The cost of doing it yourself (in the kitchen)

Well, I went shopping for 'a few things' and $201 later, I'm home.

Of course, then I decided the bottom drawer in the fridge was a bit of a mess and I'd need to wash it before dropping vegetables in it. Then I realized the shelf above it was a bit in need of one too. Then, after removing that unit, discovered the bottom of the fridge interior (under the drawer) was *really* in need of a cleaning. So, while things melted around the kitchen, I cleaned.

Having shopped at the 24 hour Sobbey's (and might I add, they are not much of a place for jam makers or canners - they don't stock no-sugar-add Pectin), I didn't get home until 0015 HRS and the unloading, storage and cleanup have taken me until now (0130 HRS). It's annoying, but it feels good to have it done.

I have plans to make a batch of peach jam and a batch of raspberry jam this week (batch = 5-8 250 ml jars) once I get the right Pectin and a silicon-tipped spatula with a stainless handle (it turns out silicon-tipped plastic handled spatulas can't handle the high boiling temperatures of jam with all that sugar - at least the handle can't).

But I digress, which is not unusual.

I was planning to address the cost of doing it yourself, particularly as it pertains to pizza.

Now, I remember a day in university where Peter, Paul and I would buy a big rectangular pizza shell (Paul made a few in his bread maker too) and I recall them being pretty cheap. We'd buy a big bag of shredded cheese, a pepperoni to slice up, some tomato paste, and usually on some part of it, Peter and I would sneak green peppers (Paul had a policy of not eating anything green). As I recall. this construction might have cost $15-16 or so and should probably have fed 4-6, but we were pizza demolition men in college, so it fed 3 hungry techie geeks. So, $5 a head, $2.50 a head if you had eaten normal amounts. These are 1995 dollars, so we must account for 14 years of inflation too. According to the Bank of Canada, this would be $19 in 2009, so $6.33 a head, for pizza pigs.

Now, contrast that with my trip to Sobbey's.

2 pizza shells with sauce - 5.49
2 Greem Pepper - $1.28
Pepperoni - $4.49
Bag of Cheese - 7.19
+ Tax Total = 20.85

Assume for a moment this makes two pizzas, which would be enough for 3 pizza pigs or 6 normal humans. That's $20.85/3 = $6.95 per. Compared to the adjusted-for-inflation 1995 dollars, we can see about a 10% increase in costs. Part of that is GST hitting all sorts of things now and part of it is that dairy and wheat costs have grown out of proportion to inflation (I believe... seems that way if you look at the cost of cheeses, pasta, bread and milk).

Overall, home-made pizza (cheese, pepperoni and peppers) costs about what it used to, give or take. That's my first conclusion.

On the other hand, a McCain pizza with meat, vegetables, and cheese was on sale for $4.00, premade. No preparation. Two of them would match our do-it-yourself plain old pizza for $8.00 + tax. vs. $20.85.

You tell me.... is it cheaper to roll your own and prep your own meals? Add in some sort of time cost for your own prep time and that two pizza set would likely cost you $30-40. And the two pre-made ones (and you can get two with different, but good and tasty, contents) are $8.00 + tax.

Here is where we see how the movement towards home food preparation is dragged out into the back alley and beaten senseless. Yes, when you roll your own at home, you can add more herbs, crumble some italian sausage onto it, use organic vegetables and a multi-grain pizza shell (the McCain was multi-grain too). You do get more selectivity of ingredients (at further added cost). But even the baseline pizza is at a minimum 2.5 times more expensive if made at home than the pre-packaged one.

Now, if you made your own pizza shell, it might drop to 2.2 or 2.0 times more expensive. But the economy of scale and process McCain works on is telling, even ignoring any of your own time/labour costs! If you factor them in, the comparison is even worse.

Ultimately, most families can't afford to be all that choosy about what they eat. Many are living hand to mouth. When the difference between slow food, home prepared and pre-prepared mass-production food is on the order of 2 times or more... they would be insane not to opt for that. And this is my second conclusion from looking into this.

I'm not sure the comparison extends the same to all meals, but these are my observations from the pizza front.