to try and settle the 'which is cheaper, junk or cooked from scratch' debate once and for all

[IceBeing]

I have seen both sides of this recently on MN and on the box.

So. submit your meal plans here.

1. Choose junk or home cooked

1. Give a shopping list plus price for a weeks worth of food for a family of 4, assuming no reliance on a 'store cupboard' and no meal sharing.

1. Give an estimated weekly cooking time plus shopping time.

1. indicate if your plan relies on a local aldi/lidl etc.

Lets sort this the JEFF out please.....

I agree about the types of meals people eat aswell. We do eat a lot of stews, casseroles and one pot dishes. You can use tomatoes, lentils, stocks, or gravies as a base to get variety. Add meat of any type or fish, veg and a side of rice or flat breads, potatoes, lentils etc which are all cheap and nutritious. This is the way my working class mother and grandmother cooked with a roast on a Sunday. My grandmothers mother used to have to scrounge together filling meals which were padded out with suet or lots of bread. The subsequent generations have been able to substitute the stodge with more meat and additional veg.

Because we eat this way most of the time we save lots of money. Some weeks we don't need to do a shop at all as the freezer is full to busting with frozen portions of meals from previous weeks. We are all slim and healthy, DC have lots of energy, never need snacks and don't crave sugary crap all the time. The financial savings mean that we can afford weeks occasionally where I will do a load of more expensive meals like lasagne, stir frys etc and also mean that we can afford meals out at the weekend. Christmas and birthdays I go mad with producing a months worth of festive treats to enjoy and we really appreciate the specialness of it all.

We have become a society that doesn't seem able to eat for practical reasons. A motto in our house is "it's food in the food hole" - it serves a purpose and tastes nice. I can't understand the attitude of so many people who eat expensive and meat heavy meals every single day. Families who munch through steaks, cream based pasta dishes, large joints of meat and game every week. Producing that meat has an environmental impact and IMO we should be conscious of that. Our bodies don't need to huge portions of calorie laden food that so many consume and we need to remember how to eat in a way that is sustainable for this planet, for farming and the environment.

limitedperiodonly thanks for expanding.

I agree a diet of pasta and tinned toms every day is poor, but there is still nothing wrong with that sometimes. Especially if you've had beans on toast for lunch or something.

ime it is the baby boomer generation who introduced this level of consumption. Every one from that childhood of rationing and austerity that i know, went the exact other direction and rejected the ways their parents cooked. My parents, friends parents and PILs would never ever dream of padding things out, buying cheaper fatty cuts, eating offal, suet, stodge etc. They throw so much away because they wont feel that they can't have what they want. They take the piss out of people who make their own bread and stock and eat pulses. it has been passed down from them i think, for numerous reasons. 2 wages, women working longer hours, a rejection of the previous generation, convenience, travel, cheaper food...

Wallace I too grow quite a bit of stuff and it can be done as easily in a little back yard in pots (as my mum now does in her smaller retirement property) as in a garden. Potatoes, tomatoes, berries, courgettes etc can be grown very easily and I do not understand all the costings above for buying dried herbs when they can be grown by a 5 year old!

I think that it is our way of thinking about food and food production that needs to change. It should be something we are active participants in not just recipients of - in an ideal world.

also advertising has a lot to do with what we eat - all these pictures of happy healthy families advertising sugary crap, if you want the perfect family like this one, eat this cereal. Or all the 'i'm worth it, indulge me ads- oh, you work so hard, why not indulge yourself in this bar of chocolate/frozen pizza etc

But why are people taken in by advertising? Surely everyone knows cereal is a crappy food on the whole so why let the perfect family coco pops ads sway us?

I grow fresh herbs on the window sill as I can't justify the cost of buying them from the supermarket every week.

I did consider planting veg in our very small back garden, but I have to take into account the set up costs. The thing that really put me off was hearing how some veg had failed a particular year etc.

I could maybe justify the cost if I was definitely going to reap the cost back by saving on the shopping bill. If the produce didn't grow/was eaten by insects etc then it would be a waste and I haven't got that money to waste.

Why not work out the cheapest meal from scratch. Pasta with tomato sauce and some cheese. All from the basics range. What's that? £2? Even less.

