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!

Sounds like you hit Lidl on a bad day. Ours always has blueberries and strawberries amongst other soft fruits, spinach and i'm pretty sure greek yogurt.

The last Lidl i lived near was a bit hit and miss with restocking shelves. There were times not to shop - like Wednesday mornings because they appeared to restock in the afternoon. I do find the need to be a little flexible in what I buy because sometimes things are out of stock.

Just scan read this thread. Of course you could feed- family for£50 a week. Tinned tomatoes, dried herbs, pasta, baked pots etc would do the job. But there would be 'title variation and everyone would be bored pretty soon. The secret is meal planning and reuse. You can get 3 meals for 4 out of a whole chicken, but it's doubtful one would be a roast! Chicken soup (carcass) chicken and pasta bake and chicken salad. Isn't poetic licence a wonderful thing!

Do you think there is some truth in this:

You spend less in Lidle and Aldi because there is less to buy? I think this about M & S (went through a snobby phase (was put off asda) of shopping there for deli 3 for £6 and simply range)

Im now on delivery plan for tescos and use value range a lot with extras of nice fruit n veg. Meat has to be slow cooked a lot though.

THANKYOU for the approved food tip :) Just surfed the site with glee at massive reductions on stuff I buy all the time

Terrified - you can feed a family of 5 (4 adults and 1 x 4 year old) very well on £50. I manage it - by buying almost every item of fresh food we eat at 7.30pm when the supermarkets are practically giving it away.

I consider a fish pie (made from stuff like smoked haddock and cod) for 4 that's cost me £1 expensive.

I've no doubt you can trufflehunter and I'm sure I could too but not with a full-time job. I simply don't have an hour to spend every day hunting down those sorts of bargains. My food shopping is done in a swift 50 minutes in the supermarket closest to the house. And probably I might spend 10 minutes x 2 topping up during the week at the Sainsbury's local.

Ooh, your fish pie sounds good trufflehunter

Some of my tricks to keep the food budget down:

1. We have an allotment, I am luckily green fingered so grow as much as I can
2. The reduced counter
3. Using meat in moderation and using cheaper cuts. Eg. a pork casserole in our house would be made with pork cheeks, a cheap can of value cider, some apples. It would be served with mashed potatoes from a pack of reduced spuds. Chicken is usually the Mumsnet Feeding the 5000 off one chicken or I find thighs are a very good substitute for breasts
4. Using meat on the bone adds a lot of flavour. I made paella tonight using chicken thighs, I cut the meat off the bone but stuck the bones in as well to beef it up
5. I work in a hotel as a second job. The benefits of this are twofold - not only do I get paid but I get fed on duty and I get to take leftovers home. We have a large flock of chickens. This weekend I took home about 1kg plum tomatoes, 20 rashers of cooked bacon, about 15 sausages, 20 tiger prawns, about 15 portions each of rice pudding and apple crumble, 3 dozen eggs, about 4 tins worth of baked beans and about 500g cooked button mushrooms. It was all leftovers from breakfast buffet and a function (apart from the eggs). Hotel work is a very good way of keeping down your food costs if you can work somewhere that lets you take home leftovers. This week the bacon will make a rolypoly, the sausages willl do one meal for 5, the tomatoes/beans/mushrooms are going into a cottage pie and the prawns made a delicious and very cheap paella with the addition of 2 chicken thighs.
6. Frozen veggies, particularly herbs

NeartheWindyMill - I work around 50 hours per week.

I do my cheap shops on the way home from work.

truffle - I work full time too- doesn't stop me from popping out in the evening a few times a week for the whoopsies.

We do have a "roast" most Sundays but I use cheap cuts of meat in the slow cooker (brisket, pork shoulder, pork belly, lamb breast, lamb shoulder, lamb shank) and then brown them at the end in the oven.

I find it is much cheaper to cook your own from scratch but just not possible if you hold down a full time job

I have a full time job. Yet miraculously I manage to cook from scratch on average 6 nights a week

MinesAPintOfTea Is it a 25ml or 50ml shot glass?

RavingFan What do you mean by free coffee in Waitrose?

I spend 20-30 minutes a week in Aldi, plus 5-10 mins in the greengrocers and the same in the butchers. DP picks up the odd thing from Asda/Tesco on his way home from work. Shopping around doesn't mean you spend ages shopping.

Well hats off to you truffle. I do too probably about 45 in fact and I'm bloody knackered.

trufflehunter I think the key is being organised. Chuck a meal in the slow cooker the night before, prep some veg and put it in the fridge for the next night, cook quick meals that only take 15-30 mins.

Even those who hate Lidl and Aldi can save by using those supermarkets just for a few things- oil, tinned tomatoes and veg, pasta, tuna chunks, passata, flour, basmati- basics like that. Then spend the rest at the butchers and the market, and only go to Tesco monthly for Hellmans etc.

Aldi and Lidl do superior ice cream, no question. Nice Greek yoghurt.

We tend to also bulk buy cheap at the butcher - roast beef - eg topside-is£7.50 a kg over a certain amount in one shop. We buy sacks of potatoes for £4.50 for 25kg at a farm shop in passing.

We buy things like bulk quality washing powder on ebay - seriously. We over -stock loo roll etc when it's on offer.

I also agree with whoever upthread said that part of the spend at places like Tesco is simply because you see more stuff there which tempts, but which you hardly need.

Bread, meat, fish, carbs, veg and fruit. Those are the key.

