DIY - Why it's Weird...and Awesome.

A funny thing happened to me while shopping last week:
I was looking for vanilla beans so I asked the woman stocking the bulk section because I figured that's where they would be.  She lead me over to the honey station and picked up a stick in a plastic tube.  I asked if they had anything different, like actual beans (because I didn't know the beans were inside of the stick, I thought it was like a cinnamon stick) and she took me over to the section that had actual extract in it where there were two more employees doing odd stocking jobs.  One of them explained to me that the beans were actually inside of the stick and the other helped us look for another vanilla bean option - we found one, but it was a lot more expensive.  The one helping us look asked me why I was looking for vanilla beans and I said, "to make my own vanilla extract."
When we had finished and I was walking away with my plastic tube of vanilla beans he turned to the woman and said, "don't we sell vanilla extract?"
I was too busy laughing to myself to hear what she said in response.

We live in a society that embraces consumerism.  Why make it, when you can buy it?  I mean, buying it is just so much easier.
A lot of people tell themselves they don't have time for making things, which is a cute excuse for laziness in my experience.  I was one of those people and as it happens I have plenty of time to make my own stuff.  The trick is prioritizing.  Sure, I'd rather be sitting on my bum playing World of Warcraft a lot of the time, but there are just more important things to be doing.  Like making nut milk.

The most recent thing I learned I could make myself is farina hot cereals, specifically rice farina.  Why should I do this?  Because a 26 ounce bag of organic rice farina costs upwards of $6.99 (Bob's Red Mill).  A pound of organic short grain brown rice costs around $1.29 at Sprouts.  That means my breakfast costs me $1.08, give or take, when buying it pre-made.  It costs me $.32 to $.64 if I make it myself.  That's a savings of $.44 to $.75 a meal.  I haven't actually done it, so I'm not sure what 8 ounces of rice would come to once ground; probably a bit less than 8 ounces, maybe even half.  I eat this almost daily for breakfast, so the savings add up pretty quickly.

Nut milk (specifically almond) comes out $.64 cheaper than the cheapest brand of almond milk, and that's if you're buying almonds at $5.99 a pound - which is the regular price for almonds.  The best thing about this one is that you have a bit more control over what goes into the milk.  This cost comparison isn't for organic though.

Home-made shampoo is my new favorite thing.  It's just rosemary infused water, castile soap, jojoba oil and lavender essential oil.   I have a rosemary plant, so it actually saves me a marginal amount of money, but if my calculations including rosemary are correct, it costs about the same unless you're buying conditioner in which case it makes it that much cheaper.  I do it more for the ingredient control than anything else, really.  Plus my hair looks nicer now, in my opinion.

I also make my own dishwasher detergent, which saves me a bit of money.  I'm still working out the most effective recipe, so I'm not sure what the savings are quite yet.

My next pet project is laundry soap.  I found a recipe here that I'm going to try.

What do you guys make?