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2020: Baked goods - calculating your cost
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leno...@yahoo.com
Feb 20, 2020, 4:10:02 PM2/20/20
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Time to update - so here it is.
Some things that have notably increased in price: Molasses, soy flour, brown sugar, vegetable oil, & wheat flour. A few prices have stayed the same or even gone down. Others have increased only slightly
These prices are the lowest in my neighborhood (Boston area) on a weekly basis, including a few bargains at ethnic groceries and health food stores. They do not include sale prices or any marked-down goods I might find on the discount rack. Of course, I believe in stocking up when there IS a sale, but not everyone wants to have large amounts of butter, yeast or soy flour taking up space in the freezer. (Butter goes on sale maybe 3 times a year, where I live.)
The Tightwad Gazette chart had: Price per pound, weight per cup, price per cup, price per tablespoon, and price per teaspoon. To save time, I'm only listing the price per cup or tablespoon (sometimes rounded up or down). If it doesn't say "Tb," then it means the price per cup. Since prices change all the time, the main purpose is to allow you to compare made-from-scratch foods with each other.
Why did I include powdered milk, when it's no longer a money saver? It's still sometimes NEEDED in baking (such as one granola recipe), it's useful in camping, and it can be used as a substitute for cream and condensed milk (with sugar, water and margarine). However, I only buy dented boxes of it from the discount rack. It takes 1/3 of a cup to make 1 cup liquid milk.
Eggs vary so much, I didn't include them. But...it's worth remembering that 4 jumbo eggs are equal to 5 large eggs. If you like, I can post the egg price chart later.
Baking powder 12 cents (Tb)
Baking soda 1.5 (Tb)
Brown sugar 39.3
Butter $1.50
Cocoa 7 (Tb)
Coconut 27
Cornmeal 43
Cornstarch 2 (Tb)
Cream of tartar 47 (Tb)
Honey $2.25
Im. vanilla 6 (Tb)
Liquid milk 16
Margarine 44.5
Molasses $1.99
Oatmeal 24
Powdered milk 4 (Tb)
Powdered sugar 39
Raisins 72.25
Salt 1.4 (Tb)
Soy flour 5.5 (Tb)
Vanilla 31 (Tb)
Vegetable oil: 41.5
Wheat flour 25
Wheat germ $3.32 (per pound)
White flour 15
White sugar 27.5
Lenona.
Some things that have notably increased in price: Molasses, soy flour, brown sugar, vegetable oil, & wheat flour. A few prices have stayed the same or even gone down. Others have increased only slightly
These prices are the lowest in my neighborhood (Boston area) on a weekly basis, including a few bargains at ethnic groceries and health food stores. They do not include sale prices or any marked-down goods I might find on the discount rack. Of course, I believe in stocking up when there IS a sale, but not everyone wants to have large amounts of butter, yeast or soy flour taking up space in the freezer. (Butter goes on sale maybe 3 times a year, where I live.)
The Tightwad Gazette chart had: Price per pound, weight per cup, price per cup, price per tablespoon, and price per teaspoon. To save time, I'm only listing the price per cup or tablespoon (sometimes rounded up or down). If it doesn't say "Tb," then it means the price per cup. Since prices change all the time, the main purpose is to allow you to compare made-from-scratch foods with each other.
Why did I include powdered milk, when it's no longer a money saver? It's still sometimes NEEDED in baking (such as one granola recipe), it's useful in camping, and it can be used as a substitute for cream and condensed milk (with sugar, water and margarine). However, I only buy dented boxes of it from the discount rack. It takes 1/3 of a cup to make 1 cup liquid milk.
Eggs vary so much, I didn't include them. But...it's worth remembering that 4 jumbo eggs are equal to 5 large eggs. If you like, I can post the egg price chart later.
Baking powder 12 cents (Tb)
Baking soda 1.5 (Tb)
Brown sugar 39.3
Butter $1.50
Cocoa 7 (Tb)
Coconut 27
Cornmeal 43
Cornstarch 2 (Tb)
Cream of tartar 47 (Tb)
Honey $2.25
Im. vanilla 6 (Tb)
Liquid milk 16
Margarine 44.5
Molasses $1.99
Oatmeal 24
Powdered milk 4 (Tb)
Powdered sugar 39
Raisins 72.25
Salt 1.4 (Tb)
Soy flour 5.5 (Tb)
Vanilla 31 (Tb)
Vegetable oil: 41.5
Wheat flour 25
Wheat germ $3.32 (per pound)
White flour 15
White sugar 27.5
Lenona.
leno...@yahoo.com
Feb 20, 2020, 4:23:55 PM2/20/20
to
I forgot - cornmeal MAY have gone down, but I'm also confused about the difference between fine cornmeal and corn flour. If you're just making hasty pudding, does it matter?
