Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Making Stew Vs Buying at the Store

I was wondering if it was economical for me to make and pressure can my own stew or buy it at the store. First thing I did was take in mind that I feed 2 adults, 1 teenager, 2 under 10 and a baby every night. So I like things cheap. Second is, I like it healthy and to me when I look at a label on a can I like it to say things I can pronounce. Not to mention what was the can coated with? I know some canning lids contain BPA, but when I look at the entire can vs the lid being coated in it I choose the latter. I was going on a normal grocery store run yesterday and found meat on sale. I got some, and a light went off in my head. What if I could make a quick and easy meal for us when school and scouts start and things get crazy around here. I scounged around in my recipe books until I found this recipe. I also looked around and realized I already had some things at home. Like salt, thyme, pepper and onions from the garden. I went back to the store to get the rest and I wrote down prices so I could compare. Here is the break down of the food:
Meat      $11.00
Potato     $ 1.88
Celery    $ 1.39
Carrots   $ 1.98
Onions   $ 1.19lb (I got the price to show you)
Jars         $ 9.00 (This is a guess)
I didn't add in the seasoning, because thats getting a little crazy. The jars come in 12 packs so I divided that and it comes up to about $.75 a jar. When I made this I actually got 9 quarts instead of 7, this may not happen for everyone. This takes my total to $23.00 for 9 quarts of beef stew or $2.56 each. If you needed to add onions that would be $24.19 or $2.69 each, if your onions only weigh a pound and you get 9 quarts. When you look at whats in the store most come in 16 oz. sizes which is a 1/2 quart. I looked on amazon for Dinty Moore Beef Stew and it is a 15 oz. can for $2.95 each. I haven't looked in local stores yet. To make one quart of Dinty Moore it would take slightly over two cans of it, I will just use two for this purpose. It would cost $5.90 for two cans of theirs and $2.56 for a quart of mine. Yes it cost time for me, but I like doing stuff like that. I also like to show off stuff I make, call me vain its ok. I looked on amazon for the price of jars and its way higher than what I can find locally. Im sticking with my $9.00 for right now, next time I go to the store Ill get the correct price for yall. All in all it was so worth it for me to make this and Im going to start making more stuff like this. Would it be economical for you to can stew?

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