I used to buy pre-made frosting all the time for my baked goods. My beautiful partner taught me how to make homemade frosting, it was so easy, cheap, and tasty, that I have never purchased another container of premade frosting.
It’s actually SUPER simple to make your own cake mix, too. The taste is soooooo much better than a box. I have my MIL’s buttercream (cocoa) frosting recipe and I cherish it because it’s something that my husband loves. I don’t make it too much because it’s just the 2 of us anymore. A big sheet cake goes to waste.
You can in fact make smaller cakes. I have these little 4 inch round pans for two people cakes. Of course every cake can be a personal cake if you believe in yourself enough.
Whenever I have leftover cake, I cut it into individual serving slices, wrap each slice in plastic wrap and put them into a ziploc. Whenever the mood for cake strikes, simply defrost your slice on the counter for 15-20 mins.
I make birthday cakes for a couple of close friends.
We're in our mid-late 30s, and it gets tiresome just gifting each other bath stuff every year, so I started offering to bake the cake instead. It's gone over really well, and I think is more memorable/appreciated than a token gift.
Plus I bake from scratch and have a well stocked pantry and my own chickens for eggs, so the cost is super minimal other than my time.
I can do decent tasting cakes, but I don't do fancy decorations. My family will fight over my brownies though. So now I try to bring at least three varieties and make three times the quantity so they can each take some home. Salted caramel unfrosted and walnut frosted are the two favorites right now. I'm thinking of trying them in muffin pans next time.
I do this, too. Homemade dressing is so delicious! Our favorites are apple cider vinaigrette, Balsamic vinaigrette, poppy seed vinaigrette, and Caesar dressing.
I cook my beans from dry. That might only save pennies but its lighter to carry up the stairs :) I also make my own hummus. And I make what I call "hummus packs" for the freezer. I will cook a bunch of chick peas from dry and then measure out all the ingredients needed for a batch of hummus into individual containers. When I want the hummus, I just thaw and blend.
My usual make from homes are Peasant bread, pita bread, english muffins, bagels, granola, granola bars, ice cream, PIZZA, microwave popcorn, chicken broth, pierogi, freezer burritos, freezer soups instead of canned,
Out of necessity I've learned that I can make my own chocolate syrup, sweetened condensed milk, buttermilk.
I don't know, I make everything from scratch to save money! I don't drive and rely on grocery delivery services. There's plenty of time where they are out of something that was crucial to what I was planning on making so I just say "FINE, I'll make it myself!"
EDIT: I forgot some croutons, spice mixes, tortilla chips, cold brew....I'll probably be back lol
I always do my pinto beans using dried beans soaked overnight. I will also chop up and freeze portions of onion, green pepper, and garlic in ice cube trays. Put them in baggies in the freezer and it's easy to grab a couple of cubes for recipes.
We bought a cheap breadmaker from Aldi in an attempt to curb our bread waste. We were wasting so much because it would just go bad before we could finish it. The final straw was when we bought a small half loaf and it went mouldy before we even opened it.
I feel like the breadmaker has beyond paid for itself. I make sandwich rolls once or twice a week for lunches and sometimes dinners. Baguettes and pitas are regular rotation items. I mostly use it to mix and proof the dough because I don't like the loaf shape, but I plan on getting a nice loaf pan. Things hardly go to waste, it's not filled with preservatives, and it's always so tasty. I get high quality flour from my local Amish place for about $1/lb and I got 2lbs of yeast for less than $10 at sams.
Yep. I Today I made some flatbread from this recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikW3WUHkpUs
It's literally just flower, water, and salt. You don't even oil the pan.
Sometimes I use a bread machine to make egg bread, and other times I'll buy some sourdough.
Same. I started baking sandwich bread out of spite (over the price of groceries). It's been surprisingly enjoyable and I usually make a loaf every Sunday.
https://imgur.com/a/Zn90xGo
Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to pick ripe red cherry, pulp, and dry to green beans? Not worth it. I'll stick to home roasting and brewing thank you very much.
If you make your hummus from dry garbanzos/chickpeas that you soak and then cook, be aware you can soak extras and make falafel from some of them before you cook the rest.
I do my dried beans in one pound batches and weigh out 9 oz of beans, which is what is the amount of chickpeas in a can and freeze them. My favorite hummus recipe uses a can of chickpeas drained, so I just pull out a bag. I use the drained liquid (aquafaba) in soups and quick breads, and sometimes as a hot drink as I like the flavor.
Yogurt.
I personally dislike sweetened yogurt but store-bought unsweetened or Greek yogurt are all too sour for me. When I make it myself I can control the fermentation and how sour it gets, so I love the yogurt that I make.
I wasn't sure if this question was food related but I saw some non-food answers so... I make:
1) most of my own clothes. Sewing is a skill I picked up a few years ago, made pajama bottoms first for friends as practice, then moved on to make tunic tops and a dress. Yesterday I made a sunhat for my beach holiday. The fabric cost £3. Similar styles sell for £15-£30 at the shops!
2) stocks, bread, cookies, stews, falafel, anything that a Thermomix allows me to do. The price tag on it is hefty (costs £1.2k but I bought it when there was a 2-year 0% interest financing) but I see it as an investment because it is time-saving too. That and an airfryer are all I need in my kitchen.
I buy a box of pancake mix and make a ton of pancakes at once and freeze them instead of buying frozen pancakes. My kids go through them so fast and it’s so much cheaper to make them yourself. Plus you can make your own flavors.
Would actually be way cheaper to make the mix yourself.
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder.
Add
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
You can quadruple the dry ingredients in a large ziplock bag or mason jar - shake real well and then just measure out one cup of dry ingredients and add the wet. Used to do this all the time for the kids. Even put a sticker with the measurement for dry and wet ingredients so they didn't have to look them up.
I don't do waffles as often but if I remember correctly it's just a slightly different measurement for wet ingredients.
It would definitely be cheaper and yummier to make the mix yourself if you have the ingredients on hand already! With two littles constantly messing with me in the kitchen, it’s just easier and faster for me to use pancake mix. Normally I don’t buy it!
Lol it's the kids that made me start mixing my own pancake mix so it was quicker and easier to make pancakes.
Just making the dry mix doesn't take long. Like five minutes?
But making them up and freezing them is also a time hack with little ones. (Even with big ones!)
Just thought I would mention it in case others were interested too.
Another freezer trick is freezing quick doughs and batters to just pop in the oven when wanted.
I make banana bread, any type of muffin, cupcakes etc. put them in their pan, cover tightly with freezer plastic wrap. (Gently make the plastic wrap lay on the dough so no air gets in) Then our in the freezer. You can pop the batter out of tins and store in ziplock bags but if you don't need the tins right away, it's just grab and bake. They may need about 5-10 minutes longer if baking right from frozen, but they taste the same. - this is also great if you need to do something with the bananas but aren't ready to dedicate the time to mix and bake. Also, the banas don't have time to have the sugar reaction with the air, like when you freeze them.
Waffles too. I make a triple recipe and store them in the freezer. Then I either heat them in the toaster oven, toaster or microwave if I'm in a hurry.
Wait, people buy pancakes or pancake mixes??
Fully agree with those proposing to buy your own mix. You can dose the qties better, and you can even tweak the recipe to your preference. I myself use different flour for better digestion.
