Saving Money with Thermomixer??

[Nik2WIN]

OK so one of the selling points of the Thermomixer is that it saves you money but, so far, I just don't get how.

I'm guessing if you eat a lot of prepackaged foods then it would save money by making it a LOT easier to make foods from scratch but I already make a lot from scratch anyway.  I buy the odd pizza and I don't make pasta ....  I've looked at making butter but, here in the UK, its more expensive to make than buy!.

Saving money wasn't my primary reason for buying it but if I'm missing an opportunity to save I'd love to see how

Nik

[petit4s]

I think it depends on what you eat and what you used to buy. You save making your own bread and sorbet, but I was at a dinner last night and the hostess drank rice milk which she said cost $5 a litre. Out of curiosity, I googled "rice milk recipe" and saw that one only needed 50 grams of rice to make one litre of rice milk, so one kilo of rice would make 20 litres of rice milk. i think there's a definite saving there. For me, the savings show themselves in the reduction of waste. I freeze ripe fruit for drinks and frozen desserts and vegetables become soup effortlessly or stock concentrate (all my friends love getting a jar of it from me).

The biggest plus for me is the time it saves me and that's unquantifiable.

[zebraa]

We are very close to 100% additive and preservative free (would be but my husband sneaks some in!) and I would not be able to do that without TMX just because it saves so much time.

All our milk, eggs, meat are organic/sustainably farmed as are ost of our grains and veges and we spend less then $150 a week on a family of 4. We couldn't do that for that price if I didn't make pretty much everything from scratch. If we were not local/organic we would EASILY come in under $100 a week. And if I didn't make everythign from scratch and ate local/org/a fair amount GF then we would spend $300 plus.

So. for us it makes good quality food affordable and possible to make.

[judydawn]

I didn't save money in the beginning because I was making things I never even used to buy at the supermarket eg orange juice and other fruit drinks. Then there were the trips to the health food store - another place I rarely visited and I have cut back on those now that the novelty of trying something different has worn off. I was making things just because I could not because I needed to. Over time though I have settled down and don't need to try every recipe that is posted or try every thing that is good for you and have now found my weekly grocery bill far less than it used to be pre-TMX days. 

[the_vermins]

Our food bill should go down once I work out exactly what staples I need plenty of for my style of cooking.

So far, all I've bought is fresh fruit and veges and a bit of meat.  Hardly any other crap at all.  Feels really good to not be buying loads of stuff.

Once I work out some menu plans, I reckon I could get our shopping to under $150 week.

[Nik2WIN]

Well, I've just done my supermarket order for the week (no time to actually SHOP!) and its come in under £70 for 4/5 of us (dh is only here part time!)  We're eating a lot of meals out of the freezer this week (stuff that I've pre-made) but I've planned puddings for every night and we have cereal for breakfast only once next week.  I've also bought to make some soups and I thought I'd have a go at jam making (although we're not big jam eaters but maybe that's just because I don't buy it ...?)  We're massive Nutella eaters (the boys often have their medicines "hidden" in it) so I'm also having a bash at making this.

Looking through the recipe book a lot of them turn cupboard ingredients into something that sounds great - chocolate and vanilla pots for example.

Don't get me wrong, I"m not disappointed in Thelma and I really enjoy using her but I thought if there were ways I was missing to save money, I ought to catch on pretty fast   I have a really tiny kitchen and this is the only way I'd get an extra pair of hands in there 

Nik

[cookie1]

I haven't thought about the saving money bit a lot. One way I know that I save money is on bread. Others would be butter as I buy the cream on special or near it's use by date. I've always made our cakes and biscuits so that hasn't changed. I now make all our icecream so that saves a bit, but I think we are eating more icecream!!! What I do find is that meat is going further now for some reason. I used to use 500g for 3 of us and now if I use 500g I freeze half. Perhaps it's all the yummy things we are having with that meat.
I certainly have more types of food in the pantry. eg freekah, several types of rice, indian spices, quinoa etc.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Yes I was only thinking about saving money with meat earlier today Cookie.  I now pack my chicken breasts and mince in 350-400g bags for the freezer and a pack feeds the four of us (usually with left-overs).  Before the TM I did 500g packs of meat for my dishes.  I think our meals are packed out more with vegies now - perhaps because we don't have to chop them all up!!! 

[Zan]

I'm saving heaps, I hardly spend anything at the supermarket and about the same at the fruit and veg shop and way less on meat.
I buy meat in the cheap bulk packs (so whole rumps/bulk pork) and cube it and freeze in 300-400g lots (usually on the lower end) so using less meat in dishes and say at $15 rump would make 6 meals. I cube the meat so it can then be used in a casserole type dish or made into mince. We are eating less big meat (hence expensive) meals. Making own stock saves quite a lot - always tried to do the use up leftover veg into a soup but would buy a liquid stock (so about $3.50?) to make the soup.
Make bread - buy organic flour in bulk. Probably spending more on desserts though, lol, as made our own icecream for a long time and that would be a staple dessert for the kids but now they often ask for other things.

[Nay-nay]

Sounds like we are all pretty much the same - grocery shopping is down to a once a week quick trip with a basket not a trolley. I spend the most time and money at the fruit and vege shop. I think we are getting away with about $100 a week for a family of 4. But we have all our own meat we butcher and eggs and milk. Just tryin to work on getting a bigger garden going. I never thought we were big packet food eaters before Thermie either but the real saving for me is all the condiments - jams, sauces, dressings, toppings and spreads. If there is anything that you buy that isn't a whole food - I ask myself, "How is that made?" If the recipe is not on here just ask and someone will know. 

[Kym]

My biggest saving would be bread so far.  We're also eatting less red meat and so far DH hasn't complained as he is getting more variety and not stuck with meat, mash and vege.

I've got to start buying my oils in bigger containers as I'm going through it so much quicker these days.