Save money by preparing foods instead of buying prepackaged

There are ways to save money from a weekly food budget without cutting back on your favorite foods, prepackaged foods cost more than foods that the consumer has to prepare from scratch, examples include canned fruits and vegetables, frozen dinners, baked goods and frozen entrees. These items save on time, but the prices can be higher in cost overall when you add it up monthly.



Pantry items that should be staples that include flour, dry milk, yeast, sugars, cornmeal, cocoa powder, and baking spices. Cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, and ginger. Vanilla, lemon, almond and peppermint extracts are good to flavor cookies and candies.



There are so many online recipes to make donuts, cookies, cakes and chocolate, to name a few items that can be made from scratch without paying the premium. My favorite sites are allrecipes.com, delish.com and simplyrecipes.com. Many name brand companies have their own websites that offer receipes such as bettycrocker, pillsbury, dole, goya, and wholesalemarkets.



Buy fruits and vegetables at farmer markets or produce stands instead of canned, on a weekly basis. These produce are fresh and are cheaper; many of these items can be grown in planters.



There are many items that can be made from scratch such as pizza dough, biscuits, meat patties and cheesy breads.



Time is the culprit in making food from scratch; but finding a hour or two during the week can save that food budget. By cooking and preparing foods from scratch, not only are there money savings but there are health benefits to be found by eating less processed foods.

I make enough dough that will last for about three weeks. I take enough pizza dough to make about two pizzas, then I freeze the rest of the dough to make at a later time during the month. The dough should be kept about three weeks, the most about a month. 



I buy pizza sauce, shreded mozzarella cheese, onions, peppers, and pepperoni. These are a few ideas that can be helpful during these difficult times instead of slashing that food budget by cutting back on favorite snack foods, make them at home instead.