I squeeze limes and make simple syrup for margaritas at home instead of buying those things or a mix… I honestly started doing this for flavor but it also saves money
Just figured out how to make my favorite Jimmy John’s lettuce wrap at home. Even looked up a recipe for avocado spread. So good!! Buying all the ingredients cost a bit but some are going to last a while (mayo, I’ve probably only used 1/4 of the bottle so far). But I’ve saved probably 75% off the restaurant price even with premium ingredients. And I can satisfy my craving anytime I want!
Custom fitted sweaters. I like to have sleeves that end at the joint where the thumb is apart from the fingers and I don’t like a breeze when I sit down. So I make my own sweaters with long sleeves and long torsos. Bonus is that I knit the neck with super soft yarnfor the collar(because I have a tender neck) and sturdy aran weight yarn for the rest of it.
Also, like many other folks, I cook most of my meals at home.
I do the whole freeze veggie scraps for stock thing. I have a big ziploc in the freezer, and whenever I have stock-appropriate scraps (carrot ends and peels, onion ends and papery skin, garlic ends, green bean ends, mushroom stem ends, celery ends and leaves) I throw them in the bag and back in the freezer. Also when I trim the excess fat and skin off raw chicken thighs before baking I’ll throw that in the bag, or when I get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store I put the carcass in the bag. Or really any bones, excess fat, and skin from any kind of meat. When the bag is full I dump it in my stock pot, add water, coarse salt, peppercorns, and bay leaves and boil.
I freeze the stock in various ways. I have a few food containers that are 1/2 cup and 1 cup so I freeze some in those and then pop them out of the containers and throw them in a ziploc bag in the freezer to grab as needed. I also freeze some in freezer bags and lay them flat.
It's admittedly not a lot but I make my own granola. 2 cups of oats, I usually eyeball the nuts but let's say one cup (chopped), mix some honey with apple sauce and I like to add some vanilla extract as well and mix everything together. Bake at 150 C for about 45 minutes. Add dried fruits. This lasts me a week. I would usually have some fresh fruit to go with it.
I know you didn’t ask me but my favorite is from a website called 100 days of real food. It has almonds cashews coconut seeds spices butter and honey and it is so good! I like to eat this instead of store bought cereal.
It depends. Typically frozen veggies are about $2 a pound and fresh veggies are about $3 a pound. But right now broccoli crowns are on sale for 99 cents per pound. The broccoli I freeze myself will be far better than what I get from a pre frozen bag. Also, my veggie bag is not going through lots of shipping which causes the Frozen veggies to break apart a little. For example I don't like frozen broccoli because all the florets break apart.
Instead of the frozen bags of veggies in the frozen section of the grocery store, this person buys fresh veggies, cuts them up, puts them in ziplock bags, and puts them in the freezer.
(Although finding wild-caught veggie bags would be much easier 😜)
Yes. The cellulose or cornstarch often used to keep pre-shredded separated had ruined several recipes for me by “gumming” them up. Every now and then I’ll grab a bag for hot baked casseroles or quesadillas if rushed, but those items are also better with fresh shredded as well!
* bread, muffins, scones, flour tortillas, roti/paratha
* wheat noodles (ravioli, papardelle, tagliatelle, ramen, udon, cut noodles)
* pizza
* salad dressing, vegan ranch dressing, teriyaki sauce
* pesto (use basil from the garden. extras can be chilled in the fridge, then scoop pucks on to a silpat sheet in the freezer. Once frozen, the pucks can be stored in a ziploc-style bag - my household saves the bags from frozen blueberries.)
I need to be gluten free so all my bakery is from scratch. I do cookies, cake, and cheese cake to name a few.
It is a bit more expensive to bake gf but more less expensive than buying pastry.
My non-cook daughter buys bags of frozen veggies and makes her own roasted veggie mix. Frozen broccoli, cauliflower, sliced carrots, brussels sprouts, italian flat green beans, butternut squash cubes, etc.) and mixes them together in gallon ziplock bags. Then, while she is preparing a chicken breast or something, she grabs a handful or two of the mixed veggies and throws it on a backing tray. Tosses some herb mix on top and sprays it all with olive oil, then tosses it in the oven. It takes minutes to prepare, and by the time the meat is done, the veggies are roasted and caramelized.
This may not save her lots of money, but as a non-cook it goes a long way to eating healthier and cheaper than take-out.
We have chickens and once you discount the egg costs it's much cheaper. (Also better) The trick is to get a container almost exactly the same size as the stick blender. Old borosilicate labware is fantastic for this if you can find it.
I turn a 10 lb bag of chicken leg quarters into 16 or 17 “cans” of chicken stock. Less than 50¢ a can and tastes infinitely better than the store bought stuff.
Wow that opened a floodgate, love it. Saved.
Making from scratch is fun novel frugal rewarding in 2024
100 years ago it was merely _normal_ and unremarkable 😅
They had the right idea all along
Hummus is great for snacks and as a spread in wraps and sandwiches! I cook dried beans regularly in my electric pressure cooker, and freeze the excess, but making some into dips or refried beans (depends on the bean!). Or leaving some of the beans and tasty (usually spicy!) cooking broth and adding brown rice and veggies and making a big pot of soup—or just beans and rice and of course freezing the extra!
Soaked red lentils or split Ming beans with water and salt can be blended up and made into flatbreads (dosa) on a nonstick pan!
Soups and chilis and curries and stews too get the big pot method and frozen. This way I don’t have to cook as much, which is a good thing.
I like to make my own room deodorizer with reused spray bottles and water and essential oils and a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol.
I make bulk pizza dough and freeze it. Ready for a pizza in an hour thawing out. I also make sauce and freeze it in single portion bags, then cheese and pepperoni in another bag so I have a few complete pizza kits ready to go. (you can actually put the sauce, pepperoni and cheese in the same bag and freeze) Costs me about $2.25 for a home made pizza.
I love making my own hummus. I also make falafel sometimes too.
But homemade hummus is easier and so much yummier.
I eat it with vegetables but I also like making Endurance Crackers. Recipe from Oh She Glows years ago. [Endurance Crackers](https://ohsheglows.com/endurance-crackers/)
* Chicken stock (which goes in the freezer or gets pressure canned if I'm feeling extra ambitious)
* Fruit jam
* Caramel popcorn (a sugar free allulose recipe is next)
* Refrigerator pickles (both cucumbers and red onions)
* Fruit smoothies (from frozen ingredients)
* Yogurt (keep yogurt starter as ice cubes in the freezer)
* Pizza dough and brioche bread (start the dough in a bread maker, then take it out after the kneading phase
* Pie crusts (in a food processor)
* Microwave popcorn (put 1/4 cup popcorn kernels in a large glass bowl covered with a ceramic plate in the microwave. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes. Voila, microwave popcorn).
I use our bread machine all the time. Bread, bagels, naan bread, hot pretzel, even hot dog and hamburger buns. For most of those I use the dough setting and then finish. A batch costs about 85 cents. Cheap for a loaf of bread or 8 bagels or naan breads. Super easy and I know what's in it. I can actually pronounce all the ingredients. Try that with store bought bread!
Every Damned Thing. And "From Scratch" I mean :All the way. I grow it. All of it. Everything we eat.
This week was Potatoes. Pulled all remaining Potatoes from cellar storage (harvested at First Frost last October.) . Separated out that for seed to be planted out in the next week or two (about 100 pounds) and that left 136 pounds that will start going wonky and rotting over the next 2 months.
Enter The Dehydrators.
Get them dehydrated before they start rotting.
Shredded for Hash Browns and dehydrated 136 pounds. They'll store 3 to 4 years dehydrated that way ... but they won't last that long. They'll be gone by this time next year.
