Tightwad Wednesday - Tomato Soup & Seasoned-Rice Substitutes

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Melissa
Filed Under Tightwad Wednesdays

Each week, I will test out two tips from the The Complete Tightwad Gazette, and on the following Wednesday I’ll review how they went and evaluate if it is worth my time/effort/money to continue with it.

I’m excited about this challenge because I like being able to try recipes featuring the original versus the cheaper version. To properly test these “sensible substitutes” on taste and price I made them head to head with their competitors. I also used generic products whenever possible. Let’s see how it went!

Tomato Soup

For this challenge I put the Tightwad’s tomato soup using tomato paste up against my store brand condensed soup in a can.

Tomato Soup from The Complete Tightwad Gazette (p.424)

1 6 oz can tomato paste
24 oz milk (refill tomato paste can four times)
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon celery seed

Put tomato paste in a small saucepan. Add the milk using the can, rinsing thoroughly. Add the salt and the celery seed. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Since the tightwad’s version used milk to make it a creamy tomato soup I decided to prepare the canned soup in the same fashion. According to my canned soup I could use 1 can water or a 1/2 can whole milk. I compromised and used a full can of my 1% milk. No celery seed was added in our trial - we don’t like the flavor so much.

Store Brand (21.5 oz)		Tightwad (30 oz)
Ingredient	Cost	Ingredient	Cost
Condensed Soup	$0.59	Tomato paste	$0.36
Milk	$0.32	Milk	$0.72
Total	$0.91	Total	$1.08
Cost per oz	$0.04	Cost per oz	$0.03
		Savings per oz	$0.01	or $0.08 a cup

Tightwad vs Store Brand The savings appear to be pretty small for this test. After tasting them side by side we both felt that the store brand soup was significantly better. It had better flavor and depth. Even the color of the store brand soup looked more appetizing - almost orange rather than pink.

Eric wouldn’t even eat the tightwad soup for dinner, saying it lacked body and richness. I gave him the store brand and I ate the tightwad version. I agree it wasn’t as good but it was passable. I would say spend the extra $0.08 a cup and enjoy the generic condensed soup. The savings aren’t worth it.

Seasoned-Rice Mix

For this challenge I wanted to compare the seasoned-rice mix to Rice-A-Roni. I really like Rice-A-Roni so I was hoping this cheaper version would turn out well.

Seasoned-Rice Mix from The Complete Tightwad Gazette (p.425)

3 cups uncooked rice
1/4 cup dried parsley flakes
6 tablespoons instant chicken or beef bouillon powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Mix all the ingredients, and store in an airtight container. To use, put 1 cup mix, 2 tablespoons margarine, and 2 cups water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes or until the rice is tender. To more closely approximate Rice-A-Roni, substitute a cup of broken pieces of uncooked spaghetti for a cup of rice.

I used chicken bouillon to make the tightwad version similar to the popular chicken flavored Rice-A-Roni. I didn’t include the price of the margarine because it was equal on both recipes. I did substitute some broken pasta for some of the rice and included that in the cost.

Rice-A-Roni (7.2oz), dry		Tightwad (30oz), dry
Ingredient	Cost	Ingredient	Cost
Boxed Mix	$1.19	Rice	$1.12
		Pasta	$0.41
		Bouillon	$1.08
		Seasonings	$0.10
Total	$1.19	Total	$2.71
Cost per oz	$0.17	Cost per oz	$0.09
		Savings per oz	$0.08	or $0.64 a cup

Tightwad vs Brand Name I will say that the tightwad recipe was easier to make than the brand name. You just dump it all in a pot and leave it alone. But the texture suffered with that method. The tightwad version was really dark with all that bouillon, too.

Although the savings are somewhat significant at $0.64 a cup, the taste tells the true story. Eric hated the tightwad version. Hated it with a passion. He said he would only consider making it if it saved him $20 a serving. Those are strong words. What good is saving money when your family won’t eat it?

He is right though. The Rice-A-Roni was much, much better. I want to blame it on the fact that my bouillon was looking a little old but honestly this recipe failed in just about every way. I would not recommend this recipe, at least not as is. Just make regular rice. Seriously. Rice with a little butter and salt blows this away in taste and price.

These two recipes showed me something. Sometimes saving money is not worth sacrificing taste.

Stay tuned for next week’s Tightwad Wednesday challenge when I will be testing out several more “sensible substitutes”:

Seasoned Salt p. 423
Taco-Seasoning Mix p. 423
Onion-Soup Mix p. 424

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Comments

5 Responses to “Tightwad Wednesday - Tomato Soup & Seasoned-Rice Substitutes”

Vixen on November 1st, 2007 12:23 am

I feel like a horrid person… but I couldn’t help laughing my ass off!
Melissa on November 2nd, 2007 9:10 am

@Vixen – Don’t feel bad! I’m curious what made you laugh? I have to assume that it’s because my fussy husband hated everything. Boy, did he loathe that rice. He made me throw away the rest of the mix on the spot so I’d never make it again. Yeah, I’d say this was a bad tightwad challenge week.
Debbie M on November 5th, 2007 7:27 pm

I was disappointed to see that the soup did not turn out well because I had high hopes for it. But I really don’t like how sugary canned soups are, so I tried this recipe anyway. Sort of. I used only 3/4 teaspoon salt and I replaced the celery seed with dried basil.

I liked it. Not quite as well as I like, say, crushed tomatoes mixed with cream in a one-to-one ratio, but I really like it for an everyday soup.

If there were a bigger price differential, I’d recommend your adding some sweetener to see if you like that better, but since you like the store-brand tomato soup just fine, then I’d go with that.
Melissa on November 6th, 2007 3:34 pm

@Debbie M - I also had high hopes for the soup. I wonder if Eric would still have felt it was “bad” if the soups hadn’t been tasted head to head. When compared that way you could tell that the tightwad soup lacked the same depth and character. It tasted a bit “bright” instead of simmered down. However, if we had tried them at different times I wonder if it would have been so noticeable.

I’m glad that you liked it and that it is working out for you. Thanks so much for letting me know your experience with it.
Debbie M on November 7th, 2007 3:55 pm

@Melissa - it’s hard to describe flavors!

My boyfriend couldn’t believe I’d made it without garlic and rosemary! I wonder if those would give a soup more depth, character, etc.

And it’s definitely true that things are different when you taste things side by side.

Thanks for all your work.