Simple Math and Food Gifts!

 I like to make vanilla extract.  It occurred to be that there is a little math.  I have a bunch of glass bottles: I bought 50 vanilla beans and 1.75 L of vodka.  How many bottles can I make if I use eight ounce bottles and between 6-8 vanilla beans?  I can make seven, eight ounce bottles with seven vanilla beans in each.  How much does each bottle cost?  I spent about $1 each on the bottles, $32.99 on the vodka, and $37.99 for the vanilla beans.  Each bottle costs $11.29.  (I didn’t factor in the cost of the labels, which I’ve used now for years.)

This is the sort of practical math your teen can do when she makes food gifts.  How many dry beans does she need to make a dozen bean soup gifts?  What is the price per gift including the mason jars, beans, spice mix, and tiny hot sauce bottles?  Let her do some research and compare prices and recipes before she makes batches of granola to bag for presents. Here are 75 food gifts with recipes.  Here are mason jar gift ideas.  Which recipes are the most cost effective?  Which will delight your extended family?  Which can be done ahead of time?

 Let her write up the lesson, take pix, and add it to her portfolio.  School doesn’t need to be boring.  Budgeting, planning, and shopping are important aspects of her education.