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Price List: Ooh, Ahh, Pizza!

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The past couple of Fridays, I’ve been making pizza at home instead of doing what I really want to do: Call our favorite pizza place and order a gooey, thick, yummy pizza that is made just for me us! But as we are a one income family, I try to limit eating take out. I wondered though, after buying all the ingredients I needed to make pizza, would we really be saving money? Here’s a breakdown of the grocery bill. To make this easy, I’m using the full cost of the items, not the sale price, and no tax.

1. Two boxes of Jiffy pizza dough mix; for a 12″ x 17″ pan: 2 x .69 = $1.38
2. Child labor: Free! (Okay, I really did most of the work.)
3. 8 oz. can of Pastorelli Pizza sauce: .89
4. One white onion: 1 @ $1.00 per lb. = $2.08 (We don’t use the whole onion, so I can use it for salads or other recipes, too)
5. 1/4 pound pre-sliced pepperoni from the deli counter: $2.26


6. 8 oz. block of Kraft mozzarella cheese: $4.25


7. Total cost: $10.86

8. Additional costs: Hairdresser bill, including tip, $53.00 (needed to camouflage bald spots from hair pulling induced by cooking with children.)

Our usual order from our favorite pizza place costs $16.45 plus tax. We carry out, so there are no delivery charges. We have leftovers from both pizzas for lunch the next day. The pizza place pizza does taste better, but our homemade pizza tastes better than a frozen pizza. So is it worth it to make pizza at home? I think so, but since the price difference was only $5.59, I won’t feel as guilty about ordering out next time!

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How to Build a Bear Patience

Lily received this Build a Bear kit for Christmas. The age label reads 6+, and while I don’t always go by the age recommendations, Lily just turned four last November, and I didn’t think she would be able to do this project. Correction: I didn’t think I would be able to do this project. I was tempted to hide it in the basement until Lily was older. But I wasn’t fast enough! Lily insisted on opening the package, so I promised her we could work on the bear during Emmy’s nap time.
The bear had pre-punched holes and came with a safety needle. Lily sat on my lap while I held the fabric and showed her, hole by hole, where to put the needle. I had to refrain myself several times from grabbing the needle away from Lily and just doing it myself! This was also a practice in patience for Lily, since this project took several days to complete. She was very anxious for Emmy to take a nap, so we could work on the bear. It took us 5 nap times to sew around the arms and legs. Fortunately, the bear’s head came sewn together.

I let Lily stuff the bear, but whip stitched it shut myself. I have only so much patience!

The next day, we decorated the clothes. The butterflies and ribbon are iron-on, so this part was hands-off for Lily. She told me where to iron the decorations. I also did the glitter paint. That was a mess. The applicator was not very precise. Altogether, it took us about a week to finish.

I dreaded this project, but in the end I enjoyed spending Emmy’s nap time with Lily, working on something she really cared about. She stuck with it, learned how to sew a seam and thread a needle (in a four-year-old way). She also helped me remember that Emmy’s nap is time for us to connect. When Emmy was a newborn, I worked really hard to do special things with Lily when Emmy napped. Lately, I’ve been doing things around the house or blogging. So after the bear project, I’ve tried to give Lily some attention again. That takes some patience on my part, especially when I have things I want to get done, but it’s worth it!