Make it, or buy it? Baked Potato Chips

One of the recurring columns on this site will be called "Make it, or buy it?" where I analyze whether a product is worth making or buying at the store.

Things I will consider when doing this analysis are:
1. How much are the raw materials?
2. How long does it take me to make it?
3. If it took a long time to make it, was it at least fun to make it?
4. Does it taste like crap?

One thing that I wish I could take into consideration was the energy used to operate things like microwaves, crock pots, ovens, toasters, hand mixers, blenders, the list goes on and on and on. Also, how much water will I use washing everything? Unfortunately for this project, but fortunate for me, I have an all utilities included apartment, so I really am not sure how to analyze those costs. If you know, let me know.

A couple of years ago, Slate ran a really great article by Jennifer Reese whether it is worth making something from scratch or buying it at the store. Also, I picked up a great book from the library (libraries are great for tightwads) called Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon (who looks like a very hip nerdy lady). It gives you all kinds of recipes for doing the things that we only thought machines or people of yore could accomplish. I'm going to try and go through as much of this book as I care to, and see how things pan out. Out of respect for Karen, who I don't even know, but already respect, I won't be publishing the recipes, only doing my own science project on them. Because I think my mom did most of my science projects for me growing up (please don't retract my first place ribbon from 1989!), this is my chance to shine. Hypothesis: If you shake heavy cream long enough, can you make butter? Conclusion: I'm really not sure, and I don't think I can shake a jar for 30 minutes straight unless I have a jar shaking party with my nearest and dearest friends.

Here's one thing I tried from the book recently, homemade baked potato chips.

Here are my ingredients:

1 russet potato @ 8.20 oz x $0.02 per oz = $0.16
1/2 tsp of Kosher salt @ .08 oz x $0.07 = $0.01
1 T of soybean oil @.5 oz x $0.10 = $0.05
1/2 tsp of spices ~ $0.05
TOTAL for an approximately 8.5 oz bag = $0.27
For spices, I added a little dried dill and garlic powder. I can't remember how much they cost because they've been in the pantry for a while. Let's say $2.00 for 3 oz. Seriously, I don't have a clue, but I  will be doing more research as this project progresses. So, if I used about .08 oz total, it would be about a nickel.

Luckily, my mother gave me the mandoline slicer I've been wanting for Christmas. Those things can be purchased by consumers for about $10 to $40, so if you aren't going to use it a bunch, don't bother. Just be really really good at making thin slices of potatoes. And make them even. And uniform. Well, as cheap as these are going to be, maybe you could make up for your mandoline in time. I did a little research to find out the cost and price per unit on a bag of Baked Lays. Amazon has Baked Lays on sale for about .55 cents per ounce. My baked potato chips aren't even three cents an ounce.

It took me about 10 minutes to slice the potatoes, put them in a baggy with oil, salt and dill & garlic powder and slosh them around. I put these guys in the oven at about 300 degrees for almost 40 minutes. 

These didn't taste like store bought potato chips. They tasted homemade, and of the earth. However, I still found them to satisfy my potato chip craving. They are also healthier. An ounce of potatoes has about 26 calories in it. Baked Lays have about 120 calories per ounce. That means a pound of these chips would be 1,920 calories. And these are supposed to be the healthy chips! Granted, I tossed them in a tablespoon of oil, but that would only add 120 calories at most to the entire recipe.
Conclusion: If you have a mandoline or a surgeon's slicing skill and can stand to watch a TV show for 45 minutes or so while they bake to enjoy your own homemade potato chips, I say go for it!

Before

After

Savings: 52 cents per ounce and countless calories.