Thrifty Thursday: Make Your Own Spice Mixes

For the next while I hope to blog consistently about budgeting and reducing my grocery spending. Ideally I will come up with a new thrifty topic to post on Thursdays. As I was thinking about the subject I realized I am almost out of oregano (which I didn't grow in my garden this year). I was making a lasagna to freeze (part of my effort to stop bringing home take-out after a long day in town) and remembered that I used to mix my own Italian blend of herbs. There are a multitude of recipes online (pinterest, allrecipes.com, etc) but most of them have some variation of the following herbs: equal parts thyme, oregano, savory, marjoram, basil, sage, rosemary. There were recipes that added other ingredients, if you want to go more complex, but I think I used to use marjoram, basil and thyme on their own as a substitute for oregano.

homemade gravy mix

I have posted before on making my own spice blends. I now make my own gravy mix, blackened seasoning for salmon or chicken, taco seasoning, and I have recently begun seasoning popcorn with spices I have on hand. Rather than buying pre-mixed packages of seasonings it makes more sense for me to buy the most common herbs and mix them as I need them. It is about $5 for the popcorn seasoning my son likes and it is soooo salty (not to mention anti-clumping agents and goodness knows what other preservatives). All I need to do is look on pinterest to find cheap, make-your-own blends and have fun experimenting.

The idea behind my Thrifty Thursday posts is to share some of what I'm trying here as I attempt to curb our spending. Creating your own seasonings might not save you a noticeable amount of money but it is a start, and I need to start somewhere!