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Baking on the $300 a Month Food Challenge
When you're on a tight budget, amongst the first things to go are the treats: the biscuits and the cakes and the muffins and muesli bars and chips and dips and cheesecakes and desserts, because these things are expensive to buy.
Even Aldi melting moments, while cheaper than some brands, are expensive at $3.99 for twelve (maybe more now, it's been a while since I checked the price). For $4 (I'll round up) you can easily make double the number and without the extras you don't want (the preservatives, the artificial flavours and colours and don't forget the packaging).
The same can be said for muesli bars. Oh boy are these things a rip off! I had a quick look at my local Coles and frankly it was overwhelming! What a variety. And trying to find the best price - let me tell you I was looking at unit pricing and wowsers do they vary. Those boxes hold anything from 5 - 18 muesli bars, but don't for one minute think that the 18 pack is three times the weight of the 6 pack because it's not, the bars are just smaller, although the price wasn't three times the price of a box of 6. So back to unit pricing. The cheapest I could find was $1.29 per 100g (Coles Gluten Free Mocha).
OK, my go to muesli bar recipe (Add to Me Muesli Bars), I've used it since AJ was a toddler, costs around $3 to make and it cuts into 24 regular sized muesli bars; I say around $3 because it will depend on the extras you add - the nuts or the dried fruit, choc bits etc. Now I haven't weighed a tray, but I do know they weigh more than the 534g that seems to be the heaviest packet of muesli bars. If my math is correct, my recipe brings the price down to 12.5 cents each. That makes them more affordable than even the cheapest bought bar.
Cakes are the same. A supermarket mud cake costs $5 for a 600g cake. My recipe isn't a real mud cake, but it's pretty darn close, and it costs a lot less. Boiled Chocolate Cake is a moist, dense, chocolate cake that tastes better than a supermarket mud cake, and it costs under $2 to make. Add another $1 for the icing/ganache/frosting and it is still cheaper. And fresher. Oh, and bigger, so you get more slices, and those slices can be frozen too, making it even cheaper than a bought mud cake.
If you're in the habit of buying biscuits, make a batch of Lunchbox Cookies. You'll get at least 100 decent sized biscuits for around $5. If your kids like pancakes for afternoon tea, make them. You can get at least a dozen for around 80 cents, and they are so good fresh from the frying pan! And they freeze. I usually make a triple batch for that very reason.
If you prefer a savoury treat, MOO pita chips can't be beaten. These days a bag of large pita breads costs around 90 cents on sale, and makes a lot of pita chips. A 170g bag of pita chips from the snack aisle costs $4.50, or $2.65/100g. A 500g bag of pita bread costs $3.20, or 64 cents/100g - a huge difference in price.
Take ten minutes to slice up a bag of pita bread, and bake it, you'll have plenty of pita chips for less than a quarter of the price!
Even basic ingredients (SR flour, plain flour, sugar, vanilla, cocoa, dried fruit, butter, eggs and milk) can make cakes or cup cakes or muffins or biscuits or slices or pastry or scones or dumplings or donuts or crackers - options, and so many of them!
They are just four examples of how you can have bakery treats on a tight grocery budget.
It's possible because you buy ingredients, not convenience.
And ingredients give you options, lots of options, even on a budget.
Even Aldi melting moments, while cheaper than some brands, are expensive at $3.99 for twelve (maybe more now, it's been a while since I checked the price). For $4 (I'll round up) you can easily make double the number and without the extras you don't want (the preservatives, the artificial flavours and colours and don't forget the packaging).
The same can be said for muesli bars. Oh boy are these things a rip off! I had a quick look at my local Coles and frankly it was overwhelming! What a variety. And trying to find the best price - let me tell you I was looking at unit pricing and wowsers do they vary. Those boxes hold anything from 5 - 18 muesli bars, but don't for one minute think that the 18 pack is three times the weight of the 6 pack because it's not, the bars are just smaller, although the price wasn't three times the price of a box of 6. So back to unit pricing. The cheapest I could find was $1.29 per 100g (Coles Gluten Free Mocha).
OK, my go to muesli bar recipe (Add to Me Muesli Bars), I've used it since AJ was a toddler, costs around $3 to make and it cuts into 24 regular sized muesli bars; I say around $3 because it will depend on the extras you add - the nuts or the dried fruit, choc bits etc. Now I haven't weighed a tray, but I do know they weigh more than the 534g that seems to be the heaviest packet of muesli bars. If my math is correct, my recipe brings the price down to 12.5 cents each. That makes them more affordable than even the cheapest bought bar.
Cakes are the same. A supermarket mud cake costs $5 for a 600g cake. My recipe isn't a real mud cake, but it's pretty darn close, and it costs a lot less. Boiled Chocolate Cake is a moist, dense, chocolate cake that tastes better than a supermarket mud cake, and it costs under $2 to make. Add another $1 for the icing/ganache/frosting and it is still cheaper. And fresher. Oh, and bigger, so you get more slices, and those slices can be frozen too, making it even cheaper than a bought mud cake.
If you're in the habit of buying biscuits, make a batch of Lunchbox Cookies. You'll get at least 100 decent sized biscuits for around $5. If your kids like pancakes for afternoon tea, make them. You can get at least a dozen for around 80 cents, and they are so good fresh from the frying pan! And they freeze. I usually make a triple batch for that very reason.
If you prefer a savoury treat, MOO pita chips can't be beaten. These days a bag of large pita breads costs around 90 cents on sale, and makes a lot of pita chips. A 170g bag of pita chips from the snack aisle costs $4.50, or $2.65/100g. A 500g bag of pita bread costs $3.20, or 64 cents/100g - a huge difference in price.
Take ten minutes to slice up a bag of pita bread, and bake it, you'll have plenty of pita chips for less than a quarter of the price!
Even basic ingredients (SR flour, plain flour, sugar, vanilla, cocoa, dried fruit, butter, eggs and milk) can make cakes or cup cakes or muffins or biscuits or slices or pastry or scones or dumplings or donuts or crackers - options, and so many of them!
They are just four examples of how you can have bakery treats on a tight grocery budget.
It's possible because you buy ingredients, not convenience.
And ingredients give you options, lots of options, even on a budget.