Lets start with bread. I know living way up here I no doubt would spend much more than many of you but since I'm looking at my local area here goes.
Plain 60% whole wheat bread the cheapest possible on sale - $2.50 each - The kind we like - $4.50 each. We eat on average 3 loaves of bread a week, which is from $390/year for the cheapest to $702/year for the one we will actually eat. After taking quite a long time to calculate I figured out that making my own bread cost $1/loaf. Which works out to $156/year and even cheaper if I use my own eggs when the hens are laying. My savings on bread alone are between $234 to $546 a year.
What else? Pizza! Every Friday is pizza night. If we were to go out to eat it would cost probably in the range of $40? Not sure here as we only eat out if we are travelling. Hmm... Well, lets say we purchased a nice ready made pizza? After all its not like we can order in way out here! I have seen them on sale for $5 but usually they are in the $7 range or higher. Not to mention mine are a lot bigger. Home made Pizza dough .58 cents, Cheese (one sale) $1.50, sauce (home made) .50 cents, (almost free if I use home grown tomatoes.) Of course the toppings are subject to your likes and dislikes so I have done this using just a plain cheese pizza. Total cost? $2.58. In one year I have saved between $125.84 and $229.84. Of course if we had chosen to eat out once a week we would have spent at least $2000. Not to mention the gas to get there!
While most of the week we eat pretty healthy Mountain Man does have a sweet tooth which I indulge once a week. He used to buy doughnuts every weekend as a treat, so when I asked him if he would mind me making something for him instead he was game. His favorite recipe is my Welsh Scones. I've made homemade doughnuts many times but he always asks for the scones. Go figure! Not what I would choose but this is about what he likes. I like salty more than sweet but since I love baking I sure don't mind making it for him. The scones cost $1.26 per batch. Which is 8 scones. If I was to purchase even a six pack of his favorite doughnuts it would cost $4. In one year I save $142.48.
So, three items which I bake on a weekly basis have saved us between $502.32 and $918.32 a year... Not a bad start! I wonder how much I save by growing and canning our vegetables? That is a post for another day! Right now my head hurts from all the figuring.......
Are you striving to live a more fugal lifestyle? How do you save money? I'd love to hear from you.
I love figures like these! Sounds like us! it means even more when you have control over the ingredients!
ReplyDeleteNice job! I sometimes think that it's just about the same price to buy stuff as it is to make it....now I will think twice!! :)
ReplyDeleteFound you on the FDSW hop - thanks for the info!
Carla aka Mrs. No-No
Mrs. NoNo Knows
Oh wow! That bread looks so good!! I hope you post the recipe for the scones, they look yummy too!
ReplyDeleteLast year we started living more frugal. I started cutting coupons. I also asked members of our church if the bought a paper on Sunday and were not using the coupons, could they donate them to me. Then I purchased a dry erase board, created a two week menu, placed the menu on this board and hung it on our kitchen wall (so the entire family could see it). I purchased groceries with coupons based on this menu for our family. I was also able to purchase additional groceries (with the coupons) to donate to our church pantry to help people less fortunate. By using coupons, planning meals and watching the sale flyers. I was able to save our family approximately $300.00 and help those in need. My plan is to continue to be frugal and find other ways of saving especially since we live on one income.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome Sandy! Way to go!
DeleteWhat a great post Glo! Thank you for sharing this on Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways:) I am posting this on my fb page! Blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteFor us doing organic from scratch equals the same as most store bought conventional, so we are still saving money, just not as much as you. But I would also love the recipe to those scones!
ReplyDeleteThank you Andrea! :) The scone recipe was posted yesterday. You can find it here. http://offthegridat-30.blogspot.com/2012/01/mountain-mans-favorite-scones.html
ReplyDeleteThese homemade treats look delicious!
ReplyDeleteDo your calculations include the time it takes you to bake? That seems like a variable worth considering, given how busy we are these days.
How much is your time worth? $10/hour? $20? Do you still come out in the black, compared to buying prepared foods?
(If so, baking for yourself seems like a no-brainer!)
It really doesn't take much time to throw the ingredients into a bread machine and push go. I keep all the ingredients next to each other in the cupboard and put them away as I use them, except the yeast (and eggs if I use them) are in the fridge. Baking other things can be done after the kids are in bed, even while watching TV (which we don't have). When I make cookies, I quadruple the batch, bake a few for now, then roll the rest of the dough into logs, wrap in Saran Wrap and freeze. So easy to pull out of the freezer, slice and bake whenever.