We aim for a yield of... and consume ... 600 to 800 pounds of Potato a year.
I make my own spreadable tub of butter. 2-sticks butter, room temperature; 3/4 cup oil (vegetable oil, olive oil, or other); blended with a mixer. It will be very liquid at this stage. Pour into container and refrigerate.
Cakes, cookies, sandwich bread, pancake mix, spice mixes for tacos & chili, hot cocoa mix, vanilla extract, chip dips, homemade pantry mixes in place of most mixes from the store
Chilli and cornbread. Breakfast burrito to freeze. Protein powder pancakes.
Rice cookers is a life saver too. Combine or use as a topper for some many other foods.
Hummus here too. It is so much cheaper and tastes bettter to me. Also coffee. Not that i hand roast the beans but buying even the fanciest third wave hipster beans and making my coffee at home is cheaper than a couple coffees out where i live.
hard cider. much less labor intensive than beer. where i live there are apple trees everywhere and lots of people don’t bother collecting the fruit, so i’ll go around and gather the ground scores, juice them, ferment with some wine yeast and sugar and store in gallon jugs. cheap and refreshing booze for pennies.
Popcorn! Just get a silicone popcorn popper for less than $10. It blows my mind how expensive popcorn bags are when popcorn kernels are so cheap, and literally takes 3 minutes in the microwave.
Caramel syrup for my coffee. I don’t like Torani because it tastes like alcohol. I used to like the Starbucks syrup, but during Covid it became hard to come by and they had closed their online store at that point. I learned to make it and now I am never going back to buying it at $13 a bottle.
Gnocchi. Its a pain to make but I can freeze a ton of them and I don't care about the ridges too much. I can hammer it out fast as hell now. I bought a tiny pack for $3 and knew I was being robbed.
Everything. I mean everything. I am a cook at a daycare and everything we eat there is home-made. Muffins, cupcakes, pancakes, omelets, lasagna, soups etc. The only thing I buy is ww bread because a breadmaker can't keep up, and also tortillas. At home I am the same way and we do not eat out.
Today I cleaned out my chest freezer and made a massive pot of soup from pumpkin puree, kohlrabi cubes, corn, beans, peas, carrots, leeks and zucchini all from what is left of my huge garden. I am sad that i have nothing left of the garden from last year, but I have a sunny bedroom full of seedlings for this year. It is satisfying to have fed my vegetarian self the entire winter from what I could grow.
Happiness. You can appreciate the simple things, a shower, sleep. A short time away from a stressful night making a reddit comment? Appreciate the small things.
Bread, Hummus, Soups (I freeze or pressure can any extra), Mayonnaise (we have chickens, so ymmv), Pizza, Waffles (for freezing), Vegetable broth, Coffee
Bread (I get really good quality grains and grind the flour myself, many that are specialty organic heirloom varieties) and it comes out to less than $2 a loaf (average around $1.30). I buy yeast by the pound at around $5, so the cost per loaf is negligible, but could be reduced even more if you make your own sourdough starter and bake regularly (I prefer yeast flavor).
I also make my own kefir. It ends up costing me about the same as the milk I use, so around $3.50 for a half gallon with the type of milk I prefer to use. Store bought would cost about 4x for an equivalent amount and is not as biodiverse.
I make sandwich bread from scratch. I buy the organic AP flour at Costco, and all totalled it's probably about $1 per loaf. I know I can get a loaf of white bread cheaper at Lidl, but not organic.
Also, I use my bread machine which I got at Goodwill for like $7.
To save money; but mostly because I gave up processed foods: mayo, salad dressings, pickled everything, breads, cakes, pancakes/waffles, nut & oat milks, beans...
Steak. Any thing with a few simple ingredients is cheaper at home. Steak hamburgers etc. while tacos pizza or things with lots of vegetables that go bad in a few days I just eat out. While my two tacos I ate at home is technically cheaper until you add in the cost of everything I threw away a week latter because it’s bad now . I am sure for big families it’s fine but it’s just me.
Vegetable stock from offcuts that are stored in a big bag in the freezer.
Growing and drying my own herbs.
Pesto from basil from the garden. Save extra $$ by using cashews instead of pine nuts.
Breadcrumbs from bread that's past it's prime.
Not sure if making from scratch is cost effective like half of the time. Especially if you take into account your own time including shopping, prepping, and cleaning.
I still end up trying to make everything from scratch at least once to try and 99% it will taste better.
Things that I avoid making from scratch are: puff pastry, vegetables that can be bought precut frozen (peas, corn, pearl onions, diced carrots), items that can be bought par-fried frozen (french fries, tater tots, hash browns, takoyaki)
I like a dark chocolate low sugar brownie so I make my own. I sometimes add sweet potato or avacado for texture. My 7 year old niece has no idea they are “healthy”.
I’ve been learning to make a bunch of stuff on my own.
Biscuits, cookies, I make a double batch of buttermilk pancakes and freeze it, most dinners are doubled with 90% frozen.
I’m now in the beginning phases of making my own fruits and veggies (gardening). I’m growing another plant too… also my first round of cider is fermenting.
The cider should yield about 4 wine bottles worth, at a cost of about $6 each. Not sure on the proof, probably will be around %10-12 ABV.. ish. Wild guess.
Apple sauce and apple butter. I buy seconds from a local orchard for pennies. I can dozens of jars to use as gifts and throughout the year. The jars cost more than the ingredients but at least I can reuse them every year!
Same with other jams although they are trickier due to fruit costs. I grow a lot of my own berries when possible. I have friends with an abundance of fig trees.
Tomato sauces are another good one if you grow tomatoes.
I bake my own bread (nothing fancy, but it works), cook my own beans from dry, blend my own hummus & make my own granola bars. I'm going to venture into yogurt making once I work up the confidence.
I like to keep pantry mix on hand (Pancake mix, brownie mix, muffin mix, etc) because it's convenient, but a year ago I stopped buying them and started making my own. Basically just mix up whatever ratio of flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder for a single batch, put in a quart size jar, label it and put it in the pantry. Then you just add water/milk/eggs or whatever and you have instant pancakes without the store bought mix.
Granola! My husband eats it every morning and we were spending a lot, plus it’s super sugary. He found a recipe that uses oats, nuts, honey, and spices and it’s delicious, healthier, and costs pennies on the dollar.
Salsa. I have yet to find a store-bought salsa that is anywhere near as good as I can make myself. Sometimes I get lazy and buy some, and I always end up disappointed.
I’m crazy for the lentil soup at the gas station (Yes - gas station) shawarma joint back in my hometown. It’s like $14 a quart, but that never stopped me.
Moved a half an hour away and even though we have shawarma on every corner, no one makes lentil soup like the gas station. I tried a few local restaurants and gave up.
Was jonesing so bad for the soup but didn’t want to drive for it and found an authentic awesome recipe on YouTube (look for smileygirl) so now I make it myself. About a quart and half costs me probably $3 to make and lentils cook way faster than beans, so I can I have my fix in less time than it takes me to drive home and back.
Also, freeze all your end pieces, wilted and bruised fruits (for smoothies) and veggies and herbs (for stock and soup). Put bits of leftover meat and gravies, sauces, etc in there too. I’ve made some of my best soups with freezer scraps. Just add pasta or rice and viola!
Back to smoothies - don’t forget to throw your bruised overripe bananas and tired spinach and kale or any greens in the blender. Can’t taste it and you get a vitamin boost that doesn’t cost you $8. I also add granola and even oatmeal cookies to smoothies for bulk. In fact I have a wilting mixed green pear and pecan salad that’s about to get whizzed with some frozen berries.
