Counting the Cost

If frugality were an Olympic event, I'd be on the winner's podium.

If being thrifty were a movie, there would be an Oscar on my shelf (or repurposed as a doorstop or glasses holder).

I would describe myself as careful with money, others might see it as cheap.

Whatever the modifier, a lot of what I do is motivated by the desire to save money. And that includes cooking from scratch.

Conventional wisdom dictates that ingredients plus effort plus time yields lower cash outlay than buying prepared foods. 

Like most of life, it's not that straightforward and keeping track of actual expenses is a good idea. I recently made some choke cherry and rosehip jelly and attempted to figure out the cost benefit over store bought, if any.
 



Ingredients: 

Fruit juice. Back at Woodchuck Acres, free fruit was everywhere. The road was lined with choke cherry bushes and we had a planting of rosehip-heavy Rugosa roses. The harvest was so plentiful in 2010 that I had more than enough for several batches of jelly and canned a pint each of juice for future use. So for this jelly, the raw materials were free using my time (more about that in a bit) and some energy for heat and washing (more about that later also).

Pectin. One box purchased for $1.00

Sugar. 5 1/2 cups or about 38 1/2 ounces which is a little more than half of a bag (4 lbs.). I can't remember how much I paid for the bag, I think about $2.50, so let's call the price of the sugar $1.50.

Equipment, energy, time:

The jars and rings I have had for many years and reused some Tattler lids. I suppose I should figure depreciation on this stuff but I had enough of depreciation doing taxes, thank you very much.

Energy. Everything was washed in hot water, the lids were boiled and the jelly heated and I processed the final product in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. My attempt to figure out the cost here involved how many BTUs it takes to boil a gallon of water but I got lost somewhere between converting joules to BTUs (or was it the other way around?) and then the caloric properties of propane, etc. My final guess is I used less than 1/2 gallon of propane. Our propane cost us $1.99/gallon, so that totals another $1.00

My time. I'm retired so my time isn't worth anything to anyone except myself. I enjoy making jelly and think this is a good way to spend some of my life energy, so add in $0.00.

Total. The two pints of juice yielded eight half pint jars of jelly. The total outlay is $3.50 or $.44 per jar.

So in this case, homemade is cheaper. 

Cooking is easy to tally but other typical country endeavors are harder to list in terms of profit or loss.

Growing your own fruit and vegetables? Building sheds or fences? Livestock? 

Take chickens for example: Feed plus chicks plus building a coop plus fencing (a run if you cage them, your garden if you free-range). Is it worth it for the eggs and manure? How much is the joy of watching their goofy antics worth or the time you spent defrosting water pans in freezing temperatures or the heartbreak when they disappear to predators?

 Many times people say they want to move to the country and live a simple life, be self-sufficient and live cheaply--a wonderful ideal but please come to it with a healthy dose of realism. Not all do-it-yourself programs will save you money but you'll become rich in the things that matter. And that's real wealth.