerator yeast bread. Pull off a blob, let it raise, pop it in the toaster oven and you have one very tasty bun in an hour, which is about the time it takes me to wind down anyway. I don't eat much bread either, so one half recipe of fridge dough does me an entire week and costs a few cents.

I've found the freezer is the single man's best friend. You can have a handmade pasta dinner in five minutes flat. Hard to beat that, if you can develop the habit (which is an undertaking, admittedly.)

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catastrophegirl chooses not to fly
April 27, 2009 10:39 PM
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@Applekid: i freeze bread and cheese all the time. pickles wouldn't freeze well maybe though, but they are pickled anyway so...
lettuce and tomato - that's harder to keep around fresh all the time

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danger the pirate
April 27, 2009 10:13 PM
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@Applekid: 3 or 4 days? give em a week and a half to two weeks. food doesnt go bad as quick as you think. the key is sealing them properly and getting the air out. and i use velveeta. that shit never goes bad. i have some frozen burgers and buns in my freezer. microwave and throw a slice of velveeta on with condiments = win. the hard part is figuring out the right microwave time...

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:13 PM
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@icantreplyright: It would be more expensive to make your own burger, but it would be healthier and taste better.

I'd make my own jam if I had the fruit for free and a lot of storage space.

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ZenMasterKel
April 27, 2009 7:17 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: There's an inverse relationship between healthy and taste better. Also, a lot of the people that \"cook everything from scratch\" are accustomed to the taste and have a different measuring stick when it comes to what is flavorful and taste better.

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bohemian
April 27, 2009 9:46 PM
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@ZenMasterKel: Not really. There is a learned taste for certain things that if you don't eat them for a while they really taste awful by comparison. Heinz ketchup and most corn syrup sodas come to mind.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 8:17 PM
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@ZenMasterKel: I don't agree with any part of this post.

There is NOT an \"inverse relationship\" between healthy and tasting better. Healthy food (fresh vegetables, etc) generally tastes a lot better to me, because it actually tastes like real food and not processed crap. Now, a lot of restaurants DO make unhealthy food, by using a lot of fat and sweetener, etc. And yes, those kinds of foods do taste good (I won't deny that we are evolutionarily hard-wired to like the taste of fat, for example). But that doesn't mean that there aren't OTHER types of healthier food that don't ALSO taste good, in a different way. For example, Japanese cooking uses a lot of fresh, in-season ingredients prepared very simply, and is often quite delicious and quite healthy (although obviously there are exceptions). It's just tasty in a different way than a piece of fried chicken is tasty.

And yes, people who cook a lot do develop different tastes than say, people who eat a lot of fast food. It's called actually enjoying food, instead of just fueling yourself up. And yeah, many people who cook make food that is overly bland and tasteless...those people just need to learn to season their cooking properly.

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Etoiles
April 27, 2009 7:35 PM
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@ZenMasterKel: Well, a well-made, unfrozen, 8-oz burger grilled over real flame and topped, if you like toppings, with high quality cheddar or swiss will generally be a totally different experience than something off of the Dollar Menu at McD's.

But if what I want is a burger now, and I don't already have a grill, or ground beef, or a bottle of ketchup, or a package of cheese, it's definitely cheaper in both time and money to go find some restaurant and buy one.

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BustedFlush
April 27, 2009 7:10 PM
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I made bagels this weekend, they absolutely rock. You can get a little spendy with them if you want to though. You need a high protein flour to really do them right, and unless you're good friends with a pizzeria owner, getting your hands on some can be a challenge. Then of course to really do bagels right, you need some malt syrup - and then what are bagels without some smoked salmon?


You know what's really inexpensive to make? Hummus. I picked up a 5 pound bag of dried garbonzos at an Indian market really cheap. Soak a few cups of beans overnight, boil for half an hour - add some tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt and lots of olive oil and give it good spin in the processor.


I make my own pitas too, but I haven't quite perfected those.

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trujunglist
April 27, 2009 10:57 PM
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@BustedFlush:

I second the making your own hummus. Even buying canned garbanzos from the dollar store can yield a ton of the best hummus you've ever had. Why? Well, you can tweak it to your exact taste. No more bland hummus; add as much garlic and pepper as you want! Want something a little crazier? Just throw it into the blender and see what happens! 99% of the time it's going to be awesome.
PROTIP: Tahini is like peanut butter (but sesame), so it's unsurprisingly sometimes found in the peanut butter aisle rather than the exotic foods aisle.

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balthisar
April 27, 2009 9:57 PM
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@BustedFlush: I swear by the Cook's Illustrated \"Ultimate Hummus\" recipe. Great stuff, and dirt cheap.

@locakitty: I like to buy the local pizza place's pizza dough to make... bread! It's a huge time saver when I have a lot of other stuff going on, but still gives that right-from-the-oven taste. It had never occurred to me to ask them to sell me flour, though; what a grand idea!

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kjherron
April 27, 2009 8:57 PM
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I've made ginger ale from this recipe a few times. It's not very traditional, but it's pretty foolproof and produces nice results. The only major expense is for the ginger root, which isn't that expensive as I recall.

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locakitty
April 27, 2009 8:36 PM
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@BustedFlush: Actually, I run a pizza place and you can come in to my store, bring a container and I'll sell you some flour. I'm just going to charge you 30% over my costs. Right now, that's $.43/lb for high gluten bouncer flour. I think that's cheaper than regular white flour from the bulk section from one of our fancier grocery stores.

Try to find the mom and pop shop and they will probably be willing to do the same. Stay away from the big chains, most of their dough is frozen or ordered from a commissary.

