To think cooking from scratch is not always cheaper?

Ahhh, looks like you made 'posh' spag Bol. And I don't think you can count garlic bread - that's optional! Also gf also costs a fortune (coeliac dd, I know the pain)
You can def do it for cheaper. Though I'm amazed at the tiny portions some of you have -500g is definitely for 4 people in our house!

Op said 6 portions. Agree if some of them are small children you could get away with less but for 6 adults? Or even teenagers. I’d do 1kg of mince and possibly have some left overs for freezing. Still wouldn’t be £18 though!

Of course it isn’t cheaper - who is saying it is?
Good quality ready meals are more expensive than home cooked.

But a jar of value range sauce tipped over pasta is obviously cheaper (and less nutritious and much lest tasty) than slow cooking a meat and vegetable sauce braised in a bottle of wine.

How do you make it then I feed 6
750g mince 1 onion garlic paste tomato puree dried herbs already in cupboard 3 tins tomatoes dried pasta

But this, like a lot of the things on your list, tip it into the “luxury bolognaise” category. People watching the pennies probably aren’t buying the pricey brand tinned tomatoes, pancetta, or jarred sundried tomatoes - so they can cook from scratch but a lot cheaper.

If you really must cook it for so long OP, (totally unnecessary), buy a slow cooker. Asda currently have a perfectly good and smart 1.8L one for £9. Ignore their suggested serving nonsense, it's 1.8L. It uses 150w per hour, very little energy.

Batch cooking of good quality ingredients is the way to go. Never put your big oven on for just one dish.

Tesco spag bol ready meal is 400g and 18% is meat so 72g of meat in a portion.

I always make my bolegnese in the oven. Slow cook for 5h. I just think it tastes nicer 🤷🏼‍♀️

Agree and I make mine with 2lbs of mince to feed 6. We like a meaty sauce though. 2lb of round mince from butchers is €9. Pasatta and tomato puree is from Lidl I think €1:40 combined. Packet of gold pasta €2. I have all the seasonings and extras (onion and garlic) always on hand but can’t imagine they’d cost anymore than 50c. And bag of Parmesan is €1.50. I’m up to less than 15 euro and tbh a lot of time I wouldn’t need to buy Parmesan or pasta as I’d have it on hand.

Completely agree though in a lot of ways in that cooking from scratch can be expensive but to get any sort of comparable quality then yep it can be cheaper.

Cooking from scratch is quite a subjective concept. But yeah, ready made stuff is affordable and if we don't only count the direct monetary value then often it pays off with convenience.

Nearly a fiver of that is GF stuff which is more expensive.

In the oven? Did you accidentally make Lasagne??

I agree it can op, because you're actively choosing meat so probably but nicer, you may need to buy new jars of stuff, and your portions are probably larger but I'd say it's possible to do it at shop brought cost if you compromise on what you put in / price per portion the spices etc

Basics meat, passata and no puree, mixed herbs only, onions, dried fusilli or similar, bit of cheddar on top.

You aren't comparing like with like. Look at the ingredients in a ready meal and the proportion of it that is meat.

Even if it is like for like they can bulk buy the ingredients direct from the farm which will be much cheaper.

Its terrible that people with less money end up having to eat poor quality food AND keep getting told cooking from scratch is cheaper.

My recipe is
Mince
Tin of tomato
Carrot
Celery
Onion
Garlic
Herbs
Seasoning
Spaghetti
I add a couple of grated courgettes to it usually too.
That probably comes to around £10 if not slightly cheaper and costs me less than 6 ready meals.

It’s not always cheaper, and I’m not one of the people who claims to frequent a top quality butcher cheaper than the supermarkets and be able to make ten hearty portions out of 500g of mince - but £18 for bolognaise does sound excessive unless you’re also counting things like buying several types of fresh herbs. Though I’ve never actually made a bolognaise, so perhaps I’m talking shit.

Ultimately, does it really matter? I’m not that invested in what other people put in their gobs. If they like to use an Aldi jar sauce, why not?

Assuming there aren't six adults, yes. The op said there were 5 and I worked on the basis of 100g each which is the recommended amount.

1/6 of a tin of tomatoes each?
83g of mince each?

Surely your meal is for two adults, would you really make such tiny portions for six people?

From.the cooking time I am assumimg maybe the OP used beef shin or stewing steak rather than mince? I do that sometimes for a special occasion to make a really rich, slow cooked, red wine heavy ragu to have with paparadelle. But not for a bog standard meal.

But calorie for calorie processed food is miles cheaper than homemade

500g mince, 2 tins toms, splash of wine at best for 6 here

Why are you putting spag bol in the oven…?

40 mins on the hob cooking slowly is ample.

and ingredients for 6 (I usually get 8 portions out of one pack minced beef) shouldn’t be more than £10 absolute maximum

500g of mince and one tin of tomatoes for 6 portions?