15 practices of a waste-conscious home cook

[Kaleva]

2. Canning certain foods isn't cost effective IMHO

Canned tomato sauce and diced tomatoes bought from a store is inexpensive. I can buy 14.5 ounce cans for $.67 each and sometimes as low as $.50. A little over 2 such cans makes a quart.

Spending 7 hours babysitting a 1 month old at $4 an hour will give me enough money to buy the equivalent of 18 quarts of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Enough to last me a about 10 or so months. And I'm not spending all that time starting plants from seed, caring for the plants as they grow, harvesting and canning.