We also sell balls of dough, for those who like to make their own pizzas at home. I do have a few customers who buy their pinon nuts from us, it's just cheaper for them to do it that way. :)

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ludwigk
April 28, 2009 4:32 AM
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@locakitty: $.43/lb? O.o. High Gluten flour at Whole Foods is $2/lb. You've got to raise your prices, man! Where are you by the way? ;)

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Applekid
April 27, 2009 9:49 PM
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@locakitty: So, how much would it cost to host a decent sized doughball fight?

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 7:14 PM
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@BustedFlush: \"getting your hands on some can be a challenge.\"

This used to be my problem until I made friends with a chef ... who can tell me where to locally source ALL KINDS OF CRAZY STUFF! (And I'm in Peoria, 120,000 people city, 300,000 metro.) There are a lot of food service places that also sell directly to the public.

(And my flatbreads kinda suck too. I have a neighbor who's really good at them but I always burn them.)

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catskyfire
April 27, 2009 7:11 PM
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One catch is also ability. One thought that always comes to mind when the Soup people post is that some of us suck at cooking. I tried making some homemade soup and the basic result was 'inedible'.

Making yourself is good if you have some skill, or if the recipe is foolproof. Otherwise, if you count the waste of screwups, it might not be a good deal.

Also, count your time in the 'cost'. If you -enjoy- cooking, then it's a hobby and the time isn't wasted. If you are doing it only to save money, think about what you could do with your time instead.

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floraposte
April 28, 2009 3:58 AM
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@catskyfire: Heh. I'm a Soup Person. (Though I'm probably not a real one, since I don't make stock.) I would give a complementary recommendation to Eyebrows'--I'd recommend the Cooks Illustrated books and/or magazine. The New Best Recipe is known in my circle as The Magic Cookbook. Most cookbooks have a fairly mixed reliability rate; this one has sorted out the bugs and tells you how it did it, and the explanations will get novices through just fine. It also will give you test results on kitchenware, and good tools--which can often be less expensive tools--make a tremendous difference.

You don't have to be creative with a reliable guide. Fortunately.

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greyer
April 28, 2009 2:34 AM
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@catskyfire: Make friends with someone who cooks in bulk and stows away already. Not only will they teach you a thing or two, some won't mind making extra for you. It's not much more work doubling most recipes and it can be fun having someone hanging around in the kitchen.

In my personal experience learning to cook, the worst thing to do is to follow a recipe; you never learn why things are done in that way. Start out with the very simple stuff, one or two ingredients, learn them, and build from there. The sort of food that *requires* a recipe is usually the sort of food that's so rarely eaten day-to-day there's no point in learning the recipe in the first place.

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trujunglist
April 27, 2009 11:04 PM
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@catskyfire:

I think one of the keys to being a good cook is to understand the individual flavors that something will contribute to your dish. One thing that people forget to do is to taste and taste often. That will let you tweak your ingredients to exactly how you want it.
I've never found exact measuring to be the way to go; with my recipes it's pretty much a throw about this much of that in type of situation and then taste it. I think that one of the perils of following a recipe is that you get stuck into thinking that it has to be that way to achieve the final flavor/consistency. Often times, the results are less than stellar because the ingredients and amount of ingredient is wrong.
I recommend experimenting with flavors at a basic level and then working up from there, like making a ham sandwich with a particular herb or ingredient. That way you will know what flavor you're looking for and how much of it you'll need when you combine it with other complex flavors. Sandwiches are the best for experimenting imo; throw it on or take it off easily so there's no waste, while being able to identify individual ingredients.

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Verucalise (Est.February2008)
April 27, 2009 7:41 PM
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I love throwing bits and pieces of things together and hoping it comes out edible, which it does 99% of the time. I've been told my best cooking is when I don't use a recipe, but just fly by the seat of my pants.


It's true that a lot of convenience packaging is much more expensive than making it homemade, especially in bulk. Either find a great deal, or jump into the kitchen and have some fun! Cooking doesn't need to be a chore ;-)

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louiedog
April 27, 2009 7:27 PM
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@catskyfire:

Cooking is an easy skill to learn. Seriously, it shouldn't take that long and you shouldn't start with, \"Oh my god, the picture with this 37-ingredient recipe looks so good I'm going to try it.\"

I have a recipe that I make about once a week. It costs about $5, makes enough for dinner and lunch for my girlfriend and me, and only takes about 15 minutes start to finish. To get the same thing at a restaurant in my neighborhood, it would take at least 30 minutes from the time I leave my place until the food is in front of me. It'd also be about the same to get it delivered, plus cost more. It's also just about my favorite thing in the world to eat. I would make it twice a week if I didn't think my girlfriend would kill me.

Everyone in the world has to eat, it's a pretty good skill to learn, and it's only as difficult as you make it.

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squinko
April 27, 2009 7:30 PM
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@louiedog: What's the recipe? I love sharing (and I'd love to have one that takes only 15 minutes to do!).

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squinko
April 27, 2009 7:26 PM
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@catskyfire: I love making soups. Here's an easy one:

1 can refried beans
1 can black beans, drained
2-4 cups chicken broth (depending on how thin you like your soup)
1/4 cup bell peppers, diced and fried

Voila. You have my famous refried bean soup and it's amazing. :) I'll give you the recipe for my Spicy Thai Chicken Noodle Soup too, if you'd like.

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catskyfire
April 27, 2009 8:02 PM
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@squinko: @squinko: Got any easy recipes that don't involve beans, spice, or too many vegetables?

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johnva
April 27, 2009 7:24 PM
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@catskyfire: Also count your health. Eating out often is almost certainly more unhealthy, because restaurants have to compete on the basis of taste vs. health.

