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!

[BillyBanter]

If you're replacing healthy home cooked meals using varied fresh ingredients with bottom of the range ready meals and processed foods it may well be cheaper but it is not cheaper to buy 4 decent microwave meals instead of making from scratch. Especially when it comes to components of meals like rice or spices that you either buy in bulk or only use small amounts of.

[Pinkcustardpurplecustard]

I struggle too but im learning quickly. We have lots of beans (not baked beans!) and pulses. A bag if lentils is 1.20. Mix with a few items/spices, I'll have two days worth if Dahl. Served with rice, coriander and Greek yogurt, it's costs £6 in total (so that's £3 to feed the entire family for one night). Other cheap meals include falafel with a dip, bean chilli with rice, home made fish cakes and stews (where less meat is used). We also have easy cheap nights - a jacket potato with beans and cheese or a hearty soup or an omelette. DH and the boys doesn't seem to mind if we do simpler options a couple of times a week.

[Pinkcustardpurplecustard]

Brown lentils can be added to the meat for cottage pie to pad it out further. Brown lentils can also be added to stews to pad them out

[EBearhug]

I still have quite a bit of fruit in my freezer at the moment - stewed apples in particular, but also some blackcurrants and redcurrants. There were runner beans, but I've finished those for this year. I didn't pay for any of these. I've also helped out with my neighbour's tomato glut in the past, and the courgettes. (Bloody never-ending courgettes.) If you've got a freezer, you can do this in summer/autumn, stock up on cheap, seasonal fruit and veg and freeze it.

When I was growing up, we seemed to spend the whole time eating leftovers and/or clearing out the freezer. I'm not sure if we ever emptied the freezer, and at times, I wondered if we ever had firsts to be able to have leftovers...

So I inherited that habit. I also make stock from chicken carcasses, and I freeze that if I don't want it immediately. I don't often buy meat, unless it's on special offer, and that too will go in the freezer.

There also tend to be some ready meals in the freezer, which will also have been bought on special offer. And if I've veg in the fridge which is about to go over, it tends to go into soup.

[AndHarry]

The other thing I do is only buy 'good' meat, so free range /organic chicken, pork etc. for everything except mince as I found that the organic offering from the supermarket was very poor quality. It was very counter-intuitive to start off with but I find that it makes me think much more carefully about how much meat I cook and that we eat less red meat and more fish as a result.

[SuiGeneris]

£140 a week does seem a lot for 2 adults and three kids. We also shop at Ocado and usually get two deliveries for about £120 total for 3 adults and 2 kids (1 and 4). Could you reduce the amount of meat perhaps? Our bills are prob relatively low because the children have fish or meat every day for a meal, pasta for the other one. The adults have fish or meat probably twice a week and for the rest it is pasta,vegetables, pizza etc. all homemade except the pasta itself.

[impty]

£140 works out around £4 per day per person (5). I'll assume 3 meals a day thats £1.33 per meal. Thats not bad.
Equally you can buy ready made microwave meals for less than this.

Do you really want to though?

[olidusUrsus]

£140 works out around £4 per day per person (5). I'll assume 3 meals a day thats £1.33 per meal. Thats not bad.
Equally you can buy ready made microwave meals for less than this.

Do you really want to though?

You say it like there's a choice... no one really wants to be eating horrible cheap food, surely?

[impty]

I think for the op there is a choice! She chooses to spend more on homemade food.
Obviously, some people eat what they can afford (nothing wrong with that)...

[PretzelPrincess]

Trick is to shop around and not do all of your shopping at a major supermarket. We go to our local butchers for meat, it's fresh and you can get the exact cut you want. Wholesale fruit and veg and honestly it is soooo much better than the stuff you get in supermarkets. Also it's SO cheap! Every time I go to the till I'm shocked by how cheap it is. I then alternate which supermarket I go to each week. I find that Iceland is q good for bargains (not just on frozen things).

[horsetowater]

Meat is a problem as it is so expensive (if you want free range/organic). DP is a bit traditionalist about meat and to be fair it's a good source of nutrition. I got some really good bacon and made a carbonara with half a pack but it still came to £1.50 for the half pack, along with probably the same cost in cheese, so not much less than a pack of mince.

For those who want to feed their children beans, add a couple of frankfurters or use chorizo whole sausage (not slices). Still the sausage will cost you £3. Frankfurters less if you don't mind the chemical cocktail involved.

[DumSpiroSpero]

I think when you start cooking from scratch or seems really expensive because you need to buy all the 'store cupboard' stuff. Once you've done that though, it does make a difference and tastes so much better than jars/packet mixes. My spice cupboard comprises:

Cumin
Coriander
Turmeric
Garam Masala
Italian herb seasoning
Cajun seasoning
Paprika
Chilli Flakes

I probably only have to replace each item every couple of months and from that can do curries, chilli, fajitas & pasta dishes.

DH does a Costco run about 6 times a year and stocks up on baked beans, chopped tomatoes & household stuff.

Fresh food is eye watering though. Unfortunately our local Lidl is not great and whilst the nearest Aldi is better the 16 mile round trip to get there and back defeats the purpose, so I mostly go to Asda although I'm thinking about trying Morrison's again this month. My mum always raves about it but she doesn't cook from scratch a lot.