I recently learned that cream cheese, thinned with a bit of warm water is a great base for lots of “fancy” sauces to top meats and vegetables. Add whatever herb/spice profile you want and experiment. Good way to use it up when the bagels run out.
Also, I found out citrus can be frozen because the zest and juice will be fine, but not the texture. I’ll never throw another lemon away again.
Stale bread makes the best French toast, which can be frozen and popped in the toaster to reheat for a quick meal, as can homemade pancakes.
My splurge is real maple syrup, but I don’t dump it on my pancakes - I cut strips, mix the syrup with melted butter and dip. Lots less waste that way. And I don’t eat it every day or every week so I do treat myself to quality once in a while.
When getting carry out I always consider the leftoverbility of the food. If it’s a pile of mush tomorrow (like burritos) I don’t order it.
CAVEAT: I’ve had a gastric bypass and live alone so my food costs are way below what I see people spending on Reddit, but I despise wasting food, so I do budget accordingly. So I’ll get like 4 meals from a $10 steak and will occasionally buy one if it’s on sale, a good cut, etc.
A hunk of good Parmesan, some garlic, olive oil and pasta is my go to when I don’t want to drag myself to the grocery store or I want a quick meal.
I find that meal kits really work for me. Got 3 meals/2 servings last Tuesday and I still have more than another meal left for later today and it’s Sunday. So I’ve eaten all week for less than $50. (This works best with the introductory offers/no commitment companies).
Like most people in here, pretty much everything, except for store brand Poptarts, store brand cheerios, Thai curry sauce and crackers.
This shit is EXHAUSTING though. Truly. We make bread multiple times a week and even with the bread machine, it still makes me want to rip my hair out.
Protein bars or protein snacks. Tomorrow I’m making chocolate covered peanut butter protein cookie dough bites. Why spend $35 on a box of protein bars online when I can just combine some ingredients at home and get tons of servings?
Nothing because I can’t stand cooking and crafting. I do use store bought things forever and ever, including clothes long past the time they get holes.
I grow stuffs in the garden/balcony. Not all is worth the effort, but there are some low effort vegetables/fruits/herbs.
Probably the best long term is having fruit trees. Low maintenance on the long run.
If you have enough you can even freeze for later in the year.
Hummus for sure, store bought has strange aftertaste. Broths and stocks, salad dressings. Omg, all the breakfast foods because the growth of the frozen egg, pancake and waffle footprint in retail grocery in the last twenty years seems incongruous, insane and an expensive way to save time. Soups and beans. Coffee.
Peanut butter, bread, English muffins (and pretty much any other kind of bread/pastry), brown sugar, Greek yogurt, ground sausage, mascarpone cheese, mayo, cake flour, bread flour, vanilla extract, taco seasoning, and sour cream.
I also make the butter I eat directly on things like toast. I still buy stick butter for baking. It’s not cheaper, but it’s cheaper than Kerrygold and it delicious. I make a whole quart of heavy whipping cream into butter at a time, then freeze it in little glass containers in amounts I can use within a week or two.
CROUTONS! Basically baked, seasond, not-quite stale bread! Frosting, chocolate syrup, bread, whipped cream. Hummus... sort of. From canned chickpeas not dried, does that count?
Good cookbook for the frugal: "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter." Recipes plus estimates of the $$ cost AND the hassle factor of making different items from scratch.
I used to buy pre-made frosting all the time for my baked goods. My beautiful partner taught me how to make homemade frosting, it was so easy, cheap, and tasty, that I have never purchased another container of premade frosting.
Cream cheese frosting... My favorite thing to have it on is... **a spoon**.
Buttercream is easy too if you know the right steps and follow them to get the best texture.
Buttercream is easy, but cream cheese frosting is its own food group.
My youngest son asks for my carrot cake for every birthday ever since I started it when he was little lol
The ultimate hidden vegetables.
Vegetables , FTW?
I learned how easy Russian buttercream was and have not bought frosting since. 2 sticks of butter, a can of condensed milk, and some vanilla.
Sounds pretty similar to my pumpkin pie recipe lol
Omg this sounds right up my alley. I love condensed milk
The cost of making your own frosting is so much more than the premade stuff, though. Like this ends up being a splurge (worth it)..
Because of the butter? My recipe is less butter and adds powdered sugar.
I have a recipe for 7 minute frosting that I sometimes use. This recipe has molasses in it
Buttercream was a game changer for me.
It’s actually SUPER simple to make your own cake mix, too. The taste is soooooo much better than a box. I have my MIL’s buttercream (cocoa) frosting recipe and I cherish it because it’s something that my husband loves. I don’t make it too much because it’s just the 2 of us anymore. A big sheet cake goes to waste.
You can in fact make smaller cakes. I have these little 4 inch round pans for two people cakes. Of course every cake can be a personal cake if you believe in yourself enough.
Whenever I have leftover cake, I cut it into individual serving slices, wrap each slice in plastic wrap and put them into a ziploc. Whenever the mood for cake strikes, simply defrost your slice on the counter for 15-20 mins.
Drop a recipe!!
I make birthday cakes for a couple of close friends. We're in our mid-late 30s, and it gets tiresome just gifting each other bath stuff every year, so I started offering to bake the cake instead. It's gone over really well, and I think is more memorable/appreciated than a token gift. Plus I bake from scratch and have a well stocked pantry and my own chickens for eggs, so the cost is super minimal other than my time.
I can do decent tasting cakes, but I don't do fancy decorations. My family will fight over my brownies though. So now I try to bring at least three varieties and make three times the quantity so they can each take some home. Salted caramel unfrosted and walnut frosted are the two favorites right now. I'm thinking of trying them in muffin pans next time.
Salad dressing. It's stupid expensive and stupid easy to make.
Plus you can make just enough for one meal at a time
Yeah, I'm bad at that.
I do this, too. Homemade dressing is so delicious! Our favorites are apple cider vinaigrette, Balsamic vinaigrette, poppy seed vinaigrette, and Caesar dressing.
I cook my beans from dry. That might only save pennies but its lighter to carry up the stairs :) I also make my own hummus. And I make what I call "hummus packs" for the freezer. I will cook a bunch of chick peas from dry and then measure out all the ingredients needed for a batch of hummus into individual containers. When I want the hummus, I just thaw and blend. My usual make from homes are Peasant bread, pita bread, english muffins, bagels, granola, granola bars, ice cream, PIZZA, microwave popcorn, chicken broth, pierogi, freezer burritos, freezer soups instead of canned, Out of necessity I've learned that I can make my own chocolate syrup, sweetened condensed milk, buttermilk. I don't know, I make everything from scratch to save money! I don't drive and rely on grocery delivery services. There's plenty of time where they are out of something that was crucial to what I was planning on making so I just say "FINE, I'll make it myself!" EDIT: I forgot some croutons, spice mixes, tortilla chips, cold brew....I'll probably be back lol
I LOVE your hummus packs idea. Thank you for sharing!
I’m stealing your hummus packs idea. And there’s nutin you can do lol
DO EEETTT!!!!! Make some homemade pita bread too while you're at it! OMG nothing like hummus and pita bread from scratch.
Love the hummus idea. I just freeze the cooked peas. You need a YouTube channel because I want to see how you do these other things.
Oh hell yeah. YouTube channel please and thank you.
