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.....

My bill is similar to Wink's. for 3 of us. I have a full freezer and full store cupboard but shop nearly every day for bits.

ta nickel, I will give it a whirl. I use tons of mayo (I dont eat carbs at all so mayo is my calories)

Cerealandtoast

Yes I do, and it's shameful really. I always have a rammed fridge, though the fruit is just an extravagance (in bowl on dining table, 'just in case'). 3 people, though we often have weekend guests.

I keep meaning to stick to a meal plan, which I know works wonders. I can also cook - I took night classes whilst at Uni so I had a skill to fall back on - so I'm perfectly capable of making a chicken last all week. I just don't.

Would it help if I told you I contribute to a food kitchen and the Sally Army often?

DiamondDoris : you can get a big tub of very nice Greek youghurt from Lidl :) (I happen to get the full fat version, but that is because I am low carbing).

Pork belly is still cheap - slices from Lidl (or even M&S - got 6 yesterday for £3.36! ) or whole pieces from your local butcher (they often just mince them up for sausage). A rolled piece makes a good joint that is cheap and can last a week, judiciously used. Pork belly slices are dead easy to cook - rub some fennel seeds (if you have them) together with some salt and rub into the top fat. Prop up the slices in a grill proof dish and grill for c.15-20 minutes. Done. :)

Lamb breast is another cheap but fatty cut that can be slow cooked into lusciousness. Lamb shanks too - but they have got a bit trendy so the price has gone up.

Chicken livers are still really cheap and can be roughly chopped and then briefly fried in butter. Add some worcestershire sauce or balsamic vinegar and serve with some salad or on rice (if you eat carbs). Reminds me, I really should buy some

A shoulder of lamb is a big treat but one I only get when Tesco or Sainsbury's is doing it half price. However, the shoulder will last all week for the 3 of us (plus guests): hot roast, cold meat, suleman's pilaf (cubes of cooked meat cooked together with diced tomatoes, raisins, pine nuts, onion and rice) and then a large shepherds pie (it's amazing how far a few ounces of minced roast lamb can stretch - it can sometimes also stretch to a "bolognaise" sauce). As I'm low carbing, the "mash" is made of cauliflower, neeps, egg, cream and parmasan and some crumbled bacon if I have it. And I've still got the bone to make a stock with!

squoosh I thought that might be helpful :)

I am honestly astonished that food bills could be so high for 'everyday' food (and I use 'everyday' with reservations, especially on this thread!)

Obviously I know that one could eat caviar and fois gras every day and spend far more than that. But for plain, day to day cooking, with meat, fruit and veg, plus staples like bread and pasta/rice etc - £200 a week? What on earth are you spending it on, tbh? (not harshly meant, just incredulous)

I can't buy from most aisles in the supermarket due to allergy issues. This knocks out a lot of crisps/biscuits/other stuff, but then these are hardly essentials. And it does mean that for eg, if I buy curry paste, I have to buy stupidly expensive ones (I need it dairy and gluten free, and to be able to take it into school, it also needs to be nut free. A small jar of paste is around £3). A typical days food here is:

cereal and toast for breakfast (might be an expensive free from cereal, or for the rest of us, porridge, but with dairy-free milk, so that bumps up that price too)

lunch is usually a hot meal (gluten free bread is expensive, and tends to be rank), so eg curry or spag bol as per recipe I posted earlier. plus fruit (at least 2 types of fruit). we sometimes have pancakes (gluten/dairy free, so using 'expensive' flour and milk) for pudding. or homemade cake or biscuits (but these are rare, or around birthdays etc)

dinner is the same.

when the girls are at school, my lunch is more typically a quick sandwich.

so, even on 2 hot meals a day I cannot conceive of spending that much on food alone. seriously, if that is your food bill alone, then what are you spending it on? and how much actually gets used?

I use curry powders cerealandtoast as I'm also gf. Much cheaper.

thanks, twistyfeet. I do use powders sometimes (it depends on what curry I am making ponce alert )

I agree with toomanycourgettes about the cultural aspects -- I live in France now and yes people do take food much more seriously.

BUT

Fruit and veg are much, much cheaper here, and of much better quality.

You can get a huge variety of cheese (good source of protein) for cheaper.

On the flip side, ready meals are more expensive (?4 for a frozen pizza)

People work shorter hours, and housing costs are less

It's basically easier to eat well here, and so we do. I don't know how you could apply some of these features to the UK but if you could, I think you'd see eating habits change.

also, it does depend on time too.

if I have a lot of time, and can add a pinch of this and a twist of that, and spend the time simmering and tasting etc, then I use powders.

if it is more the curry equivalent of spag bol, then it's paste all the way. another meal from fridge to table in under 30 minutes, quick and easy.

Meat, fresh fruit &fresh veg are expensive. No doubt about it. But by bulking up meals with lentils, beans other pulses and frozen veg, you can greatly reduce your costs. And it's healthier. Try experimenting.

