It’s no secret that I love convenience foods. I’ve sung their praises before. What I don’t like of course, is the price. We want our cake and we want to eat it too, so I make my own of course!
Ready to Bake Cookie Dough truly is one of the biggest scams our society has pulled on us. We don’t need it. There’s nothing special about it because it’s the same exact thing that we make ourselves and will last for quite a while. So make your own Ready to Bake Cookie Dough and save about $10 with every batch you make.
Instant Oatmeal packets are another scam that really gets my goat! It’s the same oatmeal with some flavoring measured into little packets. So I’ve figured out how to make my own strawberry or cinnamon oatmeal from the canister. There are more servings in a canister than in a box of packets, plus they are twice the size of a packet serving. So in essence we can buy a 8 pk box of oatmeal packets for $2 that compares to 4 servings of my canister oatmeal that I flavor at home. The entire canister costs me less than $.50 and it yields 2.5 times as much oatmeal as packets – a savings of $4 every time!
Instead of being tempted by fast food or tv dinners, have some ready to cook meals in your freezer. You could even make your own tv dinners for when you just need a meal for one. Simply put leftovers in a pie plate (preferably one you’ve saved from a pie) and freeze with foil on top. Just heat it up in your toaster oven.
I admit that I loath packing lunches. One thing that makes it easier is to have foods conveniently ready in the fridge. I am guilty of sending a Lunchable way too often, so I need to do better about this one. Once a week cut up enough carrots for lunches and have them in a tupperware container. Divide the chips from a large bag into sandwich baggies. You can either use fold tops, or use ziplocks and ask the kids to leave the empty back in their lunch box. Just put all the baggies back into the original chips bag until you’re ready to pack lunches. Have cheese sliced and ready to use. Wash and pull grapes from the vine. Make pudding or apple sauce cups using reusable containers and have them stacked and ready for the week in the fridge. A little bit of planning makes for a much easier week. I’m hoping to figure out how to make up lunchables and will do a post on that once I do.
Consider what products you are buying that are actually premade. While I don’t think it’s worth my time to pull fresh green beans from the garden and cook them, other beans in a can are one huge convenient expense. A bag of dry beans will cost you $.69 on sale and will yield the same amount of beans as approximately 3 and a half $.83 cans of beans. That’s a savings of around $2 for every bag cooked. It’s really simple to cook dry beans, although I have struggled with this in the past. I’ve found the secret is to just give in and soak them overnight.
While I’m thinking about beans, it’s also really simple to make your own baked beans. I take a couple of cans of pork and beans (paid for with RRs and used as fillers on my Walgreens purchases so they’re essentially free) and add brown sugar (also paid for with RRs and used as fillers) and a few squirts of BBQs sauce (usually free with coupons) Simple baked beans made for nearly nothing!
Don’t be fooled by all the products made especially for babies. Check the labels and see if they are in fact significantly healthier than regular cheese puffs and cheerios. The same goes for jarred applesauce and bananas. Many baby foods are cheaper to buy in a jar using a coupon, but you have to use discernment to see which ones are just “new mommy” scams.
Buy snack foods in large bags instead of single size servings. The kids will still be hungry after eating their 12 Goldfish from their teeny little package that cost 4 times as much per serving than a large box. Have you seen the little animal cracker boxes that stores sell for $1? A huge bag costs less than $2.00! Candy snacks are the same way- much less expensive when bought in a large bag and divided up instead of when bought in individual packets.
Little Turkey has a limited gluten diet, so he doesn’t eat sandwiches. Instead, we rolls his sandwich meat around his cheese and put a toothpick in it, or mix his peanut butter with his jelly. I mix an entire bowl of it up at a time. My solution for those uncrustables? Cookie cutters. Or you could read this post that comes much closer to making a homemade uncrustable. 
There are many things we get suckered into buying just because it’s what on the shelf at the store. Eventually they’ll be trying to sell us peeled oranges for double the price of ones with the peel on them unless we wise up and see how we’re paying for a silly convenience.
What foods do you make convenient at home?
Thank you! I struggle with this all the time …I love your ideas and wonder if people have forgotten about the basics, don’t realize, don’t care, or don’t have time to care. My recent fav is st you have touched on in the past …seeing how many uses I can find for vinegar and/or baking soda. Sometimes I wish I was an Ingall:-)
Ziploc makes a reusable container that has little compartments. I think you can get 2 for $3 or something. You could put cheese, lunch meat and crackers in those to make lunchables.
Making your own baby food is so cheap and easy! If you steam a bunch of carrots(or whatever fruit/veggie you want) and then puree them, you can freeze them in ice cube trays, then put them in a freezer bag. 1 cube=about 1 Tbl babyfood. Eat plain or mix with baby oatmeal.
I find that if I am going to heat a skillet or turn on the oven to cook, it’s just as easy to double what the recipe, then freeze half. Already heating the skillet and chopping onions for a 1lb of ground beef spaghetti sauce? For very little extra effort at the moment you can double that and have a meal nearly made for later in the month.
I love your idea about spending a little time one day to prepare for lunches throughout the week.
Anon, I am just now starting to experiment more with vinegar and baking soda for cleaners. I’ll have to do up a post when I have some evidence to write about LOL.
Robin, I will have to check on the ziplock containers. Sounds like they may be an excellent filler to get me to the free shipping mark on Amazon!
Beth- you and I think alike girl.
We’re always cooking up double or triple batches of food. The majority of our freezer is already cooked meats, chopped veggies and shredded cheeses.
I don’t necessarily agree with the cookie dough.
I buy mine when I can get it for $1.50 or less. After holidays with coupons I’ve been known to freeze it and have had up to 20 in my freezer that I got for .25 each.
Once you pay for the chocolate chips (that really is the most expensive item), the flour, sugar, etc… I figure if I can get them for under $2.00 I’m breaking even…but saving time too.
That’s the one thing we aren’t factoring in. The TIME it takes to do these things. I’m all for saving money but I don’t wash and reuse baggies, I don’t drive 15 miles to go to a store with a little lower prices, and I don’t sew for the same reason.
I’m not saying those who want to shouldn’t..I just think we all have our own ideas of what is “worth” doing.
I would totally be out there picking beans by the way…but I love doing that kind of stuff…so it would be relaxing. Not a chore to me.
I guess it’s all about the individuals perspective of what works for them and what is important to them and what they find enjoyable.
To each his own…
That’s fabulous that you’ve been able to score cookie dough for $.25 Erica! By my calculations of the price I pay for my ingredients I would have to get the cookie dough for about $.52 a pack and it’s been a long time since I was able to do that. I have scored Christmas chocolate chips for $.50 a bag though!
You are so right about the time factor. Since I’m a WAHM I have more time to do lots of time saving things and that’s sort of like my pay- saving my husband’s salary. I would much rather sew or bake cookies with my son than pick beans or do car maintenance though LOL.
I just made 3 loafs of bread, one wednesday night and two the next morning because it was so easy and everyone loved it. The recipe is for Super Easy Bread For Beginners at breadbaking.about.com
It doesn’t take much to make it and I’m not very good with math, not enough to break down the cost but I’m sure it’s under or very close to the $1.28 I usually pay. Added bonus my family is excited for simple dinners like sandwiches and french toast.
Thank Kelly. I haven’t attempted bread baking yet. I probably won’t ever get that ambitious LOL. Plus the cost of a breadmaker makes me cringe. Had I asked for one when we got married it may have been a different story now
Oh no this is in the oven, super easy it might change your mind.
I’m intrigued Kelly. I went to the breadbaking.about.com but there are lots of recipes and instructions there. Can you e-mail me what you used? Thanks!