30 Foods That Are Far Cheaper To Make At Home, As Shared By These Frugal Internet Users

My partner and I just started making homemade pan pizzas in cast iron and calzones. So insanely good. And anywhere from 1/8 to 1/2 of the cost, even buying from Trader Joe's (expensive dairy there) and premade dough

Nearly everything. But I’d say pasta, soup and salads are way cheaper to make yourself at home. Pasta is like $2.00 a box and it makes a lot, making homemade sauce might be $10 for a pot full. If you go out for it, you’ll pay maybe $15-20 for a plate. Same with soup, make it at home for a couple dollars a serving or pay $8-10 a bowl. Salad? No doubt it’s way cheaper at home. $10 and up for someone to chop up a couple veggies and add a couple ingredients.

Cold brew concentrate. Bought one of those amazon coldbrew makers (basically a pitcher with a fine mesh sieve inside) and a bag of lavazza beans. Makes about a quart. Must have saved myself almost $1000 this summer not buying bottles of Grady’s coldbrew every week.

Also, ESPRESSO. I was gifted an espresso maker. Not a super expensive one (I think I saw it on amazon for $300) I can’t even fathom how much money it’s saved me on espresso shots over the last couple of years.

Greek yogurt. Exponentially.

Tallow and bone broth are almost free to make at home, but so expensive at the store! Very simple to make, very little effort or processing time, and you're using what you might normally throw away!

If you eat beef or chicken, save the bones in the freezer. Once you have enough to fill up a crock pot, toss them in with some vinegar and a little salt. Let it go between 12-24 hours and then strain through cheese cloth. Now you've got bone broth.

Put that in the fridge and let the fat solidify. Use a butter knife to pull the fat off the top. That's the tallow. You'll want to add water, heat, strain again, cool again, discard the water and gently scrape anything discolored(I usually immediately put that stuff on toast, lol). Now you've got clean tallow to cook with, and it is incredible.

Martinis and gin & tonics.

Espresso, if you ignore the sunk cost of the espresso machine.

Perhaps I misunderstand your question, but there are so many things - in fact, I believe that *almost* everything you could buy premade from a store would be cheaper than buying it at a store. Examples include:

* Tuna salad from the deli - this is so easy to make yourself. I use an immersion blender to get it as finely textured as the deli
* Just about any "frozen entree" (but some are so much easier to buy premade. For me, I like breaded fish filets, and I can get them pretty cheap and prefer to do so versus making them myself
* Frozen vegetables
* Baked goods
* Pies

Some exceptions include:

* Yogurt - I tried making my own. It cost more.
* Ice cream - It is so cheap to buy, and I didn't much like what I made (adapter fora kitchenaid mixer - a waste of money)

Soda pop. I was gifted a soda stream but discovered, since I don't care for the fizzies anyway, I just use the syrup and make my pop. What else is nice, made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (which causes additional sweet cravings) and is less calories overall, even with using the amount they claim in directions.

pretty much most foods, honestly tho there are some things by the time I buy all the stuff it is way more practical to just go eat out. Like one time I was determined to make my own pho and all the time and effort it was cheaper just to go to the restraunt and buy it. Brisket is kinda the same way like unless I wanna have a lot of it, its better to just go buy it at my local rundown bbq joint. Other than those specific cases I cook everything at home now tho.