Homemade Pizzas
“You know what I want,” said Mr. Sense yesterday morning (and the night before, and also a few days before that). “I’m really craving pizza.”
Perhaps you can relate! But as you’ve probably noticed, delivery pizza isn’t cheap these days. A medium supreme pizza costs $18.89 at our local Pizza Hut and $15.99 at Domino’s, before adding a special crust or extra cheese. And then of course there’s tax, tip, and delivery charge (or gas to pick it up yourself). And an artisanal pizza from a local restaurant will obviously run more. Plus, if our family goes out to eat at one of the wonderful restaurants here, there will be additional costs for appetizers, drinks, and whatever else.
Fortunately, we can enjoy pizza-y goodness right here at home for a fraction of the cost and barely more effort than dialing for delivery. Mr. Sense frequently whips up pizzas with the assistance of our trusty bread machine. His homemade pizzas rival the pricier restaurant ones, and have the added benefit of letting us use up little leftover containers of meats and vegetables, too small to make a real lunch for anyone. We’ve also found that our kids don’t mind extra peppers and mushrooms when they’re chopped up small in the pizza sauce (Mr. Sense uses tomato paste) and covered in cheese.
How much do we actually save with these homemade pizzas? It varies somewhat depending on sale prices for ingredients and what kind of toppings and crust we’re using. Mr. Sense always makes two pizzas around 12” in diameter, which is enough for the four of us, plus a slice or two for someone’s midnight snack or lunch.
Here’s a quick breakdown for tonight’s dinner:
Crust: $0.83 flour, $0.06 yeast, $0.20 butter, $0.03 sugar, $0.02 salt
Sauce: $0.25 tomato paste (using up some of the last of our stock from a sale at Sharp Shopper)
Toppings: $2.75 mozzarella cheese (we like a cheesy pizza), $1.00 sausage, $0.33 green pepper, $0.75 kalamata olives, $0.75 artichoke hearts
Total: $6.97, or $3.49 per pizza
This cost should provide enough food for five full meal servings– one dinner for the whole family and one leftover serving, for around $1.39 per meal. $1.39 x 4 family members x 3 meals/day x 30 days/month is almost exactly $500, which is a bit higher than our average monthly grocery bill. But we also eat a lot of ultra frugal and ultra delicious rice/bean/egg burrito meals, so we can enjoy a whole lot of delicious pizzas without messing up our budget.
Besides being a relatively inexpensive indulgence, these pizzas are healthier than the average restaurant option. There are no weird, unpronounceable ingredients and the toppings are all things we like because they’re all things we keep around the house anyway. It’s kind of cool how our frugal choices seem to mesh well with our other priorities, like healthy living and avoiding wastefulness. We often hear that cheap food and healthy food are mutually exclusive, but it’s just not true.
In reality, cheap and healthy food is accessible for most of us in the United States, but a little planning and creativity are required. That sounds intimidating, and we recognize how fortunate we are to not be so exhausted that shopping for deals and cooking at home aren’t practical impossibilities. But I hope to encourage readers with hectic schedules by showing that this really isn’t much extra work, especially once you get in the rhythm of it. Measuring and tossing crust ingredients in a bread maker is a five minute job, at most. Mr. Sense was folding laundry and I was typing this article while the dough did its thing. Chopping up toppings and throwing them on takes less time than going through a drive thru lane.
Whether your goal is making one healthy and cheap meal your kids will actually eat, or retiring decades ahead of schedule, a homemade pizza is a good place to start.
