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 would actually add lentil in say 30p and frozen mixed veg another 25p I wold expect to get two meals worth of bolognese sauce out of that. it is served properly portioned and frozen in portions unless it is going in some ones lunch box

Yes morrison generally wil be cheaper than those but in Sainsburys you shold be able to get their basic range which would help you cut a few costs, depends where your 'line' is.

Morrisons was recently in the news as it's trying to undercut Lidl and Aldi, so yes. You can now get free range eggs there for £1 for 6 as well.

poster cingolimama are you crazy of course morrisons is cheaper than waitrose

Waitrose is pretty much the top end of supermarkets up the with m&s

Morrisons is well cheap

My cheapest meal is curry goat with rice

Basics ranges usually mean you have to add extra because the quality is so poor.

So basic tomatoes, you need to add an extra tin, so 3 instead of 2. Or add lots of puree.

And basics rice turns to mush, as does pasta so you have to cook it for less time meaning it only makes about 2/3 in quantity of the full priced stuff.

I love a good food thread but must get on this morning and I'm sorry I haven't read it. I think your weekly spend sounds reasonable OP. I think like for like, quality wise, cooking from scratch probably is cheaper because the overall quality is better and you know what's in it. Quality convenience food using good ingredients is not cheaper. We try and have a varied diet, mince, the odd kiev and chips or pizza on a couple of nights, perhaps and omolette night but we also have some better stuff like salmon, or fish pie, a nice roast etc., too.

Where do you get goat Fusedog and is it really goat or is it 'mutton'?

healthy eating or cooking from scratch is definatly not cheaper ... t obe honest it depends if u are happy to eat really boring food or not. but even simple meals cost more!

for example I can buy a 1/2 pizzas and bag of chips from aldi for for £3 and will feed whole family and super quick. this is a good Idea to do very often but when I have had a 'running late, oh heavens I have nothing out for dinner and no money to grab decent food' day this is life saver .

I love to eat and cook and I have found that since we have been on a slightly tighter budget I am having to compromise how healthy we are.

aldi is great for price but the food is so basic ! I do a monthly ocado (asda is much cheaper but there online shop and deliveries are horrendous after my 4th attempt I gave up) shop online as getting to the supermarket is hell and then send dp to aldi as he works next to it for our weekly fruit veg cheese milk etc !

simple spag bol is a damn site cheaper with a pasta sauce that on offer that day (because one always is ) and the not so good mince .

compared to the quorn spag bol packed with veg and herbs that I make

simple foods like meat, pots and veg are just so boring ..

I cook everything from scratch, but agree that I don't necessarily think it's cheaper. I think it's more expensive to cook healthy meals. There are two adults in my household with two toddlers and we spend approx 80 pounds per week. However, apart from ingredients to buy main meals, we do not buy any form of snacks stuff (apart from fruit) ie no yogurts, biscuits, crisps with that budget, just things for a basic breakfast, lunches and dinners. The budget does however, include buying nappies and cat food but no other toiletries or cleaning bits or alcohol. Having said that, I'm so used now to eating food from scratch, that eating a ready meal feels somehow wrong and very artificial. I don't like the flavours of ready meals anymore (having said that the M and S ones I'd probably like). It's nice to know precisely what we're feeding the kids and that by cooking from scratch there aren't many hidden salts sugars etc. I agree with your post though.

Wow- just costed my chickpeas and parathas- £2.55 for 4! But no green vegetables, so that would add a bit- I normally serve it with spinach, but another cheaper green would vibe fine

I don't agree with people who say you have to add loads to basic foods I think it's about your cooking skills

When making chilli I would never use more than one tin of tomatoes yet to yummy and I do think this is physiological as I said before my friend swears the taste of cheap value cooking butter is foul and you can Tate the cheapness and only buys anchor butter

However I made her muffins last week not only did she send me a yummy text her sister wants a batch i use tesco value unsalted butter

And I can assure you we use one tine of value tomatoes in our sagbol on Saturday and you would of ate it up it was scrummy

