Since school was starting back for us, I spent Saturday baking lots of goodies for the freezer for their lunches. It took me 11 hours from start to finish, but it will be well worth it in the next few weeks when they are needing something for lunches. I even went to the trouble of breaking down my costs for each recipe. But, keep in mind that I have chickens so my eggs are free to me. So, factor in the costs of your eggs. I did not break down the cost of things like salt and baking powder because the last time I did that (many, many moons ago) it came up way less than $0.01/tsp, but I don’t remember exactly how much. Also, each recipe I made (except for the bread & french bread) I made a double batch but my prices only reflect a single recipe. Remember, cook/bake once and eat 2 or more times!

Bread – makes 2 loaves

sugar – $0.11 yeast – $0.06 oil – $0.08 flour – $1.08 Total: $1.33 or $0.665/loaf

French Bread – makes 2 loaves

yeast – $0.04 Hot Roll Mix (from Make-A-Mix Cookbook) $1.26 Total: $1.30 or $0.65/loaf

Crescent Rolls

sugar – $0.05 butter – $1.13 yeast – $0.08 flour – $0.90 Total: $2.16 or $0.045/roll

I accidently added an extra cup of water to my recipe, so this is where my pizza crusts came from. Cost came to $0.72/crust.

Ham & Cheese Crescent Roll Ups

Crescent Rolls – $2.16 ham – $1.20 cheese – $1.20 Total: $4.56 / $0.095/roll up

Pizza Roll Ups

Crescent Rolls – $2.16 Salami (didn’t have any pepperoni) – $2.28 Mozzarella cheese (2 cups) – $1.38 Total: $5.82 / $0.12/roll up

Cupcakes

2 box mixes (yes, I cheated with this one) – $1.76 oil – $0.43 Total: $2.19 or $0.045/cupcake

Butterceam icing

shortening – $0.96 butter – $1.50 vanilla $0.01 milk – $0.12 Total: $ 2.59 or $0.03/Tbs

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Butter – $1.50 Sugar – $0.02 Flour – $0.41 Brown Sugar – $0.60 Vanilla Pudding – $0.75 Chocolate Chips – $1.92 Total: $5.20 or $0.17/cookie

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter – $ 0.36 Brown Sugar – $1.00 Flour $0.32 Shortening $0.24 Milk – $0.09 Total: $2.01 or $0.07/cookie

Banana Crumb Muffins

Flour – $0.29 Baking Powder – $0.01 Bananas $0.59 Sugar – $0.045 Butter – $0.50 Brown Sugar – $0.27 Cinnamon – $0.0025 Total: $ 1.71 or $0.14/muffin w/ chocolate chips $2.43 or $0.20/muffin

Sweet Muffins

Oil – $0.08 Buttermilk – $0.125 Flour – $0.27 Sugar – $0.045 Baking Powder – $0.015 Fruit – $1.00 Total: $1.54 or $0.13/muffin

Pancakes

Flour – $0.32 Oil – $0.04 Sugar – $0.045 Baking Powder – $0.06 Buttermilk – $0.19 Total: $0.0655 or $0.003/pancake (21 pancakes)

All of this costs me a total of $ 36.56 and 11 hours of my time to make. But I couldn’t have done it all without the help of my sweet husband.

Here’s a list of what I ended up with:

32 choc. chip cookies
32 peanut butter cookies
28 choc. chip cookie dough balls in the freezer
30 peanut butter cookie dough balls in the freezer
48 cupcakes with buttercream icing filling (instead of putting it on top, I put it inside the cupcake) I used up some leftover icing I had in the fridge – very frugal!
48 ham & cheese crescent roll ups
48 pizza roll ups
3 pizza crusts (2 for supper and 1 in the freezer)
2 loaves of Basic frugal white bread
4 shaped and 2 mini loaves of french bread, sliced into a total of 78 slices
28 banana choc. chip crumb muffins
28 mixed berry muffins
21 pancakes

This should give them a good variety for a while. Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll be sharing some of these recipes over the next few weeks. I’d love to hear how you prep for the school year. Leave me a comment and let me know. New ideas are always welcome!

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