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catskyfire
April 27, 2009 7:57 PM
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If all I considered was my health, I'd eat the exact same thing every day, matching maximum nutrition to appropriate carbohydrates and other dietary needs. (Carbs are not for a diet.) I actually want good flavor, too.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 8:26 PM
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@catskyfire: Health certainly isn't the only consideration. It's just an important one :)

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 7:22 PM
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@catskyfire: \"One thought that always comes to mind when the Soup people post is that some of us suck at cooking. I tried making some homemade soup and the basic result was 'inedible'. Making yourself is good if you have some skill, or if the recipe is foolproof.\"

I didn't learn to cook until I was 24 and married, and then only with a lot of encouragement from my husband. I have always been a \"bad cook.\" The kind of person who can scorch a pan attempting to boil water, and burn the hell out of chili trying to simply reheat it. I absolutely promise that cooking IS learnable!

For me, it took very clear explanations of what I was doing AND WHY ... I'm very directions and specificity oriented. :) Really good for me was \"On Food and Cooking\" by Harold McGee which helped me understand the whys and \"How to Cook without a Book\" which I'm not sure of the author of but made me more confident going \"off-recipe\" and improvising.

I still can't make a white sauce to save my life, but I'm considered pretty good now and people ask for my food. Although I still need work on the cosmetic end ... learning to cook didn't really overcome the clumsy, so my presentation is usually pretty basic. :)

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catskyfire
April 27, 2009 7:52 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): I fully admit that a good portion of my non-cooking skills is that it seems amazingly pointless to spend an hour preparing a nice meal (I'm not big on the 'one pot meal') only to eat it in 7 minutes with a book and my cat trying to steal it. I'm only willing to eat it one more day, rather than a week. And freezing only goes so far. Oddly enough, when there's a bunch to feed (holidays), I do fine. But I'm not sure that my cooking skills, or interests, would rise to the level of 'make my own bagels'.

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HogwartsAlum
April 28, 2009 1:30 AM
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@catskyfire:

That's kind of how I am. I'm single, so there's usually no one to help me eat all the leftovers and I get sick of eating the same thing all the time. Plus, I'm busy when I'm not working a lot of the time, so don't really have time to make stuff.

I'll buy it mostly.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:21 PM
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@catskyfire: I think I'm operating on pure luck, and having a knack for what goes well together.

Stick to simple soups. I find broths to be easier than chowders. Chicken noodle is really as simple as throwing veggies in a pot, cooking them in broth until they're tender, throwing in some noodles and waiting until those are done. I don't make chicken noodle much, though, cause I haven't figured out how to freeze/store it without the noodles absorbing more broth (and then becoming mushy). I prefer chowders because they freeze better. I make a mean chicken and corn chowder.

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greyer
April 28, 2009 2:24 AM
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@pecan 3.14159265: Make the soup, make the noodles, and freeze separately. Freeze the noodles separated out on a cookie sheet then throw them in a bag. Add them four-five minutes before the soup is finished reheating and let them boil in it. Flour/egg/salt pasta freezes well either uncooked or almost-completely cooked and drained really well.

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catskyfire
April 27, 2009 7:50 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: And if you aren't really thrilled with veggies and your last broth tasted like crud?

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:56 PM
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@catskyfire: What kind of food do you like then? If it's meat, you can do a really great Irish beef stew with minimal vegetable. Or a corn chowder if you don't mind the taste of corn, but would prefer not to taste the crunch (you blend it).

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catskyfire
April 27, 2009 8:44 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: I favor the traditional 'three course', a meat, a starch, and, in my case, usually a fruit or carrots. My brother loves (and would happily live on, if his wife would let him) 'one dish' meals. I've never cared as much for stews and such. I think a part of it is the entire thing will taste exactly the same. As opposed to 'this piece of meat, I'll dip in this sauce. And this piece plain, and this bit of potato will get this...'.

It's that preference for the 'three course' that tends to make cooking seem so tiresome for me. It's a lot of work for little reward. (It's just me and a cat who really wants what's on my plate.)

Though I did attempt to make broth and chicken noodle soup a few times. The noodles (betty crocker's 1953 recipe for drop noodles) were fantastic. The broths...well, I don't have that 'knack' for seasoning that most good soupmakers have. My mother can taste it and go 'oh, this needs this'. I taste it and just go 'ew'.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 9:29 PM
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@catskyfire: I don't have a clever one off the top of my head, but there are some meat-and-veg combos you can do in the same oven or whatever ... bake the potato and then use the same heat to bake the chicken piece for the last 15 minutes of the potato baking time. Add some storebought bread or make some rice on the stovetop or grab some fruit and you're set.

My mom has a bunch of these where she \"steals\" the heat from one dish to make the other, and that makes it less work.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 8:57 PM
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@catskyfire: I combat bland broth by using poultry seasoning and a lot of good herbs. Try making broth from a rotisserie chicken - a lot of flavor goes into that, and the chicken meat can be used for soup.

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ludwigk
April 27, 2009 10:44 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: I like \"Better than Bouillon\", which is basically a chicken bouillon concentrated paste. It's super efficient in terms of space and cost, lasts forever in the fridge, and has a lot of taste compared to chicken broth. I think it contains more salt than standard broth, however, so you need to adjust down a bit to compensate.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 8:56 PM
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@catskyfire: Try a stir fry beef with garlic butter mashed potatoes and a side of fruit. One of the easiest meals I've ever made was stir fry or broiled beef. Throw some marinated beef into an oven-safe dish, turn on the broiler, and let it go for 20 minutes. Add veggies if you want or not.

