Is it cheaper to bake your own?

[BoredBetsy]

I'm trying to save money, as most people are. I think it's cheaper to bake stuff at home now as prices have gone up?

I followed a recipe for muffins which is

	2 cups self raising flour 
	¾ cup white sugar
	1 egg
	1 cup milk
	¼ cup vegetable oil

And added chocolate chips.

A pack of 4 choc muffins costs £1.80 in Tesco. This recipe made 12. Maybe not as big as the supermarket ones but big enough to be satisfying.

You can also freeze muffins OP - they freeze really well,.and just microwave for 30s to defrost.

Homemade will have all ingredients that you know what they are too, which seems a boon.

You need to include costings for your time and the energy it'll take to cook them and clean everything you used to make them.

Often it's more expensive, but I think it's worth it for something that'll taste better.

That looks like it will be cheaper to home bake, but even if it isn't, like for like, quality wise, it usually will be - the cheap cakes etc you can buy in supermarkets aren't very nice and the ingredients aren't great and the ones that are nice and have good ingredients in are £££s.

All supermarkets do value chocolate for about 40 p a bar and it's great for baking with - chop up for chocolate chips, or melt for brownies etc.

Plus like a PP says, you can bake in batches and freeze, to save on oven costs.

I wouldn't include the cost of time in costings unless you're using time that you could otherwise be earning money to bake instead. If you're going to consider the cost of your time, you could equally look at what you could be spending on a hobby instead.

Instead of baking, you could say that 'I could be out sky diving instead' so I've actually saved hundreds of pounds by spending time making cake.

Yes it’s cheaper if your making like for like. You can probably buy cheaper really basic stuff with loads of ultra processed stuff in, but to use regular decent ingredients it’s cheaper at home.

I don’t class baking as time to cost. Otherwise it would also cost me more to clean own home if I paid myself as a cleaner, coat a fortune to look after own child also if I paid myself 24/7, and cost to pour myself some cereal.
I also use baking as an activity often with child.

I know it's better to bake stuff yourself due to the processed ingredients and junk in factory produced stuff but I'm sure it used to work out cheaper to buy it but I wondered if it's now cheaper (and healthier) to make stuff at home?

I wouldn't cost my time either as I'm probably wasting it on my phone anyway!

You just have to do your own calculations if you want to know as there are quite a few variables.

Eg do you bake when you've already got the oven on, or are you putting it on just for a few muffins? Are you making a big batch for the freezer, so the oven cost per muffin is lower.

What price/cost of ingredients, value or the most expensive ones available. An egg can cost about 20 p for a mixed weight free range or about 70 p for a branded organic one. Etc etc.

Do you bake often enough that you always have in flour so can just cost the small amount you use or do you do it once in a blue moon and won't use out of date flour (I do unless it's got visible insects in it) so need to cost in a new bag each time?

All the above will have a significant affect on the cost of home baking.

It's more expensive for me to bake but it tastes so much better without all the preservatives etc.

Some things are cheaper, but very time consuming, like bread.

Others aren't, cakes, for example. I bake sometimes, and the only reason is that this way I know there aren't any unnecessary additions in my cake, and that I've used butter and not palm oil, and good vanilla, and so on, but of course it's all these things that make a home bakes cake more expensive.

I agrée you’ll have to make your own calculations because it will depend on which bought muffins you are looking at (huge variation in price!) and what recipe you are doing (again some have more expensive ingredients, quality of tte flour you are using etc…).

Imo as a rule if thumb, it’s cheaper to buy if you buy the cheapest of the cheapest, very poor quality stuff. If cheaper to make your own if you buy high quality.
Then variation depending in the product.
eg a quiche will be cheaper to do at home, esp if you make your own pastry (very easy). Same with a soup etc…

@ChardonnaysBeastlyCat bread is very quick and easy to do with a bread maker. We do one load everyday and have done so fir the last 10 years. It takes 5 mins or so.

And fresh, warm bread in the am …..

I think a better price comparison is against a small local bakers whose products tend to be far more expensive than mass-produced items, but also tend to be made from a small list of familiar ingredients you'd likely use at home.

Of course!

Forgot about that, I’ve never used one, but agree with you.

I don't have a micro, will they defrost well naturally if I got them out the night before?

TBH it's not a question I'd ask because I don't like mass market cake so wouldn't buy it even if it cost pennies.

If I wanted something sweet without spending a lot of money, I'd probably buy something like a packet of biscuits because they're nice enough and you can get them very cheaply, although I'd probably go for shortbread, jaffa cakes or something like Border biscuits if they were on offer.

Home baking is only really significantly cheaper if you do it based on economies of scale, so if you're baking enough that you can have a big bag of flour/sugar etc rather than buying the more expensive little bags for one off bakes.

We're also in or near berry season so I go blackberry picking in the local parks, can fill the top drawer of the freezer with free berries easily and free of charge then bake them in to pies, crumbles, cobblers, flapjacks, muffins, fruit leather......

I think notably your recipe uses relatively cheap ingredients - it doesn’t contain any butter and only one egg. Both of those will really bump up the price of home baking. Generally home baking tastes a lot better than shop bought, but I’ve baked several birthday cakes recently involving butter and buttercream and they certainly haven’t been cheaper than shop bought.

You need to include costings for your time and the energy it'll take to cook them and clean everything you used to make them

I get where you're coming from and apply it in some cases, but you can really go too far. You can't monetize every minute of your life, so you shouldn't try.

I made 10 jars of blackcurrant jam yesterday. We don't eat a lot of sugary stuff, occasionally on toast, but it is useful for the odd cake or pudding, etc. I used equal quantities of sugar and fruit. We had the berries in the garden and the sugar was £1.50. I also used one lemon. Took less than half an hour. A single jar at the supermarket is £3.70 and in the local markets up to £4.50.

If you use a chocolate bar and chop it up that will work out even cheaper, and richer too, as the chocolate crumbs melt into the batter.

To get the real economies of scale you need decent freezer space as well.

Frozen or tinned fruit is often cheaper than fresh as well. If you have access to cheap fresh eggs you can make some lemon curd (or any other fruit curd) which is divine in/on plain muffins and cakes.

If you don't grow your own fruit buy it when it's in season and you can buy cheaply in bulk at markets and either freeze it up prepared for cooking/baking or cook/bake and freeze the produce.

If you use the best ingredients, then it likely WON'T be cheaper than the bog standard versions in the supermarket but would still be cheaper than the gourmet versions.

I think it's a great idea. I make all the snacks, cakes and breakfast items for my family and put them in the freezer.

I'm not a meal prepper but things like pancakes, bread pudding, banana loaf, flapjacks, muffins, cupcakes etc I'm happy to batch cook and freeze.

Because of ultra processed food scare I've been baking more. Freezer biscuits, rock cakes, scones, flapjack, muffins, banana bread. All portioned and frozen then I take out whatever each family member fancies that day from the freezer in the morning and by snack times its defrosted and still fresh. Its amazing. And if you batch cook in one go actually quite quick and cheap to do.

No, not usually. But much nicer!

I bake as it’s nicer and you can portion control with things like biscuits and muffins. Make them smaller or cut the slices Mary berry says 🤣. However apart from pizzas I don’t think it’s cheaper to make yourself.

I think it's more expensive to make your own, unless you're a regular baker and you always have in those type of ingredients and equipment that you need.