Just some food for thought - yes, it would be cheaper to buy the ingredients and make them yourself. BUT - if you want to try a recipe for something interesting and different, you don't know if you'll like it or want to cook it again, and here you have all these specialized ingredients sitting around and possibly going to waste. At least with the recipe boxes - there is all you need for one recipe, and that's it!
True story from college - a friend had his first tiny apartment, and was working his way through college - REFUSED to take out any loans. This is the sweetest, most honest, and down-to-earth person you will ever meet! He limited himself to about $10 a week for groceries for himself (this is in the 80's) - one loaf of bread, 1 package of bologna, that type of thing - whatever he bought was perfectly calculated to last him all week!
He saw a recipe printed on a box of Minute Rice that he wanted to try, but it had all these ingredients, like soy sauce and ginger and water chestnuts. So each week, he would buy one of the ingredients for this recipe, if he had extra $$ to spare. It took him a couple of months, and then he splurged and made this Oriental-ish dish and had his friends over. Served on Minute Rice, of course. He was so proud to serve his first meal in his first apartment!!
