This is based on a 1992 article/chart from "The Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn.

These prices are the lowest in my neighborhood (Boston area) on a weekly basis, including a few bargains at ethnic groceries and health food stores. They do not include sale prices or any marked-down goods I might find on the discount rack. Of course, I believe in stocking up when there IS a sale, but not everyone wants to have large amounts of butter, yeast or soy flour taking up space in the freezer. (Butter goes on sale maybe 3 times a year, where I live.)

Interesting note: I made my own first chart maybe less than a year after I read that article. The updated chart below showed me that a few things have doubled in price since then (oatmeal, margarine and shredded coconut) or tripled (white flour, cream of tartar, and raisins), but baking soda and salt haven't changed at all!

The Tightwad Gazette chart had: Price per pound, weight per cup, price per cup, price per tablespoon, and price per teaspoon. To save time, I'm only listing the price per cup or tablespoon (sometimes rounded up or down). Since prices change all the time, the main purpose is to allow you to compare made-from-scratch foods with each other - more later.

Why did I include powdered milk? While it's true that (in my area) an economy-sized box, which has 25.6 ounces and makes 2 gallons of liquid milk, costs $6.99 and therefore is more expensive than liquid skim milk ($2.59 per gallon), it's still sometimes NEEDED in baking (such as one granola recipe), it's useful in camping, and it can be used as a substitute for cream and condensed milk (with sugar, water and margarine). However, I only buy dented boxes of it from the discount rack. "The Tightwad Gazette," vol. 1, talks about its uses on pages 202-203 and 208-209. (I don't know which pages that would be in "The Complete Tightwad Gazette.") It takes 1/3 of a cup to make 1 cup liquid milk.

Baking powder 12 cents (Tb)
Baking soda 1.5 (Tb)
Brown sugar 33
Butter $1.50
Cocoa 7 (Tb)
Coconut 27
Cornmeal 43
Cornstarch 2 (Tb)
Cream of tartar 47 (Tb)
Honey $2.25
Liquid milk 16
Margarine 44
Molasses $1.20
Oatmeal 25
Powdered milk 4 (Tb)
Raisins 73
Salt 1
Soy flour 2 (Tb)
Vanilla 31 (Tb)
Vegetable oil: 17
Wheat flour 13
White flour 17
White sugar 25
Yeast 6 (Tb)



Lenona.