To think cooking from scratch is not always cheaper?

wow talk about a bait and switch.

Okay, so you want to compare your home cooking to the 75p jar in Aldi? A more accurate like-for-like comparison would be trying to emulate that jar. Which is more along the lines of:

Less than a full 500ml of passata/ one tin of value tomatoes
Some dried herbs
Water to water it down
Wave 100gr of beef in front of it (assuming the jar has meat? Or are we comparing this to something without meat?)

Whether or not you think "it's not worth cooking" or whatever unless you're doing this luxury version, it's disingenuous to pretend as if you have made something in any way similar to the Aldi jar.

Well you can cook spaghetti bolognese cheaper than a ready meal is to buy. You can also use a more expensive recipe.

It’s like saying fish and chips is more expensive when you make it at home because you have lobster and caviar in your recipe.

My recent recipe is
without the pancetta, I use smoked streaky bacon , only half pack for six
reg tin tomatoes ( much cheaper)
plus tube purée, not much
lots of grated carrots to add bulk and flavour
and finely chopped celery.
always have a block of Parmesan to hand it’s cheaper , sun-dried tomatoes are really expensive if you must have them just use a couple of dried tomatoes,

not any garlic bread tbh pasta is enough,
take a look at how Italian Nona’s cook bolognese Sauces , it’s amazing how few ingredients they use
you are not cooking from scratch tbh

Presumably served with a massive Mumsnet salad and tomorrow a medium chicken will do 6 dinners a pasta bake and loads left over for sandwiches !

If you are comparing as close to like for like you’re probably talking a ready made fresh pot and you’d need 2 to serve 6 so that’s £6 for sauce.

Your pasta, Parmesan and garlic bread costs the same and I doubt there’s wine in those pots so take that off, so you’re already up over £10 for the cheap processed stuff. The cheap jars of sauce are pretty much tomatoes so you can do that for £3 anyway

That's a lot of meat to me, I can make a spag bol for a family of 5 with only 250g for less than £3.

Ouch!

A friend of mine does that too. And there's another one who writes "bowel of soup".

exDP would always say spag bol but when texting would say spag bowl.....made me shudder each time.

You are being disingenuous. It is always cheaper to cook from scratch, especially when batch cooking.
Anything else is merely laziness

I don’t make ragu. I make spaghetti bolognese lol (or Spag Bol as it’s also known round these parts)

@Crunchymum it was very simple meals, porridge with water / splash of milk for breakfast, tea and a plain biscuit mid-morning, lunch would either be a ham sandwich with margarine or home made soup e.g. lentil - mid afternoon would be a cup of tea and a biscuit again, dinner would be a slow cooked beef joint with boiled potatoes/cabbage/carrots on a Sunday, stovies the next day, mince and tatties a couple of days, corned beef hash one day and one day a week would be a small fry up for dinner. In the evening again tea and a chocolate biscuit, no coffee/juice/squash, very rarely there would be apples/yogurt.

The stupidity of some posts.....

I'd lay odds that the majority of people don't make spag bol like that which is why theirs is cheaper than shop bought.

Far more healthy to cook from scratch! ready meals full of fat

Can you show us?

That's like saying why is it more than a packet one when you've chosen to add expensive ingredients.

Apples and oranges innit?

Not again. I like lentils but not in this.

Sounds delicious but more upmarket than the average spag bol tbh.

I don’t know how on earth 6 portions of bolognese are costing so much. I’d certainly use a couple of tins of tomatoes with 500 g mince, but I bulk it out with red lentils as well as finely chopped veg, and add some tomato purée from a tube in the fridge. I use use stock cubes, not stock pots - much cheaper - I use one beef and one chicken. And usually dried Italian herbs, which I always have anyway. I’d never add pancetta - to me it’s not necessary.

I make my own garlic bread and usually have some in the freezer.

For a start, 3% fat mince is horrible! The flavour of beef is in the fat and you can get 500g of 20% fat minced beef for £2.50.
Then you don’t even need expensive olive oil - just brown the mince, then fry your onion, celery and tomatoes in the fat until onions are transparent, add garlic and stir for a further minute, then chuck in a tin of tomatoes, an oxo cube or a splash of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon of tomato purée, 250ml of boiling water, 2 tbsp cornflour and whatever herbs you like. Simmer until reduced and serve with spaghetti. Probably costs less than a fiver!

I am now shocked people don't use soffrito when making ragu.

Would love to know, I cook for one and it's around that... although I do cook from scratch..

🙄

So in the interests of mumsnet scientific research, I've just done an Asda online order for the same weekly grocery shop that my scottish grandparents would have done in the 1980's - 7 days of bfast/lunch/dinner/snacks for two adults - cooking from scratch and feeding a couple of extra family members dinner a couple of times a week and it has come out at £40.....

You don't need half of that fancy shite. No need for the posh tomatoes or pancetta. And you have added some sides on there too putting the cost up