What wouldn't you do to save a buck?

[stealw]

Hm, is it actually ergo/economical to actually bake your own goods..? For example a loaf of bread..sure it's cheaper to buy the ingredients and make it from scratch, though having to turn on your oven just for that isn't worth it i believe. Unless your baking in bulk which I suppose could be more efficient.

Sometimes when I cook at home vs in the restaurant, where you usually finish things off in the oven out of habit and perhaps being convenient. I just do everything if not most stove top if it can be done.

just my 2 cents

Jim

[jean_genie]

Hi Ondine,

As a former Perthie, I hope I can help here! I used to live near the city, so the closest fresh market I could get to was Subi Markets, but I'm sure you know of one near you. I'd usually get my fruits and veges from these markets because they are so much cheaper than Woolies/Coles/other supermarkets. I used to buy rice, grains and other dry goods in bulk at Kakulas Bros on William Street in Northbridge - again, so much cheaper than the stuff you get at your standard supermarkets. They have a great range of ethnic ingredients too! I'd also often head into Wing Hong Butchers on William Street to buy my meats - but be warned that it gets really crowded on weekends because the meat are cheap (Wing Hong is a popular supplier for restaurants, butcher shops and supermarkets). And there you have it - quality ingredients for cheap(er)!

Admittedly, it has been a few years since I was on a tight budget (back in the days when I was a poor uni student) but the Chinese in me always seeks out bargains and the cheapest deals wherever I am.

Good luck with saving $$!

edited to add: If you can handle crowds and rushing for bargains, near the closing time on a Saturday for supermarkets that shuts on Sundays - and likewise on Sundays for the fresh markets that are shut during the week - are great for grabbing perishables that have been marked down for clearance.

Edited May 2, 2008 by jean_genie (log)

[jean_genie]

Oh, and just to add that one thing I'd never scrimp on is good quality dark chocolate. The cheap ones always tastes nasty. (This becomes important when you eat a little chocolate everyday.)

[helenjp]

Salt...I crossed that line! I use cheap iodized for things like salting water for boiling pasta, and save the sea salt for special dishes, or cases where the salt will be tasted directly.

I don't think there's any such thing as "never" - the choices aren't "good wine or bad wine", they are usually things like "good wine or pay my bills"

Baking your own bread - that's a tricky one! I know that baking my own bread is not cheaper than buying it, even in Japan, because making bread from the quality of bread flour I can buy in the supermarket plus vegetable shortening and water produces something I don't want to eat, while adding things like olive oil , eggs, or milk costs more. However, bread is a major part of breakfast, and I think that the cost of home-made bread is worth the nutritional gain.

Yogurt - making your own yogurt and yogurt cheese saves money on many fronts - the yogurt is good for a snack and for desserts as well as breakfast, good in salad dressings, excellent mixed with more expensive cheese on grilled toast, and a nice sub for butter!

[JTravel]

Yogurt - making your own yogurt and yogurt cheese saves money on many fronts - the yogurt is good for a snack and for desserts as well as breakfast, good in salad dressings, excellent mixed with more expensive cheese on grilled toast, and a nice sub for butter!

I received a yogurt maker for Christmas......it was something I never, ever, wished for. But I used it so I could tell giver that I had. It was easy, and since I was on anti-biotics I was always eating/drinking yogurt. Now I make yogurt once a week or so.

My student from Kazakhstan does it simpler, glass jar, milk, microwave.....stick in finger to test temp, add yogurt, set on counter. A bit too iffy for me but good result for her.

I drain some, mix in honey or some vanilla sugar (vanilla thread/eBay vanilla)...and serve it with oven toasted, topped with vanilla sugar, pita pieces.

Now I want to try the fruit salad dressing from the Recipes that Rock thread. Plus the mixing with cheese for grilled toast. Lots of uses and not like being deprived.

I guess bread would be a place I draw the line.....I could never eat that cotton stuff DH eats. Now I am baking the CI recipe, with some added 8 grain cereal soaked a bit and added. Haven't priced it out with the rise in prices. Surely cheaper than artisan bread....don't know about just "bread".

[MoGa]

There's a line relating to dried pasta I won't cross. If I can't get it to an 'al dente' texture I'm not interested, this rules out many of the generic supermarket pastas in Britain and Spain (and Japan).

I won't substitute good olive oil for pomace oil or another vegetable alternative, thankfully, what I regard as 'good' olive oil isn't necessarily expensive.

Thankfully I can buy panko very cheaply in London, I brown it in olive oil with some garlic and other herbs and sprinkle it on food instead of parmesan. This is very economical.

And no matter how poor I am I never buy eggs from non-free range hens. Thankfully more and more products in the UK that have eggs in them are using free-range eggs, Hellman's mayonnaise is a good example of a product I've been able to start buying again recently.

[pansophia]

My husband and I are feeling the economic pinch as well and last week I discovered something I can't give up to save a buck, organic milk. I don't know how they make nonfat organic milk taste so much better and creamier than it's standard nonfat counterpart, but I can't go back. I just cringe every time I see that it's $2 more per gallon.

Oh well. We'll have to save it somewhere else.

Edited May 3, 2008 by pansophia (log)