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 view is that that £25 per person per week for food, cleaning materials, toiletries and so on is a reasonable amount of money for a working family to spend, and the lowest it is possible for most people to spend healthily is £8.25 - £10 per person per week (food only). This applies across the country.

Yet in my local Waitrose I regularly see people spending £300+ a week for a family of four. I imagine a lot of this food is thrown away as well.

It's the disparity that makes me cross and motivates me to continue with the blog.

The trick is also to live in an area with lots of poor people, you tend to get an Aldi and a Lidl and lots of good immigrant grocers (if that's the right term) where you can buy half a field of coriander for 50p.

Yes Boffin, some MC people spend huge amounts on food yet cut back viciously on heating and clothes and things for their children.

Or maybe they are just well off and can afford it?

Yes, £50 a week has to cover everything. I don'y always have7 people. DS1 is only home in the holidays.

As I said, the meals on the meal plans are ones that we eat regularly. I have a whole host of recipes and meals that cost well under £1 per person and almost never fo over that amount - I just can't afford to.

BUT, none of us are under nourished in any way. I have learned over the years how to cook well for very little.

No Nobdie, those were the amounts for each pizza. Double that amount for two. I made them tonight, in fact. Really delicious and filling.
1/4 bread mix pack is 6 oz bread per person - equivalent to about four slices - so it's not meagre portions.

I mean noobie, not nobdie.

Right I've just been to tescos website and Put ingredients to make two meals in for £5.75.

It's a lasagne and a spat Bol.

Everyday value lasagne sheets and spaghetti
Two tins tomatoes
Garlic
750g everyday value mince
An onion
Everyday value cottage cheese

In all fairness I would probably add a stock cube which would take the overall cost up slightly but

Brown mince, add onion, garlic, tinned tomatoes and stock cube and boile down to a thick sauce. That's your spag Bol sauce.

Layer it up with the lasagne sheets and cottage cheese for lasagne. Thts how's make lasagne now anyway, it's less daffy and lower fat higher protein etc (I got the recipe from a body building website)

So that brings it down to the cost of the PRE made slop, reduces the hassle from cooking, makes it healthier all in one fell swoop.

SOrry that would feed us twice, there are four of us, all big eaters.

They can afford it alright, but I just find it difficult to watch given the fact this is going on right by the Trussell Trust box.

StressedHEmum perhaps by putting your children into school you could work and earn enough to go to Waitrose . Now that's good home economy.

Rhoda- would that amount of pasta sauce really feed 8 people? Eek- we must be incredibly greedy!

750 grams is almost two pounds of mince so yes it would feed eight. You could add a grated carrot for a few pence to bulk it out I suppose.

i use roughly 100g mince per person in a bolognese/chilli (and we are big eaters - so yes for us 750g should do 8 portions) and chopped carrots and celery too, and maybe some mushrooms if i have them in.

Protein content of Tesco Value mince is 17%.

So 100g mince contains 17g protein

Daily requirement of protein per person= 50g

If Rhondajean's meals go over two days that's 15g protein for the main meal of the day. Add 12g cottage cheese for the 8 portions bumps it up to 16.5g.

Unless people eat 120g cheddar cheese or 3 eggs to make up for it during the day this menu is significantly short of protein.

This is why we need to be careful when we talk about budget cooking - quite often the nutrition simply isn't there. And what about vegetables - you need to add at least 50p per person per portion for salad or veg.

Noobie, I have M.E. and fibromyalgia and can't work. Also 3 of my children have AS and another has dysgraphia. All have been so badly let down by schools that their physical and mental health wee very badly affected. DS3 still carries the mental scars, 7 years later. HE was not a lifestyle choice but a necessity, neither is being unable to work.

Well I lived poorer than I would bet, many of you, and I managed to feed us healthy meals every day. I simply couldn't afford junk. I only fed two, but I could feed us evening meals for a week on one whole chicken (£4), one bag of potatoes (£1), one bag of carrots (£1), and one bag of parsnips (£1). I would make different meals with this. In reality I would do this one week and eat 2-3 meals from it and the rest of the meals would be from left over in other weeks where I had essentially done the same but with a diff meat and veggies. I would be very very very annoyed if my food shop in the week was over 30 quid for everything inc toiletries, and tbh low 20s was more what I would be happy spend. Junk added up too quickly, left no left overs and was so unhealthy you felt tired and sluggish.

