Frugal Friday (Saturday): Dry vs. Canned beans

This week's Frugal Friday is extending into Saturday due to the need to soak dry beans overnight.  Sorry about that - we're still bouncing back from the blizzard last weekend and the very busy week I've had at work.

So I've seen a bunch of suggestions online saying that it's more economical to cook dry beans than to use canned, with the slow cooker being the best choice for cooking in terms of energy efficiency.  We're using a lot of canned beans in recipes as of late so I decided to put that to the test this weekend.

1 pound of dry beans equals roughly 2 cups of volume.   According to the Internet, 1 cup of dry beans will produce 3 cups of cooked beans (assuming most liquid is cooked off or drained).   A 15 ounce can of beans produces 1.5 cups of cooked beans when drained and rinsed.   Therefore, we can expect a 1 pound bag of dry beans to replace four 15 ounce cans of beans (6 cups / 1.5 cups = 4).

I purchased two 1 lb bags of dry black beans from Target for $1.39 each.  I probably could have found them cheaper at Aldi or Stop & Shop on sale, but we were there anyways so I got them there.   One 15.5 ounce can of Stop & Shop brand black beans is $0.67, while the same size can of Goya beans is $1.00.  By cooking dry beans at home, portioning, and freezing, that $1.39 bag of beans will replace four cans of canned beans.   That's a theoretical $0.35 per can equivalent for cooking dry beans and $0.67 per can to buy them - you clearly save money by cooking dry beans rather than using canned!

(How many times do you think can I use the word "beans" in this post?)

The actual results of my home-cooked beans experiment:  Two 1 lb bags of dry black beans produced 7.5 portions of 1.5 cups each (the equivalent of one can of rinsed/drained black beans).  I soaked overnight and then cooked the beans for around 6 hours on "low" in the crock pot, so the cost of electricity for cooking is negligible.  I packaged them in 1 quart freezer bags and once they cooled I put them in the deep freeze.    Rounding down, I got 7 can equivalents from the 2 lbs of beans.   2 lbs of beans cost $2.78, for a can-equivalent cost of $0.40 apiece.   Since the best price I found for canned black beans was $0.67/can, we're still saving money.

As a nice side benefit, my home-cooked beans are completely free of any added salt (as a helpful hint when cooking beans at home, do not add salt during cooking as it can make the beans tough).   Low sodium canned beans are either unavailable or hard to find in store brands, and having the beans be salt-free means we can adjust seasoning to taste.