The cheapest ready made meal for four would be more than that, I would have thought.

I have read up to page 5 of this thread, so apologise if repeating someone here!

Some excellent points have been made about both sides of this. Realistically it does come down to more than just cost of ingredients, doesn't it? In order to cook a spag bol from scratch you need to buy all the ingredients, but you also need a decent knife to chop the veg, a chopping board, a big pan to cook the sauce, a small pan to cook the spaghetti, then you need a hob to cook it on, and to pay for the gas/electricity to cook it. If you don't have all the additional things there listed, it is going to be cheaper to buy 4 Iceland ready made spag bols for a quid each and whack them in the microwave (yes you would need a microwave!)

I guess it's not just time that is a factor. My dh enjoys cooking and makes many meals from 'scratch' (well he uses tomato puree and curry paste but basically) of which he will batch cook and we can freeze portions. I think on the whole it could be cheaper but we buy free range meat when possible and not the cheapest rice. We do bulk out meals with veg tho, things like frozen spinich are great in curries and cost pennies. However, if he didn't enjoy cooking it would be a different story i'm sure, with us buying much more convenience foods. So enjoyment of the actual cooking process plays a role. I certainly wouldn't make all my own bread for eg, even if it was a lot cheaper.

I'm guessing you could eat 2 x ready meals a day from Iceland etc at cost of £2 per person per day so 4 people x £2 = £56 plus breakfast (2 boxes of cereal £2? milk x £3 ish on milk? another £5?) so about £60ish. But i'm not sure how long you could keep it up and i think ready meals tend to have a lot of salt in? I reckon we spend less than that purely on ingredients to cook with/meals a week for 2, but of course we buy crisps, drinks, yoghurts, fruit, icecreams etc too, so spend more than that a week, and also not having to buy every single ingredient for every planned meal each time as will already have stock cubes, rice, pasta etc left from the week before.

We need a proper controlled experiment to be done on telly, 2 families, 3 months, completely from scratch. One on ready meals, one on home cooking. Even that wouldn't allow for inequalities in facilities, but would be a start? Any volunteers?

Does anyone else struggle to cook cheaply in the summer?

One pot meals such as casseroles and stews are perfect for the winter and can be made in large quantities which can be frozen.

In the summer, no one wants hot food and no one wants to stand in a hot kitchen kitchen cooking it either.

On really hot weeks, I don't even want to put the oven on long enough to roast a chicken as it makes the kitchen so hot. So even roasting the chicken to have with salad has gone out the window.

Buying cold cuts from the deli counter to have with a salad isn't cheap. You don't get no where near as much meat for your money.

I do breathe a sigh of relief when Autumn comes and I can go back to roast dinners and one pot meals.

This year I have been replacing the chicken I would normally buy with a small gammon joint and cooking it in the slow cooker, this does us for a couple of meals with salad and new potatoes. I do need more ideas for cheap summer meals though.

I haven't read the whole thread, sorry.
There are cheap meals you can cook from scratch, but for variety you need to spend money unless you do as I did yesterday and bought junk from heron foods (was cool trader)

I bought 2 youngs fish pies, scampi bites, bird's eye vegetable fingers, 2 boxes bird's eye chicken quarter pounder burgers, tub of I can't believe it's not butter for £7.15. That's four meals, I have got chips, frozen veg etc in my freezer to go with them.
Also, I think something's wrong when I can buy a gigantic packet of barrel type biscuits cheaper than a bag of 6 apples.

Someone up thread asked for some recipes from the meal plan that I posted.

Cauliflower, bacon and potato soup

Fry some chopped onions and 250gms of cooking bacon in a little oil until the onions are soft and translucent and the bacon is cooked. Add 4 decent sized potatoes, diced, and half a bag of frozen cauliflower. Pour over 2litres of water and 2 veg stock cubes and season with plenty black pepper. Simmer for about 20 minutes until potatoes are soft. serves 4, if feeding little kids, there may be leftovers for lunch.

