Store Bought vs. Homemade: What's More Cost-Effective?
Jennifer Reese of Slate makes some store-bought staples at home to see if the effort is worth the taste and money. Bagels and yogurt get an enthusiastic "make at home," while homemade cream cheese is expensive and just not the same. She also experiments with jam, crackers, and granola. For more details on cost and taste of the homemade versions, read the rest of the article.
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9 Comments:
Homemade bagels also taste amazing. Unless there's a lot of synagogues around where you live, I'd wholeheartedly suggest making them at home.
lawofmurphy at 10:12PM on 04/27/09
Sounds like they didn't drain the cream cheese, and tried to make a "low fat" version. It's called CREAM cheese for a reason.
peekpoke at 11:31PM on 04/27/09
These aren't completely accurate - the main flaw I see with most of these "do it yourself - it's cheaper!" price comparison articles is that they don't include energy costs.
I love to bake, but including the energy my oven uses up per loaf/pan/sheet etc. it's not worth it to make everything at home, despite the cost of raw materials :(
Does anyone know of any places that actually do the energy cost breakdown as well? I know people tend to disregard it because they think it isn't that much, but it actually adds up if you have to keep heating your oven to 350 or 450 or 500 or whatever.
jazzinx at 12:07AM on 04/28/09
I'll have to give the bagel recipe a try. I rarely buy rolls or bread because the family prefers my homemade to the store stuff. I also make my own pizza dough, lately two nights a week rather than just one...but hey, the guys love their pizza.
Cheese making is an area I would like to tackle.
Growing my own herbs and veggies is an area I have down and love to do.
dhorst at 12:12AM on 04/28/09
@jazzinx, when my stove died and we had to do some work to get the new one that I wanted, I went without an oven and cooktop for over two months. Much of my cooking was done outdoors, although I did use my crockpot and a few other devices inside. But for the most part, the grill was replacing the oven. In those 2 months, I saw no significant difference in energy use. And when the new stove went in, I didn't see a rise in cost.
I've looked at the total daily costs for energy, and it's really not a huge amount, and cooking is just a small percentage of that. I doubt that I'm spending fifty cents a day on all my cooking, and I do bake a lot.
dbcurrie at 2:15AM on 04/28/09
@jazzinx Doesn't the author refer to energy costs in the second paragraph of the article? "Based on an estimate from my utility company, it costs around 32 cents per hour to run an electric oven."
I can't wait to try the bagel and the granola recipes
Yamoo at 4:09AM on 04/28/09
I'm thinking more in terms of my time and energy. The cost to me is much higher if I have to get up at 5 to make bagels vs getting up at 7:30 and stopping at my local bagel shop on the way to work.
VerasTastyFreeze at 10:27AM on 04/28/09
Must be nice to have that much time to create this stuff.
chanterelle at 10:20PM on 04/28/09
I just tried out that bagel recipe tonight (Jo Goldenberg's Parisian bagels), and I'm not going to lie, they came out pretty awesome. I don't eat bagels often, let alone make them, so I was very pleased with the results.
Then again, lots of things taste better with cream cheese :)
blisseau at 1:09AM on 04/29/09