I agree that the price of many family-sized meals from cheaper stores is probably hard to beat but I guess it's down to the individual, their circumstances, and whether price outweighs nutrition or vice versa. I have an honours degree in nutrition so tend to put nutrition before cost (apart from a Chinese takeaway on a sat night that is )

I am sitting here quite shocked really as to how cheap the ready made meals are in uk. Did I read right that you can buy a ready made family size pie for 2 pounds? To buy one here you would be looking at a minimum of 4 pounds.

For us living in SA it is most definitely cheaper to cook from scratch. Our veg and fruit are a lot cheaper (as is the meat). But luxury items for us are way more expensive, and I class anything ready made as a luxury.

We had some hard times and I changed a lot of the way I did things, shopped accordingly to a weekly meal plan and made every single thing from scratch. I had a budget of 150 pounds for a month of groceries which was 35 pounds a week (I have converted currencies). Although I spent a lot more time in the kitchen prepping etc, I have to say that we didn't go hungry once, and on top of that I made some sort of desserty thing 3-4 nights a week out of that budget. I bulk out mince with lentils, oats etc, so 250g of mince lasted 4 of us 2 nights meals. I added extra veg to each meal as what is in season is cheap.

Now that things are better financially I still try to stick with the from scratch method. In my luxury items, I class ready chopped fresh veg which I confess to still buying quite a lot of now, as chopping veg is not on the top of my to do list if I can help it. Talking pumpkins, butternut and that sort of veg.

A pizza take away will cost us about 15 pounds, sushi about 25 pounds, burgers and chips about 15 pounds too (not talking mcdonalds - these are proper burgers ).

prettybird Unfortunatel no Lidl or Aldi near me (area too posh). I'm a semi low carber too (had to stop total low carb as too expensive). Mashed cauliflower is lovely but works out more expensive than rice/potatoes/spaghetti grrrr

fruit and veg cheaper in france

Melon in the supermarket you are looking at 4 euros and at the market 5 euros. In tesco or lidl you can get the same type of melon and size for £1.

I found fresh fruit and vegetables a good 50% more expensive in french supermarkets and a good 75% more at markets

Just a thought - tinned peaches are lovely in a Persian-style dish with chicken (turmeric, cinnamon, cumin etc). I use skin on chicken thighs (cheaper) and value peaches. Spaghetti (again) but instead of the usual and boring tomato sauce, pan roasted garlic cloves (several cloves), in butter I think, maybe can be done with oil. Don't think children would like it though. It does take time to "research" but not too much time to cook these things.

Whats the best cookbook for cooking on a budget?

Good blog: domesblissity.blogspot.co.uk/p/thriving.html

Things which really inflate my shopping bill are

• cereals (I eat porridge or eggs but the three teens prefer branded stuff and can eat two bowls a day each).
• ice cream. Again, I rarely eat ice cream myself but buy a couple of tubs a week of mid-range stuff.
• wine
• things like naan bread which I get because middle teen won't eat rice.

If I'm having a lean week I cut these items out.

These sorts of things, Diamond

www.amazon.co.uk/The-Essential-Student-Cookbook-Foolproof/dp/075531056X
or
www.cybersplat.co.uk/the-essential-student-cooking-guide/beginner-student-cookbooks/

I understand what you mean about cauliflower v potatoes Doris - I really enjoy roasted cauliflower, but a whole head is 69p and only does us one meal as the potato "substitute".

I have a raised bed full of lovely new potatoes too, which I am trying to resist and/or feed to dh and ds .

But one of the advantages of low carbing/high fatting is that you feel fuller sooner and therefore in theory don't eat as much!

So what do people think of this as a thread summary:

For a family of 4

1. If you are looking to spend less than 25 quid a week then beige ready made food is really the only option (includes things like value bread, jam, family pies and close-your-eyes-and-think-of-england budget mwave meals.

1. If you are spending more like 40 quid a week on things including normal mwave meals with actual named ingredients then you could 'cook from scratch' for the same price. Here cook from scratch means combining basic ingredients out of tins, packets and freezer bags eg. making pasta with tomatoes and tinned chickpeas instead of a mwave pasta dish.

1. If you are spending more like 60 quid a week you can replace your finest mwave meals with home cooking including actual fresh vegetables / meat etc.

1. If you go up to 80 quid a week you can actually afford to buy fruit too!

Fab - I think we should appoint you to summarise all long threads for us IceBeing so we don't have to read pages of detail in future

£80 a week is a lot. Does that include toiletries and cleaning products? Or just food?

I spend less than £80 a week on food and I don't eat ready meals and I buy fruit.

ivy do you live here too -- whereabouts? I think there may be a big regional variation.

We honestly spend much less on fruit and veg here, but we do eat seasonally which makes a huge difference. We very rarely buy the most expensive fruits. But kiwis for example are 10 cents each and in season most of the year here (thanks to overseas territories), carrots are dirt cheap (you can buy them uncleaned so they're cheaper), tomatoes are cheap.

The big difference is the quality, which also helps save money, because for example you can have a salad with just tomato, lettuce and a tiny bit of vinegar, and it's amazing because the veg has real flavor. You don't have to add a bunch of other stuff to it.

back yes well...erm...not sure that I have read all of it either...hence asking for confirmation that I have made a fair assessment....

As soon as people back it then we can nip any further such threads in the bud