I traced every input in one homemade breakfast back to where it came from and none of it started here. What is left after you give up the fantasy is smaller than advertised and better than I expected.
Handmade gifts are not free, they are not always welcome, and they put the person receiving them in an awkward position more often than we admit. What I have learned about giving away the things I make.
Nobody counts failure when they calculate whether making something at home is worth it. After a few years of throwing things out, I have opinions about which failures to rescue, which to bin, and what they cost.
I tracked my minutes for six weeks to find out which homemade projects were paying me a decent wage and which were quietly costing me. Most of my list did not survive the arithmetic.
I spent two years making my own household cleaners before admitting they were not saving me money, not saving me time, and in one case were genuinely unsafe. This is the project I tell people to skip.
Out of everything I tried to make instead of buy, bread is the only habit that survived three years. Here is my honest accounting of what it costs, what it does not save, and why it stayed anyway.