AIBU to be confused when people say it's cheaper to cook from scratch?

[Blueskiesandcherrypies]

(Sorry another 'weekly food shop post'....)

I just don't think it is! I struggle to get our weekly food shop below £140pw. That's for me, DH, ds9, dd7 and dd1 (and soon to be newborn ds). We all love our food, though I tear my hair out every week planning meals everyone will enjoy rather than refuse and sulk about tolerate, and cook from scratch (just things like spag Bol, curry, carbonara, puff pastry 'pizza', roasts...) but I often think blimey if I could just chuck a few ready meals in the trolley and loads of bits from the frozen section (burgers, nuggets, kievs!!) we'd be quids in! But then we wouldn't be eating so healthily and I wouldn't know exactly what we're all putting in our mouths.

Weekly food shop includes packed lunches, loads of fruit for snacks, cat food, household bits, nappies.... but not alcohol, that comes out of DH's 'own' pocket rather than our joint account even if it's wine for me. We never have leftovers so can't stretch a meal over 2 days (DCs have growing appetites).

I am green with envy when I see people saying they can feed a family of four for £50 a week! Just....how?!

And ok, before you ask, I have been shopping at ocado lately but I haven't seen a huge price diff than when I used sainsburys.

Please help me see where I'm going wrong!

Yeehaw-sandwich maker, of course, fab idea!!

Where we live we don't have any independent shops, no butcher, baker, green grocer. Asda is 20 minutes walk away, Sainsbury's and M&S are 15 minutes drive away, Waitrose and Lidl are about 20 minutes drive away. There is a farm shop I used to go to but haven't for a while. There is also a monthly farmers market at the same place as Sainsbury's and M&S but again, I haven't been for ages. I may try the farm shop and farmers market again though my plan for next week is to eat a more vegetarian diet. We do eat too much meat probably but that was due to buying fresh fish and it not keeping fresh long enough. I now buy frozen fillets and they are fine. Some are £££ though, others not too bad.

DD won't eat pasta through choice and all my kids are used to a huge variety which I have carried on providing even though I have no money left for anything else.

I have been feeding us all on the same money for years but have only just twigged there is never money left for the odd new top, pair of jeans so food prices really are going up all the time.

If you are growing food to save money though you do well to concentrate on stuff that's expensive to buy.

I got half a dozen strawberry plants at a church fair a couple of years ago, planted them in pots, they did okay. But then I planted up the runners. I now have a 2' by 6' strawberry bed, which I protect with a bit of old netting. I have so many strawberries it is hard to get motivated to pick them. We have bags and bags in the freezer by the end of the summer and make loads of lovely jam.

Same story with a row of autumn raspberries, a gooseberry bush and a clump of early rhubarb. I don't really have the energy to tend veg these days but I've a well established row of asparagus and a couple of seemingly indestructible asparagus plants.

Actually adding all that up must give us £££ of top produce. Ant that's without the herbs.

Wish we had a market......ironic given I live in Cumbria. We are surrounded by farms, I pass lambs skipping through the fields when I venture up to the co op, the smell of shit often hangs in the air when they spread the manure or whatever the hell they do with it.

No shitting market tho.......and no, I don't drive either so can't get to the nearest one 40 miles away !!

We shop most days and get the offers from whichever supermarket has what we need.
Recently we got about 20 jars of our fav coffee as it was drastically reduced. Yesterday was loo rolls also greatly reduced, at Morrison's.
Then we get anything we use from Tesco and Asda. So we never pay full price for anything.
Cooking from scratch and shopping daily you just get what you need and aren't tempted to buy other things.
Fresh fruit and veg from shop, meat from the butchers. We buy half as much as we did from supermarket, its better quality, buy what you need and you don't need as much when the quality is good. Me and dd can only manage 1 or 1.5 sausages, we used to eat 2.
It is quite easy to feed a family of 5 on £50 a week.
We even manage a pudding every day.

I'm actually quite depressed reading all these family of 4 or 5 food bills for £50. We're only a family of 3 and I can't get any where near £50 just for food - let alone when we need shampoo, loo roll etc etc. £80 is a cheap week for me, normally it's (well) over £100 - but then I do have nappies etc to buy. I'm going to see how little I can spend this weekend now!