The potatoes are so easy too. Once you peel them, cut them up into smaller pieces, boil them for about 20 minutes and then mash them and add a little cream, garlic and butter at a time.

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HogwartsAlum
April 28, 2009 1:33 AM
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@pecan 3.14159265:

Ooooo. I have a wok I have never used. Now I want to use it. That sounds really, really good. I could cook it in the wok and it would be even faster. (I hate it when it takes longer to cook dinner than to eat it.)

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HogwartsAlum
April 28, 2009 2:20 AM
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@HogwartsAlum:

P.S. - I copied your post and saved it to my recipe file! :)

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 7:24 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: \"I haven't figured out how to freeze/store it without the noodles absorbing more broth (and then becoming mushy)\"

This is probably not the official answer, but my answer for every single one of these mushiness problems is \"freeze/refrigerate without it just add that part when you reheat it.\"

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:27 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): Yeah I've been reading that too. I'm not making soup for a few months though (now that it's spring and it's 90 degrees outside today), so I'll have to try it in September :-P

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PriceIsWrong
April 27, 2009 8:25 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265:

Gazpacho is your friend in these hot days. It's basically a salsa anyway, but great when you make it right.

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unobservant
April 27, 2009 7:21 PM
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@catskyfire: I suck at cooking, too, but I discovered a sure-fire soup formula that requires a pot, a blender, and half an hour's worth of cooking. It tastes like those swanky carton soups and impresses the heck out of my husband.

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John Posey
April 27, 2009 7:14 PM
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I tried making my own ginger ale a few months ago. It was fun, but it ended up costing twice as much as the store brand. It's interesting how much different it tastes from the store bought stuff though.

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catskyfire
April 27, 2009 8:45 PM
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@John Posey: I have made homemade root beer a few times. Not the carbonated version, but the simple version. That's pretty good, and not too expensive.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:14 PM
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One of the easiest things to make is pizza dough, though I still haven't made homemade pizza that's quite as good as my local shop, so I'm probably going to stop making my own pizza and pony up the $14 for a pie at the local place. We don't eat pizza very often, so it's not a big deal.

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Spaceman Bill Leah
April 27, 2009 7:44 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: Up until recently I have had luck with Todd English's pizza dough from Figs. I think I have been working with dead yeast on the last few batches. Also, a pizza stone is a good idea if you are trying to get a pizzeria taste at home.

[www.marthastewart.com]

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nybiker
April 27, 2009 9:04 PM
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@Spaceman Bill Leah: Growing up with my mom making her 5 trays of Sicilian pizza, we learned the importance of FRESH yeast. One year after we did the work (I don't recall right now what the job was, but she didn't make it for the hell of it), she sees that the dough isn't rising. Sure enough, it was over a year old. So much for getting pizza that day. It's those kinds of mistakes that we tease her about so she doesn't make 'em again.

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veg-o-matic
April 27, 2009 7:36 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: Mr. o-matic makes some fantabulous pizza from an old family recipe, all from scratch... of course, since his family is half Italian, it makes three giant crusts and enough pizza sauce to drown in.

Once we consume enough to burst our stomachs, we freeze the extra dough in little pre-rise balls, freeze the sauce post-cook, and we have some ready-to-assemble pizzas for the cheap future. Even cheaper for us, since commercially prepared vegan pizzas are exorbitantly expensive.

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squinko
April 27, 2009 7:32 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: Some Italian delis will sell their dough so you don't have to make it yourself, but you can still enjoy a crust you know will be tasty. I've done it a few times and it's never been too expensive.

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JGKojak
April 27, 2009 7:14 PM
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You'll be thanking her for this article when the apocolypse comes and you get hungry for a bagel.

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majortom1029
April 27, 2009 9:13 PM
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@JGKojak: Wont happen i live in ny.


I dont know if I can make bagels from scratch as good as the ones here at my local bagel store. ID rather buy the bagels from them and make everything else from scratch.


Now unless ican find their recipe lol.

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Crystal Wojcinski
April 27, 2009 7:21 PM
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@JGKojak:
Now I picture in my head Heston standing before the remaisn of the statue of liberty on the seashore shaking his fist and going
\"Why didn't I read the article on the consumerist about how to make my own bagels. Damn you!\"

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unobservant
April 27, 2009 7:17 PM
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I make my own low-fat Bisquick and am never short of Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Yum! I make kick-butt vegetarian calzones with it, too. You can find the recipe here.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:19 PM
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@unobservant: When the apocalypse comes, we're all heading to your house.

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unobservant
April 27, 2009 8:55 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: The more the merrier! I'll be the one with the Cal's Calzone Zone Frequent Calzone Eater's Card.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:23 PM
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Some of us dislike cooking. And that is okay.

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nybiker
April 27, 2009 9:14 PM
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@nakedscience: I cook because I have to. And by \"cook\" I mean either put it on my George Foreman Grill, microwave it, or boil water for pasta. Also, I have actually started putting the chicken breasts into a pyrex pan and adding sauce and then baking for a while. Vegetables start out as frozen (store brand in a box) and then nuked for however long they tell me to. What's worse than cooking is food shopping (only because of the logistical nightmares caused by checkout counter lines).

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teqjack
April 27, 2009 7:24 PM
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\"A\" for effort. So, maybe some are cheaper or better. If time is available.

But tastes... Alas, I didn't really get to cheaper/better because of the six four are things I would not buy (actually, three are things I would not pick up a free sample of) and a fifth - jam - is, well, extremely time-consuming even if you have the time. Which I do, but would rather spend reading.

