I don’t bake and cook things at home to save money.
It’s not that I don’t like to save money, but rather that it’s never been my primary goal. What motivates me is a desire to feed my family well, to cut down on all the hidden unknowns in packaged foods, and to minimise waste.
But as I’ve mentioned before, the huge bonus from our push to make as much from scratch as possible is that we’ve cut our living expenses dramatically. And sometimes it’s nice to crunch the numbers, just to see how much of a saving this lifestyle really affords us.
Last weekend I baked rolls for the boys. Here’s the breakdown:
A bag of leg ham offcuts from Paesanella…$1.86
Kalamata olives… $3.84
Sundried tomatoes (30g)…$0.80
Picasso sheeps cheese…$4
Sourdough bread dough (2kg)…$2
Oven electricity…$0.50
. . . . . . . . . .
Total cost for 24 rolls = $13
Lunch per starving wolf-child per day = $1.08
. . . . . . . . . .
I really can’t ask for more than that! The bread stores well in the freezer, and our sons take two low GI sourdough rolls each day – Small Man’s are stuffed with olive and sheeps’ cheese; Big Boy’s with off the bone leg ham, cheese, homemade quince paste and sundried tomatoes.
Apart from the nitrites in the ham (which I grit my teeth and accept) and the salt in the olives, there aren’t any other preservatives in the meal – no hidden chemicals or food additives with strange numbers. The ingredients are all topnotch and I’ve reduced the salt in my standard dough, resulting in bread which is 30% less salty than commercial loaves. I know it’s not a big deal in a roll stuffed with ham and olives, but every little bit helps.
Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to make things at home, but in this case, a Saturday morning’s work saved me a week of packing sandwiches at 7am, and $50 in bought lunches!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I prefer to make as much as I can myself. We never have packaged food, I just don’t like it. Buying fresh and making from scratch is the way to go. At least you know what you are eating, and, as you say, you save money as well.
Deb, I know it’s not viable for everyone time-wise, but now that we have a routine, we find it quite easy to make most of the food we eat at home. Having said that, I’m not averse to having a really good meal out either! :)
I think lunch is one of those meals that if you can take something from home with you with all the things you like to eat in it, whether in one of your fabulous rolls stuffed with goodies, or a home made salad box, it’s nearly always going to be better than some conveyor belt assembled sandwich stored in a chiller cabinet. Your food that you make for your family each day is made with love and care and I bet anything that it enriches their souls as much as their wolf tums!
And don’t forget the queueing up, Jo! My sons don’t have to spend time lining up to buy something from the canteen. When lunch is only 40 minutes long, the queue can take up a large part of the break! :)
I’m so with you on the making from scratch so that you know what’s in it. We’ve been cooking more for dinner, so that we bring the leftovers for lunch. But I like the bread rolls, stuffed with a variety. What else do you pack for their lunches?
Soy, very little! The rolls are substantial, and they take two each. All they need after that is a fresh apple and a water bottle, and they’re good until dinner time. I usually have to have something ready for afternoon tea though.. :)
Bet they’re the envy of every other kid at school!
Thanks Linda, I hope so. No-one has come home asking to buy lunch from the canteen yet… :)
Those are lovely- and it is all made with love and care!
I make an extra pizza for my son and then package and freeze it into daily lunch packets. Sure saves time at 6:30 AM- and- he doesn’t have to waste money or time on his lunch break.
Heidi, I used to make them mini pizzas when they were younger – yeasted bases topped with almost the same things that now go into their rolls. They loved them!
I’m with you Celia. I’d rather make the time to make things myself. I hate not knowing what’s in my food. Making things from scratch is so much more satisfying too.
Claire, there’s nothing quite like it! I’ve become very averse to packaged foods with lots of strange numbers on the ingredients list…
I totally agree with you about baking bread. I’ve been making bread for years now and still get a kick out of every loaf or roll that comes out of the oven. Can’t remember when I last bought a loaf of bread.
Have to admit that I’ve never done a cost comparison as that’s not what it’s all about.
I’m about to make some pita bread. I think it’s one of my favourites……so quick and easy, and fun to watch it rise!
ps…. I’ve been lurking on here ever since I found your vanilla essence recipe about 4 months ago, which by the way is the best! Keep up the good work Celia, I’m loving all your great recipes.