Where I live there is no butcher or greengrocer and the only shop is the co op which is very expensive.
In the next town there is Asda and tesco and an aldi.
No markets, unless you count a monthly farmers market where someone once tried to charge me £7.50 for a jar of artisan chutney :)
Haven't been back...
I do drive, but on weeks like this week, when I am ill and ds2 is ill it's not so easy to just pop out or do a big shop.
Also don't have a Big freezer (or anywhere to put one) so can't stock up/bulk buy.
I can bake, but like others have said I actually find I spend more home cooking than buying shop bought stuff. It would cost me ££ and the cost of cooking it to make a Victoria sponge.
I can buy one for £1.
I am off to aldi this week if ds2 gets better. Can't get everything I need but I don't mind using the co op for top ups.

poster aworkingmummy I have a baby and have to buy nappies to my shopping bill is about £60 a week including oh lunch everyday.

This is mn workingmummy...there are people who claim they can feed a family of 8 on hairspray and dust.
Don't sweat it :)

It's not a choice I've made. It's something I have to do to keep us in the black. If I could blow £100 pw on grub I would - what better to spend money on than good food!? But I can't so I don't.

Hi blueskiesandcherrypies,
It is not easy to keep to that kind of a budget!
I think the best idea would be to send DH to get the same amount of food etc on that amount. See how he gets on, knowing my DH he would realise it is potentially not realistic.

Tips I have learnt over the years:

• Bulk meals out with pulses, you will get double the volume. Stews, pasta sauces, soups etc

• Find a place to buy cheap fruit and veg, for two reasons you are helping your community and then they will help you. This again helps to bulk everything out

• Find out when your supermarket marks down meat, the amount of amazing deals on meat I have got have helped to stretch the budget a long way

• If your children love the good stuff of a meal (ie the roast meat, lasagne, bolognaise sauce) set the expectation. I find if you bring less to the table they will think that is how much there is. Put the rest straight in the freezer. Also, make more of the accompaniments - garlic bread, veggies, yorkshire puddings, etc.

• Making your own bread is a god send, primarily because it is so cheap and so much better than the mass produced crap

• Frozen veg can really help when you are on a budget

• Plan your week ahead. Budget goes out of the window when you have to quickly scrape sth together last minute.

• Finally, don't be too hard on yourself. It is hard!

I really think if you do your online shop and plan on a meal by meal basis you can do a family of 4 for £50 comfortably. Especially if you go down a brand and quit having snack foods about the house.

I even bought cinema food the other week hotdogs in reuced buns (too warmed wrapped n foil) with value sweets and juice cartons plus popcorn. Meant we had smaller portions (healthier) but a quarter of cost of concession stand. It was kids club too so the whole thing for four of cost £9.

When I do the food shop I think wbout htings like this to save us spending on food when we are out also.

My shopping bill went up by £30 a week when I started doing Slimming World and therefore buying more fruit and veg than usual and we weren't unhealthy before and didn't buy ready meals.

Fruit and Veg is ridiculously expensive!!

After a post on here a while back, where I was shocked at how shocked others were at my 'normal' food bill (£250 pw for 2 of us, with weekly visitors), I really looked at my food shopping habit and made these changes:

I order online every other week & only get 'hard goods' e.g. washing powder, loo roll

I bulk buy meat from M&S - it's better quality so we hardly throw any away / use the leftovers (though their chickens are not magic, sadly)

I deliberately run round the supermarket when I am tight for time, so that I don't have 'browsing time'.

I try to go to Morrisons for fruit & veg as its stored on ice & lasts WAY longer, even more than M&S/Waitrose.

I reckon I have cut my food bill by about 25-30%. I cook 'from scratch' (i.e. I use the odd Pataks sauce) every night.

My wine bill remains the same, if not more .....

I agree Kegirl if you want to eat lots of variety to 'keep the diet going' IYKWIM you end up putting in all the berries and asparagus to maintain interest.

wink I've never included my wine bill

This is how I think of it, doesn't mean it is right or wrong, just what happens in my head when I cost out a budget and meal plan.

