The First Post

I am starting this blog because I have been trying to find more and more things I can make myself and stop paying ridiculous prices for. It started about 12 years ago, when I realized I didn't like the mass marketed light beers on the market, but I wasn't going to spend a buck a beer to buy the good stuff (can easily hit $2+ now). So I went out and bought all of the gear to make my own beer. That really got me hooked on doing it myself. But as you can probably relate, life got in the way.

Then we had kids, and for whatever reason - I don't remember who thought of it or why - we decided to make our own baby food. It was the best thing we ever did! My kids are great eaters, and we saved a TON of money. They had foods at an early age that you can't get in the store, and they are always willing to try something new now.

After the kids were on to regular food, I started looking around to see if there was anything else we could make. A natural extension from beer was bread (yeast, grains, water). It took a lot of tries, but I got a technique and recipe for making all of the sandwich bread that we now eat. And then I decided to keep going. What can we stop buying around the house to save money?

Here are my goals:
1. It has to be something we regularly purchase
2. I have to be able to make it without buying a ton of equipment
3. It has to save money in the long run (there is no time limit, but be realistic)
4. Any chance to recycle is a good thing.
5. It has to be as natural as possible

This blog will, hopefully, expand to the things that I make and do around the house to meet my stated goals. Whenever I can, I will make notes about costs for ingredients as well as the regular product, and with any luck, we can see how much money we are saving.