My adventures as a housewife

Things that I have learned are cheaper and more delicious to make myself than to buy:
-Crackers (today I made rosemary, and basil/black pepper/parmesan)
-Bread
-Pesto
-Sun-dried tomatoes
-Flavored or infused salts
-Mozzarella cheese
-Granola
-Chicken stock
-Tomato sauce
-Jam
-Fresh egg noodles
-Marshmallows
-Ice cream

Things I have stopped buying and always have on hand since now I make them myself, all the while thinking pleasantly how I will stock the jars in my pantry and my freezer, congratulating myself on how talented and wholesome and thrifty yet also, simultaneously, gourmet I am:
-Granola
-Tomato sauce
-Pesto
-Flavored or infused salts
-Sun-dried tomatoes
-Jam

Things I have stopped buying and only have on hand if I make them, which is rarely, because there are always--always--dishes to wash, papers to write or novel chapters to frown over, long and sapping commutes to drive, people to see:
-Crackers
-Bread

Things I make even more rarely because, let's face it, they're a pain in the ass:
-Fresh egg pasta
-Chicken stock
-Ice cream. Please.

Things I will still buy if they look beautiful, if they come in an attractive jar, or if I am in a foreign country or different state:
-Jam
-Flavored or infused salts

Things I will still, occasionally and with something of a feeling of guilt, buy because sometimes the thought of spending one more hour cooking makes me want to never have to children, to burn my aprons and dishtowels, to eschew any role in the home:
-Mozzarella cheese
-Marshmallows

Things I've since realized, after two hours of much work and little reward and an ensuing argument in which my mother won but I refused at the time to admit, are actually better to get storebought:
-Pumpkin puree.