JonobieRE: https://ablerism.micro.blog/2026/06/15/regular-random-reminder-that-bangforbuck.html
I’ve found this to be true as well.
This makes me wonder beyond salad dressing and granola:
What else is low effort to make and vastly better or cheaper than store-bought?
clewDepends, yesno? What’s your kitchen, what’s your climate, what kinds of attention are easier for you…
There’s a book _Make the Bread Buy the Butter_ about a lot of these experiments. Rates each thing on… I think cost savings, tastiness, and hassle, as three independent axes.
I know I have different results than the author for some things, but it’s a great frame for the idea and a great way to take notes.
My household buys wheat from the farmer and grinds it by hand for bread, frex. @jonobie
zompus@clew @jonobie I think of bread is high-effort because of the various timings, as well as the various things that have to be cleaned afterward. If I'm doing it for a hobby, then fine, but if I'm doing it because I need bread, I'm just going to go buy bread.
Things I would make rather than buy include granola, cake, chicken stock, pasta sauce, and hummus. Also I would rather make Hainanese chicken at home rather than get it at a restaurant.
how much do I want, is it a hassle to buy it, and and and. even in the city but not in a high rise, if it isn’t a commuting day, I’d rather make bread than go out to buy it. In a good high rise neighborhood, I could buy practically anything fresh in single servings exactly when I wanted it. But I’ve also lived far enough out that I could make bread faster than an errand could go get it. Everything depends!@zompus @jonobie
@clew @jonobie I also tried making crumpets a couple of times but aside from the dough mixing and rising time, it takes about 10 minutes to cook 4 crumpets in a pan, which means I was actively standing at the stove for an hour to get through all of them. Running 2 pans sped things up but it was twice as much mental load to not overcook them.