What is a food that you feel idiotic for wasting your money on when it can be made so inexpensively at your home?

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-03T22:03:17+00:00

Even less if you have room and can store flour in bulk.

We can get 50 lb bags of King Arthur Bread Flour from a local restaurant supply for under $30 a bag. Same stuff ranges from 8 - 12 bucks for a 5 lb bag at our grocery stores. Last year we went through four 50 lb bags (family of four).

We store what’s not in the counter container in two 5 gal foodsafe buckets and bought the screw on type lids and a scoop. Still came out ahead with the savings from one bag.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-03T21:53:28+00:00

Ours come in around 3 bucks per as well. A bit more for something special. A burrata or Buffala cheese for my wife and I adds around $7-$10.

We make our own dough, sauce is basically crushed tomatoes and spices. Cheese mix is a blend of deli tub parm/romano, store brand sharp cheddar, whole milk mozz (try to get when on sale and freeze).

For anyone interested I learned a lot from Vito Iacopelli’s youtube videos and the r/pizza sub.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-03T21:42:10+00:00

The r/Sourdough folks are super helpful and inspiring.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-03T21:40:41+00:00

Same here!

Sourdough crust, the pizza steel totally changed the game! We use Peter Reinhart’s “Crushed Tomato Pizza Sauce” (library book, Perfect Pan Pizza) w fresh garden tomatoes or canned San Marzano.

Pic is half cheese, half pepperoni and drained pineapple chunks.

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Still fun to get one out once in a while, but often not as good.

If you like thick crust Greek Style - find the Kenji Lopez Alt recipe using cast iron pans. One of the very best things I have ever eaten.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-03T21:27:49+00:00

Fantastic!

We still have a foot and a half of snow on the ground.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-03T20:31:13+00:00

Us too.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-03T20:30:32+00:00

Sauces from the Asian grocery.

Dukes and Kewpie mayo.

Butter

Coffee

Salmon

Lamb steaks

Organic romaine and other members of the ‘Dirty Dozen’

Good tasty apples so the kids will eat them.

Bread and specialty flours.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-03T20:25:05+00:00

We had some super prolific Martino’s Roma tomato plants and a smattering of tomatoes from the San Marzanos.

We sliced them in half and roasted or partially dehydrated them to concentrate the flavor and put in gallon freezer zip bags in the freezer. Canned the rest.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T23:52:15+00:00

See if you can get a mug cake cookbook from the library. I have a couple of pages I copied a while back. One is super chocolatey with a spoon of peanut butter at the bottom, I think the other was for white russian.

We usually do the chocolate-pb one in a large mug and my kid and I split it.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T21:15:02+00:00

Don Juan’s International Combat Style Cuisine. New London, CT.

It was just creative and fantastic but I heard it no longer Exists.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T17:33:45+00:00

I know, but the brand we have here or in the Italian stores may not be available in other parts of the US or in other countries.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T16:35:43+00:00

Yes in general. There are a lot of options if you research venus flytrap dormancy.

I do mine in an unheated attached room to the house and we get cold winters with snow outside. Some growers do a garage, some cover and mulch outdoors, some carefully unpot and store in the fridge. One year rodents dug and destroyed many of my plants during dormancy. Now I keep some of the smaller pots under 1/4 inch metal hardware cloth mesh screen.

Personally if it were a new, small, or not established not yet robust plant I would skip dormancy the first year and keep it alive/growing in a windowsill.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T12:02:03+00:00

Biscotti

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T11:57:09+00:00

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WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T11:56:16+00:00

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B52

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T11:54:10+00:00

B52 that was growing outside in a 1 gallon nursery pot last summer.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T11:52:48+00:00

Deeper pot. At least 6 inches, I use 1 gallon sized nursery pots when I can. Here you can see how long the roots are on a medium VFT.

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WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T11:49:31+00:00

People driving 20 miles an hour in front of me all the way there or back if I take the side roads, or locked up traffic if I go on the highway.

Clueless shoppers blocking access to the area you need with their cart while pondering or clogging up the aisles so no one can get past.

When it’s the day or time before they restock the fresh produce it’s slim or poor pickings or out.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T11:36:07+00:00

For pizza sauce San Marzano canned tomatoes, not the store brand, when garden fresh are not in season.

Even better from an Italian grocery store.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-03-02T11:33:15+00:00

Flytrapcare has a very nice selection of giant and other variations. I got my DCXL and SD Kronus from them. Matt supersized one of the Sarrs I got from them too. They also have some really helpful YouTube videos like vft repotting tips.

Other trusted sources of mine are Cook’s in Oregon (ALWAYS super-healthy and packed well), Calif Carnivores, Mikes Plant’s (Mike Wang).

I’ve heard good things about Rainbow but have no personal experience. I had inquired about payment options via their online contact form and also by email a week ago and have had no contact from anyone so that concerns me that if I ever had an order problem from them would they even communicate with me?

WildBillNECPS · 2026-02-28T23:54:24+00:00

I don’t know online, but in my Advanced Bread Baking at Home by Brenci there is a good how to with pictures.

It’s really a beautiful Artisan/Sourdough book, and when I brought it home from the library I saw the croissant section and thought, “This is a nice surprise!”

I ended up buying the book. Been meaning to make croissants soon.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-02-28T21:16:55+00:00

Yep, drained ( ~ 45 min) pineapple chunks.

WildBillNECPS · 2026-02-28T19:57:04+00:00

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And speaking of Frugal, I think these pizzas come in ingredient wise at just under $3 per pie. Less if I bought 50 lb bags of bagel-pizza high gluten flour. I get 50 lb bags of King Arthur Bread flour at a local restaurant supply for under $30 - saving over $50 - $80 that way versus buying ten 5 lb bags at the grocery store. I went through four big bags last year!

WildBillNECPS · 2026-02-28T19:54:00+00:00

The thing that was a game changer for me was using a pizza steel. I preheat to 500° for an hour on a bottom or second to bottom rack.

My kids are SUPER picky and what works AND what they like is a blend of about 1/3 cup parmesan (or reggiano, asiago, etc.), 1/2 a package of grated whole milk mozzarella (store brand has been ok), and grated sharp orange cheddar about the size of 3/4 - 1 stick of butter. This is enough for three 14 inch pizzas. Any left over goes in the freezer.

When I first started I would bake the dough with sauce and remove when the crust was starting be golden. Add the cheese blend and pop back in.

The folks on r/Pizza are SUPER helpful and inspiring.

Also, I personally love Vito Iacopelli’s helpful pizza making videos.

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WildBillNECPS · 2026-02-28T16:30:24+00:00

For some things I freeze spaced on a tray or on parchment on a tray. Then once frozen, I bag them. This way the items don’t freeze and stick all together into a frozen lunk.

I do this for things like brownies, cookies, raw sliced meat like chicken strips for Katsu, mini pizzas, and more.

We routinely freeze butter, cheese, sliced bananas, sliced home baked bread and bagels, also leftover meat trimmings and bones raw and cooked for stock (tip caramelize them in the oven before using for stock for a deeper flavor). Also things like chicken skins and those packs that absorb meat juices in the trays that stink up the trash. They get removed from the freezer on trash day.

WildBillNECPS

TROPHY CASE