s/o saving money on groceries-cooking from scratch?

Completely with you on the bread thing. Bread I make? It gets butter and my family can eat a whole loaf. Bread from the grocery store? That's for sandwiches and we wouldnt eat it by itself.

some nights I don't have two hours and don't want something made from hamburger

I do love the saltones of the one in the store, but would rather have crispy skin. So, chicken from the store is total convenience and really tales the place of grabbing fast food. It isn't a planned dinner.

The rotisserie chickens from my local Costco a d grocery stores are great. They are also always marked with the time they were made so you can be sure it hasn't been sitting there all day long.

Totally agree freecharlie, on the time. I usually do a roast..like a chicken, beef, pork on sunday to use for the wk.

For me a shift happened when I joined weight watchers. It isn't cheaper for me to eat the way I do now. I am actually eating fresh fruits and veggies on a daily basis, a cost I didn't really have before. The processed stuff I was buying was cheap, especially with my couponing. Over time my cooking changed and my shopping/spendy habits have changed.

I started paying attention to what was in food, particularly processed food, and was lucky enough to have the skill and money to change the way I cook.

Going meatless once in awhile can save money, too. I am trying a new recipe-vegan chili, made with butternut squash, black beans, peppers, canned tomatoes, onion, etc. I'll be honest; it's a cheap meal, and easy, but there is a bit of chopping to do. It is not a time saver at all. And I used canned tomatoes and beans, so it's sort of from scratch, but not really.

And now, just because I spent all of that time chopping-it's time to reward myself with one or two Harvest Pumpkin Ales. Cheers!

I am totally stumped when I see people turn up their noses at canned beans or tomatoes. How else are you supposed to make sauces and chili when those things are not in season? Canned tomatoes put up when ripe and in-season are infinitely better than the mushy, tasteless tomatoes you find in January.
Beans ate either dried, canned, or frozen out of season and I don't think you're cheating in any of those forms.
Hey,I can my own tomatoes and beans (for real!) So does that make it from scratch?

Let's be honest, there has been a division of labor amongst humans living in societies for ages. Not everyone made her own bread, or wine, or vinegar, or pressed her own olives into oil, or butchered an animal or wove cloth or ground flour. These threads used to bring a lot of judgment. I'm glad to see this one is a bit less preachy and a bit more honest

As for roasting a chicken and cutting it up, though? Ain't never gonna happen. I roast a bird once a year, on thanksgiving, and that is it. I buy boneless breasts only! Our occasionally a rotisserie chicken, and Cindy, they are delicious.

In case anyone is looking for a roasted chicken recipe (it still takes awhile and store bought rotisserie is always gonna be faster and easier) check out Pioneer Woman's recipe. The key is fresh herbs, but it's super easy and fast (aside from the oven time). I haven't killed anyone with it yet, so it's a successful meal around here.

I agree re: canned vegetables! They are great for so many things. As are frozen. They don't always replace fresh, but for many cooked dishes, they do.

I'd much rather have soup made with canned tomatoes in the middle of winter, or frozen broccoli when it's out of season. 

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Same here. I stock up in the fall months when (typically) canned vegetables are at their cheapest.

I like cooking from scratch (well, hybrid, because I don't make my own noodles either), but I think it is more expensive as a general practice.

Melissa

I think that if the meat is heated, and to a certain temp..it's ok to let them sit for hours. I'm not sure of the 2 hr rule. I also am pretty sure that some of those natural juices...are natural fat they are sitting in. We also don't know how much salt is put on that bird..vs at home you control that. I sound anti rotisserie chicken don't I?? LOL. honestly I'm not. I just don't think they are as healthy and good as everyone thinks.

I always put salt on the table when we have guests, because I know most people will want more salt than we use.   When it's just the 4 of us, we never ever use the salt shaker.  Literally I cannot recall us ever using it.  

One place I know we absolutely save money by making something at home is pizza. We typically use jar sauce and make our own dough. We sue a recipe that doesn't have to rise for hours so it doesn't take up a great deal of time.

We do make some of our own sauce, but space constraints mean that we will never come close to making as much as we use, so for pizza, we always use jarred sauce.

But even so, it is so much less expensive than ordering pizza or even buying the pre-made ones that the grocery store sells that you only have to bake.

Now, I suppose it might work out the same if we bought some of those frozen small ones that go on sale for a buck or so, but we'd have to buy so many that I still don't know that it would be cheaper, and more importantly, we hate those.

Even buying the premade shells is more costly than making our own dough.


We make pancakes and waffles from scratch, which I think is cheaper than frozen pancakes/waffles or mixes, too.

Certainly the homemade replacements for taco mixes, ranch dip mix, etc. are less expensive than the packets sold at the stores.

And homemade soups are less expensive as well.

I am sure there are times when cooking from scratch does cost more, but in many ways I find it to cost less.