I am always on the lookout for ways to save money.
One area that I have found where we pay a lot of money is for convenience.
I’m not talking about convenience stores, but for making our lives easier.
For example, a whole pineapple costs $2.99 but a package of pre-sliced pineapple is $5.99.
And you get only a portion of the pineapple for that inflated price!
The same applies to seasoning mixes.
It’s super easy to but the premixed packets at the grocery store.
And with a price typically under $1.00 most of us never think twice.
But you can create your own seasonings for a fraction of the cost.
In fact, you can save a lot of money by making DIY seasonings.
And yours will be healthier too.
This is because most of the pre-packaged ones contain preservatives to help them last longer on the store shelf.
In this post, I will show you my favorite homemade seasoning mix recipes.
You will be stunned with how easy they are to make and how much money you will save.
Homemade Seasoning Mix Recipes
Why Make Your Own Homemade Seasoning Blends?
There are 2 main reasons why you want to look into making your own homemade spice blends.
The first is money.
At my last visit to the grocery store, I looked at prices for these mixes, and those packets cost $1.19.
If you want to try to save some money, you can buy the store brand for around $1.
To prepare the ingredients in the packet costs the manufacturer about $0.10.
The other dollar goes towards packaging, marketing, and profit.
On other words, 90% of your payment is convenience fee.
Would you pay a 90% convenience fee for your mortgage? How about a 90% convenience fee for cashing a check?
So why should you pay it for tacos and other meals you want to season?
The second reason are the ingredients.
The ingredients list on the packets show that they contain a mix of spices plus whey, starch, and ascorbic acid.
In theory, the starch would be a thickening agent, but it’s completely unnecessary.
The spices thicken just fine without it. In reality, it’s just low cost filler.
The ascorbic acid is a preservative, and is rendered unneeded if you make it fresh.
And then there is the whey.
Well, I have no clue why whey is included, but it means that anyone with a lactose intolerance or dairy allergy can’t have it.
That’s just the list for one of the healthier ones.
Others include MSG, food coloring, and cellulose.
Cellulose in an indigestible tree fiber that is used in foods as a bulking agent.
This means it is used to make it seem like there is more seasoning than there really is.
9 Homemade Seasoning Blends
Now that you know why you should make your own mixes, how do you do it?
There are a lot of spice mix recipes out there.
While I could cover them all, I am focusing on the ones that most people use a lot.
You can quickly make these in less than 5 minutes and store them for 6 months or longer.
And when you follow these mixes, you will save a lot of money.
For example, most of the recipes I show you below will cost you less than $0.35 when you compare the same amount to the package you buy.
This will save you a ton of money over the long run.
I add to this list on a regular basis, so be sure to check back in for new additions.
Taco Seasoning
Here is a simple and spicy taco seasoning that will make your dinners come to life. This recipe is equal to one package of seasoning mix that you buy in the store.
Ingredients
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
¼ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp paprika
1½ tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Instructions
#1. Mix the ingredients together in a small mason jar, seal tight and shake for 60 seconds for a complete mix.
If you find that it is a little too spicy for your taste, you can omit the red pepper flakes. Make sure that you are putting the seasoning into an air tight container so that it stays fresh.
Chili Seasoning
On a cold day, who doesn’t love a bowl of some zesty chili? This seasoning mix works great in beef, turkey and bean chili too!
As with the taco seasoning, be sure to store this in an air tight container.
Ingredients
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Instructions
#1. Mix ingredients together in air tight container by shaking for 15 seconds.
Cajun Seasoning
If you are from the south, you can’t get enough of Cajun cooking. Here is a recipe for some great Cajun seasoning.
While I don’t make Jambalaya, I will tell you what I love to put this Cajun seasoning on. My french fries and tater tots. It gives them a nice kick.
Ingredients
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1¼ tsp dried oregano
2½ tsp paprika
1½ tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Instructions
#1. Mix ingredients together in air tight container by shaking for 15 seconds.
Ranch Seasoning
I don’t like ranch dressing or seasoning. But my wife does. And every time I go grocery shopping, I am buying a packet of ranch dip seasoning mix.
Luckily, there is another option to make ranch seasoning and save money.
You can store this mix in an airtight container.
Ingredients
¼ cup dried parsley
1 tbsp dried dill
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
½ tsp dried basil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ cup plain greek yogurt
¼ cup milk
Instructions
#1. Mix dry ingredients together in air tight container by shaking for 15 seconds.