Potato and bacon Bake

Layer 2 or 3 pounds of sliced potatoes with some sliced onion and 250gms of cooking bacon, cut into little pieces, in a baking dish. Pour over 1pint of white sauce made with flour, marg and milk, seasoned with salt and pepper (a little nutmeg is nice if you have any.) Bake for a couple of hours at 160. Serve with peas and carrots.

Mac and cheese with cauliflower

Cook a bag of value pasta with the other half of the bag of frozen cauli. Meanwhile make a white sauce using a chopped onion, marg, flour, milk, salt and pepper. Add about 100gms of grated cheese to the sauce. Stir sauce through drained pasta and cauliflower. You can sprinkle the top with a little bit of extra cheese and brown under the grill if you like.

Pasta with onions

Chop 2lbs of onions and fry in some oil and butter (marg) until translucent and soft. Add salt, pepper and a spoonful of sugar. keep cooking over a low heat. meanwhile, cook a packet of value pasta. Drain pasta and mix through onion mix. Top with about 1/2 - 1oz of grated cheese per person.

Mushy Pea soup and mushy pea dahl*

Soak a 500gm pack of dried marrowfat peas overnight. Drain and then cover with about 1inch of water until very soft and breaking down. Season well.

Take half the peas and make soup with veg stock, 3 or 4 grated carrots, some chopped onion and a couple of diced potatoes. Again, there may be some leftovers.

Take the other half of the peas. Fry a couple of chopped onions until soft. Add some curry powder and cook for a couple of minutes then add a tin of chopped toms and simmer for about 10mins. Add the mushy peas, mix well and heat through. Serve over rice.

Egg rice with peas

Cook 2 cups of rice in 4 cups of salted water until all the liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile cook 2 chopped onions in some oil until soft. Add cooked rice and half a bag of frozen peas. Cook, stirring until hot through. Pour over 4 beaten eggs and stir until eggs are cooked. Season with pepper.

Toast with fish and soft cheese pate

Take the bones out of the sardines in 2 tins. Mash with a fork. Mash into a tub of philly type cheese (value is fine.) Add the grated zest of a lemon, a good squeeze of the lemon juice and plenty of black pepper. Check if it needs salt. Make sure it is really well mixed and smooth. Spread on toast.

This makes quite a lot, so there would be enough for 2 lunches and likely some leftovers. If you bought another loaf or a packer of crackers this and the extra peanut butter (price of meal plan includes 3 loaves and 2 peanut butters) would give snacks through the week.

Spiced potatoes with cabbage

Par boil 2lbs of potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces. Fry 2 chopped onions in a good splash of oil until soft. Shred a cabbage and add to onions. Mix well and allow cabbage to wilt. Add curry powder, salt and pepper and cook for a minute or two. Add potatoes and cook, stirring, until potatoes and cabbage are tender.

I think that was all the actual recipes involved in the meal plan. As I say, the cost of £35 assumed completely empty cupboards and included everything needed for the week counting things like tea bags, flour, sugar, salt, pepper, curry powder, stock cubes, oil, 12 pints of milk etc. I would post the shopping list, but that would make this the longest post in history.

I used to love steak and burgers and mince....but I basically can't eat red meat any more....I stopped for 9 months while on a diet and my body seems to flip out if I either eat out, eat ready meals or eat red meat. I can manage prawns, fish sticks and chicken (in small quantities)...but nothing else.

ohh - thanks for that!

I think the real saving in cooking from the ingredients is that you will have 'leftovers' which can make extra meals. Ready meals are usually eaten up in one sitting, but at the end of the week or in a lean week I can usually rustle something up from whats around.

I also keep hens so I get eggs. This isn't a cheap option, because they cost quite a bit to house and feed. But I treat them, and the garden in general, as a hobby. I find vegetables more interesting and rewarding to grow than flowers, but I can't say it actually saves me money unless I cheat by saying I am saving on gym membership or a flat screen TV or whatever else I might have spent my money on.

Ice, I know! but I have several kids who love this and it's a cheap way of getting fish into them. You can make it with smoked mackerel for a stronger taste, if you like.

Lidl free range chicken (c.£5 depending on weight) will last 3 of us (2 adults and 13 year old ds) 3 nights.

