One of the best ways to save money and increase quality, is to make/bake/cook/mix it at home. No more prepackaged anything, is our goal.
I've tried my hand at homemade pesto sauce, seasoning mixes, tomato sauces, pizza dough, and so on. Even my husband has made a Chipotle knock-off burrito which is becoming his new staple lunch of choice. No more $10 burrito, hello $2 burrito. And next in line is homemade salsa and (now that we have a breadmaker) homemade bread).
It builds satisfaction, decreases cost, and creates fun challenges. Any premixed/cooked item whether in the grocery store or at a restaurant, we wonder how easy it would be to just make it ourselves. Yes, it does take more time out of our day so we experiment on the weekends, make what we can, and store the rest for during the week (thank you rubbermaid and pyrex storage containers).
The only downside we've run into with this whole Homemade Experiment...are the dirty dishes. Oh the dirty dishes are so many! While I've lived fairly happily in an apartment without a dishwasher for a couple years, this whole "make everything at home" thing is exhausting! Not to mention, it's also discouraging. I avoid cooking sometimes simply because of the dishes it will add to our already dirty pile. :(
So I finally gave in. I was now on the forefront of our search for a dishwasher (which my husband had been on board with even before finding our apartment). For $75 we purchased our very own, brand new never been used, dishwasher! Yup...brand-new....and for $75. Thank you Craigslist and the seller who never installed this dishwasher before they ended up moving. Now my husband is tasked with building an enclosure, and our plumber is finally coming to install it this week. Yay!!!
Homemade food + dishwasher = saving money, saving time, increasing quality, and no more dreading the dirty dishes. This is how you spend money in the right places and get what you want at a bargain price.
You might want to check what kind of bread you're making at home. Basic breads are often cheaper and healthier at the store once you account for all the ingredients. However, speciality fruit breads, pizza dough, and anything beyond basic (although I guess technically pizza dough IS basic), is generally cheaper at home. I use my bread maker regularly, but we still buy sliced wheat bread at the store because $1 storebought beats the $2-3 in ingredients it takes me to make something just as healthy.
ReplyDeleteGood to know, thanks! We still have a few loaves of bread in the freezer from a buy one get one sale. :) We also have a good bakery that has cheap prices, but specialty breads are what I'ld love to try my hand at every once in a while. Mmm.
DeleteI am loving your blog and you have inspired me to make more things at home. Matthew has ADHD and having home made healthier food options for him are much better anyway.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see what you're capable of when we get you into a bigger kitchen someday
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