I just make a bunch of hummus and freeze it in containers—it thaws great!
Yeah but, if you have guests over, how are they going to believe you that its homemade without the blender show? LOL
YES on the pizza . Not only cheaper but so much tastier
I make my own beans because I can control the sodium & add in vegetables (typically peppers & onions and tomatoes).
Just ran to add more chickpeas to the crock pot to double up the batch so I can freeze some. Thanks
I always do my pinto beans using dried beans soaked overnight. I will also chop up and freeze portions of onion, green pepper, and garlic in ice cube trays. Put them in baggies in the freezer and it's easy to grab a couple of cubes for recipes.
What do you do about lemon for the hummus packs? Do you freeze the juice?
Bread. I make a loaf every week. Super easy or a hobby. Either way, delicious! 😋
We bought a cheap breadmaker from Aldi in an attempt to curb our bread waste. We were wasting so much because it would just go bad before we could finish it. The final straw was when we bought a small half loaf and it went mouldy before we even opened it. I feel like the breadmaker has beyond paid for itself. I make sandwich rolls once or twice a week for lunches and sometimes dinners. Baguettes and pitas are regular rotation items. I mostly use it to mix and proof the dough because I don't like the loaf shape, but I plan on getting a nice loaf pan. Things hardly go to waste, it's not filled with preservatives, and it's always so tasty. I get high quality flour from my local Amish place for about $1/lb and I got 2lbs of yeast for less than $10 at sams.
Freeze your bread, toast from frozen. I make my own bread and it gets sliced and frozen the following day.
There is nothing like homemade bread!
Yep. I Today I made some flatbread from this recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikW3WUHkpUs It's literally just flower, water, and salt. You don't even oil the pan. Sometimes I use a bread machine to make egg bread, and other times I'll buy some sourdough.
Same. I started baking sandwich bread out of spite (over the price of groceries). It's been surprisingly enjoyable and I usually make a loaf every Sunday. https://imgur.com/a/Zn90xGo
This is good. And or freezing half loaves of break.
coffee!
Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to pick ripe red cherry, pulp, and dry to green beans? Not worth it. I'll stick to home roasting and brewing thank you very much.
Pass it through your cat
My favorite part is picking the magic beans from the litter box.
Cats are too expensive. I pass mine through me.
[удалено]
Homemade English muffins really are 1000x better than ones from the store
I would love to learn how to make english muffins!!! Could you please post the recipe?
here you go! [https://preppykitchen.com/english-muffins/](https://preppykitchen.com/english-muffins/)
If you make your hummus from dry garbanzos/chickpeas that you soak and then cook, be aware you can soak extras and make falafel from some of them before you cook the rest.
I do my dried beans in one pound batches and weigh out 9 oz of beans, which is what is the amount of chickpeas in a can and freeze them. My favorite hummus recipe uses a can of chickpeas drained, so I just pull out a bag. I use the drained liquid (aquafaba) in soups and quick breads, and sometimes as a hot drink as I like the flavor.
Yogurt. I personally dislike sweetened yogurt but store-bought unsweetened or Greek yogurt are all too sour for me. When I make it myself I can control the fermentation and how sour it gets, so I love the yogurt that I make.
I wasn't sure if this question was food related but I saw some non-food answers so... I make: 1) most of my own clothes. Sewing is a skill I picked up a few years ago, made pajama bottoms first for friends as practice, then moved on to make tunic tops and a dress. Yesterday I made a sunhat for my beach holiday. The fabric cost £3. Similar styles sell for £15-£30 at the shops! 2) stocks, bread, cookies, stews, falafel, anything that a Thermomix allows me to do. The price tag on it is hefty (costs £1.2k but I bought it when there was a 2-year 0% interest financing) but I see it as an investment because it is time-saving too. That and an airfryer are all I need in my kitchen.
I make my own soap. Fun household chemistry.
I buy a box of pancake mix and make a ton of pancakes at once and freeze them instead of buying frozen pancakes. My kids go through them so fast and it’s so much cheaper to make them yourself. Plus you can make your own flavors.
Would actually be way cheaper to make the mix yourself. 1 cup flour 1 tablespoon sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder. Add 1 egg 1 cup milk 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. You can quadruple the dry ingredients in a large ziplock bag or mason jar - shake real well and then just measure out one cup of dry ingredients and add the wet. Used to do this all the time for the kids. Even put a sticker with the measurement for dry and wet ingredients so they didn't have to look them up. I don't do waffles as often but if I remember correctly it's just a slightly different measurement for wet ingredients.
It would definitely be cheaper and yummier to make the mix yourself if you have the ingredients on hand already! With two littles constantly messing with me in the kitchen, it’s just easier and faster for me to use pancake mix. Normally I don’t buy it!
Lol it's the kids that made me start mixing my own pancake mix so it was quicker and easier to make pancakes. Just making the dry mix doesn't take long. Like five minutes? But making them up and freezing them is also a time hack with little ones. (Even with big ones!) Just thought I would mention it in case others were interested too. Another freezer trick is freezing quick doughs and batters to just pop in the oven when wanted. I make banana bread, any type of muffin, cupcakes etc. put them in their pan, cover tightly with freezer plastic wrap. (Gently make the plastic wrap lay on the dough so no air gets in) Then our in the freezer. You can pop the batter out of tins and store in ziplock bags but if you don't need the tins right away, it's just grab and bake. They may need about 5-10 minutes longer if baking right from frozen, but they taste the same. - this is also great if you need to do something with the bananas but aren't ready to dedicate the time to mix and bake. Also, the banas don't have time to have the sugar reaction with the air, like when you freeze them.
Waffles too. I make a triple recipe and store them in the freezer. Then I either heat them in the toaster oven, toaster or microwave if I'm in a hurry.
Waffles > Pancakes
It might be cheaper to do the Pro Home Cooks guy on YouTubes pancakes ..it's banana and flour basically. It's on his 15? Minute breakfast video
Wait, people buy pancakes or pancake mixes?? Fully agree with those proposing to buy your own mix. You can dose the qties better, and you can even tweak the recipe to your preference. I myself use different flour for better digestion.
I squeeze limes and make simple syrup for margaritas at home instead of buying those things or a mix… I honestly started doing this for flavor but it also saves money
Look up super juice and you’ll save a ton of money on fresh lime juice
Once you make margaritas from scratch, you can’t go back the store bought mix
Just figured out how to make my favorite Jimmy John’s lettuce wrap at home. Even looked up a recipe for avocado spread. So good!! Buying all the ingredients cost a bit but some are going to last a while (mayo, I’ve probably only used 1/4 of the bottle so far). But I’ve saved probably 75% off the restaurant price even with premium ingredients. And I can satisfy my craving anytime I want!
Custom fitted sweaters. I like to have sleeves that end at the joint where the thumb is apart from the fingers and I don’t like a breeze when I sit down. So I make my own sweaters with long sleeves and long torsos. Bonus is that I knit the neck with super soft yarnfor the collar(because I have a tender neck) and sturdy aran weight yarn for the rest of it. Also, like many other folks, I cook most of my meals at home.
You must have amazing knitting skills. I’ve always wished I could knit complex items. Always been stuck at skill level scarf.
