So many great ideas.  Having lived far from town and our roads closing often in the winter the one thing I found that helped the most was being able to make any baked good from scratch.  Having the basic ingredients on hand really helps.  So many baked goods are so quick to make.  There are many yeast breads that you don't have to knead.  Most recipes only call for 5 minutes or so.  Not too much time involved., then you wait.  Most good loaves of bread cost  $5.00 a loaf.  You can make so much cheaper.   Anything from scratch is always cheaper.  Already mentioned knowing what is in your food is a major plus when you make your own, using Farm Bell mixes is great!  As your children grow they will really enjoy learning and knowing how to make something tasty to eat.  Something that will follow all through their lifetime.  Case in point, the young man featured on Farm Bell today.  Only 16 and look what he can do.   Canning does take time, so worth it, but so much can be frozen, too.  A freezer goes far in the yearly food budget.  Buying in bulk really helps.  Great topic.

aprilejoi said:

I wanted to ask someone here what the best way to make veggi broth was, Thanks! , what an excellent way to use scraps. I am going to do that!

     I do a lot of things that many of you mentioned except tomatoes and chickens. Growing and canning/freezing tomatoes is cheap and easy and I love the taste. I try not to eat from cans anymore. Also, I raised meat chickens last year and what a difference in quality. If you are unable to raise your own consider finding a source to supply your family with farm raised meat.  Not only is the taste and texture so much better, IMO, but I don't want to ingest the stuff they inject factory raised birds with. Again, its just my experience so I don't want to offend anyone who thinks otherwise. I aslo buy farm raised beef and pork.

     I don;t make my own pasta but I do make our ice cream. I have just started buying organic milk and I love having a 2 ingredient ice cream. (cream and sugar, then flavorings of course). Did you know homemade ice cream is colder than store bought ice cream? I think so, probably because the gums they put in store bought ice creams don't actually freeze, keeping the texture creamier. While homemade freezes more thoroughly because it is just cream and sugar.

Do you mind sharing the process to making your own ice cream. If I am to google it I will get a million and one responses

I mostly buy Nature's Own Sugar Free Whole Wheat Bread. I looked at the ingredients on the back. It READS:

So don''t let words like "all natural flavors", "NO preservatives", or "100% whole grain" fool you. This bread is filled with a ton of chemicals I can't even pronounce. Homemade whole wheat bread has only 6 ingredients: whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, butter, honey, and warm water. None of these ingredients exist here. So at $3 bucks a bag (when on sale) I suggest making your own bread.

So there it is…. BREAD is not worth buying.

Ruthmarie said:

Interesting thread!  I have largely done the majority of the household cooking from scratch since my teen years … love baking just about anything, love casseroles large enough for dinner and lunch the next day, love saving money by buying whole chickens (or frozen sale bags) or large cuts of meat to carve into dinner size meals.  I often pickup a heck of a sale in meat, veggie or fruit and freeze in portions.  In the past few years with gaining interest in turning much of our suburban backyard into a veggie garden, I'm embracing the whole creative aspect of canning jams, butters, chutneys, relishes, sauces, salsas for family and gifts … this year I hope to move into pressure canning soups and broths.

As to what should be scratch-cooked versus store-bought is subjective to the individual and family.  My ongoing rule-of-thumb in simply living is to do the best possible for myself and family according to where I am each day.  There will be the on-top-of-the-world days where there is home-baked bread and the crockpot/casserole/stockpot overfloweth … versus the day when my fatigue level gets the best of me and I will march to the freezer and pull out a frozen store-bought pizza without apology (although my DH chuckles over my compulsion to add "better toppings and seasonings").  I also have store-bought whole grain bread in that same freezer.  We eat store-bought whole grain pastas, tortillas and brown rice for ordinary meals so the occasional small foray into chemical preservatives isn't going to embalm the household before our time and time isn't always on my side in cooking it all from scratch.  Pick your pleasurable conquests, ie, the items you enjoy making from scratch foremost over a compulsion to do it all.

I agree. It is important not to turn this activity into a compulsion. We need to be not just efficient, but realistic with what our lifestyle allows us to do. I am going to make butter from scratch this week because in the process I will get the buttermilk. With that I can make pancakes and biscuits. Hopefully the cream at the store is not that expensive. If I had a goat, I would most definitely do this all the time. Let's see what happens.I live in the city, so commercial grocery stores is all I got. A whole foods is usually a 6-12 miles away. Not efficient.