What food is cheaper to make yourself than it is to buy?

[lunavix]

Thinking about things such as bread, flapjacks, jam, ice cream, rice pudding, custard, tortillas, pasta... most of these granted are nicer home made than 'tescos' brands but what will actually save you money?

It would probaly depend on the quality of the ingredients and where you source them. I make bread from flour from Lidl - much cheaper than buying it, especially since we bake it in an aga and use the by-product of free hot water for a bath.

Things like cheaper commercial ice creams have loads of emulifiers, thickeners etc. What you would make would probably be with cream cream, eggs and sugar. It would be more expensive than budget brands but cheaper than the 'pure, luxury, organic' lines.

Fresh soup especially if vegetarian. Vegetable stock and a pile of veg costs pennies and is actually quick and easy to cook.

Pasta..
tis only flour and eggs.. and tastes sooooo much better than the shop stuff too

Nice cakes. Pancakes. Hamburgers.

Chinese takeaway type things, I make much better fried rice than restaurants do! It's just scrambled egg, rice, a bit of veg and soy sauce mixed in. Yum!

almost everything. i might have a bit of trouble sourcing cocoa beans...

make in bulk, in season veggie pasta sauce, pasties, curry,

bread
in bulk and freeze fruit pies, cakes, biscuits

ps in macro last wk saw microwaveable ready made omelettes (about 30p each if you bought 100 or so) wtf is that all about?

My money savings tend to be around homegrown things! You can do alot with tubs on a small patio if you don't have much space.

Jam in season. Every summer I make strawberry jam. I was growing my own too so it is just the price of the sugar (£3) and the initial investment in jars (£5). The plants were free runners from my Mum. Oh and the electricity to cook the jam (50p?).

For that I got 12 big pots of jam - enough for us for a year. Done this for 3 years now.

I have killed my plants though so I need new free ones to carry on next year. If not I will do a pick your own with DD.

Marmalade might be good to try?

Bread is time consuming as it has to be regular, even with a bread maker I am not sure I actually save money v the time spent, especially with the price of flour and electricity now. It is nice though

I cook from scratch alot. I grow alot of veg in the summer. Tomatoes all go into a load of sauce which I freeze and makes the base for lots of meals through the winter: Spag bol, soup, pasta and sauce, pizza topping etc.

Frozen beans and peas don't last us long as I don't have the space to grow enough but are definately cheaper and taste much better.

Herbs are good too - put some on the windowsill and they can last all winter. Saves loads on £1.50 a time pots in Tesco.

Muesli bars/flapjacks made with porridge oats, butter and whatever squidgy fruit needs using up. Read the ingredients on the bought ones and weep, not to mention the price.

Crumble made with ditto.

Soup.

Bread, esp nice bread with seeds etc. Lidl white flour is good, their breadmixes not bad.

Pizza, if you make the dough yourself using Lidl flour as above.

Jam -- my mum makes it for us.

Basic cleaning spray -- water with a squirt washing up liquid and a dash of white vinegar or lemon juice.

Pasta sauces.