being frugal and cooking

After making bbq chicken yesterday I decided to take the frugal course and make my own stock.
Usually I spend between 60c and 75c on a 15oz can of organic broth.

Last week I spent $7 on 5 large bone-in breasts
That works out to $1.40 ea for organic fresh chicken breasts
After cutting the breast from the bone for last night's meal I had three carcasses left, each with remaining breast and rib meat.

To make my stock I placed these carcasses in a stock pot.
I added:
8c water
2 dried bay leaves
1-2tbs of dried parsley
1-2tbs of dried thyme
1 small quartered onion
3 ribs of celery
appx 8 whole black peppercorns
2 cloves of crushed garlic

I allowed the stock to simmer for about 4 hrs
Boy, did my house smell wonderful.
I placed the stock in the fridge over night
I recommend this because its easier to remove the fat and gunk if its solidified.
Plus the flavors can marry longer.

This yielded appx. 5 cups of broth and 3cups of diced/shredded chicken (after removing leftover breast and rib meat).

I am only calculating the cost of the onion and celery into this bc I consider the shredded chicken/broth to be free since they were leftover from another meal and carcasses would usually go straight into the compost.

For about 40c-50c I got 5 c. of broth. Usually this would cost me between $1.80 and $2.25. Plus I saved about 3c of chicken which I can use for other meals!