Although it is often more convenient to buy items off the shelf while doing your weekly or monthly grocery shopping, it is not always the cheaper option to adding the items into your menu. We all know that we pay for convenience, but when you are on a tight budget it is wiser to fore go the convenience and save yourself some money. The homemade variety is often tastier than the shop bought one as well. Reddit lists ten of the cheapest foods to make instead of buy; we have listed a total of 15 foods for you.
Beans – Buying dried beans and soaking them yourself is cheaper than buying.
Lunch Meat – Instead of purchasing meats that cost a lot, buy roasts and cook them slowly and then slice them up for the lunches.
Popcorn – The bags of popcorn are extremely expensive and high in calories, it’s healthier to pop your own corn.
Pizza – Cheaper to make classic flavors like chicken and mushroom or margarita yourself at home, plus you can become creative with your toppings and surprise your family with different types of pizza.
Chicken Stock – Making your own chicken stock by simmering the carcass of the chicken with spices on the stove and then freezing the liquid is cheaper than buying the processed chicken stock.
Vanilla Extract – Make your own vanilla extract with vanilla beans soaked in alcohol.
Yogurt – Milk is cheaper than yogurt and there are plenty of recipes on the internet for homemade yogurt.
Coffee – Roasting your own coffee beans is cheaper than buying prepackaged coffee beans.
Cookies – Surprise your family with a variety of different cookies, the individual ingredients might be more expensive to buy initially but they will make a lot more cookies than a packet of cookies cost.
Bread – Homemade bread is much nicer than shop bought, and it works out cheaper to bake your own bread. With new machines like a bread machine it is easier than it used to be years ago.
Iced Tea – Iced tea is cheaper to make at home, and there are plenty of recipes on the internet for different flavors.
Pasta Sauce – Make use of those over ripe tomatoes and make your own pasta sauce, another great way to experiment with different flavors and save money.
Spice Mixes – Instead of buying spice for BBQ and rice spice and all the other different spices which are for specific uses, buy more herbs and single spices and mix your own into bottles and label them well.
Bottled Water – Not only is bottled water expensive, it has been proven that continuously reusing the bottles is bad for your health anyway, and a lot of bottled water manufacturers are using recycled plastic for the bottle, rather boil the kettle, place the water in a jug in the fridge and dispense into bottles at home.
Salad Kits – Although having a variety of vegetables already mixed for the salad in a packet on the shelf is convenient, it is more expensive than buying each item and making your salads from scratch.
There are lots of other foods that are better when prepared from scratch, so feel free to share your own ideas.
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