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I'm gonna be honest, I'm not sure how to run the numbers on this but I'm curious if anyone has. Here's my thought process: It is probably cheaper to get a big bag of potatoes and make it from scratch, especially if you use up any leftover potatoes for other recipes. But if you buy a big bag of potatoes, only use 1-2 to make mashed potatoes, and then the rest go bad, then yes that would be wasting money. I guess the benefit of instant is that they are shelf stable.

I personally have never gotten the instant stuff because I actually like my mashed potatoes to be somewhat chunky. I also like to use my extra potatoes for other things like baked potatoes or just dicing them and air-frying them as a side dish.…