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Not all cookies are sold where I live. So if I want them I will bake them myself. I could order cookies online but mail costs is expensive here in EU. Lately I have been making russian tea cakes is a type of cookie no eggs and I adapted its flavor with powdered orange because I removed the nuts due to to allergy.
I have baking staples in my pantry so I looked up prices of the ingredients I use.
Flour 500 gr bag 0.65 euro
Vanilla pod infused in vodka (1 vanila pod cut in small pieces 1.59 euro + 50 ml vodka 1.66)
Powdered orange peel 12 gr sachet 0.55 euro
Butter 250 gr 2.17 euro
Powdered sugar 250 gr cannister 0.77 euro
sea salt 500 gr 0.69 euro
Arm & Hammer baking soda box 454 gr 1.69 euro
baking powder 80 gr sachet 0.55 euro
electricity for oven including pre-heating 0.32 euro
labour cost 0 (I cook and bake for free)
For example, if I decide to try a dish that needs sweet Hungarian paprika, which I've never used before and will probably never use again, I'll try to find it in the bulk section where I can buy only a tablespoon, or else swap it out for the regular paprika I already have and accept that it won't taste exactly the same. What I will not do is go buy a jar of sweet Hungarian paprika for $8, use a little bit in the dish, and stick the rest of the jar in the cupboard where it will remain untouched for the next 18 years. That kind of thing adds up fast, and makes people feel that cooking at home is hopelessly expensive.
You remind me I have two jars of paprika I need to use. I don't know how I ended up with two. Not Hungarian, btw, but sweet. I will use them for chicken paprikash this week. Thank you.
Looks like the question of whether it's cheaper to cook at home is a major point of contention for some?!?!
That it is cheaper to eat out than cooking for one, was just a passing remark based on my own experience. Maybe it was the dishes I cook and/or the way I cook and/or my culinary lifestyle (cook one meal once in a while).
I take back that generalization. =)
Some people have tons of time to cook from scratch, they think everyone else should live the same way they do. Some days I'm in the kitchen all day, other days we get to-go pizza or tacos, because I'm too tired to cook and clean up the kitchen. I can do that. It's my life and I get to make those choices even if "frugal folks" want to wag their judgmental finger at me.
Personally, I could care less if someone makes food at home or eats out in 5 star restaurants. Its' none of my business and I have a hard time understanding why other people care so much. Perhaps they just need to find a good soap opera on television to watch, since they have little to do with their time.
Some people have tons of time to cook from scratch, they think everyone else should live the same way they do. Some days I'm in the kitchen all day, other days we get to-go pizza or tacos, because I'm too tired to cook and clean up the kitchen. I can do that. It's my life and I get to make those choices even if "frugal folks" want to wag their judgmental finger at me.
Personally, I could care less if someone makes food at home or eats out in 5 star restaurants. Its' none of my business and I have a hard time understanding why other people care so much. Perhaps they just need to find a good soap opera on television to watch, since they have little to do with their time.
I think you're seeing judgment where there is none. The question was whether it's cheaper to buy cookie ingredients and bake them yourself, or to buy cookies. The consensus was that yes, in most cases, baking at home is cheaper.
As a corollary, many people added that homemade cookies are, in most cases, tastier than storebought ones. That is a gratuitous opinion, to be sure, but a compelling point in favor of the home baking.
If you're seeing wagging judgmental fingers here, maybe you're the one bringing them to the table (pun intended). I don't think anyone here cares at all whether a random individual cooks at home or eats at a restaurant. But when you ask people for their advice or opinion, you make it their business to answer. Would you like it if you had asked this question, and everyone on the forum responded, "It's none of my business"?
I know you're right, but we also have to keep in mind that people who don't cook much don't necessarily have a lot of basic ingredients on hand, aren't experienced in substitutions, and are likely to feel obliged to buy everything things a recipe calls for in standard supermarket quantities even if it's exotic or expensive. And they'll never use those things up, and they'll go to waste.
