to wonder if home cooked food is really cheaper than ready meals?

[Northeastgirl]

Current wisdom seems to be that home cooked food is far cheaper than ready meals.

I enjoy cooking so most of our meals are prepared from scratch. I can well believe that if you prepare your own food / batch cook / buy food when it's on special / stick to what is in season etc, then you are getting better value for money, but I don't think it can actually be cheaper than buying ready meals?

My cousin lives on his own and doesn't like to cook, so all his food is ready meals. There is no waste and I think it must be cheaper than our food bill. This evening I spent £5 just on 2 ingredients for a risotto, on top of the other ingredients that were already in the fridge. We do eat meat, but not every day and very little food is wasted as any random vegetables go into a stir fry or pasta sauce.

When Which? did an issue on ready meals, they found the value versions were healthier than the posh ones. they contained less added fat, little or no sugar and fewer flavourings. Value ranges include fillers like garlic baguettes for 39p, so it doesn't all have to be tiny & boring food.

Also, canned & frozen veg (especially frozen) are often healthier than 'fresh' which have, in fact, been sitting in a controlled atmosphere for up to 4 months. Although I'm not a bad cook, I've got nothing against cheap & cheerful but you do need to know what constitutes a balanced diet.

I grow herbs in the summer & freeze them; the 'extra' ingredients were knocking my budget about - and if you're using value mince, you need herbs!

I only bought value frozen mince once and it was disgusting, I would say was about 90% fat!
I really need to cut my food budget and was thinking batch cooking was the best way, wat do u think? And any meal ideas that are good for batch cooking?

oh god no not value frozen mince - that stuff IS vile - generally the value (fresh) mince is edible if you add plenty of herbs and stuff.

I did some research on this very topic whilst in a previous role. Our evidence showed cooking from scratch is more expensive, however we were comparing to value ranges.

We always use frozen value mince

It's not so bad when it's beefed out (no pun intended) with other stuff - tinned toms, onion etc. We are trying to eat less meat anyway, so we also use less meat and add a can of pulses to it. Good for fibre too :)

The tesco finest stuff is often made in exactly the same place as the value stuff and it usually has a much bigger markup. They used to arrive in the same boxes at store.

I eat less meat but I wouldn't get mince from any other source than my farm shop-otherwise goodness knows what you are eating.

I would be reluctant to eat value mince. We are lucky with the butchers about 15 metres from my house. I buy 500g of the cheapest beef and he minces it for me.

EdwardorEricCantDecide, you could make a big pot of ragu use some to make a few lasagnes, turn some into chili con carne(add kidney beans and chilli), make a couple of bolognese bakes(just mix with cooked pasta and top with cheese) freeze some as it is to have with spaghetti/jacket potatoes.

Soups & casseroles freeze well.

Im with the people saying its because you arent comparing like for like. A cheap value ready meal is pretty much just salt and falt with a bit of starch thrown in where as often people who cook from scratch like to use good quality ingredients like fresh herbs , decent meat etc. Which isnt the same at all.
That said i can feed myself in the evening for about £1 pretty well. I make a chicken noodle soup , where is pretty much boiling a drumstick with any veg i like, usually peppers which are v cheap at the asian supermarkets by me then strip the chicken and add in some value noodles which are about 10p and taste totally fine (whatever you do though never ever ever add in the "flavouring sachet" it is vile.) and put some herbs and soy sauce in and its a cheapie meal.

I think you can live off ready meals cheaper than cooking from scratch. Even if you have oil, herbs, spices, stock etc all in the store cupboard.

The ready meals in Iceland start at £1. I've tried some. Some are disgusting, some are ok. Look at the ingredients and you can see that in e.g. mince based meals, they add soya and all sorts of carp. Nowhere near as nice as homemade.

But, if you're really skint, a week of living of Iceland food isn't going to kill you.

Are there any vitamins in ready meals? I quite like shop bought cottage pie occasionally but tend to cook as does dp.

The M&S deal for 2 for a tenner is amazing value for an occasional treat. And a bottle of vino inc.

It depends on what you are cooking, I suppose. I spend an awful lot of money on food, I find, as I am now addicted to buying fruit and vegetables at the market, because they are nicer, but more expensive that those bought at the supermarket.

curiousmama, there will be. Less in the cheaper ones that are bulked out with less nutritious ingredients.

The more expensive ones don't have so many additives etc.

I find ready meals way more expensive than home cooking but then I only buy M&S ones.
I can make two big cottage pies one to eat and one for the freezer for about £6 and thats using lean minced steak, to buy four of us one each from M&S would cost around that for one meal.
I find them generally quite depressing anyway, they are ok for a quick fix but no way could I serve/eat them everyday.
I don't like to compromise on quality of food, even in our really skint days I never bought value meat etc.

I've just been in my parents' kitchen and my dad has some Tesco Value frozen chicken breasts and frozen lamb mince for making meals for the dog (). The chicken apparently contains added dextrose, salt and something else (water?) for "added succulence" and the lamb contains added soya, mutton (fine) and something else (MSG maybe?!)

I think it is cheaper to cook from scratch if there are children as well. There are 5 of us so I think it would be cheaper.

we do ocassionaly have ready meals at weekends or chicken breasts in a sauce etc but i would rather cook from scratch and have a storecupboard.

also all the packaging you throw away

Excellent, grateful to you for your feedback. I've been concerned that my way of cooking (mostly from scratch with fresh ingredients) seemed more expensive than ready meals and I wondered if I was doing something wrong, but you've reassured me that although it may be more expensive, it is probably better value for money. Thanks folks!

NEVER bother trying to make crumpets!!

You have to have a store cupboard of ingredients to make it cheaper. If making a curry means you have to go out and buy cumin, coriander, turmeric, chillies, ginger etc then it's going to cost a fortune. If (like me) you're a curry fanatic and you have all this stuff in then it's dirt cheap ... especially if you're making one with chick peas etc. Plus it just tastes a million times better.

I always have carrots, celery, onions, garlic, chillies, tomatoes, ginger in the house ... plus a veritable cupboard full of spices ... so most things are easy to knock up at home.

And if I'm on my own, a fave meal is rice with broccoli, garlic, chilli, soy sauce. So cheap, healthy and nutritious.

Ok I'm going to clear out my freezer and do a batch cook, what should I have in store cupboard for essentials/last minute meals?

EdwardorEric, my stock cupbpoard essentials are:
oil
frozen chopped spinach
frozen sweetcorn
rice, lentils, other pulses, spaghetti
dried mushrooms
chopped tinned (or tetrapacked) tomatoes
onions
garlic
various other things, too, but I have been trying for ages to get off the computer....!

also i find it satisfying. i quite like trying out new ingredients and recipes. It probably is a way of sharpening your brain in some respects and you can practise your maths doing ratios etc LOL.

Once you have the ingredients you don't have to keep buying them. I always have basic cake ingredients as well. may make some brownies later. by some miracle there is still a pack of plain chocolate in the cupboard.

Edward i do a big online shop every month and this is what i always have:

Cupboard:

Olive Oil
Soya sauce
Tinned tomatoes
Some paste (balti, thai, sun dried tom...) although some will say paste is cheating
Flour
Rice, pasta, noodles, cous cous
Tinned chickpeas and red kidney beans
Red and brown lentils
Tinned tuna/sardines
Jars of olives
Spices/dried herbs (curry, chilli, cumin, oregano, ginger...)

Freezer:
Fish/meat
brocoli, cauliflower, peas, mushrooms, spinach
chopped onion (cheating again)
pastry/filo (i cant make mine)

Then weekly you only have to buy eggs, milk, cream etc and fruits.