Make or buy ready made?

Teacher2

You don't always save money by going homemade but what you get is better or compares with a bought product from a premium range.

For example with bread I could buy a sliced, cheap loaf less expensively than I could make one in my breadmaker. However, if I compare the 70p loaf I can make with artisan bread, which it resembles, the shop artisan bread is selling for at least £1.50 for a small loaf so I am quids in making it rather than buying it.

The same with cakes. I can buy very cheap shop cake and the one I make at home from 'value' range ingredients still costs about 70p a slice (as there's the cost of the electric oven to consider as well as the component parts). However, a craft stall cake on a farmer's market would be about £4-£5 and a slice at a tearoom is now about £2 at least. So a like with like comparison makes the homemade version the better deal.

As others have said, it all depends on whether you have a variety of ingredients at home and how much you had to pay for them. Shops can make economies of scale which cannot be replicated at home. If you make a dish and have to buy all the ingredients and then they languish in the cupboard forever you have lost out over buying the meal from the supermarket. If you use the ingredients up in several homemade meals the cost-per-use comes right down and you save by making at home.

Just do the maths and remember that homemade will almost certainly taste better unless you consider pastry which, as others have pointed out on this thread, is almost always better tastng and cheaper bought.

peachyprice

Yorkshire pudding are ALWAYS cheaper for me to buy RM, my homemade attempts just get thrown in the bin, total waste of ingredients and time.