Hi Jen, thanks for stopping by! Pita bread is the only bread we do still buy, but I’m very pedantic about the ones I get. Never tried making them ourselves, but we must give it a go one day, thanks for the suggestion! :)
Couldn’t agree more with you, Celia.
I often bake and freeze rolls for my lot. They love them more than the shop ones, I know what went into them and they are loads cheaper.
It’s a win/win for us all.
Amanda, Small Man is quite particular about what he’ll eat. If I’d let him, he’d have Italian anchovies in his olive rolls as well, but I’m worried about salt overload! At least when I make them at home, he gets exactly what he wants – Kalamata olives (not Sicilian or Ligurian), sheeps’ cheese (of a specified brand, thank you very much) and a spelt/wheat sourdough. They’re both food pedants…sigh. :)
Staying with my family and with two kids included, baking is such a positive and rewarding time! Saving that much by baking at home is also time saving. Everything is planned out for the week and theres no rushing or extra thinking in the morning, you’re soooo right! My nephew is allergic to so many hidden preservatives… we know the exact contents of everything we bake! Give him anything blue and he’s like a whirlwind through the house! x
Yvette, part of the reason we started making things at home was Small Man’s allergies. He’s much better now than he used to be, but being able to minimise food additives made a big difference when he was younger.
I never understood blue food colouring. Why would anyone want to eat a blue cake?
I, too, love to make things from scratch so that I know what I’m feeding my family…but looking at it from a budgeting standpoint is fun! =)
Can you tell me how you freeze these sandwiches for your boys? Do you wrap them individually with plastic and foil? Do they just pull them from the freezer in the morning and they’re defrosted in time for lunch?
Love all of your posts, Celia!
Abby, thank you! I package two rolls into a small plastic bag, and then put all the bags into a very large plastic bag in the freezer. In the morning, we just pull out a bag of two rolls, pop them frozen into a paper bag, and put them straight into the school backpack. They’re always completely defrosted by lunch time.
One more thing – freeze the rolls as soon as they’re cool – if left on the bench for several hours, they’ll be just that little less fresh and won’t be quite as good when they’re defrosted!
Fantastic Celia! I have high hopes and good intentions but all the same I was rushing around making school and work lunches at 6 this morning :)
I’m newly inspired though so thank you! Have you got a good hot cross bun recipe? I’ve never made any that were any good.
Mrs Bok, I use a hot cross bun recipe based on Richard Bertinet’s sweet dough (the same dough as I used in the blackberry crown a few days ago). There’s a link to our recipe here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/04/02/hot-cross-buns-recipe/
And last year we made a giant hot cross bun (just one). :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/04/05/hot-cross-bun/
I have only baked bread once before and I remember the bread being wonderful, but I haven’t done it again. I really need to get into the habit of making a loaf once a week, cause that’s all we really need and it can’t be that hard to maintain. I love having leftovers for lunch though and try to make meals that leave seconds..
Susan, it’s a lovely routine to get into, hope you find the time to work it into your week! :)
I love the ‘cost per starving wolf-child’! That should be a new/replacement consumer index. It is sure to make more sense to most people than ‘consumer index’!
My roll making efforts are a bit hit and miss. Sometimes they love them and will happily take them to school and other times they tell me the ones from the freezer are disgusting and inedible. Not sure if that is an anti-freezer bias here or if they really are disgusting. Never tried them myself so can’t judge. Do your get a bit dry in texture after being frozen? A bit like frozen bread that is good to toast but not to eat as just plain bread?
SG, I’ve never had them complain, and when we’ve defrosted them in the middle of the day for the occasional lunch at home, they’ve always been great. I do think the secret is a slightly oily filling though – cheese, olives etc – plus I use our olive oil dough recipe which stays quite moist.
Ah ok that is probably the difference. I don’t use any oil in my bread and the fillings are not usually very oily. Hmm…must factor in the oil next time. Thanks.
