Had to choose between $3 frozen pizza and $8 homemade dough last night

I was craving pizza but only had $12 left until payday on Friday. The $3 frozen pizza from Aldi was tempting but I went with the $8 homemade dough, sauce, and mozzarella from scratch. Honestly the homemade one tasted way better and I had enough dough left for two more pizzas. Has anyone else here found that cooking from scratch saves more than you think even when the upfront cost feels higher?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam_hernandez2mo ago

Made the same call last week with my last $15. Bought flour, yeast, and a brick of mozzarella instead of a $5 frozen pizza. First pizza was okay but the second one I made two days later came out amazing once I figured out the dough. Plus I still have half the cheese left for tonight. It makes you feel like you actually got somewhere with your money instead of just microwaving something.

abby1892mo ago

Count yourself lucky it only took two tries. I burned my first batch so bad the smoke alarm went off and my cat gave me this look like I betrayed her. But yeah, that leftover cheese feeling is better than any frozen pizza.

matthew8641mo ago

Does nobody here actually value their time? I get that the homemade stuff felt rewarding and all but we're talking about spending over half your remaining money on ingredients you gotta prep and cook yourself. That $8 dough still needs kneading, rising, and cleaning up flour everywhere. Plus if your oven sucks like mine, that $3 frozen pizza cooks perfect in 12 minutes while I'm still stressing over the homemade one burning on the bottom. I ate my cheap pizza and had $9 left to grab a coffee the next morning. Not saying scratch cooking is bad but when money's tight, convenience and guaranteed results matter more to me than feeling like I outsmarted the system.