Before you buy that next bottle of salad dressing at the grocery store, think about opening your wallet, feeding bills into a paper shredder and covering a bowl of salad with em. Instead, keep the money in your wallet and make your own delicious, inexpensive and easy-to-prepare salad dressings at home.

We spoke to Mamie Fennimore, author of Dressings: Over 200 Recipes for the Perfect Salads, Marinades, Sauces, and Dips , about the 11 dressings she says you should never buy from the supermarket, and how to make them easily in your kitchen.

Heres why you should make dressing at home

There are a few major reasons to skip the store-bought stuff, according to Fennimore:

If you make your dressing, youll know exactly what youre pouring on the salad.

While Fennimore used to buy dressings in supermarkets, she never quite felt good about it. I would read the label and think, I dont know half these ingredients, she told HuffPost. I was getting more flavor and more security in what I was making for myself and others when I was making my own. For example, EDTA is an ingredient found in many salad dressings. While the Food and Drug Administration says its safe to consume, some have concerns that it can cause allergic reactions, asthma attacks, skin rash and possible kidney damage.

Dressing takes almost no time at all to prepare.

Great news: You dont have to be a James Beard Award-winning chef to whip up dressing. Some of the most basic ones [like vinaigrette] take four minutes, Fennimore said. You literally pour oil, vinegar, salt and pepper all into a Mason jar and shake it for a minute. Its so easy. Even the more slightly complicated Caesar and blue cheese dressings can be done in five to 10 minutes if you have a blender or food processor handy.

It tastes better.

Nothing beats the taste of homemade food, and that includes salad dressing. Sure, salad dressing has a good shelf life, but theyre dead in the bottle, Fennimore explained. Theres nothing flavorful about them. Something changes when you prepare dressing right before you eat it. People notice the freshness right away when you make something homemade! she told HuffPost.

Its less expensive in the long run.

Obviously, the price of a bottle of salad dressing varies depending on the ingredients, but lets say the average price is about $4-5. You can make it at home for much less, especially if youre making something simple like a lemon vinaigrette. If you think about it, one lemon is 50 cents, a tablespoon or two of olive oil from a $10-15 bottle is a few cents, and balsamic is the same price, Fennimore calculated. Id say its probably $2 to make your own dressing, maybe less.

Here are 11 salad dressings you can easily make at home

Fennimore breaks up her book into a few categories, and this list of 11 dressings pulls from a few of those categories, including vinaigrettes, creamy dressings, dressings with bold flavors and sauces. From blue cheese to ranch to a ton of easy vinaigrette recipes, here are 11 dressings you can make in 10 minutes or less.

All recipes courtesy of Dressings: Over 200 Recipes for the Perfect Salads, Marinades, Sauces, and Dips by Mamie Fennimore.