I'm pleased to say we no longer have to live like that!

noobie - milk? sandwich fillings? snacks? There are plenty of things in the day to up your protein in take...

Cooking from scratch is always more expensive when you buy fresh vegetables and take into account electricity/gas bills and your own time.

2g protein in a slice of bread
3g in 100ml milk

OK an egg mayo sandwich and milk might get you another 20g protein, point taken, but there's still 15g to find from elsewhere.

StressedHEmum, sorry your schools have let you down, but your children have a right to be educated in a mainstream school. I hope you persevere and get them in somewhere, times have changed a lot in 7 years and most schools can cope with AS although there is a consensus developing now that AS kids need a specialist environment and more AS units are being created. I'm an SN mum too and I know what it can be like. They can't stay at home for ever, that's the problem - but perhaps it's for another thread.

noobie, you are being incredibly rude to stressedHEmum. there is no way I would consider ms for my child with SN (been there, done that, and no amount of 'schools have changed a lot' would persuade me to go there again, considering the damage that was done last time)

your point re: protein is valid. what is the equivalent protein value for some of the ready meals quoted?

I don't think you will get anyone disagreeing that being unable to gain the right amoutn of nutrition on a tight budget is scandalous. however, it is unfair to only look at the homecooked/from scratch versions and highlight the nutrient shortfall. a diet consisting of junk/ready meals is unlikely to provide the right amounts either.

Noobie, you've made a massively important point re dietary protein. Very many of the suggestions here (and on most 'diet' threads) lack adequate protein.

From WebMD:

Although many researchers believe that older adults require more protein than younger adults, it's not reflected in the current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) and Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), which are the same for all healthy men and women aged 19 and older.

The RDA and EAR for protein is 0.80 grams and 0.66 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, respectively. That's an RDA of about 54 grams of protein a day for a 150-pound adult, or approximately 1.5 chicken breasts and a 7-ounce steak.

Pulses are roughly 25% protein. You don't need to combine beans & legumes to get a complete protein, but you should add grains and seeds to the mix, as they replace essential micronutrients that are missing from pulses.

Also, while pulses count as 'veg', they're still only one portion of your 5-a-day, no matter how many you eat - again, because of missing nutrients.

Cerealandtoast, there are 24.8g protein in a quarter of the 1.5kg Smartprice lasagne. That's half the daily requirement for a 10½ stone person, costing 75p.

yeah, I just looked that up, garlicbargain. I am mystified as to how they get that value, tbh, given that the beef makes up 20% 0f 55% of the 1.5kg, so about 200g roughly (very rough, am distracted by children!) of the total weight, for 4 peope, so 50g each mince, therefore according to the previous calculation about 8g of protein coming from the mince in that lasagne, per portion. that leaves 16g to come from the rest of the ingredients, which doesn't seem likely. I may have miscalculated, as it is mayhem here at the moment.

noobie. I fought the system here for 15 years, to the point where it almost drove my DH to a nervous breakdown. Several of my children were signed off by doctors for prolonged periods because of stress related illnesses caused by bullying and other school related incidents - not to mention the way that they were actually treated by both the schools and the LA, which would indeed be a whole other thread. I would NEVER go there again.

My DS1 has just graduated with top honours from one of the country's top unis and is just about to start an excellent job as a nuclear chemist having turned down the offer of a PhD. within his alma mater. DS2 is just about to leave here to attend the same uni (think red robe an Prince William). They would never have managed that from a school environment, especially not from a school in an area of high deprivation like this one. The rest of my kids are similarly thriving. Why then would I send them back to school, especially around here?

e: protein - there are many ways to get protein without eating large amounts of meat. We eat a lot of beans and grains, we also eat cheese and the children drink milk. They are most definitely short of protein, nor any other nutrient. They are, in fact, far better nourished than many of their peers.