Homemade Pizza vs. Delivery

Being a member of a 10 person family means that ordering pizza for delivery is usually neither economical nor practical. In the amount of time it takes us to pick out toppings, choose our pizzeria, and have all five delivered, we could probably fly to Italy and get the real thing.  Paying for them would just about cover the airfare.
The pizza delivery business is flourishing because most people think it is easier to look through the phone book and dial, than to make their own. It is even easier for those who have memorized the phone number so well that they mistakenly punch it on their microwave and say, “large pepperoni.” Still, at our house, we make our own pizzas for less than three dollars each.  The fact that they taste good could be considered an attribute. One day we decided to see if we could beat the pizza delivery man.

Dad calling Dominos Pizza

Although we usually make five pizzas, tonight the challenge was two on two– having two delivered and making two from scratch. Dad called Papa Johns and the race was on…well sort of. Their delivery area ended 150 yards away from our house.  Dominos jurisdiction stopped just at the end of our yard.  I am sure that if the employee on the phone knew what we were doing he would have said otherwise.

Mom Preparing the Pizza Dough

Mom fired up the oven and set to work on the dough. Dad kept the clock lurking in the background in all of Andrew’s photos of the step-by-step process. As the pizza making progressed, I did a little calculation, and realized that the maximum amount of time Dominos said it would take to deliver the pizzas, was just a little bit longer than the time it usually takes us to make two pizzas; it would be close.  As time flew by, so did Mom, rolling out the dough and putting on the toppings. We hurriedly shoved the two pizzas into the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. After it beeped, we swapped the two pizzas and put them back in the oven.

The Pizza Man Arriving

As the timer counted the last minute, we saw the pizza delivery car coming our way. I could imagine everyone in the house thinking “get a flat tire” or something of that sort. I usually do not wish something bad upon anyone, but I would not have been too sympathetic if  he ran out of gas at that moment. He came to the end of our driveway,  drove right past it and turned on to another road! By the time he had come back, the first two pizzas were out of the oven. We had won! And even with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon, it still cost us $21.00! Two of our homemade pizzas cost a little less than $6.00. Therefore, we beat the clock, had a healthier pizza, and economized as well.

We Did It!

If you eat pizza once, a week and you don’t use a coupon, that is a savings of over $30.00 a week not including tip! That translates into $1560 a year!  Today is Friday, our pizza and movie night (a long-standing Stowe family tradition). Since we make five pizzas at a time, our savings equal $4000 a year.
So get in your kitchens, dust your hands and counter with flour, get your kids or friends to help you, and if you are like me, get a broom as the flour can get a little out of hand.