cost of OS. Not always worth it. Maths only here

thriftlady_2

Bronnie wrote: »

I'm confused, surely 1kg of dried beans soaked, didn't only produce 1kg of cooked beans?

I'd have thought you'd have produced a larger weight of cooked beans than you started off with and therefore the equivalent of far more tins and a much better cost-saving???

You do. Dried beans double in size once soaked and cooked. I cook all my beans from dried and freeze a whole pack at a time. I'm certain they work out cheaper (not including fuel costs). I did cost it out some time ago but can't be bothered to do it just now:o:D

Bongedone

Bronnie wrote: »

I'm confused, surely 1kg of dried beans soaked, didn't only produce 1kg of cooked beans?

I'd have thought you'd have produced a larger weight of cooked beans than you started off with and therefore the equivalent of far more tins and a much better cost-saving???

I was about to say the same thing!

valk_scot

This is similar to the Grow Your Own arguements allotmenteers have all the time. It is possible to make a significant dent in the household budget by growing most of your own produce but....when you factor in what your time costs too at a nominal £5 or whatever per hour growing very basic things don't save you much at all, if anything. . The solution here is to go towards the more luxury end of the market ie grow posh salad and new potatoes rather than bulk supplies of boilers, exotic salad leaves, soft fruit, small tasty baby veg etc. Yet I know folk with allotments that just grow endless bags of potatoes, carrots, cabbage and turnips.

Same with OS. If you're not having to scrimp every penny out of necessity then it pays dividends to concentrate your efforts on the more "added value" end of the market ie premium breads, jams and cakes rather than the equivelent shop bought that would cost oodles more, or knitting a beautiful designer sweater that would cost megabucks in the shop rather than trying to knit a cheaper school sweater than you can buy. Etc. Remember your time is valuable too!

nanokitten

I have just been doing some similar sums in my head after doing myself in chopping up marrow for freezing. (I do this as they never get used otherwise and end up in the bin in january!) I have nearly 4 lb of chopped marrow and was thinking how much I will save if I use it as a courgette substitute (as courgettes will be dear once out of season in winter). I then went on to think that actually compared to frozen veg, eg frozen stew pack, it was probably only gonna save a couple of quid. my final thought was that you can't buy frozen courgette or marrow in the freezer section so should be compared to fresh courgettes after all. This made me feel better as it took me over and hour.

[Deleted User]

I cook from scratch not only to streeeetch out the money, but because I like to know what is in the food I'm eating. I can see your point about the 32p though and its a reasonable one .As another poster said Ice Cream is a very fiddly thing to make, but if you eat a lot of it or you want to make a specially flavoured one then its worth it. I myself don't make it, but then a box of ce cream could sit forever in my freezer as I'm not that fussed about it . But I do keep a slicing block in there as my numerous grandchildren like to have some when they visit I prefer a nice proper pudding for after dinner .Tonight I am having banana custard which I shall make myself for only a few shillings(p's) awful word that, I still think in shillings ,must be my age

helyg

Being OS isn't just about the money for me either, although there are a lot of savings to be made. I like knowing what I'm eating, and I like making stuff (be it baking, cooking, preserving, sewing, knitting etc). I also think it's important to keep traditions alive. I could probably save loads of money by living off value tins and wearing Primark, but I enjoy the way of life that goes with being OS.

geordie_joe

valk_scot wrote: »

This is similar to the Grow Your Own arguements allotmenteers have all the time. It is possible to make a significant dent in the household budget by growing most of your own produce but....when you factor in what your time costs too at a nominal £5 or whatever per hour growing very basic things don't save you much at all, if anything. .

Hang on, nobody pays me £5 per hour to go down the shop and buy my own veg, so why should I factor in £5 per hour if I grew my own.

If you are using your spare time then it is not costing you anything per hour. Would be different if you took unpaid time off from work to weed the allotment.

thriftlady_2

Found this old post about the quantity a packet of dried bans will produce when cooked.

It seems I did get round to measuring the beans here. On that basis a kilo of beans soaked and cooked will produce well in excess of 2 kilos of cooked beans which makes £1.20 pretty good value I'd say. you'd need at least 9 tins of beans to get an equivalent amount which would cost £2.88. So way cheaper to cook dried beans;)

ceridwen

Well......having a full-time job - there just isnt enough time to do everything that I want to in an O.S. way at the moment - but I'm dreaming.....dreaming....

visions of the time when I can sit there and think "today's meals included homemade bread and homemade bread spread and homemade soft cheese and homegrown salad and homemade soup....etc....etc". Its partly the healthier food element and partly the creativity element.

The thing is as well that one DOES have to cost out what your time is worth - but actually, on that level alone, if I ask myself "what would I rather be doing - earning £x per hour working for an employer OR saving that same £x per hour doing various creative O.S. things to save myself that same amount of money for my time?" - then, to me, the answer is obvious: I'd MUCH rather be using that bit of time to save myself money by doing O.S. things than I would spending that same bit of time working for an employer. Personally - I think I'm a MUCH nicer employer than any I've ever had so far....;):D

valk_scot

geordie_joe wrote: »

Hang on, nobody pays me £5 per hour to go down the shop and buy my own veg, so why should I factor in £5 per hour if I grew my own.

If you are using your spare time then it is not costing you anything per hour. Would be different if you took unpaid time off from work to weed the allotment.

Well, time is a valuable commodity and you do have to put some sort of nominal value on it, otherwise it's not a fair comparison. Yes I've got to buy veg if I don't grow them but I'm doing other shopping at the same time, so the actual veg shopping time is pretty minimal. Compare that to the average of 10 hours per week it takes for a big allotment running at full productivity. Costing the hours as ££££ is not ideal, but what would you use instead? My rent is £28 per year and I buy about £100 of seeds and sundries in the year, and I haul out literally hundreds of pounds worth of produce per year. By these figures everyone should be doing it....but they don't, because time is a commodity too.