The Daily Dish Recipes

There are so many people that say they don’t have time to cook from scratch. I know this can be true in some families, with all of the activities, a full time work schedule and other commitments. But honestly cooking from scratch doesn’t have to take that long, and can seriously save you some cash monthly. Even with the cost of food on the rise, cooking from scratch is still the more frugal alternative. Also remember that not every single meal or even ever meal item needs to be cooked from scratch.

For instance, some people are comfortable making their own pasta. If you own a pasta maker, you should use it. However, I do not own a pasta maker and I do not cook my pasta from scratch. However, I usually make my sauces from scratch. They can be frozen if you make a large batch and separated for several meals. See Freezer Cooking Sauce Recipes.

I’m all about showing you results, so you can see how much money you save. If you purchase something like Hamburger Helper - Beef Noodle, you are going to pay about $2.59 a box unless you are able to use a coupon or find a sale. That one single box will probably make two main course servings, or four small side-dish sized servings. If you are feeding a family of four, you would need two boxes to make a meal which would come to $5.18 before taxes. That is one meal main course dish. No sides.

Let’s make the meal without the prepacked box.

You need: (also prices are approximate and reflect what I pay at my local grocery store)

Noodles - $1.23
Two Cans Beef Gravy - $1.04/can = $2.08
Pgk of Ground Beef (at least 2lbs to equal the hamburger helper box recipe - you should purchase a family back that has MORE to stretch this and pay less) - $2.49/lb = $4.98

Now, if you are smart, you purchased a family pack of ground beef because it is cheaper that way and you get more which again, stretches the whole meal.

The total for those items (all the items that would make up a ‘from scratch’ version of hamburger helper - Beef Noodle) comes to about $7.51. How is that a savings against the cost of the original hamburger helper? Did you purchase your meat with the boxed hamburger helper? Nope, so you need to add that on. In addition, these ingredients listed above for the ‘from scratch’ version will allow you to make up to three meals for a family of four! You are only getting ONE meal for a family of four out of your original two boxes of Hamburger Helper. Amazing isn’t it?

Cooking from scratch is not difficult if you cut corners where you can, and watch how much you are spending on ingredients. Learning to cook from scratch is easy and allows freedom and flexibility in meal preparation as well as a nice little chunk of savings in your pocket book every month!

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