Canned Pumpkin Versus DIY Baked & Pureed Pumpkin From Scratch

I love frugal experiments, and I definitely am head-over-heels in love with everything Fall-ish & Autumn-esque! So I decided to test out something I had been wondering about for years, but had never tried myself: What is the cost of a canned pumpkin vs. DIY baked/pureed pumpkin? Which saves more money? How much? And how much time does it take to prepare, cut, bake and puree a pumpkin?

I went to my local ALDI store and purchased:

$2.89 — 1 large Pumpkin

$0.89 — 1 Canned Pumpkin, 15 oz (All Natural, 100% Pure Pumpkin…. Not the Pumpkin Pie Filling stuff!)

My large pumpkin took about 55 minutes to bake in the oven, plus it took me about half an hour to prepare, cut, de-seed, etc. And then another 25 minutes to puree in batches. It yielded about 10 cups of pumpkin puree.

My canned Pumpkin yielded a little less than 2 cups of pumpkin puree.

From my calculations:

5 cans of Pumpkin = 1 large Pumpkin DIY baked & pureed.

So what is the savings for baking and pureeing your own pumpkin versus simply buying it canned? A whopping $1.56!

5 x $0.89 = $4.45
$4.45 – $2.89 = $1.56

Is it worth your time for $1.56? It took me almost 2 hours from start to finish for my DIY pumpkin puree.
I know some people love to bake and prefer the taste of fresh, home-baked goods, but I think I’m going to go the canned pumpkin route in the future!

How about you: do you bake and prepare pumpkin from scratch or do you just buy canned pumpkin? Leave a comment and let me know!