For example, if I decide to try a dish that needs sweet Hungarian paprika, which I've never used before and will probably never use again, I'll try to find it in the bulk section where I can buy only a tablespoon, or else swap it out for the regular paprika I already have and accept that it won't taste exactly the same. What I will not do is go buy a jar of sweet Hungarian paprika for $8, use a little bit in the dish, and stick the rest of the jar in the cupboard where it will remain untouched for the next 18 years. That kind of thing adds up fast, and makes people feel that cooking at home is hopelessly expensive.
There's really not much of an excuse for people to not learn how to cook these days or to not cook, especially if they know how. The majority of people can make time to cook, but don't. Plenty of people can make the time and learn, but don't. It's sad coming across those that buy groceries, but won't use them. People should be buying groceries and be responsible enough to use up the ingredients instead of let them go to waste. In the long run, it will be healthier and more cost effective to make food at home.
Perhaps so, although if people sit down and do the math and look for cost effective recipes online or get some from a friend, they will find they can make things a whole lot cheaper. It's a bit sad to think that someone would say cooking is expensive just because they've seen people cooking dishes that are more expensive than not. I would think that most adults that grocery shop for themselves know what prices they will and will not pay for certain ingredients and I suppose this is where budgeting and meal planning comes into play (so you're not left with ingredients you don't know what to do with).
With such a widely used resource such as the internet, there's definitely no excuse. There's so many step-by-step cooking instructions, lists upon lists of substitutions that will work for a recipe, and so many different things to try that are simple and not too complex.
I don't know if it's "lies" as much as misinformation. My young adult sons thought eating out fast food was cheaper than cooking at home, and that's why low income people eat so much fast food.
How many inaccuracies can you cram into one statement?
Obviously it's a ton of misinformation then, because if people just sat down and did the math then they would see. Sometimes I wonder if some of these people have actually been to grocery stores comparing prices to see where the best deals are and how it is cheaper to make foods at home yourself.
I suppose dollar menu's and value menu's have done a pretty good job of convincing a lot of the public that what they're offering is simply "more cost effective" than making that same dish at home - it's actually sad.
So funny how there's one post saying, "No one is judging you for eating out, we're just discussing the pros and cons of these options, that's all" and then the next poster basically says that anyone who doesn't cook their food at home (what, most of it? All of it? More than cookies, I assume?) is the following:
- Frivolous with money
- Irresponsible
- Unhealthy
- "Sad"
- Wasteful of groceries
Implied: Lazy and ignorant.
None of this is judgmental?
Thing is, time is a finite resource. I have x hours of time outside of work. I could spend those cooking and cleaning up after my cooking (I cooked more than usual this weekend, and had to do a lot more dishes than usual!) or I could be spending quality time with my kids, my cat, my boyfriend, and/or my friends, talking on the phone to my distant family, making art, or any number of other things. For ME, grabbing something easy (even if it's not the healthiest made-from-scratch thing) or even eating out, is more economical, because I have some money to spare, and I don't have weight or health problems I'm fighting against, but for me, time is a very limited resource with many things clamoring to take it up. And I don't take any personal joy in cooking, it's just not a preferred hobby of mine for the most part.
I know very well that I COULD be carefully budgeting my pennies, buying healthy ingredients, and finding recipes on the internet. I'm aware of that. It's my choice not to, and your JUDGMENT of it can carry some weight with me the day you're walking in my shoes...but good on ya for illustrating PriscillaVanilla's point, there.
If you want to eat out because it is more convenient for you, that is not the same as eating out being cheaper. If anyone posts on a public forum anything that is completely false, they have to expect some push back.
I suppose dollar menu's and value menu's have done a pretty good job of convincing a lot of the public that what they're offering is simply "more cost effective" than making that same dish at home - it's actually sad.
Since this thread is cookies, there is the grocery store equivalent if you buy store label when they're on sale. It's nothing like the food quality of a good home-baked cookie but you can buy a bag of chocolate chip cookies for $1.00 to $2.00 when they're on sale. Just like it's cheaper to buy a McChicken off the dollar menu than cook it yourself, you can buy really lousy cookies for less than you can make good ones yourself.
I think it's more expensive to make your own. But the ones you make yourself taste better and you know what's in them! I don't buy cookies at all but I do make them a couple times a year.
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