Deletei've been making my own bread as a hobby, but your post convinced me to do the math and well...thats it, its only homemade breads in my house from now on!!! Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteI love this, I am planning on learning to make bread this year. I also buy expensive bread and had no idea it could be that much less exspensive to make it at home. I usually enjoy baking, and we all have sweet tooths, so I'll be baking treats as well. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI've gone to just making homemade bread instead of purchasing it. I've been doing it for the past 4 months or so and I can tell a HUGE difference. Not to mention husband and baby both like it way more than store-bought.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea to include other things like weekend night pizza!
I have been thinking about this for a while now, can't wait until summer to put a garden in at our new house and start canning for the the first time. I would like to make my own pizza sauce, tomatoes for chili and spaghetti sauce. For use the as far as bread goes we get wheat bread from the outlet bakery by our house and only pay .60 a loaf of bread so it is cheaper to buy it but I do want to start making our sweet treats and specialty breads at home. I used to clip coupons and put a lot of time into it but found that a lot of times even with the coupon for a name brand item I could get the off brand cheaper even after the coupon not always but a lot of times so I still do coupons but do not go crazy buying multiple papers like I used to. I look forward to more wonderful ideas on being more frugal.
ReplyDeleteNice post! Thanks for putting the figures up there. I make my own bread occasionally. Like you the bread we like is 3.99 a loaf, but we all love my homemade bread too, so those figures just motivated me to start making my own bread more often.
ReplyDeleteI love the process of making bread. If I have anything bothering me I can knead it out and pray it out while I'm working the bread. I was showing some younger ladies at church how to make bread and was joking about how to work out there troubles on the bread and how to tell if it was ready because it sounded like patting a baby's butt. I do believe they thought I had lost it..lol...
ReplyDeleteI am sure I save on food but I lose some on the cost of feed for the animals but I don't do it all just to save money either.
ReplyDeleteI had been wondering about home made bread and now I know! Thanks for all the insight....I will be making my first of many loaves tonight!
ReplyDeleteAbout the only things I buy at the store are dairy and baking supplies, having grown most of my veggies on my Trailer Park Homestead and having gleaned most of my fruit this summer and canned or frozen it. I do buy bread sometimes, when we get it free from WIC, otherwise I make it, as well as any sweet treats we might want.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I can buy store brands cheaper than using coupons. I use the bread maker to mix the dough only as I have wrist and shoulder issues. I then knead it and let it rise again. Homemade but I don't kill my arm. I don't like any but homemade bread now. I do buy for making sandwiches for hubby's lunch as the bread doesn't always turn out great fro sandwiches. Gardens, however small or large helps you save a lot even if you only use it for fresh. Deb
ReplyDeleteFrugal is one good reason for this lifestyle, but to me the peace & serenity would be worth it even if the cost were more. You've inspired me to try making my own bread, my own pizza, my own scones... We lived that way when first married, and for many years after. Many corporate relocations took much time away from kitchen time, and suddenly convenience foods sneaked their way into the pantry and fridge. I've been pondering a return to the pleasure of making everything from scratch -- ok, I need to start small -- and I'm pretty sure your post has made a major difference for me. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteNice job. I always exactly how much we would save by making our own. Can you do that for non-food items?
ReplyDeleteI made similar calculations when deciding to make my own bread! You can save so much it just makes sense! I'm hosting a linky and would love it if you popped over and linked this post! Seasonal Celebration Linky http://naturalmothersnetwork.com/seasonal-celebration-sunday/seasonal-celebration/ Thank you :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for placing this post at Natural Mothers Network's linky: Seasonal Celebration! You helped make Seasonal Celebration a wealth of intelligent, creative and resourceful information and it's been such a pleasure for me and many others to read through each post! I am really looking forward to seeing you again Sunday evening or Monday! Rebecca x
ReplyDeleteI went so far as to put together a spreadsheet of ingredients so I can figure out the cost of each of my bread recipes. My buttermilk bread recipe makes two loaves for $1.05 versus the whole wheat bread we like from the store that's $2.99 per loaf. I still haven't found a whole wheat recipe I love, so I haven't done the math for that yet. I've also recently started baking English muffins and haven't yet done that math, but I know it's a fraction of what I spend on store bought muffins, even with the special High Maize Starch the recipe calls for. Growing our own vegetables was probably a wash this year since it was so dry and we ended up watering a couple times each week for several months.
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