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Zyada
April 27, 2009 10:17 PM
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@teqjack:


If you do the full blown \"preserves that can survive a nuclear holocaust\", it is very time consuming. However, freezer preserves are only slightly more work than heating soup from a can; can use glass jars that you've already got left over from buying preserves; and you can customize the recipe to your taste.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:28 PM
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@teqjack: One of my favorite things to do while I'm making a pot of gumbo is read. To make the roux (flour and butter), you basically have to stir constantly for an hour, and reading is one of the best ways of passing the time.

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floraposte
April 28, 2009 4:00 AM
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@pecan 3.14159265: I can't read and actively stir. For me, podcasts and the BBC's Listen Again radio are splendid cooking companions, though.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:58 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: I so would not have the patience to stir something for AN HOUR. OMG. I would so throw myself in the pot. Hah!

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HFC
April 27, 2009 7:54 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: I love anyone who can make a good roux.

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Zyzzyva100
April 27, 2009 7:27 PM
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I brew my own beer (partial extract and partial mash - so it could be done cheaper). Usually more expensive than commercially produced beer, but cheaper than microbrews. I do it as a hobby, so I don't count the initial startup costs for equipment, but after that its usually less than 5 bucks a 6 pack for some really good beer.

I even cloned a brew that I love (but is 10-12 bucks a 4 pack) and it cost about 10 bucks a 6 pack. Plus I made 5 gallons of 12% cider for about $40 - tastes great and nothing like it can be purchased.

I make/grow food at home because I enjoy doing it. If I save money, thats nice but I don't expect that my veggie garden is saving me any money (even though everything was started from seed). Still fun to do though!

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wheresmymind
April 28, 2009 7:16 PM
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@Zyzzyva100: A few of my buddies and I brew together on a semi-weekly basis, mostly partial-mash or extract brews (with occasional attempts at all-grain). If we re-use the yeast and go easy on the hops we can turn out a decent batch for $30-40 or so (~50 12-oz bottles), and the fun we have standing around the brew pot is priceless. But it can be a bit of work - if your only incentive is to save money on beer, you'll probably be disappointed. Other beverages are a different story: whenever we've branched out into wine or mead the general consensus has always been \"wow, that was easy.\"

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kbrook
April 28, 2009 2:58 PM
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@Zyzzyva100: We homebrew meads and cordials - it's almost impossible to find decent commercial mead (around here, at least) that doesn't taste like they hoovered all the tannins up off the inside of the barrel and dumped them in the mead. Homebrew is better, you can make it as dry or sweet as you like. You can also make such delicious things as cyser (mead brewed with apple cider) and fruit mead.

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FigNinja
April 27, 2009 8:21 PM
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@Zyzzyva100:

My husband and I do beer and wine mostly for the fun of it but it also saves money. Yeah, I could get beer and wine for the cost of making it but it's not stuff I'd want to drink. Besides, it's nice to have a keg on hand for a party rather than have to go out and get one and you get to share something you made with your friends.

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WelcomeToMyWorld
April 27, 2009 8:10 PM
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@Zyzzyva100: I too *was* a homebrewer, until I finally realized that it's so much work to make beer! I can buy great beers, even imports and micro's, for less time and money than it cost me to make them. So now I buy it, because I don't drink that much beer anyway.


On the other hand most everyday beverages such as coffee, tea, lemonade, etc. are definitely cheaper to make than to buy.

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Penny
April 27, 2009 7:30 PM
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Quite honestly, if you love to cook, it's not really that much cheaper to eat at home.

If you love to drink, however, it generally is...

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johnva
April 27, 2009 7:36 PM
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@Penny Plastic: I don't agree. Sure, you CAN go overboard with buying fancy equipment and rare ingredients, but nothing says you have to do that. In reality, I think it varies by what you're making.

And as you said, something like wine is HUGELY cheaper at home.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 7:33 PM
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@Penny Plastic: Why is it not much cheaper to eat at home if you love to cook? I can make a pot of chili that can feed two people for five days for $12, when a bowl of chili for one person will run me $7. How is it not a big difference?

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:38 PM
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@pecan 3.14159265: It depends on what you cook. I have friends who love to cook and they spend a LOT of money on food. This isn't chili we are talking about.

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FigNinja
April 27, 2009 8:26 PM
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@nakedscience:

True, some of my home-cooked meals are a bit splurgey but if I had that same meal in a restaurant it would still cost me quite a bit more. If I ordered some wine with that, I'd really be paying a premium. When I eat out, it's for the experience and often to have something I can't make well myself. There is the occasional meal out for convenience but I try to keep that to a minimum, not just for my wallet but for my waist.

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babyruthless
April 28, 2009 1:19 AM
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@FigNinja: I agree totally--I recently made lamb chops for Mr. Ruthless and myself--expensive, expensive lamb chops--$14.99 a pound, if I recall. However, I'm sure that we would have paid many times that if we'd eaten the same lamb chops \"out,\" and I'm sure that they wouldn't have been raised on a small, local farm.

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HogwartsAlum
April 28, 2009 1:37 AM
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@babyruthless:

Lamb chops are one of those things that are a splurge, but are easy to cook at home, so they don't require a lot of time investment. And they are totally YUMMY.

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diasdiem
April 27, 2009 7:33 PM
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This doesn't account for the time involved. Sure, you save 25 cents a bagel, but I value my time a bit more than that.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 7:37 PM
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@diasdiem: That assumes that the time is wasted. A lot of people enjoy cooking/do it as a hobby/get lots of satisfaction from making things from scratch.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:39 PM
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@johnva: And that is great for those who enjoy it. But they also assume those of us who don't, should.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:37 PM
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@diasdiem: Seriously. This. As a single person, I have no desire WHATSOEVER to spend all my time cooking. Sorry, I hate it, and I do not want to do it, and it's kind of annoying that people always say, \"But it's so easy! And enjoyable!\" Yeah ... for you. For me, I hate it and would much rather be doing other things.

