Last summer, you would find us making a trip, almost every Saturday morning, to the local farmer’s market. In addition to the fresh fruit and vegetables, we would inevitably pick up a few snacks as well, especially scones. The problem is that one small package of two scones was priced at $5, and we needed several for our family, so this added up to about $20 for eight scones each week.
This year, everyone still looked forward to scones, but instead of purchasing the scones, I decided to make them from scratch. Since I didn’t want to spend a lot of time in the morning, I opted for a recipe that used prepared baking mix. The scones come out wonderfully, and I can vary the ingredients a bit to make different flavors. The cost to make the scones is less than $2 for eight scones that are much larger than the ones we used to purchase. Even if I don’t count for the size difference in favor of making them myself, we save $18 a week this way. Plus, we never have to wait until a Saturday for fresh scones.
The lesson I learned from this is to identify those areas of spending and see if you can save money by supplying those wants or needs yourself. If you eat a lot of pizza out, make your own at home and save. The same goes for fancy coffee. Add a shot of your own chocolate syrup and some whipped cream for a homemade mocha.
If you regularly spend money on kids craft supplies, figure out ways to make a stockpile of them yourself, such as cutting out your own foam shapes, using old magazines, saving the extra buttons that often come with clothing, or printing out paper crafts online.
Find what it is you love to buy and then make it!
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