How Much Money Can You Save by Making Food Yourself?
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Life can get hectic, I get that. There are lots of foods that are easier to buy than to make from scratch. But it’s amazing how much money you can save by making food yourself.
Many people are used to making homemade dinners, but snack foods, condiments, and bread often find their way into people’s grocery carts. I’ve gotten into the habit of making most of these items from scratch for two reasons. First, I can control what goes into our food and make sure I’m sticking to real food ingredients. And second, I can save a lot of money.
Below are pictures of 10 foods that people often buy at the store. I like to make them at home, and I’ve done the math to find out how much money I save by making each recipe myself. Under the picture of each item, you’ll see the cost of the homemade version as well as the grocery store price of a comparable product. In many cases, there is nothing I can buy in the store that reaches the same quality as the homemade version, but I did my best to find a comparable product for each item.
By making just these 10 foods at home over the course of a month, I save nearly $100. These foods are snacks and condiments, so this barely scratches the surface of how much you can save by making breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home. It’s not all about the money, either. Homemade foods almost always taste better than their store-bought counterparts.
How Much You Can Save by Making Food Yourself
Total Cost of Homemade Items: $42.59
Total Cost of Store-Bought Versions: $137.77
Difference: A Savings of $95.18
Emily says
Hi! I found your blog from a link in a comment on “100 days of real food”. So happy I did!!! Can’t wait to read more of your blog!
Annemarie says
Welcome, Emily! I’m glad you found me.
Michelle @ Thrifty 101 says
Great ideas! You’ve been featured on DIY Thrifty Thursday at http://www.thrifty101.blogspot.com
Hope to see you again this week!
Lyza May says
I found your site on EAT MAKE GROW, I’m so glad I did, I’m bookmarking and pinning your site right now.
Real Food, Real Deals says
Thanks, Lyza!
Heidi @ lightlycrunchy says
I just saw your post again on a blog hop and came back to it. I haven’t done cost breakdowns for us, because I’m not sure how to go about it. However, for $125 worth of seed, we have a huge garden that has been supplying several families. We haven’t been to the grocery store for two weeks, I’ve been freezing enough veg to get through the winter and there is much more to come. We do spend more money in the end to buy good local fruit from farmers (to freeze) but it tastes so much better and we know where it came from.
Real Food, Real Deals says
It’s so worth it to buy the good fruit, especially when you’re saving money on the home-grown vegetables. It’s great to hear how much you’re getting from your garden. I love playing with the numbers. You could divide $125 by the number of families your garden is feeding (e.g. 5 families = $25 per family). Look at your garden’s yield for one week and check out what those vegetables would cost at the grocery store. You may find that what you’d pay $25 for at the grocery store would cover your family for about a week, while the seeds in your garden are feeding you for 20 weeks (or more)!