To Save Money, Should You Buy Pasta Sauce Or Make It From Scratch?

Time is money, and many people face a dilemma every time they want to cook: Is it more cost-effective to make something from scratch or buy it from the grocery store? In the case of pasta sauces, the answer depends on the cost of ingredients you're looking to use versus the jar's base sale price. For instance, the cost of your Alfredo will be lower if you're cooking with pre-grated parmesan instead of a beautiful, imported wedge from Italy. Homemade pesto includes pine nuts, which are usually sold in bags that have a retail tag ($5 to $9) comparable to — or more than — an entire jar of the best store-bought pesto.

Brand plays a part as well. Depending on the location, Rao's Homemade Marinara sauce can cost $8 for a 24-ounce jar at Kroger, while Hunt's Garlic & Herb sauce might only cost $1.50 for the same volume. But unless you're shopping for a rather pricey imported brand, it's generally cheaper and less time-consuming to buy store-bought sauce instead of making it from scratch.

The average all-purpose tomato sauce recipe typically contains several ingredients like tomato passata, olive oil, onion, garlic, fresh herbs, sugar, salt, and pepper. Buying all of these items whole, fresh, and unopened from the store will most likely be more expensive than buying a single jar of sauce. Content creator Morocooks put this theory to the test in an episode of the series "Make It or Buy It" on YouTube.

Morocooks bought a 24-ounce jar of Trader Joe's Tomato Basil Marinara sauce for $1.99, which comes out to approximately 8 cents per ounce. Meanwhile, his simple homemade marinara — using two 28-ounce cans of peeled San Marzano tomatoes, a yellow onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil — cost $9.82 for the ingredients but yielded 61.4 ounces of sauce, equaling roughly 16 cents per ounce, or double what the store-bought jar cost. By the end of the video, the content creator admits, "Homemade did taste better, but not enough to make up for the cost."

The only way you might save money is to go for a big batch because the amount you save depends on how much volume you're getting for the ingredient price. But even then, the savings might not stretch very far. In 2012, Bon Appétit paid $11 for a 40-ounce batch, which came out to 27 cents per ounce — almost the same amount as a $3.99 jar of Barilla pasta sauce at 29 cents per ounce. If you do make a big batch, don't worry about scrambling to eat it all in the recommended three to five days, either. Tomato sauce is easily preserved. In fact, food writer Melissa Clark found a way to freeze sauces that saves space and helps avoid freezer burn, meaning your homemade sauce could last longer than the name-brand stuff depending on the expiration date.

You should still be able to find a number of store-bought jars for cheaper than the homemade stuff. Several grocers provide membership discounts, sales, and coupons for their customers. Not to mention, there are food banks and discount stores that specialize in getting food at the lowest possible prices. Five 99-cent pasta jars are nearly impossible to beat even with a gallon of homemade tomato sauce. So, if you want homemade pasta sauce, remember that it's typically more of a matter of labor and love than it is convenience and savings.