I also wonder about the "very fine" brown rice I saw in a huge bag at an Indian store - does that just mean the grains were naturally smaller than usual, or chopped?
And: I spotted a bag of Bob's Red Mill "egg replacer" in the baking aisle. The ingredients are: "Whole Soy Flour, Wheat Gluten, Corn Syrup Solids, Algin (From Algae)." Directions: "For each whole egg to be replaced in your recipe, mix 1 Tablespoon Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer with 3 Tablespoons water."
I forgot to check the price, though. At any rate, in theory, you can just use soy flour and water instead - and at 5.5 cents per Tb, that's clearly less than the price of even a cheap egg - and has no cholesterol. (Do not use when baking cookies - but it works well for muffins, pancakes, or bread.)
Lenona.
I also wonder about the "very fine" brown rice I saw in a huge bag at an Indian store - does that just mean the grains were naturally smaller than usual, or chopped?
And: I spotted a bag of Bob's Red Mill "egg replacer" in the baking aisle. The ingredients are: "Whole Soy Flour, Wheat Gluten, Corn Syrup Solids, Algin (From Algae)." Directions: "For each whole egg to be replaced in your recipe, mix 1 Tablespoon Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer with 3 Tablespoons water."
I forgot to check the price, though. At any rate, in theory, you can just use soy flour and water instead - and at 5.5 cents per Tb, that's clearly less than the price of even a cheap egg - and has no cholesterol. (Do not use when baking cookies - but it works well for muffins, pancakes, or bread.)
Lenona.
Bruce
Feb 20, 2020, 4:32:42 PM2/20/20
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and butter) and, generally speaking, the quality? Or is everything
only about money?
leno...@yahoo.com
Feb 20, 2020, 4:40:34 PM2/20/20
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I said I needed to save time.
leno...@yahoo.com
Feb 20, 2020, 4:50:07 PM2/20/20
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But, of course, your concerns are valid, so go ahead and make your own chart.
If you need help with checking the weight/volume ratios, see here:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.food.cooking/lenona$20soy$20sugar%7Csort:date/rec.food.cooking/x7HiM7zLKmU/phMBp5L9CQAJ
Scroll down to 10/30/15 for weights per cup.
Also, early on, there's a chart by Amy Dacyczyn that lists the cheapest home breakfasts to the most expensive.
Lenona.
Bruce
Feb 20, 2020, 4:58:53 PM2/20/20
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taking your $ amounts and multiplying them by 2.5. Australia's an
expensive island.
Cindy Hamilton
Feb 21, 2020, 5:38:13 AM2/21/20
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more expensive to someone making $10.00 per hour. Or less.
I find "how many hours to earn enough money to buy X" a much more accurate
gauge, but it's a lot more difficult to calculate.
And then there's this:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index>
Cindy Hamilton
Ophelia
Feb 21, 2020, 6:30:57 AM2/21/20
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"Cindy Hamilton" wrote in message
news:0a487d51-6cc7-46f7...@googlegroups.com...
====
Can I ask ... do you take it apart to eat it?
news:0a487d51-6cc7-46f7...@googlegroups.com...
Can I ask ... do you take it apart to eat it?
Cindy Hamilton
Feb 21, 2020, 8:53:43 AM2/21/20
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Cindy Hamilton
John Kuthe
Feb 21, 2020, 9:52:13 AM2/21/20
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John Kuthe, Climate Anarchist and Chocolaologist
Ophelia
Feb 21, 2020, 10:17:20 AM2/21/20
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"Cindy Hamilton" wrote in message
news:28cfae61-7f5d-4619...@googlegroups.com...
Blimey. How do you get your mouth around that???
Cindy Hamilton
Feb 21, 2020, 10:30:13 AM2/21/20
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easily, since the bread is barely bread at all.
Cindy Hamilton
Ophelia
Feb 21, 2020, 10:41:34 AM2/21/20
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"Cindy Hamilton" wrote in message
news:e9c99869-4430-48e0...@googlegroups.com...
I will take your word on that <g>
Cindy Hamilton
Feb 21, 2020, 10:50:45 AM2/21/20
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Cindy Hamilton
Jinx the Minx
Feb 21, 2020, 1:12:28 PM2/21/20
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size.
Ophelia
Feb 21, 2020, 3:06:05 PM2/21/20
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"Cindy Hamilton" wrote in message
news:96ae2393-b98f-4a69...@googlegroups.com...
lol
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