Cooking At Home: Family Pizza Night

When I was growing up, my family established Friday evenings as our Pizza & Movie night at home. Habits of our youth easily carry over when we begin determining traditions for our own growing families, and this is one I couldn’t let go of!

But with rising grocery prices, I’ve been seeking ways to decrease our overall food costs and reducing take-out/eating out is one of the primary ways to do that. Most meals that we eat out can be made just as easily at home with a little planning and prep work!

These make-your-own pizzas from last Friday night were definitely a hit with our little chefs! All of the ingredients came from Aldi (my favorite place to shop!), and I’ve included a full price list below to compare the cost of eating at home to the cost of take-out/delivery pizza. I also want to note that several of these items we had in the fridge already for use with other meals, so the cost savings apply to those meals as well (e.g. the meatballs and marinara sauce were from a spaghetti dinner and we use shredded cheese for just about everything!)

Make Your Own Pizza Ingredients

Flatbreads (2) – $4.39 each
Pepperoni – $2.49
Italian Style Shredded Cheese – $3.75
Marinara Sauce – $1.55
Green Bell Peppers – $2.19 for 3 (1 @ .75)
Onion – $2.09 for 2lb bag (1 @ .40)
Meatballs – $6.15 for bag (1/4 @ $1.55)

Total: $19.27*

The standard cost for delivery pizza is approximately $35-$45 for our family of 6 (or more, depending on where we order from!). So a 50% savings when cooking at home is well worth the planning and prep time. Plus, you can customize your pizza and each family member can add the ingredients they prefer!

*The total cost for this specific meal may be even less, because we didn’t use the whole bag(s) of ingredients available.

Other ingredients could include:

You could also save on the cost of the flatbreads by making your own dough. I haven’t mastered this recipe yet, but I’ll keep working on it!

No matter what the circumstances, stewarding our resources (food and money, in this case), is an important part of the Christian life.

This is a lifelong task that requires constant cultivation and adaptation to provisions from God. In some circumstances, it can be particularly difficult to string together a meal plan on a budget as your family grows and finances may be tight. But this is one of the particular tasks and gifts of a homemaker, and I consider it a challenge and a joy to be able to do this for my family!

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

1 Corinthians 10:31

Homemaker Helper Tips

I shop at Aldi almost exclusively and use Instacart every week for more cost-effective and time-efficient grocery shopping. The app is very easy to use and the pick-up service works really well for me and minimal cost ($1.99 pick-up fee). If you haven’t tried it, here’s a referral code you can use to get $10 off your first order: https://inst.cr/t/4da42b53d