Homemade foods tend to be healthier and often cost less than their prepackaged counterparts. Thus, whenever possible, I try to make homemade varieties.
Sometimes I wonder if it is really more affordable to make homemade versions. This week my husband and I crunched some numbers so we could compare the cost of homemade versus prepackaged breakfast sandwiches.
We purchased all of the components needed to make biscuit breakfast sandwiches. In order to make it easy to calculate the costs of the individual components, we purchased frozen biscuits and rolls of breakfast sausage instead of preparing these from scratch. We spent $15.20, which allowed us to make 20 breakfast sandwiches.
Honestly, I was surprised that the homemade versions cost $0.36 less per sandwich than the prepackaged versions. I assumed they would cost less, but I thought it would be just a few cents less. If we had purchased 20 prepackaged sandwiches instead of making our own, we would have spent $22.40. That’s $7.20 more than we spent on the homemade ones!
After making the sandwiches, I wrapped them in plastic wrap and placed them in the freezer. My husband loves to eat one before work in the morning, so we pull one out of the freezer before bed so it can thaw in the fridge overnight. It then takes a short time in the microwave (about 45 seconds) to heat.
Do you make a lot of homemade foods? Which save you the most money?
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I think it’s really cool that you number-crunched! Thanks for sharing the results with us. My mom raised us kids on homemade foods, so I have a very strong bias for homemade over pre-made, and sometimes that’s blinded me to the fact that there are foods out there that can be the same price or cheaper if you buy it pre-made. I do try to use mostly homemade, though, since it’s healthier and fairly cost-effective, and it does save lots of money! I just made a big batch of breakfast burritos the other day to freeze which did not cost anywhere near what it would have in the store. For a while I made our noodles and tortillas homemade, but I then realized that it was worth it to me to spend a tiny bit of money more on the convenience factor of buying those foods pre-made.
Hi AnneMarie,
You make a good point about the convenience factor of some foods. “Convenience” is something that doesn’t have a price! I’m generally willing to work a bit harder in order to save some money, but I agree with you that there are some foods that I purchase for convenience. I’ve tried making tortillas and have failed miserably, so I continue to buy these at the store!
Thanks for a fascinating analysis! I, too, am surprised that the price difference wasn’t even greater!
Hi Anna,
I think if I would have made the biscuits from scratch that the price difference would increase slightly. However, it was easier to do the math with frozen biscuits than to calculate the cost of a few cups of flour, a pinch of salt, etc.
Smart idea to compare the two. To be able to see the bottom line between two similar products is definitely helpful. My husband and I did the same thing with baby food. Pricing it out, it will cost us significantly more to buy the pre-made ones (organic or otherwise) than just making our own. It took a little bit more work, but for the money we were saving, it was worth it. Thanks for joining us again for #shinebloghop this week, Shannon! I always love reading your pieces 🙂
Hi Maria,
While you can’t put a price tag on your time, we often find that this extra work is worth it when it saves money!
I love making homemade pizza. I use Smitten Kitchen’s no kneed pizza dough recipe. It tastes better than take out and is less hassle too.
Hi Candace,
It would be fun to do a comparison like this on homemade pizza! I make homemade pizza, too, and it really is pretty easy to make. Thanks for sharing this!