I'm looking at ways to cut our food bill. In your opinion is baking cheaper than buying. I'm feeding a teenager, 9 year old and a 16month old plus 1 adult.
lilyfield,
Jan 24, 7:37am
of course it is. And healthier
greerg,
Jan 24, 7:37am
Almost always for comparable items unless bought goods are on a huge special but you do need to keep an eye on rising ingredient costs.Also we often bake a bigger batch than we would buy and especially in houses with teenagers they vanish in the same time. Rationing can solve that one though.Homemade baked goods are also usually nicer and you know what's in them.
maryteatowel1,
Jan 24, 7:53am
...i bake because i enjoy it...if you already buy lots of biscuits and cakes then yes i would think baking is cheaper...a few things change though...like portion size...home baking is bigger...i use to have to ration it out when the kids lived at home...and i often made things that i liked more than the kids did so it lasted a bit longer...we eat way more i think...there is always a couple of things to choose from in the tins...i think jams, pickles, chutneys and stewed fruits in season are cheaper...good bread is cheaper!!!
elliehen,
Jan 24, 10:23am
When you bake, you can make double quantities - one lot to eat and one to freeze for later.
The teenager and 9-year-old can also be encouraged to help out in the kitchen (children often start with baking and move on to cooking meals).You can then retire from the kitchen yourself and enjoy your pre-schooler ;)
olwen,
Jan 24, 10:59am
When I was around 13 I used to do all the baking for the family.It was routine to produce 4 or 5 batches on a Saturday afternoon.I'd struggle with that now :-)
greerg,
Jan 24, 7:47pm
I think you do get out of practice.When the boys were swimming I could toss out 12 batches of muffins in time for morning tea when the club was doing a fund-raiser on Saturday but I think I'd have a horrid mess if I tried to do that now.Could maybe get back into practice but I really don't think that's going to happen.
tommydog,
Jan 26, 9:46am
If you live in the South Island go to Couplands Bakery hard to beat their prices and alot of their stuff you couldn't make it for less yourself and their stuff is really tasty.
joianprebble,
Jan 27, 7:43pm
I have a house of boys home baking is better as fulls them up faster so works out alot cheaper for me .
timetable,
Jan 27, 8:20pm
i still find home baking stacks up really well against store brought... store brought seems to get eaten so much quicker so we only buy bickies for treats at christmas time - chockie ones that i wouldnt make like tim tams lol and we use christmas club so no excess on the budget... i buy and stock up on butter when its on special - like windback this weekend!! and flour and sugar the same...bin inn for all my other bulk baking stuff... i tend to stick to family fav's and like other posters do double mix's to put down in the frezzer... with only mr 11 and dad and mum home now i find also that its going even further... well sorta cos with friends that don't bake lol they tend to make up for the mr 18 and miss 19 who are away lol....
vintagekitty,
Jan 28, 7:11am
Im not convinced it is cheaper. If you weigh up the cost of ingredients vs buying on special, the type of baking and of course the time factor, I think its cheaper to buy.
vintagekitty,
Jan 28, 7:13am
see, this is why its great that we have different opinions. I cant stand anything from couplands, it all tastes the same!. They only thing I like are their caramel filled doughnuts
donnabeth,
Jan 28, 8:11am
A bag of Farmbake cookies cost about the same to buy as to make and in my case they taste better.I make good cakes, so they are much cheaper to bake than to buy and taste better.
All in all, if I'm going to be making a mess, I'd rather bake a fruit cake, banana cake and chocolate cake or fudge.
Portion size is another matter again affecting affordability.
Do we eat less of something we don't like, thus making it more economical? Why do we cut larger portions of home baking? Do our families think it's cheaper to bake so we can have more? I have tried cutting portions and freezing them, but then we take two small instead of one large.
lythande1,
Jan 28, 6:48pm
Depends. Pak n Save had peach cakes for $3.50 the other day. Can you make it for that? Bread - I can do that for 30c a loaf. But cake, guess it depends if you buy ingredients in bulk or not. Anyway I don't do cakes or biscuits. Or buy them.
fastlanenz,
Jan 28, 9:30pm
I bake mostly, with the odd bought treat now and again.I like that I can choose what's in our food, and can vary the recipes to use wholemeal instead of plain flour sometimes, or how much salt is used .. brown or white sugar .. etc.I suspect my decision has a lot to do with how much I love baking .. LOL
pr1ncesswst,
Jan 28, 10:27pm
If you buy your base ingredients in bulk it works out cheaper, and using things like milk powder in place of milk etc.In a bakery it costs around $1.50 to make a piece of cake (supermarket block portion) that they then sell to you for around $6.30. For that $6.30 you could make a large cake that'll last the week not just a day.
duckmoon,
Jan 28, 10:58pm
one of the tricks is to make sure that you are using recipes which have simple ingredients. My favourite chocolate cake takes 1.5 cups of cocoa - and that pushes up the price - the large cake (serves 12 for dessert) costs around $7 to make.
So using regular recipes and you will be fine.
duckmoon,
Jan 28, 10:59pm
Also, if you are going to do it, make a committment and purchase your ingredients in large quantities.
e.g. purchasing 1.5kg of flour is more expensive per gram, than if you purchased 5kg of flour (per gram).
slimshady9,
Jan 24, 7:28am
I'm looking at ways to cut our food bill. In your opinion is baking cheaper than buying. I'm feeding a teenager, 9 year old and a 16month old plus 1 adult.
greerg,
Jan 24, 7:37am
Almost always for comparable items unless bought goods are on a huge special but you do need to keep an eye on rising ingredient costs.Also we often bake a bigger batch than we would buy and especially in houses with teenagers they vanish in the same time. Rationing can solve that one though.Homemade baked goods are also usually nicer and you know what's in them.
maryteatowel1,
Jan 24, 7:53am
.i bake because i enjoy it.if you already buy lots of biscuits and cakes then yes i would think baking is cheaper.a few things change though.like portion size.home baking is bigger.i use to have to ration it out when the kids lived at home.and i often made things that i liked more than the kids did so it lasted a bit longer.we eat way more i think.there is always a couple of things to choose from in the tins.i think jams, pickles, chutneys and stewed fruits in season are cheaper.good bread is cheaper!
olwen,
Jan 24, 10:59am
When I was around 13 I used to do all the baking for the family.It was routine to produce 4 or 5 batches on a Saturday afternoon.I'd struggle with that now :-)
greerg,
Jan 24, 7:47pm
I think you do get out of practice.When the boys were swimming I could toss out 12 batches of muffins in time for morning tea when the club was doing a fund-raiser on Saturday but I think I'd have a horrid mess if I tried to do that now.Could maybe get back into practice but I really don't think that's going to happen.
tommydog,
Jan 26, 9:46am
If you live in the South Island go to Couplands Bakery hard to beat their prices and alot of their stuff you couldn't make it for less yourself and their stuff is really tasty.
timetable,
Jan 27, 8:20pm
i still find home baking stacks up really well against store brought. store brought seems to get eaten so much quicker so we only buy bickies for treats at christmas time - chockie ones that i wouldnt make like tim tams lol and we use christmas club so no excess on the budget. i buy and stock up on butter when its on special - like windback this weekend! and flour and sugar the same.bin inn for all my other bulk baking stuff. i tend to stick to family fav's and like other posters do double mix's to put down in the frezzer. with only mr 11 and dad and mum home now i find also that its going even further. well sorta cos with friends that don't bake lol they tend to make up for the mr 18 and miss 19 who are away lol.
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