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floraposte
April 28, 2009 4:04 AM
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@nakedscience: Yup. Exactly where I am on mowing the lawn and cleaning. I like cooking, so it makes a lot of sense to me to both save money and treat myself that way. But if you hate it, that's time you'll never get back for something that's not worth the difference to you. I suspect we all of us have things that are worth the Avoidance Surcharge to us.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 7:42 PM
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@nakedscience: I didn't find it enjoyable at all until I got married and could cook for two. And even now, while I enjoy cooking for my husband (and eating what he cooks for me, he's a better cook!), it's way more fun if I'm cooking for a crowd. It's hard to get excited about cooking for just me.

I don't really enjoy the process ... I enjoy the outcome.

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catastrophegirl chooses not to fly
April 27, 2009 10:48 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): are you planning to make your own baby food when the time comes? or are you going to get your husband to do that?

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 28, 2009 1:57 AM
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@catastrophegirl: I don't know, we'll see how it goes. First I want to get the whole breastfeeding thing settled. I'll worry about food-food later on. :)

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:51 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): Yeah, I've tried cooking for other people. Still hate it. And I don't plan on getting married, ever. So. If I have a crowd, I'll just have everyone pitch in for subs or something, or have someone else cook. Saves me more time to enjoy my friends.


I just don't find the kitchen enjoyable at all. There is no way I am going to make my own crackres! Or bagels! I'll cook simple stuff on occasion (tonight I'll cook fish -- it and some sliced lemon and veggies will go in some tinfoil and I'll make instant brown rice) but that's about it.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 7:41 PM
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@nakedscience: That's fine. But realize that you will obviously pay more money for the privilege of having someone else cook all your food for you. And there are other reasons that people like cooking, obviously, besides just cost. A big one is that you have ultimate control over the ingredients used, which is a big deal to some people that really care about what they're eating.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:55 PM
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@johnva: And as a single gal, it really isn't *that* much cheaper to cook.

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floraposte
April 28, 2009 4:09 AM
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@nakedscience: See, now you're the one making the blanket statement :-). I'm single, and I've saved a tremendous amount of money by cooking. Then I got the freezer, which paid for itself in a few months. Yeah, you save more the more people are getting fed, but it's still a considerable savings.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:49 PM
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@johnva: And that is fine. But not everyone is the same. When I eat at home, I tend to eat simple meals (sandwiches, soup, things like that). I do cook on occasion, but it's usually when I'm craving something (fish, for instance, which I just bought). I also eat a lot of fresh fruits as snacks.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 8:05 PM
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@nakedscience: @nakedscience: I definitely agree that it's less economical if you're just cooking for yourself. Once it scales up, there is a HUGE difference though. And I do think that it's a lot more fun to cook when you're cooking for/with someone else.

I'm not trying to criticize your choices, but I am just trying to point out that people like cooking for a whole variety of reasons.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 9:27 PM
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@johnva: And I never denied that, and in fact I said there are plenty of people who enjoy cooking.


But everyone who enjoys cooking assumes everyone who doesn't is lying or should just \"try it! learn!\" and suddenly we'll be cooking masters. It doesn't work like that.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 9:57 PM
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@nakedscience: I agree, it doesn't work like that. In fact, it's a skill that takes many years of effort to develop and get good at. If you didn't learn how at home, you might never enjoy it.

I'm not that good at it actually, but my wife is. And I help her with it and with buying ingredients quite often. I still think it's a skill that everyone should have at least some expertise in, though, even if you don't particularly enjoy it. It makes for a healthier society when we know what goes into our food.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
April 27, 2009 9:35 PM
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@nakedscience: I think a lot of people actually think others should know how because it's an important life skill and so many people insist they \"can't\" learn to cook. (I was among them.)

Fewer people may enjoy it than you think. My mother is a top-notch, knock-out cook who did three scratch-made meals a day every day of my childhood (including scratch-made cereal and scratch-made pastries and everything) ... and she really DOES NOT LIKE to cook. She did it because it was healthy for her family, and she was good at it, but it's not something she particularly enjoys. She wanted us all to know how because she thought it was an important life skill, not because she thought it was fun. (Not that I learned. Because, well, MOM was trying to teach me, so clearly it must have been lame. I have a) since learned to cook and b) since learned my mom is not lame.)

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blue_streak
April 27, 2009 7:34 PM
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Excellent article. One note about crackers: if you bake your own bread (or bagels!) and the dough won't rise, either because you had bad yeast or you killed it somehow, you can use the dough for crackers instead of throwing it away. Just roll it out thin, top with salt or sesame seeds, cut with a pizza cutter, and bake until crispy. Make some hummus to go with them, yum.

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Spaceman Bill Leah
April 27, 2009 7:46 PM
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@blue_streak: Thanks! Now I have something to do with my remaining packets of dead yeast.

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shepd
April 27, 2009 7:38 PM
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As I've tried to say, if you lower your standards, apart from youghurt (which, as a lactose intolerant person, I don't care for) it is always cheaper to buy.

To get bagels under 20 cents, I buy the already cheap-brand bagels from the reduced \"going off in a day\" shelf and freeze them. No, they aren't as nice as fresh. Remember my first sentence. This is about cheap bastardry, not about sating your palate.

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Anonymous
April 29, 2009 2:26 AM
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@shepd: You couldn't be more wrong. I can prepare much larger quantities of baked goods and stews, soups, full meals, from much cheaper incredients than you will ever be able to buy prepared foods for in a dollars per ounce comparison. It's about convenience, the math has NEVER been on your side.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 7:46 PM
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@shepd: Well, you can always go cheaper by lowering your standards. The point of cooking for yourself is that you can actually RAISE your standards while still saving money.