1. I only plan evening meals, the rest take care of themselves around these.
2. I only plan five meals for the week, there are invariably a couple of days when we are out or eat with friends or don't feel like dinner much. There are 'ready meals' (frozen meals done in advance) if kids want them (feeding a toddler, 8yo, two adults) like cauliflower cheese, bolognaise etc.
3. I choose five proteins (butcher pack takes care of most of this - 1lb stewing steak, 1lb chicken pieces, 1lb sausage and 1lb mince - £10) then whatever else we fancy, for example a whole chicken, £3.99, and usually a pound of bacon, £3.50. 15 eggs, £2. So all the protein is in at under £20.
4. now I have the proteins I collect the carbs. Two crusty loaf, £1 in the coop and/or bake at home for 69p from Aldi. Two packs of hot cross buns, muffins, croissants or the like, say £1 each. I usually buy rice and pasta infrequently but if I needed a pack of these, 89p each or so. Red lentils, barley, bran, oats, similar, but I can and do save on all dried stuff by buying in more bulk less often. Large bag of potatoes, £2.50, bag of carrots, 89p, bag of sweet potatoes, £1.49, two packs of ready made gnocchi, 69p each, two tins chickpeas, 60p each, tin of butter beans, tin of baked beans. I pick up a plain and sr flour in the baking aisle. So that's carbs in for around £20.
5. fruit and vegetables - aldi's super 6 straightaway, £3.60 three tinned sweet corn £1 a bag of peas 89p, romaine lettuces 89p, avocados £1.49, nine bananas, £1, two bags of cheapest apples, no more than £2, oranges no more than £1.50 or I just don't get them, bag of onions, 89p, cucumber 49p, cooking bag of dried raisins, £2, cooking bag of dried apricots, £2, two broccoli, mushrooms, bag of kale and some courgettes. So fruit and veg another £25.
6. my only other category is dairy - two large blocks of cheese, up to £5, four cartons of milk, £4, one single cream, 60p, a puff pastry pack, £1 and a plain yoghurt pack, 70p. Dairy is around £12.

There will always be things like coffee, £3, sugar, and washing up liquid/washing powder etc, but these are more monthly and I try to spread them out. Shopping is usually £80-£85 for everything. Not budget, not extravagant. I am lucky to already have a stocked cupboard with jams, preserves, baking goods, herbs and spices. I nearly always have something in the slow cooker.

Meal plan from this would be something like, including the types of things we have for lunch and breakfast and going over seven days to fit in better with other peoples models

Sun, boiled eggs and toast, roast chicken, Yorkshire pudding, roast pots, carrots and broccoli
Mon, banana pancakes, bacon and avocado salad, chicken and tomato tart, cheesy courgettes,stewed apples in slow cooker with a crumbly oats top
Tues, yoghurt with bran and honey, cheese on toast with cucumber sticks, slow cooked beef and barley stew
Weds, porridge, sweet potato soup and crispy kale, giant sharing burger with mince and whole loaf, homemade chips and salad
Thurs, hot cross buns or muffins with butter and dried fruit, scrambled egg with bacon and mushroom, chicken and chickpea curry with rice and green vegetables, banana ice cream.
Fri, cheesy eggs, leftover curry and Dahl, creamy vegetable gnocchi with crispy bacon
Sat, porridge and apples, jacket potatoes with cheese and remaining bacon, sausage casserole with butter beans and peas.

I don't include nappies or wipes as we use washable

I find it is much cheaper to cook your own from scratch but just not possible if you hold down a full time job, unless you devote a half day every weekend to cooking in advance of the week.

1. fresh Pasta sauce is so easy and much cheaper to make at home and so versatile for pasta, lasagne, pizza, tomato soup etc. I also make enough so I can freeze some.

1. Lidl is great for certain things. Cottage cheese is 45p in Lidl, whereas Tesco, Waitrose etc charge about 1.45 for the same quantity! (at a rate of 3 pots of cottage cheese a week, that is a saving of £150 a year on a single item). The toilet roll and kitchen rolls are also pretty decent quality at Lidl and cheaper. Cheeses are cheaper. Fruit and veg are cheaper.

