when is it cheaper to make your own?

brokeinwales

Hi Old Style Ladies and gents,
I feel sure a thread on this must exist somewhere already, but b***ered if I can find it, so please point me in the right direction if you know of one...

I was just having some thoughts about making my own pasta (either with or without a pasta maker). I already make some of my own clothes, make sweet things like cakes and jam a lot, and have tried bread a few times. But I often wonder how often it's really cheaper to make your own of something than it is to buy it?

In my experience it is cheaper to buy clothes than to make them - although if you take quality into account, if you want decent quality, unique clothes, it's cheaper to make them (or chance a bit of luck in the charity shops!) than go to a "posh" shop. My bf is convinced its cheaper to buy cakes than to make (although he does concede homemade tastes better!). I'm also not sure about some other things - by the time you've bought the ingredients is it really cheaper? I have a friend who tried making cheese once and it cost a fortune!

So is there a (fairly) definitive list somewhere on which do-it-yourselfs are worthwhile, purely from a financial point of view?

Penelope_Penguin

Take a look at this thread on what people buy or make

For a lot of Old Stylers, it's about a lifestyle choice to make things rather than buy them. I'm sure it'll be far cheaper to buy white sliced bread, and value cake, but I'd rather pay the money for good HM food

I'll add this to the above thread later.,

Penny. x

valk_scot

As a rule of thumb the cheaper the "made" item, the less saving you'll make by making your own equivelent to the point that some items are cheaper to buy ready made. But what are you actually aiming for? To spend the least possible money irrespective of quality, or to get the best possible quality for a set amount of money?

I personally don't bother making pasta from scratch unless as a wet afternoon activity for the kids. It tastes just the same as shop bought and even brand name pasta isn't that expensive anyway. But for cakes and bread you can really get a huge improvement in quality per £ spent. And for actual meals, there's few instances where you can buy a ready made meal that will taste better and be cheaper than home made.

aliadds

I would second Val's comments. I feel that you can buy quite cheap ingredients and make, for example, a Victoria sponge of a much better quality than a bought one.
It very much depends on what products you buy. If you buy value products you won't be able to make them any cheaper but you won't have the superior taste of home made.
I am selective about what I bake, and think that it wouldn't be worth making pasta, but I would make pasta sauce!
I always bake cakes and pastry items, and sometimes bread. A 1.5kg bag of flour is about 70p and a 6pk of dried yeast is the same. The other ingredients are negligible so that gives me 3 loaves of home made bread at approx 50p a loaf including cooking costs!

maman

Another vote for HM. We don't eat sweet stuff much but if it's a choice between my own lasagne or a ready meal then quality and quantitiy of HM wins hands down. You know exactly what's gone into HM esp salt, sugar etc I wouldn't take it to extremes though and I don't think HM pasta would be worth it. Personally I don't make bread as I know if I did I'd eat too much. Those with families seem to find it economical.

charliee_3

i think even the italians buy their pasta most of the time.. i dont think it would be cheaper, or particularly better for plain ordinary everyday pasta, but of course you could experiment with different types of pasta, spinach, tomato, herb, etc and you would pay a LOT for the fancy ones so you could probably save money there

Chipps

Most meals are cheaper to make than buy ready made - even if the outlay seems similar, you will get a lot more for your money. Pasta bolognaise made with tinned value range tomatoes, an onion & some home-grown basil from your kitchen windowsill added to some mince will give you much more than the same money spent on a ready meal, or even jar of dolmio or whatever. And home made soup - for the price of a can of soup you can make enough for 6 or more good helpings, more if you use leftovers!
Of course, if you are making your own meals, you can plan for leftovers eg extra potatoes cooked in advance for tomorrow's shepherd's pie topping or make double & freeze half for your own 'ready meal'.
And - you know what's gone in it, how much fat, salt etc...

oneeyedandgreen

I could definitely eat more cheaply if I bought ready meals(5 for £4 from the freezer) and cheap packaged sauces but I enjoy cooking. I think that's the important thing, I'd rather spend my money on good food and know I'm eating well.

There is nothing better than a baking a cake and then eating a slice of it warm with a cup of tea

ALIBOBSY

I personally find it would cost us a fortune to buy ready meals as there are 5 of us (working on number 6 now lol).
In most cases you either cannot buy as good a meal/cake etc as you can at home for any price or have to pay a premium. Most processed food is full of cheap meat, fillers,chemicals, and loaded with salt.
My DS won't eat anything but my homemade cottage pie as he says no shop gets anywhere close to it.

So I think it depends on how many their are in your family unit, how bothered you are about the rubbish in most processed food, and how you rate quality (as opposed to just price) of food. I remember watching a programme a few years ago where they measured the nutritional content of the same amount of one homemade cottage pie and one good quality supermarket version, the homemade was miles in front and much healthier overall.

I have to say I do buy dried pasta, as do most of the italians lol, but I make virtually everything else from scratch. For us it costs much less and we get much higher quality by cooking from scratch.

ali x

Caterina

charliee wrote: »

i think even the italians buy their pasta most of the time.. i dont think it would be cheaper, or particularly better for plain ordinary everyday pasta, but of course you could experiment with different types of pasta, spinach, tomato, herb, etc and you would pay a LOT for the fancy ones so you could probably save money there

Being Italian I agree with charliee - fresh pasta is a treat these days, but if you know how to make pasta with water and flour only (no eggs) you might get an even price score between homemade and packet, I think. The drawback is the fiddliness and labour intensive process. If you have plenty of time and do not factor time as expense, then homemade pasta is much tastier!

Fresh egg pasta is much more expensive than fresh ready-made because the proportion is 1 large egg to 100g (4 oz) flour and it takes at least this amount to feed one person.

But homemade pasta is unbeatable in flavour, so again it is important to balance good quality and superiour taste against economy,

The one thing that is DEFINITELY cheaper to make at home and well worth making because it is so much better as well as cheaper, though, is Gnocchi! These are potato dumplings with flour, it is appalling what they cost in the packets and they are full of added stuff. All you need is floury potatoes and flour, that's all. I read somewhere on this thread that they can be also made with Smash-type instant mash but I haven't tried it this way.

Churchmouse

Caterina wrote: »

The one thing that is DEFINITELY cheaper to make at home and well worth making because it is so much better as well as cheaper, though, is Gnocchi! These are potato dumplings with flour, it is appalling what they cost in the packets and they are full of added stuff. All you need is floury potatoes and flour, that's all. I read somewhere on this thread that they can be also made with Smash-type instant mash but I haven't tried it this way.

And you think you can leave it there ?:rotfl::rotfl:

We want an authentic Italian recipe with timings :D Not Smash, thanks very much !! I spend an absolute fortune on fresh pasta etc. Really should try making my own, but have never tasted gnocchi. Won't order it in a restaurant because I don't know how to pronounce it :o:o