Do you cook from scratch?  I mean really from scratch.  I use to say that I cooked from scratch, but when I began to look for ways to save money I began cooking more and more from scratch.  I found recipes for almost all the convenience or pre-packaged items that we ate each month and began baking them.  From tortillas to pasta to cookies and crackers, we make it all from scratch.  The primary ingredient in most of these items is flour, which we buy in bulk for non-bleached white and grind our own for whole wheat.  I can make these items healthier and cheaper than the grocery store.  When you really commit to not purchasing pre-made items, you can save even more money. 

Now time is an issue.  I never figure in my time when cutting costs and trying to save money.  Time at home with my family baking and cooking is precious time building them up and nurturing them.  Time my husband or I have to work to make money to pay someone else to prepare food items is time away from our family.  Therefore, to have the greatest amount of time with our family we have to find ways to not spend money.  Does that make sense?

To overcome the time issue build baking into your household schedule.  There are a variety of ways to do this; remember the olden days where women had 1 day a week for baking.  For our family we have 1 hour a day of household chore time where someone is assigned to bake.  Every morning after breakfast clean-up and before school time, my oldest bakes.  Wednesdays and Saturdays are bread days.  The remaining days we have a list of items we keep stocked and evaluate what needs to be made. 

Baked items keep very well in freezers, so we keep the following items stocked: noodles, flour tortillas, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal cookies, applesauce cookies, graham crackers, whole wheat crackers, amish sweet bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bars, biscuits, and scones.  Many of these items make up our daily snacks.  Flour tortillas are baked to make chips as well as being used for meals.  Some baking days may be used to make granola, cornbread, or desserts as needed for meals.

By keeping our home well stocked with our homemade pre-packaged foods, we are saving money and building a more health and happy family.  It also makes for a great adventure to try and make new things.  We have tried donuts and bagels recently.  Both were yummy but a little time consuming. 

I hope you are saving money on your homestead today . . .

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Posted by Mama

Hi! Would you have some cracker recipes that you would share? I tried making some once and they didn't taste good so no one ate them! I would love to find some good recipes for all the crackers we like!
Thanks,
Mama

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