First night roasted with some garlic (dead easy - put some peeled garlic cloves inside it, some unpeeled ones at the bottom of the chicken brick, wipe the chicken with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, put in to chicken brick, put chicken brick into cold oven, turn on to 450F for 90 minutes, take out of oven and leave for 15 minutes). Lovely jus at bottom of brick - no need to make gravy.

One meal hot, one meal cold, then make stock with remaining carcass, leave to cool and then strip off remainder of chicken to put into the stock. Heat up again and add some broken up noodles for a tasty chicken noodle soup. Serve with bread for a nice supper. Alternatively, add some chopped veg for a broth.

i've just made coleslaw and bread for today's sandwich.
the colseslaw and bread will do us tomorrow as well.

bread - 50p a loaf (so 25p for the family today and 25p tomorrow)
coleslaw - 2 carrots (59p a kg, and 3 would be about 30p), one onion (17p), 1/4 of a cabbage (1 cabbage is 62p, which the rest will be used for other stuff, so the 1/4 for the coleslaw is 15p), 3 dollops of mayonnaise (so 3 tablespoons? 75ml about 18p) (divide by two because of two days, so 40p)
total for my coleslaw sandwich = 65p

shop bought coleslaw (which isn't an option because all the sainsbury's ones have milk in) = 45p (for basics)
shop bought bread = 90p a loaf, and with medium slices, you can go half of that for 4 = 45p
you'd have to buy another coleslaw for tomorrow, because you can only just get 4 sandwiches out of that tub, so I really have to count the whole tub.

so 4 portions of shop bought coleslaw sandwich = 90p, 4 portions of homemade coleslaw sandwich = 65p

I really disagree with the people saying that all meat is unethical, so there's no point in buying free-range/organic/properly reared meat.

It's all on a spectrum and surely (if you can afford it!) you should be happy to cause the least pain and suffering possible to the animal?

Obviously I know that many people can't afford this, but if you can and choose not to then I think you've got to take a long hard look at yourself: what gives you the right to cause such unnecessary suffering to all the animals killed on your behalf?!

who gives you the right to tell people how to live their lives within the law artemisatbrauron?

summer cooking often tends to be raw veg for me Loopy. Chopped cabbage and carrot moxed with mayo with a blob of hummus. But then I lose my appetite when its hot.

not telling people how to live, but asking them to think about their choices and interested to hear their point of view/reasons for why they do things ... I suppose it's freedom of speech? Freedom of ideas?

I genuinely can't understand why someone would, if they had the money, choose to buy meat which was reared in a cruel way (e.g. battery chickens kept indoors, no room to move, stuffed with drugs etc) rather than meat which minimised suffering as much as possible. I was hoping that someone might have a perspective on this, rather than simply trying to shut down the debate ivy

now, if we use that mayonnaise for egg mayonnaise, we can have sandwiches for the next 2 days too.

Eggs are £9.90 for 64, so 15p each.
you need 4 in egg mayo for 4 people, so that's 60p
and the mayonnaise, same number of blobs as above, so 18p for the mayo.
repeat with the bread - 25p
and chives from the garden, so free.
total = £1.03

shop bought egg mayonnaise = £1.55 and 45p for the bread
so total = £2.00

my homemade egg mayo would be more if I had to buy the eggs from the shop (we have our own chickens) would be £1.70 for the minimum welfare that i'll go for, so 28.3p per egg. = £1.38 for 4 sandwiches

you got a recipe for home made mayo Nickel? My hens lay about 5 eggs a day so we usually have a few. And is homemade cheaper than Hellmans? Does it store well?

Cooking things from scratch on a tight budget, well, it all sounds rather dull and too carby. I try to veer towards a mediterranean diet but it's almost impossible cost wise: peppers, good natural yoghurt, aubergines, fish etc. are all expensive. I love cooking but it's become such a chore since I have to measure out food for my DD who's diabetic and deal with my DS's gluten/dairy intolerance... I can't even use convenience even if I wanted to. IMO ready prepared foods such as fishfingers, sausages (who makes their own sausages?), puddings/desserts are cheaper and really save time. I'm all for saving time and mixing up convenience and scratch cooking. Don't know what point I want to make...