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bohemian
April 27, 2009 11:28 PM
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@johnva: Life is too short for cheap/bad food.

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johnva
April 27, 2009 11:35 PM
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@bohemian: Totally agreed. That statement also applies to beer!

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Megan Squier
April 27, 2009 7:42 PM
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My husband LOVES cheesecake but is too cheap to spend $10+ (yikes!) on one. I've got time on my hands and am moderately handy in the kitchen so I found a recipe and was able to duplicate the same grocery store cheesecake for about $3 using generic ingredients and a pre-made crust. With the exception of baking time it takes me 15 minutes of actual work to make one. This is for a cheesecake with chocolate and nuts.

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veg-o-matic
April 27, 2009 7:45 PM
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Making your own almond/oat/soy milks can be quite economical too, if you're into that kind of thing.

It's pretty easy too if you consider that two lazy blobs such as ourselves do it without the help of an one of those schmancy kitchen appliances.

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Megan Squier
April 27, 2009 7:52 PM
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@veg-o-matic: How does one make their own soy milk? I'm intrigued.

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veg-o-matic
April 27, 2009 8:02 PM
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@Megan Squier: This is a pretty clear step-by-step, though soy milk is a bit more involved than others. [www.theveganmentor.com]

..And the wiki, for the sciency stuff: [en.wikipedia.org]

I think alot of people that make their own soy use a machine.

We make almond milk, and it's just soak, blend, strain. No cooking required. And then we use the leftover pulp for all sorts of stuff.

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mizike
April 27, 2009 7:45 PM
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For granola, use honey with a touch of vanilla extract instead of pure maple syrup and it will be WAY cheaper than the storebought stuff (and much tastier). It's also absurdly easy to make; mix ingredients, bake for 20-30 mins stirring every so often (as the edges cook faster than the middle). That's it.

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catastrophegirl chooses not to fly
April 27, 2009 10:52 PM
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@mizike: as i learned many years ago in summer camp - if you are going to add raisins to granola add them AFTER cooking.
the camp counselor added them first, they all turned into little charcoal football shaped rocks and when we went out on the trail we had to pick them out and surreptitiously burn them in the campfire.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:56 PM
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@mizike: See, this I could \"cook\" because it's essentially throwing a few things together and bam! done! Which is why I don't have a big problem making chili on occasion or something.


But the idea of making a meal every.single.day basically makes me want to stab my eyes out.

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bohemian
April 27, 2009 11:33 PM
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@nakedscience: My favorite meal in college was either shrimp or scallops from the seafood counter and some sauteed zuchinii and onions. I always felt I needed a real meal when I got home at 9pm but didn't have the ambition to cook anything complicated. Cook the shrimp or scallops in olive oil for a bit, add a shot of white wine and maybe some garlic and paprika. In another pan saute cut up zuchinni and onions and a bit of garlic. Dinner in about 15 minutes.

There was no way I was making some major meal at that point in my life but what is above still counts as cooking. It was cheaper than take out and better than burgers.

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FigNinja
April 27, 2009 8:35 PM
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@nakedscience:

When I was single and just cooking for myself, I didn't cook every night. I cooked a couple nights a week and had leftovers. I would portion stuff up in single serving containers and freeze for lunches and dinners. Or I'd cook a chicken and have a little for dinner every night then make soup with the rest. I'd have veggies and salad stuff on hand and usually a few bags of frozen veg in the freezer just in case I didn't have time to shop. Now that I'm married to a man who also likes to cook, it's fun because we cook together and spend the time in the kitchen chatting with eachother. We still do the big batch thing for lunches, though.

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HogwartsAlum
April 28, 2009 1:41 AM
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@FigNinja:

I'm with nakedscience...I HATE doing that. I hate leftovers! I try to buy smaller sizes of things so I have very few leftovers. Frozen veggies are da bomb, because I can pop them in the freezer, and grab a handful and nuke them. I control the quantity. The rest stay nice and frosty and don't go to waste.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 9:28 PM
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@FigNinja: Hahaha, yeah. I don't have the freezer space./

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 7:59 PM
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And thanks, guys. Now I'm hungry.

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huadpe
April 27, 2009 8:34 PM
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The big problem in making at home v. buying is relative units. Often, to make some complex item (baked goods in particular) you have to buy a much larger container than you really need of one or two ingredients. This makes the made-at-home versions more expensive if you only do one batch. And we often don't do multiple batches because it's time consuming and whatnot. Factories also have much less waste than normal home kitchens, so can sometimes be cheaper.

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johnva
April 28, 2009 1:49 AM
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@huadpe: Well, yeah, of course it's going to be a waste if you don't do it often. You kind of have to make a lifestyle of it if you want it to actually save you money.

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Radi0logy
April 27, 2009 8:37 PM
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I have been wanting to make my own cheese at home for SUCH a long time... but everyone says I need a cheese press and they are apparently a little bit costly from what I have found on places like EBay. One guy said he made his own but it was pretty complicated for someone living in an apartment..

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razremytuxbuddy
April 27, 2009 8:52 PM
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This is a great topic.
Things I make because they are cheaper and taste better:

Bread with a bread machine
Basic bread mix
Yogurt
Frozen Entrees (which are soups and casseroles I freeze in individual portions.) Examples: Cabbage soup, Lasagne, Spaghetti sauce with meat, Taco casserole, Shrimp Fettuccini

I pack my lunches, too. My grocery bills are under $100 a month, and I spend very little time in the kitchen.

