Business has been a little slow, with two major projects on temporary (I hope) hold. Cash flow is a little tough and groceries are getting really expensive. Since I have more time than money right now, here’s how I’m saving the latter without really changing how or what we are eating:
Baking bread
Baking bread actually takes only 20 minutes of time, including cleanup. I mix and kneed everything in my stand mixer and raise twice. Each loaf costs about .35 USD in materials. The loaves are about 2/3 of the size of a store loaf, but still, store loaves are running $2.50-$3.85 for the kind of bread we buy. We eat a lot of bread; the two of us probably go through 2 loaves a week, so this saves an average of $22.60 per month.
Making Granola
My DH won’t eat cheap cereal – generic corn flakes or puffed rice. So we can count on at least $4.00 for a box of cereal. Have you noticed how small cereal boxes are getting? Luckily, he loves my plain granola. I buy the Quaker Oats at Costco and use molasses/honey/maple syrup/brown sugar for the sweetener. I buy molasses, honey and maple syrup when they are on sale or a good price at Costco. A couple of tablespoons of oil, water, cinnamon and vanilla and we are good. The cost comes to just under .09 per 1-cup serving. The time spent to make 3 batches (I make smaller batches because they toast easier and I only have one edged cookie sheet) is a total of an hour (lots of in-between time). I figure we are saving about 30.00 a month on cereal!
Yogurt
Yogurt is super-easy to make. Milk is running 3.56 a gallon here, which makes about a gallon of yogurt. A quart of yogurt (the good kind) is usually on sale for 1.99-2.50, so the savings is 5.42 a gallon. We use lots of yogurt in smoothies and as sour cream in cooking. We save about 10.00 a month on yogurt.
Home Made Pizza
When I make bread, I also make pizza dough, raise it once and freeze it. It thaws pretty quick in warm water (I freeze it in a ziploc) and is better for us than store bought or delivery. We always have ground venison or elk, and I just reduce some canned tomatoes for the sauce. The cheese is the costliest part. The pizza we usually get costs 11.49. The made pizza costs about $3.75. We usually do pizza on Fridays, so we are looking at about 32.00 in savings a month.
Fruit Stand/Farmer’s Market
We have lots of fruit stands and a weekly farmer’s market in the summer time, so I hit them to get very cheap fruit and vegetables. Of course I’m stuck with what is in season! We’ve have asperagus (.85/lb) for two weeks, and I also pickled a bunch. Peas are also out (.65/lb) and cherries. Asperagus at the grocery store during this time was 1.99/lb, there were no peas. I figure I save about 15.00 a month shopping at the fruit stands.
Now if only the DH could be convinced to brew beer again, we’d REALLY see the savings! 
Let me know in the comments how you save cash by exchanging your time for money.
