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.....

teenagers eat like horses

Surely most people mix and match anyhow,

Sometimes I have toast for breakfast - one slice of plastic bread, done in the toaster for minimal effort and washing up, one spoon of lemon curd from a jar.
Sometimes I have porridge - a scoop of oats and 150ml milk.... done in the microwave for minimal effort and washing up.

both are fairly cheap - only the latter would be classed "home made from scratch"

Monday egg and chips
Tuesday chips and egg
Wednesday oeuf avec pomme frites
Thursday frites avec oeuf
Friday pan fried egg with a selection of crisped old potatoes and a tomato jus
Saturday rustic Eggs with hand carved potato chips
Sunday KFC

What you are doing and managing roastedcouchpotatoes is amazing, hats off to you to be honest.

Def settles the price debate, I totally appreciate when that's your budget nutrition has to take a backseat to making sure nobody goes hungry

I'm actually wondering now, having been on my high horse about this (although categorically not telling anyone else what they should do or think) about the meat v money debate. I'd said that I would go vegan rather than squander principles on meat production if my budget came down to that choice (as I've said, I'm already mostly vegan as it is and buy meat rarely but DD drinks a total shit ton of milk on a daily basis and yes cows milk is a lot cheaper than any alternative, even here in LA where you can get anything)....does very cheap meat actually sometimes work out cheaper than buying fresh veg? I have no idea tbh but is this part of the money and nutrition debate too?

FYI made some bloody gorgeous banana bread last night with what was in the cupboard and without my precious and expensive eggs

Loopy I still have my mums battered copy of the Paupers Cookbook which is a bit dated (I think it's a good 40yrs old) but does have some great basic recipes for those on a tight budget, and has a section on "entertaining" and did me very well when we were previously scraping the barrel each week. You'd have to do a bit of research because some cuts of meat, as already mentioned, are dearer now than they were, but if you can find a copy for 50p in a second hand bookshop (if you want mine ill happily post it to you when I'm next in the UK) it might help a bit. It's got basic cooking tips too a la delia, if you need them.

FWiW when it comes to celebrity cookbooks, you can't go wrong with Nigel Slater, yes like everyone you need a bit of a store of herbs and spices but his ingredients tend to be simple and minimal - he has a great 30min cookbook where a lot of recipes literally call for about 4 ingredients.

Austerity Housekeeping Crisis Diet

Here's my version of the cheapest I think people can realistically eat.

Haven't read all of thread - sorry. I do think it's more about education and attitude and motivation than cost.

A 1kg bag of oats cost 75p in Tesco. That's a month's worth of porridge for breakfast for a family of 4. 500g of value penne is 29p. A can of baked beans is 28p. A sack of potatoes cost next to nothing. 1 kg of rice is 40 p. There's nothing wrong with frozen vegetables, nutritionally and they can be really cheap.

It might not be delicious and you might have to forego quite a lot of meat and fish (also beneficial for the environment) but you can be filled up healthily for very little money. Most students are well aware of this.

honeydragon - fancy a prune

squoosh - I don't care if a croissant has double the calories of macdonalds

1kg of oats is 20 portions, so 5 days for a family of four.

I want to know where sacks of potatoes are going for next to nothing.

Potatoes have been really expensive this year and not even that good so quite a bit of waste when peeling.

We eat a lot of meat and potato type meals as we dont like beans, lentils or pulses. Makes shopping more expensive but i try to cut costs by buying as much reduced meat as possible and have 2 large freezers so i can stock up when i see it. If there is not alot going one week i still have enough left in the freezer to last and i always try to shop late to get the best bargains.

peregrin the problem with those recipes is that they in no sense deliver the required amount of calories per day. That point was made when they interviewed her. It mostly works because she doesn't eat much.

IceBeing No, not exactly. It was okay for me and DH. But we have young chikdren and it was hell for them. Junk food meant at least they didn't feel too hungry. Tbh, I couldn't give them much nutritious food for that cost, I tried- mixing junk with homemade meals- but the homemade ones cost more to make for a lot less food, so the DC were a lot hungrier- and when every day until the end of the school holidays or whatever is similar in portions, I think it's sometimes better for children to not be hungry all the time then to have healthy food all the time. It isn't an either or, but cereal isn't that good for a lunch but we couldn't afford a proper lunch, so it was either cereal+pitta bread sandwich with veg, which means they're hungry all the time, or cereal+lasagne, not as healthy but it meant their stomachs didn't hurt and they felt happier that they had a proper meal, that they weren't too different to their friends.

when hmm I think you might benefit from some education aimed at understanding that you can't get 120 portions of porridge out of a 1kg bag tbh....

unless you are a borrower and 8g of porridge is normal for you....

well I read it as 20 portions of porridge - or is my eyes sight going?

Where do you get 120 portions of porridge from ice

ah now I see - it is my flipping eye sight. There are two posts on about kilo bags of porridge.

One girl gets 120 portions and the other 20 portions

Unless you grow all your own fruit & veg and really enjoy numerous lentil/pulse type meals I don't understand how cooking from scratch is cheaper than 'junk' food.

I recently went to Iceland and was amazed at how cheap the food was - it might not be to everyone's taste, it might not be nutritious but it is cheap. I volunteer at a food larder and 99% of our 'clients' don't want lentils etc or 'wholesome' foods, not many of them will take the excess fresh produce that we are currently being given (please, no more courgettes ).

