Americans spend WAY TOO MUCH MONEY on groceries. Yes, there are coupon clippings and what-not that you can do. But there is also another way to save money. Cook. Cook it all yourself. From scratch. Stop buying boxed foods for convenience.
My general rule nowadays is that I no longer buy store bought cookies, flour tortillas, English Muffins, ravioli, among other things. Let's begin with flour tortillas.
I like to feed my child whole wheat whenever I can, and buying whole wheat flour tortillas costs roughly $3.50 for ten tortillas. That's 35 cents per tortilla. Let's look at a common recipe for flour tortillas:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tbsp vegetable shortening (I use Butter Crisco, and I add just a TAD more)
3/4 cup warm water.
For wheat tortillas, I use 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour. I get about 8 flour tortillas out of this recipe.
2 cups of flour (even Whole Wheat) costs about 25 cents
1 teaspoon salt costs under a penny
3 tbsp vegetable shortening costs about 5 cents - maybe
3/4 cup warm water - mostly free, just be sure to pay your water bill.
So, for eight flour tortillas, I'm paying LESS THAN the cost of one tortilla from the store.
And if you have a food processor, you can easily make the dough in the processor. I got one as a wedding gift, so I didn't have to buy one. I wouldn't go out and buy one for this, though. Making the dough by hand is still pretty easy. You mix it until it forms a ball. Then, you divide it into 8 balls and let it rest. Flatten it with a rolling pin, and cook on a griddle or a skillet. Easy and WAY tastier than store bought!
Savings if I fed my family eight flour tortillas per week each year:
Store bought: $2.80 for 8 for 52 weeks: $145.60
Homemade: 30 cents for 8 for 52 weeks: $15.00
Savings: $130
Ravioli Dough - adapted from Giada De Laurentiis (I LOVE HER!!! Her recipes ROCK!)
2 1/2 cups of flour (I replace 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of Whole Wheat flour)
1 cup HOT water (I heat mine for about a minute in the microwave)
Mix together with a wooden spoon until it forms a a dough. Cover and let it rest. Then, put together whatever filling you want to use. I like traditional part-skim ricotta, Parmesan cheese, Romano Cheese, egg, and spices. I often add spinach to it, too. Really, any filling works.
Roll out the dough. Get one of those ravioli presses from somewhere like Sur La Table or Amazon.com, as they make your life SO MUCH easier on ravioli night. I paid $5.00 for mine at Sur la Table. I use it to lightly press where I will be making the ravioli, just as a guide. Then, I spoon on the filling, but another sheet of ravioli on top, and press away.
I was paying $10 for a bag of ravioli - with additives, etc. once a month. Now, I pay around $4 for the same amount. Just the ravioli dough alone is ONLY 25 cents! The filling can be as cheap or expensive as you want. Another hint: after Thanksgiving, use leftover turkey. YUM!!!!
Store Bought: $10 a month = $120 a year
Homemade: $4 a month = $48 a year
Savings: $72
English Muffins
My husband bought English Muffin rings for me for Christmas. And I use them OFTEN.
I use Alton Brown's recipe, as it is the best one I've found. It's easy, and it makes the muffins with little pockets. YUM!!!!
Here's a link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/english-muffins-recipe/index.html
I only replace 1/2 cup of flour with Whole Wheat flour here: otherwise, the muffins turn out weird - very thick and bread-like, as opposed to light and airy, as an English Muffin should be. I use a skillet, not a griddle. The most expensive part of the homemade version is the dry milk at $10 a box. A box, though, lasts for almost a year. Really, that's not too bad.
Store bought English Muffins (if I bought them once per week): $2.50 at 52 weeks = $130
Homemade: about 75 cents at 52 weeks = $39
Savings: $91
The total savings JUST for these three homemade items is $293 per year. JUST for these. This is just to give you an idea of how much money you can save by making things yourself.
Where are we now with monthly savings?
Tip#1 - Dish Towels $5 per month
Tip#2 - Dump Cable $92 per month
Tip#3 - Homemade Goodness $24 per month
Total per month: $121
Total per year: $1452
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