10 Foods You Should Make from Scratch to Save Money

Groceries are expensive, and you can save so much money by making food at home! Here are my top 10 foods you should make from scratch (plus 3 that you shouldn’t).

Food often takes up one of the largest portions of the budget, so it’s a great area to try to save money! Over the past few years, I’ve been analyzing what we buy at the store and comparing prices to see what I should be making myself.

Woman mixing ingredients in bowl

While almost everything is cheaper to make at home, time is limited, so I only make things myself if it’s healthier, easy to fit into my schedule, and saves a significant amount of money. These are my favorite foods to make myself plus a few you don’t need to waste your time making.

1. Granola

A healthy granola is one of the best breakfast foods, but it’s so expensive to buy! The good news is that it’s easy and cheap to make. When you make it yourself, you can also customize it to your flavor preferences and make it even healthier than the store-bought versions.

Favorite Recipe:

Maple Granola with Nuts and Cranberries

2. Salad Dressing

Salad dressing is one of the best places to start if your goal is to make more food at home! It’s extremely easy, quick, and cheap to make, and it’s so much healthier than what you would buy.

Favorite Recipes:

Lemon Balsamic Salad Dressing

Basic Vinaigrette

3. Yogurt

Yogurt typically costs a few times more than milk, however, milk is the primary ingredient you need to make it. Making yogurt is easy to add to your routine, and can save you so much money!

Favorite Recipe:

Homemade Yogurt

4. Broth or Stock

If you buy quality broth or stock, the cost adds up quickly! Making it yourself is easy, and it feels great to be able to fill your freezer with a few months’ worth of broth. Store-bought versions also usually have unhealthy additives, so this is another reason to make it yourself.

Favorite Recipe:

How to Make Bone Broth

5. Guacamole

Not only is homemade much fresher and tastier, it’s also a whole lot cheaper! It’s such an easy condiment to make yourself that you’ll never need to buy it again.

Favorite Recipe:

Best Guacamole

6. Raw Nut Butter

If you prefer raw nut butter instead of roasted nut butter, you’ve got to make this yourself! Raw nut butter is typically very expensive, and you can make it yourself for a fraction of the cost.

Favorite Recipe:

How to Make Cashew Butter with Raw Cashews

Stack of gluten-free oat flour pancakes

7. Pancakes

Not only is pancake mix expensive for what it contains, but it isn’t the healthiest. You can save money and eat healthier by making pancakes yourself.

If you like the ease of pancake mix, simply mix together a large batch of the dry ingredients of your favorite pancake recipe. Now you have your own homemade pancake mix that’s cheaper and healthier!

Favorite Recipes:

Oat Flour Pancakes 

Pumpkin Pancakes with Oat Flour

Easy Pancakes without Eggs

Five Ingredient Banana Oat Pancakes

8. Bread

Homemade bread is so much better than store-bought in every aspect, and if you ask most people, it’s one of the top foods you should make from scratch! Homemade bread is healthier, cheaper, and tastes incredible! If your family eats a lot of bread, making it at home is so important.

Favorite Recipes:

Simple Honey White Sandwich Bread

Soft Einkorn Sandwich Bread

Gluten-Free Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Same Day Sourdough Bread

9. Tortillas

Just like bread, store-bought tortillas can’t compete with homemade! Once you start making them, you’ll never want to buy them again.

Favorite Recipe:

5 Ingredient Soft Flour Tortillas

Side angle of energy balls with dates in a baking dish.

10. Snacks

Premade snacks are expensive! No matter what types of packaged snacks are your favorite, the cost adds up quickly.

You can save so much money by making your own snacks! As a bonus, they taste so much better and are often healthier too.

Favorite Recipes:

Blackberry Banana Breakfast Muffins with Oats

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies without Eggs

Simple Banana & Date Oatmeal Cookies

Coconut Date Balls

Gluten-Free Fig Bars

3 Foods You Should Buy

While cooking from scratch is almost much always the best, there are a few foods that are just not worth the time and effort to make at home.

Peanut Butter

Typical roasted peanut butter is usually so cheap that you won’t save much by making it yourself. If you think you want to try raw peanut butter, I hope you love peas! Raw peanuts taste almost exactly like peas, and it isn’t the best flavor for a nut butter.

Canned Tomato Products

If you don’t have an abundance of tomatoes in your garden, it’s not worth buying tomatoes to can. Canned tomato products are very affordable, and it’s easy to find organic versions with great ingredients.

Almond Flour

The price per pound between almonds and almond flour is usually very similar. Making it yourself requires removing the skins which adds a step in addition to grinding. Also, almonds are one of the hardest nuts, so, even if your food processor can handle it, it may wear out the motor more quickly.

What are your favorite foods to make yourself? Let me know in the comments!

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2 Comments

  1. This was super helpful! I need to try homemade granola. I was shocked at the price last time I bought it at the store. I have never done it before, but my kids convinced me to make homemade fruit snacks. We will see how it goes!

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