Rabbit Hole - break down of curry soup from scratch vs store bought

 Join me on my rabbit hole of the day.

So I was searching for meat that was on sale. Side note I didn't find any and got way off track. I kept seeing adds for Misfit Markets. It was everywhere, adds on insta, adds on youtube, adds in my sidebar. So after seeing it for the hundredth time, I finally decided to give it a look. Let me save you the trouble. Unless you are looking for strictly organic (in which case I have no clue) it's absolutely not worth it. Most of the products are more expensive than our local WinCo (at least what I came across). But as I was purusing, I saw a ready-to-eat meal for coconut curry. $4.19 for a 2oz container of soup. 2 oz! That's 1/4 cup. Ok oz doesn't always transfer clean, so let's go with the other info 57grams ok that's closer to 3/4 cup. But that's still $4 for about 1 ladle of soup.

So the question is, what would it cost to make this at home? Let's give it a shot. 

I went roughly off this recipe. Now, the best part is I had everything I needed, so it didn't cost me a single cent. Just helped me use up some stuff sitting in my pantry. And with a sick teen, I figured the extra garlic, onion, and turmeric would probably be good. 

Ingredients (all prices are from walmart.com and generic) 

▢1 cup chopped onion $1.88/7 = $0.27

▢1 cup chopped carrot $1.92/2lb so $0.25

▢1 tablespoon (30 g) finely chopped garlic cloves (2 or 3 cloves) ) $0.64/3 = $0.21

▢⅓ cup (80 g) Thai red curry paste, ( I used the powder so $0.05) 

▢½ teaspoon ground turmeric

▢¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

▢Salt

▢1 cup (205 g) red lentils $2 for a dry bag / 1/4 - $0.50

▢3½ cups (1 l) vegetable broth, or water

▢1 13.5-ounce can (400 ml) coconut milk (not light)  $3.65

Total $4.93 But we also added rice $1.77/32 oz /4 = $0.44

So, rounding up this dish cost about $5.50 and it made 8 cups of soup. Added bonus, my house smells amazing! 

Tip: 

• Don't be scared of using dry beans. Toss them in the crock pot and let them cook all day. Drain and freeze in single portions for later. It's like canned but half the price. Also you can pressure can dried beans and forgo the cooking altogether. Dry beans are way cheaper and don't have any extras. 
• Broth is so easy to make, either use bullion or boil down those chicken bones from the last meal. I just grabbed a $5 chicken from Costco (can't pass it up). Crock-pot the bones all night with other veggie scraps and there is your own broth at no cost.
• The paste definitely has a much richer flavor than the powdered curry. It's only about $4 and you only use a little at a time so totally worth it. 
• Most any recipe will work with what you have on hand if you are just a little creative. 

So where is your favorite place to get ground meat besides the forest?