Robb + Jessie Married & in the Badger State
Small Savings
Robb and I like to pat ourselves on the back when we discover a way to pinch pennies. The other night we were making our favourite pizza recipe when we realized we were out of crushed red pepper. (It wasn’t until I married Robb that I realized I do love spicy foods — especially in the form of crushed red pepper!) Robb dug through the cupboards until he discovered a bag of arbol chile pods that we had purchased almost a year back from Woodman’s (also favourite) in the Mexican spice section (near the produce). Quickly thinking, he pulsed it in our mini food processor and showed me the result. “What does this look like?” he asked me. It turns out that is how crushed red pepper flakes are made!
We decided to compare the price we spend in the store on little bottles (usually 1.3 oz) of crushed red pepper and the price of our “penny pinching” method.
Store bought crushed red pepper:
$1.99 — 3.00 / 1.3 oz bottle = $1.5 — 2.3/oz
Homemade crushed red pepper:
$1.49 / 2 oz bag = $0.75 / oz
We go through several bottles a year so it looks like we will be using our “penny pinching” method from here on out.