Having said that, I would not buy chicken or meat there and last week I noticed that the salmon was more expensive in Lidl compared to Sainsburys, which surprised me. The crisps ( croc something ) were truly awful and the kids refused to eat them but the birds enjoyed it. The Extra V. Olive oil in Lidl fared very well in a comparison done by the DMail and now I only buy that.

1. Bread is a doddle to make at home. I only picked it up 6 months ago and now I am addicted. I don't use a bread machine. Even better I found that I could easily freeze home-made rolls and bread (wrapped in cling film) and they taste just as good. Basic Foccacia recipe: Mix 7g sachet of yeast in warm water (14 fl oz) with a pinch of sugar to get the yeast going. Then weigh out 600 g of strong flour (I like waitrose £1 for 1.5kg). Add 2 tsp of salt then mix in yeast/ water mixture and knead for about 10 minutes until you notice it is smooth. Leave it to prove overnight i.e rub with olive oil, cover with cling film and a cloth. After a few hours or overnight it will have risen. You can divide it to suit what you need (rolls, Focaccia), let it rest again for another hour at least and then bake.

1. The pound stores are great for good quality cleaning products and much cheaper than the regular grocery stores. Crisps are cheaper there as well.

1. Roast chicken itself is never going to stretch far. Better to use it for a curry or a stew . I only use chicken thighs now - they have more flavour and are cheaper. Also I find Quorn mince is fantastic, as long as you season it properly and add worcester sauce, they will probably not notice the difference. Chicken Pilaf goes further and is delicious (see Nigella recipe).

I hardly go to Tesco. I still go to Waitrose for their excellent soya and honey smoked Mackerel, Tomato juice, flour, eggs and free coffee!! I still get my chicken and fish at Sainsbury's . Their pre-prepared stir-fry is also good.

As a shopper, I want value for money and that does not mean buying sub-standard products.

I used to shop at Morrisons, get the basics, and stand with my heart on my mouth at the till every week waiting for the total - which was often pushing £120. About a year ago I changed to the main shop at Lidl, i chuck in loads of 'luxury' items such as ham and french cheese and am always thrilled it come to £60-£70. I do buy meat and eggs at a butcher son top of that sometimes, but i am a total convert and I bloody love it.

I am also though a convert to ready cut stir fry and salad ingredients. I find that I get more variety of veg in my diet that way - for example, i don't eat enough water chestnuts to make buying a tin worth is but I do like a few in the packs I get of mixed veg in the supermarket. I feel vaguely guilty about this, but I presume it is because I am so used to doing all my own chopping. And the plastic.

I really wish I could find everything I need at Lidl. We've tried shopping from there but the choices they offer is ridiculous! I wanted blueberries…no blueberries. I wanted spinach…no spinach. I wanted greek yogurt…can't remember if they had any. So in the end we got so annoyed with the lack of choice we ended up back at Tesco! Unfortunately we just don't have the time to go to another supermarket to buy what Lidl don't sell. Has anyone else found this? Or do you guys all manage to buy everything on your list?

With regards to meat, we buy fresh meat /chicken from local butchers once a month and freeze it all. We spend around £70. I've planned our meals so that we have chicken once a week, red meat once a week, fish twice a week, and lentils once a week (usually a lentil curry). This way I can ensure my family are getting a variety of protein in their diets.

I've just done my lidl shop (with blueberries & Greek yogurt) and do tend to find a few bits I need to get elsewhere like more diverse range of herbs & spices, some breakfast cereals (not keen on lidl own brand) & random convenience things I like such as frozen garlic, puff pastry etc so I top up with a morrisons delivery roughly once a month & make a list after my lidl shop.

I usually don't have a list- especially when it comes to fruit and veg. Even at Tescos you may have something on your list that looks disappointing instore- or there may be a box of huge fresh caulis at a bargain price. Same with ALDI, I base my recipes around the super six, so one week it may be stuffed red peppers, next week mushroom soup. Asparagus is a rock bottom price atm in ALDI, so we are making the most of that.
Having some flexibility allows to to take advantage of bargains and get the best quality and usually seasonal ingredients. Lidl usually have a great range of yogurts, including greek.
I always go shopping with a bit of an open mind.