We often talk about homemade food and making food from scratch as the absolute best choice. And often, this is true! It's usually cheaper - not to mention much tastier! - to make things from scratch. But not always! Some food items just don't turn out as well when you make them at home, or making them will cost you just as much - or more - than buying them already made. And other times it just takes too much time. We gathered advice from fellow foodies, and here are the 12 grocery items they believe you might just as well buy ready-made!
Almond Milk
While almond milk seems easy enough to make, and only requires almonds and water, you need a lot of almonds - and they can be expensive! You're better off buying the almond milk - and as a bonus, it's often fortified with additional calcium and vitamins you might otherwise miss out on.
Guacamole
Depending on where you live, avocados can cost as much as $2-3 dollars each. Compare that to a jar of guacamole, which, according to Busy Budgeter can be as cheap as $9.99 for 20 servings, and you quickly realize you're better off buying the guac. Now, there's nothing that compares to the taste of freshly made guac, so you will have to decide which is more important - the cost or the taste - but I find there are quite a few decent ready-made options out there these days as well.
Nut & Seed Butters
Nut and seed butters might seem expensive, but once you tally up the cost of the ingredients, you'll find that's not necessarily the case. One person says: "Any type of nut butter is so much cheaper./.../To make the same amount with almonds you buy and process yourself would easily cost double that amount!"
I tried making nut butter at home and I didn't even get it to work. So that was a nice waste of a bag of nuts, and since then, I've always bought it ready-made instead.
Pumpkin Puree
Making pumpkin puree from scratch can be both time-consuming and labor-intensive. Purchasing canned pumpkin puree, on the other hand, is often not that expensive, so factoring it all in, I find it's better to just buy it.
Cheese
When you look at cheese prices in the store, you might be tempted to try to make cheese yourself instead, but I do recommend you pause and think first. Even if you can manage some simple cheeses in your own kitchen, cheese production involves a complex aging process that is best left to professionals. Not to mention the wide variety of options you have in-store: from sharp cheddars to creamy bries. But making these at home would require specialized equipment and aging conditions, which is not only difficult to come by - it's also expensive! So in the end, you'll probably end up spending even more if you try to make them yourself.
Tomato Paste
Making tomato paste requires a lot of tomatoes, not to mention a lot of time for them to reduce—which translates to gas or electricity costs. Meanwhile, a can of tomato paste is very cheap to buy. Buy it in bulk, and it's even cheaper!
Peanut Butter
While quite easy to make at home, Busy Budgeter has done the calculations and found that homemade peanut butter costs about double what a store-bought can costs. So don't waste your time trying to make it, just buy a generic version instead!
Ice Cream
Making ice cream is a fun activity, and the homemade version is often much tastier than store-bought. However, if you're out to save money, you're better off getting a cheap tub at the store. The cream and other ingredients required to make ice cream will quickly add up to more than what the same amount of ice cream will cost you—and that's not even considering the fact that you first need to buy an ice cream maker for at least $50.
Hummus
You might be fooled by the price of dried garbanzo beans into thinking hummus is cheap to make at home. But that's before you factor in the tahini! One person says, "...a jar of tahini costs way more than just buying hummus already made," and I think they are right.
Pesto Sauce
That jar of pesto sauce might look expensive, but if you consider the cost of the ingredients that go into it you will see it's really not. A good green pesto requires a lot of fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and olive oil - all expensive ingredients. For a red one, you need olive oil, Parmesan cheese, lots of sun-dried tomatoes, and some type of nut. Now the homemade version is likely going to be much tastier - but if money is what you're worried about, it's probably cheaper to buy it ready made.
Yogurt
To make yogurt, you need both milk and bacteria culture—which are likely to cost more than just grabbing a tub of yogurt at the store. Not to mention, it takes time to make, and time, as we all know, is money!
Salad Dressing
Just look at the cost of olive oil versus ready-made salad dressing and it's a no-brainer - you might as well just get the dressing instead of paying the same - or more! - for the oil required to make it.
Source: Reddit
Comments
No Comments