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I generally have to call "lies" on statements like this, "It's cheaper to eat out than it is to cook at home." For one person, you can make many meals out of one dish and either have some left overs or freeze the leftovers for a later date while you can't always do that to be able to do that in a 2+ family member household. It's just the excuse people give themselves to eat out. Also, you're paying for better quality food - keep this in mind! It's healthier to make food at home to where you know what's in it. Not only that, but the flavor is usually a whole lot better!
Let's see here...cookies, let's say a rough estimate for 2 dozen cookies:
-1 bag of flour (a non-gmo project 5lb bag of Montana Wheat): $5
-1 bag of cane sugar (a non-gmo project 4 pound bag): $6
-1 box of 4 sticks of salted butter: $4 - $5
-1 bottle of imitation vanilla: $3 or the real stuff: $8 - $20
-1 dozen eggs (organic): $4 - $5 or 1 package cream cheese as substitute for a yummy edible cookie dough: $1.50
-1 box baking soda: $0.50
-1 bottle sea salt: $2 - $3
-1 package of chocolate chips (roughly 12 oz): $3 - $6
Yields: Obviously A LOT of cookies! I even threw in some organic prices there, but you may need more butter and eggs/cream cheese or chocolate chips to accomodate the amount of flour and sugar. The cost? You're looking at probably about $30 - $40 for an insane amount assuming you use all the ingredients. To make yourself a small batch out of these ingredients, say 1 dozen cookies probably isn't going to cost you more than $3 - $5 to make. Think, a cafe would probably charge you $1.00 for 1 cookie when you'd have 12 of them for so much less. You could also freeze a large amount of cookie dough for quite some time and pop them in the oven when you want to bake them or eat them as a snack yumm.
You could also make super cheap cookies with far less ingredients.
Say some chocolate covered graham crackers?
-Graham Crackers 1 box: $4
-Bark Chocolate or Chocolate Pieces to melt for dipping: $5 - $10 (depending how much chocolate you need and quantity).
If you used a box of graham crackers, dipped them in chocolate, and chilled them in the fridge you would have delicious cookies plus minimal heat usage (stove top instead of oven or microwave even if you wanted to, but I recommend double boiling methods for melting chocolate as it burns easily) and not only that, but you could have like...a lot of them...
Oh hey, how about making Tagalong Girl Scout Cookies? No problem!
-Ritz Crackers 1 box: $4
-Bark Chocolate or Chocolate Pieces to melt for dipping: $5 - $10
-Peanut Butter or Peanut Butter Alternative: $3 - $6
Get two ritz crackers, put peanut butter or your alternative in the center, pinch the two ritz crackers together gently. Do this to as many as you have chocolate for. Melt the chocolate. Dip them all in it with tongs and set them on a baking sheet and chill. Tastes better than the real thing. Minimal heat usage and way more cookies than any scout will give you in a box for that price!
I generally have to call "lies" on statements like this, "It's cheaper to eat out than it is to cook at home." For one person, you can make many meals out of one dish and either have some left overs or freeze the leftovers for a later date while you can't always do that to be able to do that in a 2+ family member household. It's just the excuse people give themselves to eat out.
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.
I think it's cheaper to bake at home--if you compare the quality of the ingredients.
My favorite cookie recipe uses real butter, whole wheat flour, old-fashioned oats, and lots of walnuts and chocolate chips.
a) I can't find a cookie in the store with those ingredients
b) I might find one in a bakery, but the price would be much higher.
And here's the recipe for Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cookies; best made with a stand mixer.
Cream
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of brown sugar
2 eggs, 1 at a time
2 tsp vanilla.
Mix together
2 cups whole wheat flour (regular whole wheat makes crispier cookies; white whole wheat makes lighter cookies)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture, then mix in
2 cups Old-Fashioned rolled oats (oatmeal)
1 cup walnuts (or substitute your favorite nuts)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Drop on cookie sheets, bake 350F 12-15 minutes
Substitute dried fruit (raisins, dates, apricots) for the chocolate chips
Or add 1/2 cup coconut (mmmmm good)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla
A lot of things are NOT cheaper if made from scratch.
I did the math on it and a lot of it depends. If you happen to get food marked down, say half price, or have a good coupon, it's often cheaper to buy bread, cake mix, cookie dough, etc. at the store.
Ice cream is also about the same price whether you buy it at the grocery store, or make it at home. In fact, it's slightly more expensive (per ounce) to make it at home.
You're right. One thanksgiving I made everything from scratch - including the dressing, and it was much more expensive to do it that way instead of box stuffing and box mashed potatoes and canned cranberry sauce, etc.
Some of it was cheaper, but the cost for the entire meal was more than if I had bought packaged stuff.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by viridianforest
I generally have to call "lies" on statements like this, "It's cheaper to eat out than it is to cook at home."
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?
Almost all from-scratch cooking and baking is cheaper than eating out. Cookies are no exception. Think of the cost of a batch of oatmeal cookies -- a cup and a half of rolled oats, a cup of flour, a little oil, half a cup of brown sugar, some applesauce (which you can also make for yourself for a song, using just windfall apples you found by the side of the road and some water) and a handful of chopped nuts or raisins. The whole dozen cookies that result cost as much as a single oatmeal cookie from the bakery.
I think it's cheaper to bake at home--if you compare the quality of the ingredients.
My favorite cookie recipe uses real butter, whole wheat flour, old-fashioned oats, and lots of walnuts and chocolate chips.
a) I can't find a cookie in the store with those ingredients
b) I might find one in a bakery, but the price would be much higher.
And here's the recipe for Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cookies; best made with a stand mixer.
Cream
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of brown sugar
2 eggs, 1 at a time
2 tsp vanilla.
Mix together
2 cups whole wheat flour (regular whole wheat makes crispier cookies; white whole wheat makes lighter cookies)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture, then mix in
2 cups Old-Fashioned rolled oats (oatmeal)
1 cup walnuts (or substitute your favorite nuts)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Drop on cookie sheets, bake 350F 12-15 minutes
Substitute dried fruit (raisins, dates, apricots) for the chocolate chips
Or add 1/2 cup coconut (mmmmm good)
I am baking these at the moment and the first tray turned out great and I tried one as well.
The only thing I changed,I used 1 cup of brown sugar instead of 2 cups.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 2 days ago)
35,603 posts, read 17,927,273 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliffie
Almost all from-scratch cooking and baking is cheaper than eating out. Cookies are no exception. Think of the cost of a batch of oatmeal cookies -- a cup and a half of rolled oats, a cup of flour, a little oil, half a cup of brown sugar, some applesauce (which you can also make for yourself for a song, using just windfall apples you found by the side of the road and some water) and a handful of chopped nuts or raisins. The whole dozen cookies that result cost as much as a single oatmeal cookie from the bakery.
The internet is so funny - the way it brings people into conversations whose lives are so very different.
I'd have better luck looking for a baby monkey by the side of the road instead of an edible apple. ;D
You're right. One thanksgiving I made everything from scratch - including the dressing, and it was much more expensive to do it that way instead of box stuffing and box mashed potatoes and canned cranberry sauce, etc.
Some of it was cheaper, but the cost for the entire meal was more than if I had bought packaged stuff.
I also factor in cost for cooking in my stove, using water, etc. and labor costs, too -how much time it takes to make all that versus buying it.
You can buy cranberry sauce and stuffing mix at half price after Thanksgiving in many stores, in their discount section.
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