Want to make a yummy cheap homemade ice cream to enjoy this summer? This yummy Cheap Ice Cream recipe is so easy, you only need 3 ingredients to make it!
Cheap Homemade Ice Cream
Ice Cream is always a fun treat to make in the summertime. If you happen to not have any air conditioning in your home, it can also be a great way to cool your body down.
Normally when you make homemade ice cream you use quite a bit of cream, and with the rising cost of dairy and cream already being expensive, sometimes it’s cheaper just to do without. I love a cool ice cream treat now and then so I knew there had to be a solution!
This recipe requires an ice cream maker of some sort. If you don’t have one…watch at rummage sales or end of the season sales to pick one up for less. They are worth it to be able to make a special treat once in a while! If you are unable to purchase one, you can always make one following the Ice Cream Freezer link on the bottom of this article, however, that project will not work with this recipe but will work with a more traditional ice cream recipe.
Cheap Ice Cream Recipe
What you need:
- 4 cup Half and Half
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pour all the ingredients together in the ice cream maker. You can use turbinado sugar or raw sugar in this recipe instead of white sugar as long as you send it through your blender first to make more of a fine powder.
Turn on the ice cream maker and let the magic happen. For us, this recipe only takes about 10 minutes.
The final product won’t be hard like store-bought ice cream, it will be more of a milkshake consistency. Still very yummy!
If you wanted to change it up you could also add a bit of Homemade Chocolate Sauce to make Chocolate Frugal Ice Cream!
Want to print this Cheap Homemade Ice Cream Recipe? Grab it below!
Cheap Homemade Ice Cream Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cup Half and Half
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
-
Pour all the ingredients together in the ice cream maker. You can use turbinado sugar or raw sugar in this recipe instead of white sugar as long as you send it through your blender first to make more of a fine powder.
-
Turn on the ice cream maker and let the magic happen. For us, this recipe only takes about 10 minutes.
-
The final product won't be hard like store-bought ice cream, it will be more of a milkshake consistency. Still very yummy!
Looking for more frozen summer treats to make on a budget? Here are some of my favorites!
- Quick Strawberry Ice Cream
- Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe
- Snow Ice Cream
- Homemade Ice Cream Freezer
- Frozen Yogurt Pops
- Homemade Frozen Yogurt
Does your family like to eat cold treats in the summer? Perhaps all year around? Have you tried this recipe yet?
This Cheap Homemade Ice Cream recipe was originally posted on Little House Living in June 2011. It has been updated as of June 2022.
can you add strawberries or chocolate to this and stilll get milkshakes
Yes! You could add cookies or fruit or anything to make it even more yummy. 🙂
gonna have to try this, hubby likes cocoanut so some flavoring and flake cocoanut should be good
Mmm… sounds delish!! TY
sounds yummy must try soonwe make onethat ha eggs in t!!!!!!!!!it yummy too oh and creamtoo.
I heard Friday is National Ice Cream day. So if you don’t have the fixings today, you can get them by then and feel very hip making it on the “correct” day, lol 🙂
The first recipe I ever used (& still the 1 I use most often), calls for 1/2 whipping cream & 1.2 light cream (half & half). Much richer, while saving a lot of money
Can you use splenda instead of sugar?
I don’t use sugar replacers so I’m not sure. Hopefully someone else will comment that uses them!
I am in Australia and make one similar, i use dextrose or natvia and works out just fine
Do you think you could use the baggie and rock salt method to make this instead of an ice cream maker
I haven’t tried it but I don;t see why not 🙂
I’m in Australia and follow sweet poison eating plan (no fructose) i make one very similar with cream, vanilla and replace the sugar with dextrose, have also made it with natvia and works out just fine 🙂
Can this recipe be used to make ice cream in regular freezer instead of ice cream maker?
We have a traditional ice cream maker and a large family. What I do for cheap ice cream is make a frozen custard to freeze. In place of the heavy whipping cream and half and half the recipe calls for I use evaporated milk. No complaints yet!
Great idea!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Thanks for your wonderful blog!!! Enjoy it very much<3
Thank you so much!
My poor hubby is lactose intolerant and misses ice cream so much so I substituted non-dairy coffee creamer for the Half and Half and added a tablespoon of vegetable oil, 2 T. corn starch and 1½ t. vanilla. Heat on stove until everything is dissolved and chill for at least 4 hours. I put it all in my ice cream maker like you suggested and let it churn for about 17 minutes. You should have seen my hubby’s eyes light up when he tasted it! Did you know that putting a piece of plastic wrap on the surface will prevent ice crystals from forming? Thanks for the frugal ice cream recipe which let me experiment a little to make ice cream for my poor hubby. P.S. I made my own (frugal) liquid non-dairy creamer by buying powdered creamer (Dollar store variety) and adding hot water to dissolve it (equal parts powder to hot water).
Thanks for sharing this!
Canned milk works great (evaporated)
We do frozen banana ice cream! Frozen banana, milk, put it in the blender. My cows not milking and cream is pricey. Plus being in florida, my banana ripen quickly so I end up freezing them a lot. I like this because the kids get fiber, fruit, and no added sugar or sweetener. Plus, easier to clean up. Lol can always add other fruit to it too
Yes! That’s always a great one too! 🙂
I don’t see what the 4 1/2 cup suppose to be.
I’m not quite sure what you are asking?
To Edna…it is 4 cups of a product called half and half. (Half cream/half whole milk)