Homemaking on the Homestead

Calculating the Cost After making tonight’s low cost meal I thought I would share how you calculate the cost of food items that are a little trickier to figure out.   I am referring to things like pasta, rice, beans, etc..   how do you determine what a cup of pasta or beans cost?   You will need a small scale to do this.   Having a scale in the kitchen is very handy.   I bought a small postal scale from ebay years ago and have put to good use!   The first thing you need to know is the price you paid for your item and how much it weighs.   Let’s use pasta for this example (I had to do this today to calculate how much I spent on my dinner, so it is an easy one for me to share).    I bought a 10lb box of whole wheat elbow macaroni from my food co-op Azure Standard.   I paid $21.35 for it.    The next step is to find out is what 1 cup of dry elbow macaroni weighs.   I put it on my scale and it weighed ...

  A couple months ago I closed down my original web site, The Family Homestead. It was a financial decision and the traffic to the site was small. However, since closing it down I've had requests for recipes as well as having many people tell me that they miss the old site. Since I have a copy of the site on my computer I have access to all the recipes and articles.  I have decided that periodically I will post some of those recipes and articles. I'm going to start by doing it on request. So if you have been looking for something on the old site, please let me know so I can repost it here.   I will be calling this series, The Family Homestead Archives..  Crystal :) ************************* Grocery Budget Helps: What to Do With 25 Pounds of Beans? Crystal Miller I love being frugal and keeping close tabs on my grocery budget and eating beans is one way I keep things in check. I was inspired to write about how ...