My biggest problem is time story of my life. If I didn't work I would love to spend hours in the kitchen baking bread, cakes and biscuits and making my own pasta, but there's bugger all chance of that happening without a lottery win!

[Chipandspuds]

We allow ourselves a budget of £250 per month which works out as £57 a week for myself, DH and DS.

We generally have cereal for breakfast and I have worked out which is the cheapest brand that tastes good eg Tesco value cornflakes are nice, but their value multigrain hoops (Cheerios) aren't nice. We buy the huge family size packs of Cheerios and Shreddies when they're on special offer.

Snacks are generally fruit eg apples, bananas, grapes whatever is cheap. We will buy soft fruits when they're on offer. We also have rice crackers, a packet of Tesco cream crackers is 35p, and Tesco value biscuits are nice.

Lunch is generally sandwiches, rolls, bagels etc with peanut butter, cheese, Nutella. We buy big tubs of Yeo Valley yoghurt which is always in offer, and things like carrot sticks and cucumber sticks.

Dinners are all planned. Our spices cupboard is well established so we usually need to buy spices every so often, not having to buy several to cook a certain meal. We buy tinned chickpeas and coconut milk from the 'World Food' aisle rather than Tesco brand as it's a lot cheaper. I stick with Tesco value chopped tinned tomatoes which are either 34 or 35p a tin.

I tend to buy a whole chicken rather than buying just chicken breasts as these can be expensive and DH is good at chopping it up so I can use the chicken breasts for one meal and the legs and wings for another meal. I will also buy whatever meat is on offer and if I don't have a plan for it this week include it in the next weeks plan.

We eat a lot of rice and pasta so we but the big bags which works out more cost effective.

We also include DS's nappys, baby wipes, our toiletries and household cleaning products within this budget. I buy whatever is on offer. With cleaning products the value version usually does the job. I do insist on using Fairy washing up liquid though! I buy my shampoo and conditioner from Poundland as they don't sell Simple shampoo and conditioner in Tesco.

We are careful, but we eat very well IMO. I think we could eat for less, but we feel happy that we're eating what we want to which is good quality and homemade. If we had a couple of vegetarian meals I think it would be cheaper for example.

[Nataleejah]

Certainly is not cheaper.

[RandomPants]

Our shopping bill went up about 10% when we swapped Morrisons for Tesco for a couple of months at the end of 2012.

[SanityClause]

Perhaps try having a few vegetarian meals, or meals without a lot of meat in, each week? I really find this cuts down food costs, although we don't live on £50 per week, either!

[SanityClause]

I apparently saved about £21 shopping with Ocado, compared to Tesco last week. And that doesn't include the money I saved by not buying on impulse at the supermarket.

[JupiterGentlefly]

I agree that you need a healthy size freezer. I buy all my meat and fish reduced and freeze it. I have been extremely lucky. I bought a chicken in sainsburys for 65 pence once and a beef joint for 2.65. However this is not a guaranteed method and it can get quite nasty in the scrum!
Farmfoods is brilliant for things like haddock and cod, chicken breasts etc.

[Fusedog]

Well firstly ditch pc arfo and sainsburys you want tesco, Asda or lidil
We also bulk buy in costco
We spend About £70 a week and we have a baby and a teen boy so that includes nappies ECt


poster horsetowaterit must just be the WAY you cook because we always y basic stuff like tinned tomatoes ECt in fact I made spaghetti bolongnase on Saturday with it and I tasted lush ad we also used the 12p basic pasta from asda

[antimatter]

I've found this site with shopping list included:

feed a family of four for just £40 a week

[TwitMcMuskeWhatevs]

I have 5 DCs ranging from 15 years to 2 years. I spend £300-£400 once a month at Asda online. We get everything, household! medicines, personal hygiene, the lot.
On top of that I spend between £30-£40 a week on fruit, milk, bread and packed lunch shit etc.
As well as spending around £60 at the local butchers for a month's worth of meat, and £5 on a sack of potatoes.
We have a four week meal plan and stick to it like a bastard, otherwise everything goes tits up.

[Fusedog]

poster DumSpiroSpero I agree I have 15 different spices in my cupboard I also buy and freeze scotch bonnets but then I am from a West Indian background so was taught to cook with spices


We plan meals also I don't allow my children to graze all day I am amazed how many children have there hand in the larder pretty much the whole day
Also my children mainly drink water we do have juice but I buy one bottle and when it's gone it's gone

Oh makes his own beer which works out about 30p a pint and I gernally make my own cakes.

poster horsetowater I really feel you simply don't no were to shop or how yo budget we buy our meat from Costco and section it up you can get about 10 portions from a tray of £11 mice at Costco and the meat is good quality they have a glass window so you can see the butchers ECt

Also how much meat are you using in each dish you you regularly have lots of left over your making to much food Also if your not opposed to it halal meat is really cheap and tasty and they usually have marinated meats ECt

[Baba85]

If your using branded nappies & wipes check amazon as i find it cheaper for pampers

[Fusedog]

That's another think t he branded nappies are not that good at all tried the basics one day when stuck and have never gone back £1.49 for 20



We uses a whole pack about every 2 and half days they don't leek and can take her right trough the night till morning unlike pampers which I used last week when at mil and we had so many leeks we had to throw 3 baby grows away and the poo leaked out ffs