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.....

Sorry, meant to say other half of mince is for bolognese later in the fortnight.

racingheart
I'd choose to eat several of the meals from my menu even if there were no budget constraints

So would I, nice menu.

racing of course we aren't comparing like for like...as I said, and others have reiterated, you wouldn't eat the cheap crap if you had made it yourself.

I still doubt even if you did that it would be cheaper as the big producers have economy of scale and access to different production techniques.

Dear MNHQ,

Unlike the government we have reached a consensus of a sort here. Home cooking is more expensive than the cheapest ready made crap, but you CAN cook nice decent nutritious food for around a £30-35 weekly budget for a family of 4.

Please feel free to post this information to any other future threads on the topic...it will save everyone a lot of time!

I agree, racing. I don't actually have much idea how much a family of 4 eats because I have 5 kids (3 adults and teens) so basically cook for 7 adults. So, in my meal plan, I think that there would probably plenty leftovers, making it a bit cheaper in the long run. BUT I could make the whole thing much cheaper by basing it around HM pastry filled with lentils, pease pudding, or cheap sausage meat and potatoes, making porridge with water, in the traditional way, replacing the protein in PB with cheap jam etc. But then it would be no better than eating junk food every day.

All the meals in both my plans are ones that we eat regularly in here, because I only have a budget of £50 max a week for all of us. None of us are malnourished, most of us are a healthy weight and I'm the only one with any kind of health problems (not food related ones.)

Most of the meals that I cook are 50p or less a portion. I actually feel quite ill when I think about the kind of stuff that would be in ready made stuff for that price.

Pasta Norma

augbergine
chopped tomatoes
spaghetti

basil garlic and chilli if you like a bit of heat

salt and olive oil

slice aubergine and cut into matchstick size slices,fry up in olive oil until its golden and soft,,fry up some garlic,chuck a tin of chopped tomatoes in and some dried basil and a bit of chilli if you want to,season,leave to simmer while you cook some spaghetti.tastes lovely and if you use the basics ingredients you could do it for under 1.50 i guess?that feeds 2 adults and3 children and a baby.

we are not on a budget with food but we have eaten that almost every saturday for the last 3 or 4 years,unless we are eating out or are bored of it,the aubergines go all soft in the sauce and you cant really even see them so its good if you have fussy kids too.

We also have chickpea curry quite often too which is really cheap

and that recipe would come cheaper than a ready made version for 4,even the cheapest sort.

cheapest ready made pasta sauce is 38p for 440g, cheapest aubergine is 60p....

I seem to be the thread pedant, sorry!

But you wouldn't get aubergines in a cheap ready made sauce.

I think we should be comparing like for like, otherwise it seems pointless to me.

ringaringarosy, I'm going to try that, it sounds lovely. DC doesn't like aubergines but they're willing to try it.

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.

IceBeing, some of the budget ready meals are ok.

Tesco's value macaroni cheese tastes the same as their regular mac cheese. It's a smaller portion and the pasta is smaller, but I think they must use the same sauce. It's just cheese, cream, milk, cornflour and some seasoning.

We can't tell the difference between the value battered fish and regular own brand. Value is 85p for 4 pieces, the next one up is £2 for 4. Both are reformed fish rather than a fillet.

So many false assumptions are made about ready meals. Yes, they use crappy meat, but it's unlikely to be worse than value mince. In the UK, ready meals are NOT 'full of chemicals', ignoring the fact that everything is made of chemicals! I believe US producers use more laboratory additives and sugar than ours - but we're in Britain.

I chose - simply because it's been mentioned a lot - Asda Smartprice Lasagne, £2.98 for 1.5kg.

In the UK, ingredients must be listed in order of quantity by law: so, if sugar is the main ingredient, it will be first, etc.

Lasagne Filling (55%)
Water,
Minced Beef (20%),
Tomato (13%) [contains Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)], (citric acid is vitamin C)
Onion,
Tomato Purée,
Cornflour,
Red Wine (1.2%),
Beef Bouillon [Beef Stock, Cornflour, Salt, Tomato Purée, Concentrated Onion Juice, Sugar],
Salt,
Sugar,
Garlic Purée,
Oregano,
Basil,
Ground Black Pepper,

Béchamel Sauce (27%)
Water,
Whipping Cream,
Mild Cheddar Cheese,
Skimmed Milk Powder,
Cornflour,
Wheat Flour,
Salt,

Egg Pasta (15%)
Durum Wheat Semolina,
Water,
Egg Powder,
Egg White Powder,
Mild Cheddar Cheese (1.7%)

The lasagne I make is usually heavier on the pasta & béchamel than this, and I don't add wine. I use more tomato, though ... Anyway, my point is: where are the scary additives & wallpaper paste in this? OK, my lasagne would taste more 'italian' than theirs, but 1.5kg would probably cost £10 to make.

Ready meals are not "bad", not in this country anyway. Ours are actually the envy of the Western world!

My goodness, you can get TWO 1.5kg meals for £4.98 at the moment!

Your point is proven, I think, Ice :)

Ah, cross-posted with you, Totem, in defence of value ready meals.

Yep I think the real problem is people saying...oh but you can make a delicious sauce for £1:50...I mean yes you can - absolutely and maybe some people don't realise that...but it isn't the cheapest AT ALL.

Massively cheaper ready made sauce is available.

I messed up the Asda link.

Oh, sod it, they don't like direct links!

oh and people thinking of normal/finest mwave meals...

I got DD some of the baby mwave meals and even I can make that cheaper...they are flipping £2:40 each for a 200g toddler portion!

But that is 7 times as expensive as the Iceland ready meal deal listed below.

garlicbargain, that's it. Look at the ingredients and make a decision based on that.

IceBeing, the cheap pasta sauce I tried was gross. I admit it's been a few years and it could have improved since then.

I love some of the recipe suggestions on this thread. I'll definitely be trying these out.

yes but at the end of the day......

ready meals and ready made are DISGUSTING!

Agree with that!

Ainsley's cupasoup have only natural additives too. There's a meal for four for £1.20 if you add some stale bread on the side.

I hate all this scavenging and foraging. OK if that's all you do all day, but people working full time shouldn't have to be living like this. Not in 2013, not in the UK. UK wages are 3rd worst in the whole of the EU and they have dropped the quickest. Why anyone would want to move here is beyond me.

Hats off to Garlic's lasagna though, I certainly couldn't make it for less than £2.98.