#2. When you are ready to use the mix, simply mix it with plain greek yogurt and milk.
Seasoned Salt
When I was in college my one buddy loved to grill. When we could afford a treat, we would buy some steaks and he would grill them to perfection. They always tasted so good.
I wasn’t sure if it was the way he cooked them or because I was a poor college student and when I actually had good food it tasted the best.
In any case, I learned from him to use some seasoning salt on my steaks to really bring out the flavor. So here is a recipe to make your own seasoning salt.
You should store this seasoning in an airtight container.
Ingredients
¼ cup garlic powder
¼ cup onion powder
¼ cup salt
2 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp pepper
Instructions
#1. Mix ingredients together in air tight container by shaking for 15 seconds.
Note: One tweak to this recipe is to omit the salt to make it a salt free seasoning for those that are looking to limit their salt intake.
Jerk Seasoning
If you like hot and spicy, you can’t go wrong with a jerk seasoning mix. Of course, if you would rather have it mild as opposed to spicy hot, cut back on the red pepper flakes.
Store in an airtight container.
Ingredients
1 tbsp allspice
¼ tbsp ground cinnamon
¼ cup light brown sugar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground cumin
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp canola oil
Instructions
#1. Mix dry ingredients together in air tight container by shaking for 15 seconds.
#2. When you are ready to make it, add 2 tablespoons of canola oil to the mix.
Dry Rub Seasoning
If you love ribs, and who doesn’t, this dry rub seasoning will make your ribs pop and will save you money at the same time!
As with all of the other recipes listed here, you should store this in an airtight container.
Ingredients
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp granulated garlic
1 tbsp granulated onion
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper
Instructions
#1. Mix ingredients together in air tight container by shaking for 15 seconds.
Herb And Garlic Seasoning
Garlic herb is a basic seasoning that most everyone loves.
And it is simple to make!
As with all of the other recipes listed here, you should store this in an airtight container.
Ingredients
1/4 cup Garlic Powder
1/4 cup Onion Powder
1/4 cup Dried Parsley
1 tablespoon Salt
1/2 tablespoon Pepper
Instructions
#1. Mix ingredients together in air tight container by shaking for 15 seconds.
Italian Seasoning Blend
One of the easiest spice blends to make is Italian seasoning.
You can use it for any pasta dish or even on chicken to add to the flavor.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoons dried rosemary
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
#1. Mix ingredients together in air tight container by shaking for 15 seconds.
Saving Money With Frugal Seasoning Blends
Now that you have a handful of DIY seasonings to make, let’s talk about money.
Below I show you how you how to save money by making your own spice blend recipes and some secret tricks I use to save even more money on spices and the supplies.
If you follow these tips, you can get the cost of your seasoning blend down to pennies on the dollar.
#1. Save Money On Spices
I listed a lot of spices in these recipes.
If you have ever shopped for spices, you know expensive they can be.
Here are the ways to save the most money on spices and the things you need to make homemade seasonings.
#1. Buy In Bulk
The pre-measured containers of spices have a huge mark up.
If you can find bulk spices, I highly recommend you go this route.
Many grocery stores are starting to offer these, but not all do.
By purchasing your spices in smaller bulk quantities, you can save a lot of money.
#2. Costco
You can get a large container of spices with a much smaller mark up than the grocery store.
The issue is a larger size so you need to make sure you are going to use the spice frequently.
One option to overcome this is to find a spice that is in a lot of the seasonings you plan to make and then only buy that one.
Another issue with buying spices at Costco is the variety.
They don’t have a large variety of spices for sale. They tend to have just the basics.
#3. Amazon
Yeah, the online retailer that has everything has spices too.
And the prices are a lot cheaper than grocery stores.
For example, I can get chili powder for $2 for 2½ ounces!
That is a steal!
#2. Focus On Unit Prices
If you are a money conscious shopper like me, you tend to look at the unit cost of items to find out which one truly is a better deal.
In many cases, buying larger quantities saves you money.
But for spices, it sometimes is more expensive to buy a larger container.
For example, the price for a 9 ¼ ounce container of chili powder is $9.50.
This makes it $1 per ounce where the smaller one is only $0.80 an ounce.
#3. Save On Containers
You will need some glass containers to store your newly made spice mixes in.
Ideally you want to get either a 4 ounce or 8 ounce mason jar.