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nakedscience
April 27, 2009 9:29 PM
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@razremytuxbuddy: I'd have to put a bread machine on top of the like, fridge. I don't have room for a damn coffee maker :(

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HogwartsAlum
April 28, 2009 1:43 AM
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@nakedscience:

It's a lot harder when you live in a tiny space, I know. I used to live in a one bedroom apartment that the kitchen was one corner of the living room.

Now I have a house (still small) with a little more room, but because I have no one to cook for besides me, I still don't do it much.

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pecan 3.14159265
April 27, 2009 8:58 PM
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I make my own barbecue sauce. Very, very good barbecue for a lot less than the processed stuff.

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Anonymous
April 27, 2009 9:44 PM
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I think most people don't take into account the cost of utilities in making the listed goods. One may save $0.50 making something at home rather than buying it at a store, but that seems to be just in the price of the raw goods that went into the recipe. Who knows if you really save when you take into account the cost of having an oven on for 90 minutes or using burners on your stove.

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fatcop
April 27, 2009 10:00 PM
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I've been learning how to can and pickle. That way I know I can survive the zombie apocalypse.

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balthisar
April 27, 2009 10:01 PM
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I make my own beer, and since I'm lazy don't bottle it, but serve it from a cornelius bottle, I have a CO2 system to serve it. This gives me the tools I need to make the following, really, super dirt cheap:

* Carbonated water, which is really quite delicious on its own. I drink it by the boat load. If you have snobby friends, you can call it \"mineral water.\" Same thing. Throw a very slight quantity of various salts in there, and it really is mineral water. Similarly for club soda (a little baking soda does the trick).

* Soda-Pop. Now that you have dirt-cheap soda water, it's simple to make your own flavored syrups. Lime, orange, raspberries are simple extract syrups, and with just a vanilla simple syrup, voila!: cream soda.

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FigNinja
April 27, 2009 10:32 PM
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@balthisar:

We keg most of our beers, too. One of the most tedious parts of brewing is the bottling. Kegs are so much easier. I've been considering trying the soda thing, too. I don't like the ingredients in most sodas so I'd be able to make something cheaper and healthier that way.

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catskyfire
April 27, 2009 10:17 PM
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On other thought I had, is to consider what you will actually use. Making bagels might be fine, but only if you eat them regularly. Making jams or jellies can be cost effective...IF you use them. Otherwise, you may make a bunch of something cheaply, but waste too much do to non-use. (And yes, you can give it away, etc, but that's avoiding waste, rather than saving money.)

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johnva
April 27, 2009 11:41 PM
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@catskyfire: Last summer we made a ton of jam from fresh ripe strawberries, cherries, and peaches that we got from the local orchards and farms that let you pick them yourself. They're 10x better than anything you can buy at the grocery store (since they're made from fresh, in-season fruit). We made a ton, and shoved them in the freezer, and just used the last of it. Basically, we made a year's worth of jam when the fruit was ripe, and we're about to go pick 10 or so more pounds of strawberries and do it again in the next week or so. It also makes a great gift that people REALLY like, since it's not something that most people normally have access to anymore (we're lucky that we live in an area that grows a lot of fruit).

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cete-of-badgers
April 27, 2009 10:20 PM
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This is a great post. I will be sure to attempt a making of bagels this weekend.

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GinaLouise
April 27, 2009 10:54 PM
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@catskyfire: I hate The Soup People! Yes, I know you all can produce gourmet soups with $1.12 of ingredients and just a few hours of effort, but I can't. My multiple tries at chicken soup have resulted in gross mushy noodles floating in bland broth.

Plus, I live alone and have a tiny freezer (so no cooking in bulk). Even if my soup turns out wonderfully, I'd have to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner for at least two days.

So while I'm happy to cook most of the time, I have a cupboard FULL of Cambell's soup.

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babyruthless
April 28, 2009 1:11 AM
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Fun yogurt tip for the bravehearted who live in hot places:
In the summer, instead of putting your heated-then-cooled milk in the oven, just put that bad boy outside. I live in Texas, where it gets to be approximately 120 degrees (I exaggerate, but only slightly) and in the summer, I put my pre-yogurt concoction in a casserole dish with a glass lid out in the morning, and take it in at night. Voila--yogurt with 0 electricity costs. My mom freaked out a little that I was making yogurt by just letting milk sit outside, but she couldn't say how it was different than letting it sit in the oven for the same amount of time.

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razremytuxbuddy
April 28, 2009 2:52 AM
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@babyruthless: That is a totally awesome yogurt making tip. I'm going to try that when it gets hot enough here in Kansas. If I set it in a sunny spot it should get plenty hot enough.

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gaywolverine
April 28, 2009 2:03 AM
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One thing not thrown in the equation is TIME. My time is valuable

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Ben_Q2
April 28, 2009 3:22 PM
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I do all my own cooking and really do not eat out all that much. But I do it for a living (so so). Given that I am making my dinner next week.

10lbs of F.M.
2lbs of Lg Shrimp

above cost me under $30

The rest of a Steak Dinner I have in my yard. This is my stuff. Now if I am making it I buy the Corn, Green Beans, Other stuff. Still I can make a full steak dinner for under $5. Being I do not need to pay \"ME\". My dinner when sold, is $49

If your wondering why I do not go out. Its not that I am cheap. I make it better and do not bitch about the it being made (long story). Given that I do eat out only if its being cooked by a Chef not a daily labor.

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Tom_Servo
April 28, 2009 3:25 PM
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Shee-it, I can make 20 tacos for $15.00, using better fresher ingredients and way tastier than Taco Bell. It's almost always cheaper to make it yourself.

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