Want to save money and eat healthier? Start cooking from scratch! With just a little bit of time and effort, you can make delicious, homemade meals that are both cost-effective and nutritious. In this article, I’ll show you how you can save hundreds of dollars a year by cooking from scratch.
Cooking from scratch is probably the best way to save money! There is very little that I don’t cook from scratch, and I’ve been doing this for, well, forever. That’s even when I was working two jobs – full-time 9-5 during the day, and bartending at night. It can be done without killing yourself!
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The best time for cooking from scratch
One of the things I do to save time, is to cook and prep all in one day – usually Sunday. Why Sunday? Well, it’s usually a day off from work, and I can take my time to prep and make several dishes.
Sunday is also the day that I normally go grocery shopping too. (Click here to see how I shop for groceries.) Since I buy produce and meats in large quantities, it’s easier to cook some of it right away while I break down the large packs of meat for the freezer.
And it’s also the day that the trash goes out. Once I am done cooking, all the stinky stuff goes into the compost bin or the trash.
Typical from-scratch foods that save money
Spaghetti sauce
Pictured above is a shot when I was making spaghetti sauce. I grow my own Roma tomatoes, which I buy from my friend’s greenhouse. These plants have been grown from seed by her family for years and years, and the tomatoes are just a little smaller than a softball.
I get 18 plants every year for about $2.75/pack of 6 plants. I’m going to guess on the conservative side, and say I get 10 tomatoes per plant. I need about 20 tomatoes to make 3 quarts of sauce, so that’s 92 cents for the tomatoes.
I also use a few tablespoons of good olive oil, a couple cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of sugar, a little salt, bay leaves, crushed red pepper, some fennel seeds and a splash of red wine. So the ingredients that I buy (conservative guesstimate) cost another 75 cents. The parsley, basil and oregano all come from my garden. Total cost (including gas for cooking, water, etc.) is $1.99 for 3 quarts of sauce, or 56 cents/quart!
This past summer, I canned just under 30 quarts of sauce. In comparison, Prego sauce was on sale this week for $2.50/24 ounce jar.
Bread
A 2 lb. loaf of whole wheat bread made in the bread machine costs under $1.00. This week, a comparable loaf is on sale for $5.99 for a 18 ounce loaf. I get all the ingredients going in the bread machine so it’s making bread while I do other things. I love my bread machine! Here’s how to save money by baking your own bread.
Yogurt
I’ve been making yogurt since I was in high school, and my go-to is a yogurt maker, or I use my Instant Pot. It’s super easy to make yogurt. For roughly $1.65 (depends on the cost of milk/gallon), I can make eight 4oz containers of yogurt in the yogurt maker, or a quart in the InstantPot.
A similar size container of plain yogurt goes for 89 cents at the grocery store.
All I have to do is put the milk mixture in the yogurt maker containers, set the timer and refrigerate the finished containers of yogurt 11 hours later.
Recently, I have been using my Instant Pot to make yogurt. The results are even better than using a yogurt maker!
And as I write this post, a nice roast beef is cooking in the oven. Later, I’ll make gravy and garlic mashed potatoes to have for dinner, and use some of the sliced roast for sandwiches during the week, made with some yummy homemade bread.
These are just a few examples of how cooking from scratch can save money. I will keep adding more and more money-saving recipes and tips here on this site, so be sure to visit often!
In conclusion, cooking from scratch is a fantastic way to save money and eat healthier. Not only is it more cost-effective than buying pre-packaged foods, but it also allows you to control exactly what goes into your meals. By following the recipes and tips in this article, you can start enjoying delicious homemade meals that are good for both your wallet and your health. So why not give it a try?
Remember, your mileage may vary according to the costs of items in your area and what you grow yourself – which is a whole other post.
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