I use the 8 ounce jar for taco seasoning and seasoned salt since we use those a lot and I like to keep a large quantity on hand.
All others are stored in a 4 ounce container.
There are a lot of places you can go to find containers.
The lowest and easiest place to get mason jars is Amazon.
But I have found better prices at our local thrift store too.
The only problem is the odds are not in your favor.
I’ve found containers less than 10% of the time I go.
Other options include:
- Target
- Walmart
- Michaels
- Yard sales
I’m sure there are even more, but these are the places where you can get a good price and have a good chance of finding the jars.
Wrapping Up
Cooking from scratch can be intimidating, but these spice blend recipes are a great place to start because they are so hard to get wrong.
Yes you will pay more upfront for all of the seasonings you are buying, but remember, you are going to be able to make a ton of mixes.
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So over the long run you will be saving yourself a good amount of money.
Plus your waistline will thank you too since you won’t be eating all of the extra fillers that the seasoning packets add in.
And if you are still on the fence, here is my experience with this.
We love making tacos and for a while were buying the packets. We really liked the kick of heat that one had.
So when we decided to make our own DIY seasonings, I was skeptical that it would be as good.
Heck, I was skeptical to the point that I was expecting it to be so bad we would need to order a pizza.
To my surprise, it was just as good.
There was a little tweaking we had to do to get the level of heat right, but it was a 99% match.
The only thing that I did notice was that the homemade version of seasoning mixes didn’t coat the meat like the packaged ones did.
I guess that is what some of those fillers are for.
In fact, after I sprinkled the seasoning mix on and didn’t see what I usually see, I thought I needed to add more.
But a quick taste test confirmed that the seasoning was there, it just wasn’t as visually apparent as with the store bought ones.
I so agree – where is the “cheerleader smiley?” WE are playing with home made cuury paste at the moment – so far we have made Korma and Bhuna curries that out perform anything in a mix or a jar. Just soooo tasty – and NOTHING artificial, just cook up a batch and freeze the paste till you need it.
Whole batch (20 portions worth) cost less than one jar of sauce – no multiply that by your family’s favourite meals over a year or so and there are substantial savings to be made.
Great point as to why most people buy the packet as opposed to making it themself: intimidation. The same applies to managing your money. When you are intimidated, you will simply keep your money in a savings account and not earning a higher return. Take some time to educate yourself on the topic and you will benefit enormously.
Good points here, Ed…..and if you don’t want to store all the different ingredients needed, you can buy them fresh from bulk stores as you need them. Once mixed, they last a long time and you don’t need to wonder if you remembered to pick up the packet. Another good thing to doing it yourself is that you don’t get all the added salt! It’s amazing how much sodium is in those packages!
That really depends on where you live, spices are incredibly high in my area, family many times have been giving me spices as a gift due to the outrageous rip off prices in my area. A tiny tiny bottle of chili powser is over $4 where I live , curry tiny bottle for $5! Seriously ridiculous prices yet I found a huge bottle of taco seasoning on sale for $3 so for me although not healthy, definatly cheaper than buying the individual spices to mix my own! Sigh, really need to get a herb garden put in!
Couldn’t agree more with this. I think all pre-prepared spice mixes aren’t just overpriced, but also inferior in terms of taste to ones you can make yourself. For the cheapest spices I go to ethnic stores. I can pick up big packs of cumin, paprika, coriander etc for less than £1, whereas titchy jars of the same stuff costs around £1.50 in supermarkets.
Or check out buying spices online – there are about 3-4 fantastic websites here in the UK that you can buy spices at wholesale rate.
Poor to Rich – I can feel a “Red Cross Spice Parcel” coming on as those prices are outrageous my love.
LOL Elaine! Yeah I have thought about shopping onlne for them, I just never seem to think of it when I am shopping online!
Edward, I wish we had ethnic stores in my area, unfortuantly that is a downside to tiny rural areas…..I would have to drive over an hour for an ethnic store 🙁
Great ideas – thank you for sharing! I hadn’t ever considered how seasoning mixes were wasting money – but now I realize how much I could be saving… thanks!
Indeed, mixing the spices yourself is cheaper and tastier and more fun.
To buy spices from ethnic stores becomes easier if you know some foreign names. I find this list most helpful to get spice names translated into Hindi, tamil, indonesion, Spanish. A whole new shopping opportunity opens up for you.
http://www.waterlily-unlimited.nl/spice/index.html