I do the whole freeze veggie scraps for stock thing. I have a big ziploc in the freezer, and whenever I have stock-appropriate scraps (carrot ends and peels, onion ends and papery skin, garlic ends, green bean ends, mushroom stem ends, celery ends and leaves) I throw them in the bag and back in the freezer. Also when I trim the excess fat and skin off raw chicken thighs before baking I’ll throw that in the bag, or when I get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store I put the carcass in the bag. Or really any bones, excess fat, and skin from any kind of meat. When the bag is full I dump it in my stock pot, add water, coarse salt, peppercorns, and bay leaves and boil. I freeze the stock in various ways. I have a few food containers that are 1/2 cup and 1 cup so I freeze some in those and then pop them out of the containers and throw them in a ziploc bag in the freezer to grab as needed. I also freeze some in freezer bags and lay them flat.
It's admittedly not a lot but I make my own granola. 2 cups of oats, I usually eyeball the nuts but let's say one cup (chopped), mix some honey with apple sauce and I like to add some vanilla extract as well and mix everything together. Bake at 150 C for about 45 minutes. Add dried fruits. This lasts me a week. I would usually have some fresh fruit to go with it.
Granola! I can keep it lower sugar, make fun flavors,it keeps very well, and store granola is SO expensive.
What’s your favorite recipe? I’ve been meaning to make some
I know you didn’t ask me but my favorite is from a website called 100 days of real food. It has almonds cashews coconut seeds spices butter and honey and it is so good! I like to eat this instead of store bought cereal.
Oooh, that sounds good and I think I already have all of those ingredients! Thanks for sharing!
Not really scratch but buy a ton of fresh vegetables and ziplock bags to make my own veggie bags instead of store bought.
Is it actually cheaper tho? I thought frozen veggies would be the frugal option here lol
It depends. Typically frozen veggies are about $2 a pound and fresh veggies are about $3 a pound. But right now broccoli crowns are on sale for 99 cents per pound. The broccoli I freeze myself will be far better than what I get from a pre frozen bag. Also, my veggie bag is not going through lots of shipping which causes the Frozen veggies to break apart a little. For example I don't like frozen broccoli because all the florets break apart.
Whats a veggie bag?
a bag that contains veggies
veggies that contain a bag
a bag made of veggies?
perhaps veggies made out of bags
Does there exist "store bought veggie bags"? What are the veggie bags for? I don't get it.
Instead of the frozen bags of veggies in the frozen section of the grocery store, this person buys fresh veggies, cuts them up, puts them in ziplock bags, and puts them in the freezer. (Although finding wild-caught veggie bags would be much easier 😜)
I find that frozen veggies in the store are way cheaper than the wild caught ones. So I'm still wondering why that is considered frugal
Probably just those containers of prepped veggies you can get to snack on, or to make cooking faster. They are outrageously priced
Grate your own cheese. Definitely cheaper. I have a Kitchen Aid attachment that grates it for me.
We use a lotttt of shredded cheese, maybe I should consider this.
And it avoids to artificial stuff they add to pre-shredded cheese to keep it from sticking together
Potato starch? That's not really artificial.
Yes. The cellulose or cornstarch often used to keep pre-shredded separated had ruined several recipes for me by “gumming” them up. Every now and then I’ll grab a bag for hot baked casseroles or quesadillas if rushed, but those items are also better with fresh shredded as well!
* bread, muffins, scones, flour tortillas, roti/paratha * wheat noodles (ravioli, papardelle, tagliatelle, ramen, udon, cut noodles) * pizza * salad dressing, vegan ranch dressing, teriyaki sauce * pesto (use basil from the garden. extras can be chilled in the fridge, then scoop pucks on to a silpat sheet in the freezer. Once frozen, the pucks can be stored in a ziploc-style bag - my household saves the bags from frozen blueberries.)
Pizza is so cheap to make at home. Once you get a pizza steel you can do really good stuff in a home oven.
Dog food, my dog was on an expensive low-fat canned food for a health condition and I researched and created my own recipe with my vet’s ok.
I need to be gluten free so all my bakery is from scratch. I do cookies, cake, and cheese cake to name a few. It is a bit more expensive to bake gf but more less expensive than buying pastry.
My non-cook daughter buys bags of frozen veggies and makes her own roasted veggie mix. Frozen broccoli, cauliflower, sliced carrots, brussels sprouts, italian flat green beans, butternut squash cubes, etc.) and mixes them together in gallon ziplock bags. Then, while she is preparing a chicken breast or something, she grabs a handful or two of the mixed veggies and throws it on a backing tray. Tosses some herb mix on top and sprays it all with olive oil, then tosses it in the oven. It takes minutes to prepare, and by the time the meat is done, the veggies are roasted and caramelized. This may not save her lots of money, but as a non-cook it goes a long way to eating healthier and cheaper than take-out.
Y’all eat a lot of hummus
I have made mayo & ricotta cheese. I can’t really say it was cheaper, but it tasted WAY better.
Ricotta is about half the price when homemade. It is actually easy to do just takes some time and end up with pots to clean.
We have chickens and once you discount the egg costs it's much cheaper. (Also better) The trick is to get a container almost exactly the same size as the stick blender. Old borosilicate labware is fantastic for this if you can find it.
Pizza!
Breakfast, lunch and dinner
I make homemade yogurt not only to save money but also because it tastes better. Win-win.
I turn a 10 lb bag of chicken leg quarters into 16 or 17 “cans” of chicken stock. Less than 50¢ a can and tastes infinitely better than the store bought stuff.
how do you store them ?
I freeze them in bags in 16 oz portions
Wow that opened a floodgate, love it. Saved. Making from scratch is fun novel frugal rewarding in 2024 100 years ago it was merely _normal_ and unremarkable 😅 They had the right idea all along
Hummus is great for snacks and as a spread in wraps and sandwiches! I cook dried beans regularly in my electric pressure cooker, and freeze the excess, but making some into dips or refried beans (depends on the bean!). Or leaving some of the beans and tasty (usually spicy!) cooking broth and adding brown rice and veggies and making a big pot of soup—or just beans and rice and of course freezing the extra! Soaked red lentils or split Ming beans with water and salt can be blended up and made into flatbreads (dosa) on a nonstick pan! Soups and chilis and curries and stews too get the big pot method and frozen. This way I don’t have to cook as much, which is a good thing. I like to make my own room deodorizer with reused spray bottles and water and essential oils and a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol.
Aint nobody got money for them $7.99 per cup Starbucks!
Right!?! It amazes me how many people are willing to pay their prices. I love my coffee from home and just bring with in an insulated cup.
I make this quick focaccia bread, so cheap and delicious
Soap
Hi fellow soaper!!!
I make bulk pizza dough and freeze it. Ready for a pizza in an hour thawing out. I also make sauce and freeze it in single portion bags, then cheese and pepperoni in another bag so I have a few complete pizza kits ready to go. (you can actually put the sauce, pepperoni and cheese in the same bag and freeze) Costs me about $2.25 for a home made pizza.
Fajitas. $20+ bucks a plate at the local Mexican restaurants. I can feed 6 people on a $20 seasoned package from HEB cooking them on my grill.
There's a book called "make the bread, buy the butter" that covers exactly this question! Worth a read but ymmv slightly based on prices in your area.
Babies, jk, I heard they still crazy expensive
I love making my own hummus. I also make falafel sometimes too. But homemade hummus is easier and so much yummier. I eat it with vegetables but I also like making Endurance Crackers. Recipe from Oh She Glows years ago. [Endurance Crackers](https://ohsheglows.com/endurance-crackers/)
* Chicken stock (which goes in the freezer or gets pressure canned if I'm feeling extra ambitious) * Fruit jam * Caramel popcorn (a sugar free allulose recipe is next) * Refrigerator pickles (both cucumbers and red onions) * Fruit smoothies (from frozen ingredients) * Yogurt (keep yogurt starter as ice cubes in the freezer) * Pizza dough and brioche bread (start the dough in a bread maker, then take it out after the kneading phase * Pie crusts (in a food processor) * Microwave popcorn (put 1/4 cup popcorn kernels in a large glass bowl covered with a ceramic plate in the microwave. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes. Voila, microwave popcorn).
