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!

I equate £££ for meat with good quality so would not buy meat that I felt was too cheap. I feel I am missing a trick. I have a slow cooker, love to cook, we all like meat so any tips for unusual (to me) cuts would be great.

TIA .

Now, I thought we were talking about food shopping and cooking from scratch vs. processed food.

Whatever people buy, foodwise, they will still need the same cleaning products either way?

But surely the amount spent on cleaning products, even when including things like toilet rolls and washing powder would be fairly insignificant compared to the food spend?

I would have thought that we spend about £5-10 pm on cleaning stuff as a couple, and a family perhaps 1.5 to 2 x that amount? Fairly insignificant when we are talking about spending hundreds of pounds pm on food.

Although, someone just upthread mentions buying 4 bottles of bleach - that would be a year or two's supply in our house.

What about liver, shin, pork shoulder, brisket, pork cheeks, stewing beef, steak mince, belly pork, gammon, ham or lamb shanks?

I would include cleaning products too- some people go overboard.

I like a bottle for each bog here - and four aren't enough for that

I tried vinegar and newspaper. It was useless. Pink windowlene liquid in a bottle lasts for about 2 years and is the BOSS

Lamb shanks are really expensive

We eat chicken livers fairly regularly, I buy them frozen, 50p a tub [cant remember the weight] I use 4 to feed all of us. cooked with onions, seasoning, it makes a lovely gravy. We have it with either rice or mash and greens. Nice cheap meal.

99p store/poundland for cleaning stuff.

Plain old water and newspapers for cleaning the windows.

does your bill include all the other stuff It includes cleaning products but I don't buy many products, I'm an ecloth and water woman.
do the other adults also bring in food to a greater or lesser degree SIL buys her own lunch if she is at work (care home) but everything else comes from the household budget.
Surely you aren't responsible for buying food for ALL the grown-ups who live in your house whilst also working 45-50 hours each week
Yes. I am responsible for the budget as nobody else can make it stretch as far as I can. BIL works at least 60 hours a week, SIL is a nursing student but also works part time. DH works about the same hours as me
We all work a lot of hours

truffle you do know teenagers eat more than adults don't you

I imagine my DH (17 stone) and DBIL (21 stone rugby player) eat about the same as a teenage boy. They never seem to stop eating. What they get for snacks is stuff that I buy reduced. That could be 19p sausages one day, 5p Asda hot cross buns another day or 19p sliced bread toasted.

I've just switched to Tesco value penne 29p, no one noticed. Even a bought sauce makes a very cheap meal.

near

Why have you got so many bogs? We only have 2.

getting back to the OP, unless we are thinking of a nice bleach sauce we are off track here?

If you have a bigger budget and can invest in herbs, spices, oils and seasonings you can cook for very little.
Once I have these ingredients I can rustle up a cheap meal in no time.
Even using the occasional tin or jar it is still possible.

Well, if you are all working that bloody hard, why can't you spend more than £50 a week on food?

Yes, I agree the bogs are over the top - it's just the way the house was built - modern.

Well, if you are all working that bloody hard, why can't you spend more than £50 a week on food?

We work hard and spend around £80 on food and while we could spend less I'm happy with that cause I love good food! I'd rather eat well every day than go on big holidays/have expensive car/expensive phone/appliances /whatever.

I shave my legs and underarms using 10 for £1 razors from the pound shop and the foam lather off my head as I shampoo it.

I shave twice a week or so and buy a new pack of razors every six months or so. So shaving costs me about £2 a year

Costs me nothing - I use DH's .

Near

You have as many bogs as you like
I'm only jealous as we are old house, only had one but we added another.

I shave my legs and underarms using 10 for £1 razors from the pound shop and the foam lather off my head as I shampoo it.

Oh dear god. I really did nearly PMSL - I have no idea why, I could just visualise myself doing this

I also have bog

Well, if you are all working that bloody hard, why can't you spend more than £50 a week on food?

Because we are saving for deposits on houses, paying off debts, DBIL is saving to do his HGV licence and supporting DSIL through university. But mainly because I don't really want to spend more than that. We eat very well on the budget I allocate, yes we sometimes spend more than £300 and we can easily afford it. We just choose to spend our money on other things.

I would rather buy noodles for my pad thai out of date in Approved Foods and be able to afford a holiday. In my early twenties I worked as a chef in a 5* hotel for 4 years and believe me, we enjoy good food. I just don't believe that "good food" necessarily means "expensive food"

And I am totally used to it. Extreme budgeting has just become part of the way I shop and the way I think about food shopping. It's now like a personal mission to eat as well as possible as cheaply as possible. Tomorrow night DH are having a romantic night in a deux - we're having monkfish tail and a lobster that I only paid a couple of quid for late on a Sunday afternoon. If we won the lottery I would still buy the cheapest reductions I could find. I have never seen the point in spending money unnecessarily.

truffle i absolutely agree- in fact I am like this with most of my spending. I love good food too, but I simply refuse to make the fat cats richer. If I can find good quality at a cheaper price then I buy it.
I do work hard but we are saving for a new house atm, and funds for the kids' university. Wasting money is plain silly. Very few of us are rich enough to be able to pour money down the drain.

I could start a new thread.... aibu to think 16 pints of milk is a lot for 2 adults and 2 toddlers in a week? No one else seems to have that much in their trolley.

op yanbu. I don't want to turn veggie/ eat less so the kids have enough/ not eat nice food. I don't have time for a vegetable patch. I am lucky in that we can afford the bill it just seems a lot. I keep vowing to try lidl and have to drive past it today so will compare.

I also have a marathon-running husband who works from home. That doesn't help either.

I get through very little milk. You don't have to "turn veggie" to eat more cheaply- just include more pulses and veg in your cooking. Pulses and beans are packed full of protein, low in fat and lots of vitamins and minerals, not an inferior foor to meat at all. Cook them with the meat to make meals go further.

Our four eaters (big DH, me, 5yo, 2yo) get through six pints a week, roughly, including daily porridge, sometimes making cheese sauce, etc.

I take it your children drink a lot of milk?