Hi there, Mrs. 1500 again. I have a great suggestion for you this weekend.
We have recently instituted Friday night pizza night at our house. What started as just a pizza dinner has morphed into an every-week thing, because the girls loved it so much.
We are originally from Chicago, where bad pizza just isn’t done. Giordano’s isn’t out here yet and Pequod’s is a pipe dream. Mr. 1500 is a pizza fanatic and dreams of Gino’s and Lou Malnati’s. Moving to Colorado, our choices are very limited. From a frugal perspective, Papa Murphy’s seems to be the best choice, but if I have to bake it myself, I might as well make it myself, too. So we have Make-Your-Own-Pizza night at the 1500’s and the results are better than almost anything we can buy locally.
I make the dough from scratch. This is not nearly as time consuming as it sounds. I use this recipe and add some dried italian herbs like basil or oregano to the crust for a little extra flavor. I also use garlic flavored olive oil instead of the regular. Mr. 1500, who lamented in the past that the crust is usually the downfall of the homemade pizza, said it tastes like pizzeria crust!
The beauty of the homemade pie is that you can make it just how you want it. I like broccoli on my pizza, and most pizza places don’t offer it, or charge for double toppings when they do. Sauce is apparently the same price as gold, because there is almost none on any commercially-produced pizza. Making it myself, I can load up on both. We also like sausage on our pizza and the healthier turkey version isn’t available at pizza joints, no matter how much you pay. We also get to choose how much cheese we want. Lots, please!
The girls love to make their own pizza too. I make the crust and spread the sauce, then let them go crazy with their toppings. Then we bake it and eat it while watching a movie on Netflix or one we got at the library.
So, what is our grand total for the evening? Here is a cost breakdown:
- Movie: Free, see your local library.
- Yeast: .03
- Flour: .09
- Olive Oil: .34
- Sauce: 1.12
- Sausage: 2.25
- Onions: .14
- Peppers: .50
- Broccoli: .29
- Cheese: .60
- Garlic bread: .25 (we use 1/4 of the store bought loaf)
- Milk for girls: .25
- Beer: 3.00 (Mr. 1500 likes fancy microbrews)
Total the numbers and I get $8.86. If you cut the sausage and Mr. 1500’s fancy beer out of the equation, you’re down to $3.61. The last time we went out to a pizza place, the bill topped $40. Also, we get at least 2 meals out of this recipe.
So, we make a great meal, get to bond as a family and save a bunch of dough (ha!) all at the same time. I highly suggest that you give family pizza night a try.
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We do pizza night neither every Friday. It’s one of the few meals around here that EVERYONE seems to like 🙂
Very cool!
I like your site and that many of your posts come from the family perspective. Kids definitely are a challenge to the frugal lifestyle.
I use the EXACT same dough recipe AND the Moneyseeds have had Friday Night Pizza Night as a family staple since we were married 3 years ago (granted, the first 2.5 years we were buying frozen pizzas).
One day I thought to myself that it would be really fun if we perfected the art of making pizza when the girls were young, so by the time they grew up they’d probably love to make pizzas with us as well. This is the recipe we use for sauce (sans the anchovy paste): http://allrecipes.com/recipe/exquisite-pizza-sauce/ It’s nice and thick and has a great hint of spicy-ness.
Man, the 1500s and the Moneyseeds seem like they’d get along pretty well in real life, eh??
Hell yeah! When we make it to the East Coast or you make it out to the mountains, it’s on!
We will give the sauce recipe a try (also sans the nasty anchovy paste) and report back.