It's easy to find recipes for homemade yogurt, granola, and other common groceries, but far harder to know, cent for cent, if making them really saves money. One Slate writer did the math for us.
Jennifer Reese is a dedicated home cook, but was suspicious that there were some home recipes on which she couldn't beat the big-time manufacturers for cost. So she tried out notable recipes for bagels, cream cheese, yogurt, jam, crackers, and granola, and compared her cost to a standard grocery store price, as well as noted how they tasted side by side. Here's Reese's revelation about Alton Brown's granola recipe pitted against even a premium brand like Bear Naked:
Cheaper than store-bought? At $1.45 per cup, no. Thanks largely to the staggering price of maple syrup, Brown's granola costs roughly three times what you pay for Quaker 100% Natural. But when compared with a premium brand like Bear Naked, which works out to around $1.70 per cup, Brown's granola begins to seem more reasonable. Plus, you can customize your granola, making it sweeter, omitting raisins, adding chocolate chips …
Better? Vastly. World-beating, super-crunchy cereal, worth every calorie and penny.
Make or buy? Make it. Budget be damned.
The other big take-aways involve yogurt and bagels, which, in Reese's opinion, turn out far better when made at home then bought at cheap grocery rates. Jam, crackers, and cream cheese? Not so much.
Add to Reese's list by telling us what's verifiably cheaper to make at home in the comments.
How cost-effective is it to make pantry staples from scratch? [Slate Magazine via Consumerist]