Do you really save money by making your own convenience foods like bread and condiments or is it mainly done for quality of food purposes?
Good question, A. The main thing you want to keep in mind when you’re comparing packaged foods and homemade foods is to be sure you’re comparing apples to apples. For example, if you compared the cost of your 100% whole wheat, honey-sweetened bread to a loaf of store-bought white stuff, you’ll find you’re paying much more to bake it yourself. But, if you’re comparing your homemade loaf to the specialty artisan loaves in the store, yours is going to be much less.
I compare my prices based on usage. If I were baking my bread to take the place of a sourdough boule and I plan to serve it French-style with soup or fruit & cheese, then I’ll compare my price to that of the specialty artisan loaves. However, if I’m baking in the breadmaker just to have a loaf for sandwiches, then I’ll compare to the price of the preservative-free soft wheat bread on the shelves. You will want to ask yourself, if I were not baking this at home, what loaf would I actually be buying at the store? That is your comparison point.
You also need to factor your time into the equation. A loaf of bread does not take very much hands-on time. Of course, if you bake three loaves at the same time, your hands-on time per loaf reduces considerably. If you saved $1.00 per loaf and your hands-on time equaled 30 minutes, you will be “earning” $2.00/hour per loaf. Could you “earn” more at other activities? Surely, yes. However, say you really enjoy baking. If you weren’t baking that day, would you actually be spending money on another activity you enjoy for its entertainment value? Also, don’t forget to factor in your time spent in the store. If you can make at home half of the items on your grocery list with ingredients you already typically buy, then you have cut your time in the grocery store by half.
The actual dollar amount saved per homemade item varies greatly according to the price you’re spending on the ingredients. If you can find a source of high-quality bulk wheat flour and you use it up before it goes rancid, your price is going to be much better than the rest of us buying the 5 lb. bags in the store. Even with the 5 lb. bags, the price fluctuates according to sales.
Some convenience items would take too much time & frankly, don’t interest me a bit. I have never tried to make mustard, ketchup or mayonnaise, for example. Perhaps one day I’ll try it & find it so easy that I’ll regret buying all those pre-made bottles for years. But for now, the time spent would not have enough enjoyment value to justify the pitiful earning wage.
I do, however, regularly make my own salad dressings. Store-bought salad dressings are chock full of salt & MSG. My dressings are simple & my honey mustard can usually be made in minutes even at a friend or relative’s house with common ingredients.
Here are a couple recipes:
Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
1 part honey
1 part yellow mustard
1 part olive oil
Mix with a fork & serve.
Sweet Asian Peanut Dressing
1/4 cup raisins, soaked in 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup peanut butter or other nut butter
1 lg. clove garlic
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. mustard
Blend all ingredients except raisins. Add the raisins with their soaking water. Blend until smooth. If you want a thinner dressing, you can add more water until it reaches the right consistency.
Get Moving: It is a good exercise to figure out your “hourly wage” on frugal activities. Although food items usually bring a lower wage, once you get in the habit of figuring this number out, you can better decide if some of the activities you just don’t enjoy would be worth your time or not.
Choose one of your homemade items (cakes, muffins, breads, & pies are common ones). Add all of the ingredients together. The more exact you are, the more reliable the number will be, but don’t stress over your exactitude if it prevents you from doing the exercise. You will also want to add the cost of heating the oven. As a general rule, you can figure 20 cents/hour for 350 degrees on an electric oven and 18 cents/hour for 350 degrees on a gas oven.
You can then compare the price of the homemade item to that in the store. The difference between the two items will be compared to the hands-on time spent preparing your homemade version to determine your “hourly wage.”
For example, here is my rough price per loaf of wheat bread:
Wheat flour - 60 cents
2 Tbls. honey - 15 cents
2 Tbls. oil - 9 cents
1 tsp. salt - 1 cent
2.5 tsp. bulk-purchased yeast - 6 cents
water - free
My ingredient price for this loaf is: 91 cents
My oven price is: 20 cents
My total price is: $1.10
If I did not make my bread, I would only buy Trader Joe’s sprouted wheat bread at $2.50/loaf. Therefore, my savings is: $2.50 - $1.10 = $1.40
I only make one loaf at a time, and it takes me about 15 minutes hands-on cooking time. I would divide an hour by my cooking time. 60 minutes / 15 minutes = 4. I would multiply my savings by this number to find my hourly wage. $1.40 x 4 = $5.60.
I am “earning” $5.60/hour with this activity.
Credit to the hourly wage idea should go to Amy Dacyczyn in her Tightwad Gazette books, which are invaluable sources of frugal information.
Thanks for writing, A! Every Thursday The Tightwad Trainer will answer one of your questions. Email me at tightwad_trainer@fuse.net and I will do my best to solve your dilemma. Sign your name if it's OK for me to include it!
Annoying but necessary disclaimer: All information contained herein express my opinions only and are based on my health status & location. Each person's situation, health, and local laws & ordinances are different. By all means, use your own common sense & don't do anything you see here if someone more important than me (like your doctor, your local police, your own conscience) would disagree. If you're easily persuaded by everything you read, and you think I might cause you to hurt yourself or break the law, quit reading my site, please.
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