I am in the fortunate position where I don't have to be really frugal with my food shopping and I know how to & enjoy cooking. But if I was on a strict budget I would definately go to Iceland or similar.

I am mum of 3 & a student due back at uni in 3 weeks time. Today I have started bulk cooking meals to freeze so I have easy meals for the days I am on hospital placements & not home before 6pm. As an example I have made a huge cottage pie which will do around 12 portions (1.5kg of mince used) This cost approx £8 so 67p a portion. Tesco everday cottage pie costs £1 4 of these might stretch to feed the 5 of us so 80p per portion (not sure if 4 would fill us all up tho). So mine is slightly cheaper but much better ingredients so nutritionally superior. It is possible to cook from scratch for similar cost but much more effort required so can see why many opt for the convienence option.

failing you also need the extra capital to be able to buy 12 portions worth in one go.....

I buy nearly all our food at m&s. It's expensive but I get virtually no wastage and it saves me so much time and effort to get nice meals.

I have no food skills and our kitchen is smaller than most peoples bathrooms.

I also eat low carb.

We spend @£70 on food a week and buy non-food at Lidl or a supermarket for about another £30 a week or less.

Yes it could be cheaper but it wouldn't for me be worth the time, hassle and skill element.

The problem with cooking from scratch is that you need skills, time and a huge store cupboard. Plus the sort of meals you make - pasta, lasagne, chilli, potatoes etc are just the sort of stodgy my fat belly does not require...

Plus there is loads of washing up!

I am so reading this thread. The food in the UK is so cheap compared to where i live. And while i do think the price is probably 'fairer' it is eye watering (i have actually cried in the supermarket here). A bog standard frozen oven pizza at $9 would be a real treat. 5 cheap sausages cost $5 (dh would have 3 and i 2). I would find it very hard to do a 'decent' meal for 2 for under $10. I also feed a big eating 1yo so buy a lot of fresh fruit, veg and meat and weetabix/milk/yogurt (he eats a $6 tub of yogurt every 2 days) for just him.

IceBeing, it depends where you live in the country to a large extent. Food costs vary, even in supermarkets, as do bargain basement prices.

MrsKoala, you can make yoghurt yourself. Look on my blog for a recipe.

Thanks Boffin - Milk is almost as expensive so making it makes no difference just extra hassle really, plus i don't have somewhere to make it.

Crikey MrsKoala, where are you living? That's awful.

Hi

I can spend about £50 per week for family of four which includes a 6'2 DH and two teen boys who eat for England, which includes all three meals a day. I don't do it every week, but can be done.

Using Sainsbury's normal and basic ranges:

From the 3 for £10 meat range choose the mixed thighs and drumsticks chicken pieces, the 540g minced lean beef and the 10 pork sausages

Add 1 bag of basics pasta, 1 of spaghetti and one of rice
3 packs of chopped tomatoes, 2 tins of kidney beans
1 mozzarella ball
1 bread mix
3 Onions, 6 mushrooms, 1 courgette
Bag of frozen mixed veg
A big curly lettuce and cucumber
tinned sweetcorn
part baked french loaves

That whole lot comes to under £10, and from it you can get:

Spag bol one night
Chilli beans (with some of the bol meat stirred in) and rice next night
Roast chicken thighs with rice and mixed veg
Home made pizzas with salad
chicken noodle soup with sweetcorn and fresh french bread
sausage and bean casserole with rice

Not exactly exciting but healthy and only £10 for 6 family meals.

Add eggs, milk, tea, coffee, cereal, butter, apples and oranges, cheese, tuna - using the cheapest available options, 2 loaves basics wholemeal bread etc plus very cheap treats like basics choc mousse (usually about 30p for four, which have identical ingredients to their normal mousse) and you can feed the whole family for £40-50 per week, including all meals very healthily. The problem is it gets monotonous. But it can be done.

The following week, swap one of the meats for the pork steaks, and add the frozen white fish for kedgeree and goujons, and one of the pastas for potatoes, for baking spuds one night and chips or mash the next.

Would be cheaper if veg was from the market or from the reduced section. It's definitely cheaper to buy fruit at the market.

I don't see how junk food can be cheaper. Even if you buy that cheap steak pie it would still need veg with it.

Boffin - Vancouver. I could shop cheaper if i could buy in bulk, but not driving i do all shopping on the bus/locally. This means i can only buy for every few days/what i can carry. I can't order online as they wont take our UK registered cards. I have a wriggly 1yo so traipsing round shopping is out. We are on a short term let so the flat is small and kitchen is very basic, which restricts things i can make (i make a cake in a ceramic baking dish once a week and freeze in portions to save on expensive crap/treats). I have no rolling pin or processor, didn't even have a grater but i bought one of those as cheese is shocking (and nasty) here (a block which you'd get in the UK for about £4 is $15 here and almost flavourless - so i grate it and freeze it in bags for toppings on bakes, but have stopped eating it in sandwiches :( ). A 4pinter of milk is about $9. I share a utility room with others in the block so can't use the space for making yogurt or storage. i do have a freezer however, so i batch cook when i find bargains. A lovely MNer i met here is driving me to a cheaper supermarket tonight and i am getting irrationally excited and looking for recipes now for soda bread and stuff which i can make myself (bread here is also very expensive - about $4-5 a loaf).