I don't know I haven't priced the materials for awhile, but last time I checked you can buy prooven lubes that have taken folks into the winners circle for less than you could get the makins for some concoction that may or may not be worth the effort to put together.
When you factor in your time to experiment to tweak the recipe and actually make the lube, you are probably right.
Adding expensive ingredients like Lanolin and commercial lube additives Virtually insures a lack of savings.
By Sticking to simple- yet excellent beeswax /vegetable oil recipes- the lube costs half as much as the cheapest commercial lube per lb. And about 1/3 or less of SPG. The big factor is how much the Beeswax costs you. If you can acquire beeswax for $8 or less per pound, then the total cost per pound should not be over $10 per pound.
About 15 years ago, I did some melting temp and shooting tests with various lube combos. My intent was to keep it cheap and simple.
My benchmark was SPG. Using the following formula I came up with a lube that actually held up about 5 to 10 degrees hotter weather than SPG and still kept fouling soft- here is that simple recipe-
60% Pure Beeswax
40% Pure Vegetable oil (Canola, Corn, Soybean or Peanut- what ever is cheapest). Olive oil is also great but these days it is TOO expensive.Save it for FOOD.