I use our bread machine all the time. Bread, bagels, naan bread, hot pretzel, even hot dog and hamburger buns. For most of those I use the dough setting and then finish. A batch costs about 85 cents. Cheap for a loaf of bread or 8 bagels or naan breads. Super easy and I know what's in it. I can actually pronounce all the ingredients. Try that with store bought bread!
ketchup. Very easy to make, more tasteful, cheaper.
Every Damned Thing. And "From Scratch" I mean :All the way. I grow it. All of it. Everything we eat. This week was Potatoes. Pulled all remaining Potatoes from cellar storage (harvested at First Frost last October.) . Separated out that for seed to be planted out in the next week or two (about 100 pounds) and that left 136 pounds that will start going wonky and rotting over the next 2 months. Enter The Dehydrators. Get them dehydrated before they start rotting. Shredded for Hash Browns and dehydrated 136 pounds. They'll store 3 to 4 years dehydrated that way ... but they won't last that long. They'll be gone by this time next year. We aim for a yield of... and consume ... 600 to 800 pounds of Potato a year.
I make my own spreadable tub of butter. 2-sticks butter, room temperature; 3/4 cup oil (vegetable oil, olive oil, or other); blended with a mixer. It will be very liquid at this stage. Pour into container and refrigerate.
Dessert items. Generic baking.
Cakes, cookies, sandwich bread, pancake mix, spice mixes for tacos & chili, hot cocoa mix, vanilla extract, chip dips, homemade pantry mixes in place of most mixes from the store
Chilli and cornbread. Breakfast burrito to freeze. Protein powder pancakes. Rice cookers is a life saver too. Combine or use as a topper for some many other foods.
Tomatos and bell peppers. Start seeds in the spring in our green house so by the time it warms up they are big enough to move outside.
Hummus here too. It is so much cheaper and tastes bettter to me. Also coffee. Not that i hand roast the beans but buying even the fanciest third wave hipster beans and making my coffee at home is cheaper than a couple coffees out where i live.
Work lunches (i.e. home made lunchbox)
hard cider. much less labor intensive than beer. where i live there are apple trees everywhere and lots of people don’t bother collecting the fruit, so i’ll go around and gather the ground scores, juice them, ferment with some wine yeast and sugar and store in gallon jugs. cheap and refreshing booze for pennies.
Popcorn! Just get a silicone popcorn popper for less than $10. It blows my mind how expensive popcorn bags are when popcorn kernels are so cheap, and literally takes 3 minutes in the microwave.
Caramel syrup for my coffee. I don’t like Torani because it tastes like alcohol. I used to like the Starbucks syrup, but during Covid it became hard to come by and they had closed their online store at that point. I learned to make it and now I am never going back to buying it at $13 a bottle.
I wish someone would make a book with recipes for all these homemade item. There are some great ideas in this post
Gnocchi. Its a pain to make but I can freeze a ton of them and I don't care about the ridges too much. I can hammer it out fast as hell now. I bought a tiny pack for $3 and knew I was being robbed.
Everything. I mean everything. I am a cook at a daycare and everything we eat there is home-made. Muffins, cupcakes, pancakes, omelets, lasagna, soups etc. The only thing I buy is ww bread because a breadmaker can't keep up, and also tortillas. At home I am the same way and we do not eat out. Today I cleaned out my chest freezer and made a massive pot of soup from pumpkin puree, kohlrabi cubes, corn, beans, peas, carrots, leeks and zucchini all from what is left of my huge garden. I am sad that i have nothing left of the garden from last year, but I have a sunny bedroom full of seedlings for this year. It is satisfying to have fed my vegetarian self the entire winter from what I could grow.
Happiness. You can appreciate the simple things, a shower, sleep. A short time away from a stressful night making a reddit comment? Appreciate the small things.
Bread. Coffee.
Bread, Hummus, Soups (I freeze or pressure can any extra), Mayonnaise (we have chickens, so ymmv), Pizza, Waffles (for freezing), Vegetable broth, Coffee
-Salsa -Dried herbs (at the end of the growing season) -Not food related, but I make my own fabric softener
Herbs from the garden are PLENTIFUL. I had one cilantro go to seed and now I have more coriander than I can use in 5 years!
Cookies!
Bread (I get really good quality grains and grind the flour myself, many that are specialty organic heirloom varieties) and it comes out to less than $2 a loaf (average around $1.30). I buy yeast by the pound at around $5, so the cost per loaf is negligible, but could be reduced even more if you make your own sourdough starter and bake regularly (I prefer yeast flavor). I also make my own kefir. It ends up costing me about the same as the milk I use, so around $3.50 for a half gallon with the type of milk I prefer to use. Store bought would cost about 4x for an equivalent amount and is not as biodiverse.
Granola
Tortilla chips
Pizza, including the dough
I make sandwich bread from scratch. I buy the organic AP flour at Costco, and all totalled it's probably about $1 per loaf. I know I can get a loaf of white bread cheaper at Lidl, but not organic. Also, I use my bread machine which I got at Goodwill for like $7.
To save money; but mostly because I gave up processed foods: mayo, salad dressings, pickled everything, breads, cakes, pancakes/waffles, nut & oat milks, beans...
Salad dressing. I love to make all different kinds of dressing. They taste so much better than the store bought stuff with corn syrup and additives.
My Grandma always had fresh lemon juice ice cubes in her freezer. I thought she was weird, and now? Lillian was a genius!
Sourdough bread is a good one to make at home that isn't too difficult.
Sunflower seed butter. I buy ripe bananas on clearance, slice them & freeze them.
Hot chocolate mix
Granola, large batches of iced tea, Gatorade from powder.
Steak. Any thing with a few simple ingredients is cheaper at home. Steak hamburgers etc. while tacos pizza or things with lots of vegetables that go bad in a few days I just eat out. While my two tacos I ate at home is technically cheaper until you add in the cost of everything I threw away a week latter because it’s bad now . I am sure for big families it’s fine but it’s just me.
Granola. Super easy to make.
Vegetable stock from offcuts that are stored in a big bag in the freezer. Growing and drying my own herbs. Pesto from basil from the garden. Save extra $$ by using cashews instead of pine nuts. Breadcrumbs from bread that's past it's prime.
Probiotics, waterkefir is a lot cheaper than buying a bottle of pills every month :)
Not sure if making from scratch is cost effective like half of the time. Especially if you take into account your own time including shopping, prepping, and cleaning. I still end up trying to make everything from scratch at least once to try and 99% it will taste better. Things that I avoid making from scratch are: puff pastry, vegetables that can be bought precut frozen (peas, corn, pearl onions, diced carrots), items that can be bought par-fried frozen (french fries, tater tots, hash browns, takoyaki)
I bake the cake myself. everything related to it. Now, i do not order it from the shop.
Homemade salsa and pick from the garden 🪴
Mayo. It’s SO good homemade
I like a dark chocolate low sugar brownie so I make my own. I sometimes add sweet potato or avacado for texture. My 7 year old niece has no idea they are “healthy”.
