Frugal Fail, Homemade Graham Crackers

A few weeks ago, I share about my Frugal Fail with a bread purchase I made. I asked for others to share any of their frugal fails or triumphs. My friend Kristen at Joyfully Thriving was kind enough to share this frugal fail.

Frugal fails. We all have them! There are some frugal things that we do for great savings but others that don’t work out as intended. I had a recent frugal fail that reminded me that being frugal with my time can be just as important as being frugal with my money.

I recently started making homemade yogurt in my slow cooker . It works great and is saving our family so much money! Inspired by this success, I decided to see what other staples I could make at home. My 11 month old son loves graham crackers, so one afternoon I decided to try my hand at making homemade graham crackers.

I read through half a dozen recipes. They all looked fairly similar and relatively simple. I picked one. I had everything I needed except for whole wheat flour. I had to run to our local bulk store for poppy seeds anyway, so picked up a small bag of whole wheat flour for $1. Then, I came home and mixed up my graham crackers.

I didn’t have a food processor as some recipes recommended but one used a mixer so that’s what I did. I sampled the dough and it tasted pretty good. It was when I got ready to roll out my crackers that the problem came. They wouldn’t roll. I chilled them and floured them but still no luck. Finally, I decided to use my hands to roll them into small balls and flatten them into crackers. They didn’t look great but I now had crackers.

I baked them as directed and gave them a try. They tasted pretty good. Did they taste as good as store bought graham crackers? No. Did it save me money? Yes. Was it a good use of my time? No. This is why I classified it as a frugal fail.

Sometimes, saving money is as important as saving time. The time I spent rolling dozen of graham crackers by hand was not worth it (to me) for the final result. Maybe you would disagree but in hind sight, I realized that I could have read dozens of stories to my son and played with him in the time I spent making graham crackers. He was just as happy with graham crackers from the box.

That said, I did finish eating this batch of graham crackers and I will probably try making a different recipe for graham crackers sometime. However, I am going to be more frugal with my money – and my time! My time is important, too. This frugal fail was a great reminder to work at balanced frugality in all things.

Kristen writes about living frugally and joyfully on her website – Joyfully Thriving. When she’s not busy finding good bargains, you might find her curled up with a good book or baking something in the kitchen. Kristen’s husband is living this frugal journey with her as she stays home with their (almost) one year old son.

 

Let me Feature a Frugal Triumph or Frugal Fail of Yours

I would love to have you share your frugal triumphs and fails. Do you have a great story to share with the other readers about a great deal you got and your bursting at the seams to tell someone?

Or maybe you have a frugal fail and you want to share what went wrong to help others out. Either way, send it to me through my contact page and I’ll share it here on the blog. Be sure to let me know if I can include your name or not, in the email. (I’ll only share first names) Can’t wait to hear what you have to share!