I bulk cook. A huge pot of bolognese made with good quality mince and bulked out with veg and lentils, can then be frozen into portions or turned into lasagne, or chilli. I only "cook" two or three nights a week, but when I do I make huge pots of soup, stew, curry, chicken casserole, fish pie, goulash, stifado etc and freeze. Great for making use of all the reduced or bargain stuff. On my busy nights I can pull something out of the freezer- I even freeze cooked rice, or make some pasta, and salad and I can have dinner on the table with little effort. At any one time I have 8 or 9 varieties of home made "ready meal" to choose from. I also make alot of stir fries, good for using leftover meat- you don't need much of it and any bits of veg. I make a chow mein or stir fried rice - always goes down well.

Top tips I've found make a difference:
I stopped shopping at Sainsburys - found Morrisons lots cheaper (no Aldi or Lidl nearby).
If I can get to the local market on my lunch break - fruit and veg much cheaper than supermarket.
Do supermarket shop mid week late eve if poss, not at weekend. Seem to get more things priced down then.
Buy reduced items that about to go past date and freeze for meals later.
Were not veggie but I bulk out meals with pulses cheap and healthy. Eg if I make a meat bol sauce, I still add a tin or two of lentils or aduki beans with plenty of veg as well as the mince. If I make a chicken curry I add chick peas with veg so get a family size curry from one pack of 4 chicken thighs.
Casseroles are king! A pack of stewing steak with lots of root veg (cheap in season from market), free herbs from the garden (dont need much space and easy to grow), slow cooked and add some dumplings or crusty bread get 2 family midweek meals from a big pot with lovely rich gravy my hungry boys love (family of four).
Good luck!

I think one of the key things is try to keep out of supermarkets ! They fool you into buying things you don't actually need !

In the last year I've made changes to the way I shop and now I spend so much less. I think I'm pushing 50 a week for a family of four

• I bulk buy once every two months with a group of neighbours. But all our basics in bulk at cost price.

Spend £100 every two months -I get a weekly veg and fruit and eggs box delivered. £12.50 a week

• I make my own bread and get milk delivered £5 a week
• I buy tatties by the sack
• I go to my local butchers and fishmongers about £7 a week I guess
• if I do want anything else I only shop at lidl

I don't buy juice habitually anymore, it's a treat. I make my own squash from fruit and buy apple concentrate in bulk to dilute or drink water
I bulk everything out with pulses
I make my own humous, coleslaw, pesto, yoghurt
I use a slow cooker and freezer alot
I have a rule that every meal I cook has to use two things that I've bought in bulk
Use cloth nappies and don't use wet wipes
I only use Castile soap forclean

I know it's not really on topic but my local lidl has transformed itself into an upmarket deli overnight, albeit one with car accessories and hiking boots in the middle aisle of wonder. The fresh bakery has being joined by wicker baskets full of fresh nuts, chiller cabinets of artisan cheeses and a huge range of stuffed pastas, deli meats and other delectables. The cheap as chips chips are still there in the shiny new freezer cabinets but they have been sidelined by delights such as Iberian ham coquettes and 5 different types of tempura prawns. It always has blueberries btw, and an excellent range of fruit and veg. It's all very swish and stylish and the deluxe range features heavily. Keep an eye out, Lidl luxe could be coming your way.

There's 6 of us here (and sometimes 7 or 8 as we often have long stay guests ) all adults and teens with hollow legs. Cat and a dog with food issues too.

Cooking from scratch works out cheaper overall ime. Frozen chips are indeed cheaper than fresh potatoes as someone mentioned somewhere and frozen veg is usually too. But I would be bankrupt if I filled my trolley with ready meals and prepared foods.

I will confess that I like to cost meals for my own personal amusement I really need a hobby. It really puts the fun into frugality.

Actually it's not really for amusement, it's a financial necessity, .

I think the recipes you choose makes a difference . Pasta bakes are cheaper than lasagna, roast chicken is better value than chicken breasts, steak is a distant dream. Lentils, vegetables, stuffings, sauces, herbs, spices,pastry, crumbed toppings etc can stretch and enhance a pack of mince or a cheap chicken.

I have found that evening meals easier to cost up and cater to a budget. Packed lunches, breakfasts and snacks were the real drain on my budget.

I no longer buy juices, actimel type drinks, smoothies, expensive biscuits, crisps ( unless on offer and then I scoff them all ), individual kids yogurt pots, prepared salads, soft drinks etc

Eggs, pancakes and other cooked breakfasts supplement plain cereals. Pinterest has great ideas for freezable breakfast ideas such as the breakfast wrap, which my teens love.

I poach a whole chicken or boil a ham and freeze the shredded meat for sandwiches.

Plain cereals, crackers, special offer fruit, cheese, veg sticks, large pots of natural yogurts, HM soup made with delicious dubious leftovers, noodles, pasta with butter, cheaper frozen fish, home baking and toast provide snacks for the ever hungry hulks that masquerade as my teenage sons.

There's great blogs out there with inspiring ideas on frugalizing ( totally made up that word) your food budget. Pinterest is a great place to start.

Marking my place to read later.

toffeewhirl you don't need to post do do that- just click on "watch this thread" then you can find it later in "I'm watching".

nappy I think its 25ml. Bright green too. Just reduce the amount you use gradually until the clothes stop smelling clean.

eliephant can you tell is more about those freezable breakfast wraps?

I found this blog recently which includes a weekly meal plan for around 50.

utterlyscrummy.blogspot.co.uk