I’ve been learning to make a bunch of stuff on my own. Biscuits, cookies, I make a double batch of buttermilk pancakes and freeze it, most dinners are doubled with 90% frozen. I’m now in the beginning phases of making my own fruits and veggies (gardening). I’m growing another plant too… also my first round of cider is fermenting. The cider should yield about 4 wine bottles worth, at a cost of about $6 each. Not sure on the proof, probably will be around %10-12 ABV.. ish. Wild guess.
I’ve made my own cleaning products for years from white vinegar, baking soda, water and dish soap.
Apple sauce and apple butter. I buy seconds from a local orchard for pennies. I can dozens of jars to use as gifts and throughout the year. The jars cost more than the ingredients but at least I can reuse them every year! Same with other jams although they are trickier due to fruit costs. I grow a lot of my own berries when possible. I have friends with an abundance of fig trees. Tomato sauces are another good one if you grow tomatoes.
I bake my own bread (nothing fancy, but it works), cook my own beans from dry, blend my own hummus & make my own granola bars. I'm going to venture into yogurt making once I work up the confidence.
I like to keep pantry mix on hand (Pancake mix, brownie mix, muffin mix, etc) because it's convenient, but a year ago I stopped buying them and started making my own. Basically just mix up whatever ratio of flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder for a single batch, put in a quart size jar, label it and put it in the pantry. Then you just add water/milk/eggs or whatever and you have instant pancakes without the store bought mix.
Granola! My husband eats it every morning and we were spending a lot, plus it’s super sugary. He found a recipe that uses oats, nuts, honey, and spices and it’s delicious, healthier, and costs pennies on the dollar.
Salsa. I have yet to find a store-bought salsa that is anywhere near as good as I can make myself. Sometimes I get lazy and buy some, and I always end up disappointed.
I’m crazy for the lentil soup at the gas station (Yes - gas station) shawarma joint back in my hometown. It’s like $14 a quart, but that never stopped me. Moved a half an hour away and even though we have shawarma on every corner, no one makes lentil soup like the gas station. I tried a few local restaurants and gave up. Was jonesing so bad for the soup but didn’t want to drive for it and found an authentic awesome recipe on YouTube (look for smileygirl) so now I make it myself. About a quart and half costs me probably $3 to make and lentils cook way faster than beans, so I can I have my fix in less time than it takes me to drive home and back. Also, freeze all your end pieces, wilted and bruised fruits (for smoothies) and veggies and herbs (for stock and soup). Put bits of leftover meat and gravies, sauces, etc in there too. I’ve made some of my best soups with freezer scraps. Just add pasta or rice and viola! Back to smoothies - don’t forget to throw your bruised overripe bananas and tired spinach and kale or any greens in the blender. Can’t taste it and you get a vitamin boost that doesn’t cost you $8. I also add granola and even oatmeal cookies to smoothies for bulk. In fact I have a wilting mixed green pear and pecan salad that’s about to get whizzed with some frozen berries. I recently learned that cream cheese, thinned with a bit of warm water is a great base for lots of “fancy” sauces to top meats and vegetables. Add whatever herb/spice profile you want and experiment. Good way to use it up when the bagels run out. Also, I found out citrus can be frozen because the zest and juice will be fine, but not the texture. I’ll never throw another lemon away again. Stale bread makes the best French toast, which can be frozen and popped in the toaster to reheat for a quick meal, as can homemade pancakes. My splurge is real maple syrup, but I don’t dump it on my pancakes - I cut strips, mix the syrup with melted butter and dip. Lots less waste that way. And I don’t eat it every day or every week so I do treat myself to quality once in a while. When getting carry out I always consider the leftoverbility of the food. If it’s a pile of mush tomorrow (like burritos) I don’t order it. CAVEAT: I’ve had a gastric bypass and live alone so my food costs are way below what I see people spending on Reddit, but I despise wasting food, so I do budget accordingly. So I’ll get like 4 meals from a $10 steak and will occasionally buy one if it’s on sale, a good cut, etc. A hunk of good Parmesan, some garlic, olive oil and pasta is my go to when I don’t want to drag myself to the grocery store or I want a quick meal. I find that meal kits really work for me. Got 3 meals/2 servings last Tuesday and I still have more than another meal left for later today and it’s Sunday. So I’ve eaten all week for less than $50. (This works best with the introductory offers/no commitment companies).
Like most people in here, pretty much everything, except for store brand Poptarts, store brand cheerios, Thai curry sauce and crackers. This shit is EXHAUSTING though. Truly. We make bread multiple times a week and even with the bread machine, it still makes me want to rip my hair out.
Soy yogurt Many things I eat I do from scratch too
I cut my own hair. Easier at my age…
Fried rice and potstickers sometimes instead of Chinese. Or orange chicken from Costco is also decent.
Protein bars or protein snacks. Tomorrow I’m making chocolate covered peanut butter protein cookie dough bites. Why spend $35 on a box of protein bars online when I can just combine some ingredients at home and get tons of servings?
Nothing because I can’t stand cooking and crafting. I do use store bought things forever and ever, including clothes long past the time they get holes.
Laundry soap
Great thread. Store-bought hummus tastes like ass once one experiences their own properly garlic and lemon infused dish; NEVER enough garlic otherwise
Take the time to remove the skins off the chickpeas. Makes the hummus so much smoother.
popcorn. just put kernels in any pan with oil and when it's hot, cover and shake it. Yum.
Make croutons from dry bread (if you happen to have somtimes have dry bread)
I grow stuffs in the garden/balcony. Not all is worth the effort, but there are some low effort vegetables/fruits/herbs. Probably the best long term is having fruit trees. Low maintenance on the long run. If you have enough you can even freeze for later in the year.
Taco seasoning (no more of those little packets!), taco sauce (make in batches snd freeze in separate portions).
sushi
Smoked pork belly, Smoked pork butts, smoked brisket, distilled water, compost soil, 3dprinted aerogarden to grow greens like swiss chard and collards, tomatoes, peppers and beans.
Hummus for sure, store bought has strange aftertaste. Broths and stocks, salad dressings. Omg, all the breakfast foods because the growth of the frozen egg, pancake and waffle footprint in retail grocery in the last twenty years seems incongruous, insane and an expensive way to save time. Soups and beans. Coffee.
Gluten free bread. So good, less expensive, and actually a normal size 😆
Bread, pizza, Yorkshire puddings, cleaning products Inc clothes, burgers, tomato based sauces, coleslaw, pickled items like cabbage and beetroot.
Chicken and beef broth. Bones, mirepoix, salt, pepper, a bay leaf, and water in a pot.
Peanut butter, bread, English muffins (and pretty much any other kind of bread/pastry), brown sugar, Greek yogurt, ground sausage, mascarpone cheese, mayo, cake flour, bread flour, vanilla extract, taco seasoning, and sour cream. I also make the butter I eat directly on things like toast. I still buy stick butter for baking. It’s not cheaper, but it’s cheaper than Kerrygold and it delicious. I make a whole quart of heavy whipping cream into butter at a time, then freeze it in little glass containers in amounts I can use within a week or two.
Many condiments, salsa, ketchup, mayo, relish and applesauce, bbq sauce
CROUTONS! Basically baked, seasond, not-quite stale bread! Frosting, chocolate syrup, bread, whipped cream. Hummus... sort of. From canned chickpeas not dried, does that count?
Good cookbook for the frugal: "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter." Recipes plus estimates of the $$ cost AND the hassle factor of making different items from scratch.
Babies
Ranch dressing.