There must be a permanent wonderful “baking” smell in your home.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, the sourdough does smell wonderful as it’s baking! :)
Haha @ starving wolf boy lunch price! Does one of the clones eat more than the other or is the SWB price applicable to both? :P
They both take two rolls each, Lorraine – Small Man out-eats Big Boy these days! :)
I’m quite old-fashioned when it comes to cooking so I always prefer making everything myself, even the bread! I think it’s just the way I was brought up :-)
Maria, I hope my boys will feel the same way when they’re adults! The aim is to get them so fussy that they’ll refuse to eat crap when they’re making their own choices! Hehehe…it’s a secret plot.. :)
Celia, have you come across Trunkey Pork and Bacon at the markets? (they are kind of local to my folks and Anarel Garlic in the NSW Central West). They have some awesome smallgoods including nitrate free bacon (and possibly ham?) Afraid I’m not a good referee being allergic to pork, but their cured meats (such as the wonderful smoked cabanossi) I can eat, and they are fabulous.
Here is where you can find them locally:
http://trunkey.com.au/02-markets.html
Vix, thanks for the link, they’re at Orange Grove markets once a month, so I might try and check them out there. Having said that, I’m still a bit leery of food poisoning and the meat going off without the nitrates!
I’m just scared of pork being cured properly so I can eat it. I’m sure food poisoning would have about the same effect though…
Trunkey do cryovac their meats and they are presented packed in ice at the markets, if that helps??
Cheers, Vix, I’ll check it out! :)
I’d like to take them to school too!
No-one could argue with those figures. The simplicity about homemade bread is what I like most about it – flour, yeast, salt, and water – plus whatever additions you feel like at the time. I hate to think what else goes into shop bought bread! Your boys are very lucky to have you baking like this for them every week :)
I need to try these. The Boy hates the school lunches and waits until he gets home to eat. This would be a pleasant improvement!
Maz
Anna, Maz, I hope you give them a go – it certainly makes the morning routine easier! Anna, the dough we made last time you were here would work perfectly for these! :)
Christine, thank you! I bet your girls take a pretty amazing lunch to school! :)
Those buns look delicious. Hubby and I have been having a good time baking bread the last little while. I made some cinnamon buns a week or so ago and they surely didn’t look anything like yours :(. I haven’t had much luck with sour dough yet either. We’ll keep trying though. The good thing is that if it doesn’t turn out so well, its not a huge loss of money – only a dollar or so. A lot cheaper than some of our “experiments”.
Boys are bottomless pits of hunger aren’t they? My littlej isn’t much better at the moment though, ust be hitting a growth spurt. I agree with you about making the kiddies good eaters subliminally, give them great food and they will reject the crappy stuff eventually.
Great value on the ham too, our European deli sell all it’s off cuts for about $5kg, so I buy up when I see them. Yumm…
Wow. Why buy when you can make such fabulous looking rolls. Not to mention tasty. Just amazing Celia. I understand about the money. It’s nice to save, but it’s really about what is entering your temple. And our temples should be worshipped.
Cat, you’ll nail it soon, sourdough baking is pretty easy once you get the knack of it, and as you say, it’s a cheap thing to experiment with! The only thing is to make sure you have a good starter…
Becca, it’s unbelievable how much they eat! :)
Mariana, thank you! You’re absolutely right, saving money is just icing on the cake.. :)
Don’t know if it stops when boys become men either Celia., my brother is a bottomless pit…. its amazing how much food he can put away.
$50 in savings is impressive too., well done & very inspirational.
Anna, thanks love! Honestly, they eat SO MUCH at the moment, especially Small Man, who’s smack in the middle of a growth spurt. Last time we were out he ate a whole pizza AND a large plate of spag bog. Kid is going to bankrupt me. And people wonder why I don’t let him buy lunch..hahaha
Hi Celia, I have been baking bread for my family for the last 6 months at a considerable saving, it is low is salt and I can add whatever I feel like or is ‘hanging’around in my cupboard and needs using; a handful of seeds, a cup of pepitas. I have yet to go th sour dough route, but is my next challenge.
Can you tell me if you purchased your bannetons in Aus or are they from O/S? I have not been able to find local sourcing.
Cheers,
Desley
Hi Desley, thanks for stopping by! I bought my bannetons from Chefs Warehouse in Sydney – they’ve just got them in! I wrote a couple of blogposts about them:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/05/22/bannetons/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/05/26/first-banneton-loaves/
There are also a few Oz suppliers that you can order online from, but they were more expensive than Chefs. I’ve also had some friends order from Bakery Bits in the UK and been very happy with the service.