And there have Ben studies done about how people think things taste when they know how much good costs vs when they are in the dark sunddnley the tesco value apple pie is lovely when there is blind tasting

I do manage on 50 a week, but that's only food and I only have toddlers. AND I have my own chickens, so don't every have to buy eggs and the kids eat a lot of scrambled and I bake a lot (normally). Nappy weeks and wine weeks cost more. And we have school dinners for DD so that's another tenner a week. We have DH's brother staying with us atm, and he keeps whining about how we have no food in the house. We have food. You just need to cook it. I also don't really keep snacky stuff in the house - options for snacks are home made cakes/brownies or toast with something on it, or cheese and bread. Or cereal. This will probably change when the kiddies get older.

I also can't stretch a chicken over more than two meals - chicken and veg then cold chicken for lunch or chicken risotto. That's it. And there's only two of us! Now the Christmas turkey lasted for weeks, but was the size of a house...

Horse I don't agree re the Basics stuff,well certainly not Sainsbos.Most of what I buy is Basics and I cook a lot from scratch.

Their tinned toms are fine,yes the rice isn't as nice as Basmati but at 40p a bag I can live with that and just cook for less time then drain put the lid on and it fluffs up

I find the pasta and rice fine frm value.

The idea of adding more veg or letils is to make the portions go further without having to add more expnsive ingredients or extra carbs

Thanks fusedog, you saved me the trouble of posting how it is possible to make those meals for very little money.

I am astounded that people think a ready made chilli, a garlic baguette and a pudding is very cheap at £5. I just don't think that it is cheap, especially as it is likely to be made with the very cheapest mince.

Rice is rice surely? Same as pasta.

Can't see how a can of tomatoes can be so dramatically different that you can tell when they are in a spag Bol

Thank you fine MNers for pointing out the error of my ways. I am off to visit Morrisons. No, Fuse, not crazy - perhaps just in a foodshop rut - which you have soundly kicked me out of. Cheers!

I agree there is a lot of snobbery about value ranges- I read an article once that said Tesco made their value range packaging so distinctive so people would not want to be seen buying it and buy the more expensive stuff instead.

However, if I am making something where tomatoes are an important ingredient, like as a vegetarian pasta sauce I don't use value ones- I think you really can taste the difference. Not in a chilli or a bolognaise, obviously. And the butter thing is just silly- of course the value one is just as good- particularly for cooking.

has the "10 meals from 1 chicken" phenomenon been mentioned yet?


sometimes is cheaper, other times it's not.

depends on what you are cooking

Op I have a few stock cheap home made recipes that I fall back on.

I can stretch a Lidl free range chicken two days max,a roast on one day then chicken curry the next.

I do at least two veggie meals a week eg jackets and tom pasta which cuts down bills and bake.

I am £70 for 4 of us ( including two hungry teenagers) i wouldn't be able to spend £140 a week if I tried- OP what are you buying that costs so much?

I know the other big scam is shower gel and bubble bath my oh is a nurse and the chemicals in both are the same it's just packaged different ffs my teenage son was convinced they are different

sp my friend have me a empty shower gel pot and I been filling it with value bubble bath he has no clue funny that

OK let's see this huge pasta bake meal deal for £5 with quality ingredients and cost breakdown preferably from one or two shops and not involving bulk shopping from wholesalers.

Well, I didn't say that it was going to be made with quality ingredients. The value £5 meal deal that the poster made will not be made with quality ingredients, so we need to compare like for like.

Quality minced beef is expensive but i wouldn't put minced beef into a pasta bake. I would perhaps use minced turkey and make meatballs (turkey is very inexpensive) or I would make a tuna pasta bake.

Turkey mince £1.79
Tin premium tomatoes 39p
Bag pasta 23p
Herbs and seasoning (not more than) 10p
An onion 10p
A carrot 10p
Cheese 30p
I don't use oil as I have a ceracraft pan for frying things.

Bread ingredients about 30p with the butter and garlic and will make more than required.

I could then make a batch of cupcakes or some biscuits for about 40p and these would last several days.

So that's well under £5 and I know what has gone into it and even for my family of gannets there would be bread and cakes left for another day.