To think cooking from scratch is not always cheaper?

[IonaNE]

A few posts on another thread (not primarily about this) have got me thinking.

In my local ASDA Weight Watchers ready meals are £2 each. If I buy one for each night of the week (to make life easier for when I get home from work), that's £10 for a hot meal on every evening of the week. For this I get a balanced meal that, over the whole week, contains chicken, beef, prawns, pasta, rice and potatoes, vegetables and a variety of sauces. On top of that it's exactly as much as I need to eat, there are no leftovers, I am not using energy by cooling unnecessary stuff in the fridge. I don't need to keep a host of jars of sauces, oils and spices which would otherwise be needed to cook all this from scratch either. And finally, I am not using energy to cook all that from scratch, and then to wash up all that was used in the process. (I do use energy to microwave the meals, 5 mins each; and the microwave is very cheap to run.)

I can cook from scratch all that is in those meals. I don't enjoy cooking but I can do it if necessary. But I don't think that I would get that variety of hot food for just £10 a week. Furthermore, if I bought all the ingredients, they would be in portions much bigger than what I need for one supper. Then I would either need to freeze them; but also: does everyone who cooks from scratch only eat a WW meal-portion of everything before they freeze the rest? I find I eat larger portions if I cook. And while I'm not overweight, I really don't need to put on weight.

So I think eating ready meals is actually cheaper than cooking from scratch. It is also less time consuming (=more time for other things) and provided you choose the right ones and read the labels, not necessarily less healthy either.

I'm pretty sure even Mary Berry says it isn't worth making your own pastry a lot of the time.

But then just because something is ready made doesn't mean it is 'processed crap'.

Shortcrust is quck and easy though. Puff or flaky is a different kettle of fish. I think that's what Mary Berry referred to.

I make shortcrust in the food processor - I only started doing that last year, and it makes pastry so easy. I used to do all the rubbing in by hand, which was more faff.

I tend to make shortcrust because I find it a faff with frozen pastry remembering to get it out of the freezer in time. I'll use puff if I've thought ahead a bit more, and because it is just so much work to do yourself.

I agree short cust pastry is VERY easy to make.
I would do the puff pastry that's too much of a faf. It doesn't mean that I think the commercial stuff is ok though.

Bumbledumb I know it's easy enough to make your own tortillas, but I work FT, get home at 6.30pm, sort out my kids, get them to bed and start thinking about dinner at 8pm. Making the tortillas just does not come into it.

Angelika321 - That does not negate the fact that making your own tortillas is cheaper and more satisfying than buying them. If the argument from the OP was buying ready to eat was more convenient than making from scratch, I'd agree.

I ate ready meals a lot before I had kids, but now I don't want to feed them ready meals, because whatever people claim, we all know they just aren't healthy.

Cooking a couple of kilos of mince with 3 kilos of 5 or 6 veggies is easy, even if it does take all evening. I then freeze in mug sizes (freezer bags in mug, fill to top, form into a small parcel, freeze) and then I can use one for me and toddler, two for me, toddler & Dh, and 3 for say a lasagne (if I use the bolognese one). I add pasta or mash for them. That's one option; I also freeze chopped veg and say diced chicken with honey and vinegar and some oil and spices/herbs and that goes in the slow cooker. Variations on those themes. I also buy ready chopped onions (hate that job) and I can make a lot that way - soften, add petit pois and shredded ham, add Marigold stock, blend, and you have a really filling, nutritious soup. For four or more for under a fiver.

Do those at the weekends and it's not more expensive, and it's a lot healthier. But if I just had myself to worry about, tbh I doubt I'd be arsed, either.

This article is interesting, if you want to know what can be hidden in the ingredients list of a ready meal. Depressing, really.

Is it cheaper if you cost in your labour rather than that being priced at zero? I have a pretty good hourly rate and I put an even higher value on my free time. As I find other things than making food items from scratch more satisfying, that doesn't improve the equation for me.

Sgt I think I've read that about the MSG somewhere, so I imagine you're right.

I agree with the balance of time, as well as money though.
To take the lemon meringue pie example - Aldi do a gorgeous one for £1.49. It sits in the feezer, and when we fancy some, we bung it in the oven (which may already be on for the main course) and hey presto, it's a very tasty pudding. My ds made one recently (coz he fancied cooking) and the ingredients cost me a fortune. Even if I thought it were a bit nicer than the mass produced one (I didn't, as it happens - I like the Aldi one), in a normal week, I don't have the time to faff around making pastry or the lemon or the meringue, let alone all 3 ~ why would I want to when the other one is a nice? I don't get the argument about 'goodness' when you are talking about a pudding either - it's PUDDING - it's not supposed to be healthy.

I can get all the ingredients for a chilli for 4 people for under £5 including spices and rice. If you froze the other 3 portions then you've saved £3, if you did something similar 5x a week then you've saved £15 over a 4 week period. Actually you'd have chilli powder and rice left over so it would be even cheaper next time.

500g beef mince £1.99
1 onion 17p
500g rice 89p
Tomato puree 49p
Tin chopped tomatoes 31p
Tin kidney beans 23p
Chilli powder 74p
= £4.82

I'm sure there are other meals that you could do the same with.

Apple - 500g mince for £1.99? Really? We cook from scratch most the time and I think we do well but I would be looking at £5-6 for 500g

We buy 2kg of mince for £6 from our local farm shop (home reared on the farm)

Yeah, we have a local farm shop that sells meat at a quarter of the supermarket cost, too. You see the animals when you drive in - all free range and well cared for. They only open on Thurs, Fri & Sat because they slaughter at the start of the week. It's far cheaper and you know the welfare standards/quality, too.

Can I just check how much oil in tortilla recipe - showing as ?? for me thank you

£1.99 was straight from the ASDA website. I think it's their second cheapest mince, the cheapest is £1.81 at the moment (SmartPrice). If you want leaner mince there's one at £2.85 for 500g

Mince can be really cheap, especially if you buy frozen. Fresh, high-fat mince will obviously be more pricy than cheaper, low quality stuff.

£5-6 is the price at butchers

Our farm shops/butchers seem more expensive (like Artandco!) So we use the supermarket. Especially as the thread is about cost!

Dixie meant o be 1/3 cup of oil

£5 to £6 for 500g of mince? That is ridiculous. I've never spent so much on mince and I buy good quality stuff.

As it happens I bought mince from a butchers at the weekend and it was £6.70/kg. It's not a cheap butchers either.

I think it depends - I only bake 2 cakes a year (for DCs birthdays!) and am now a fan of pre-mixed cake boxes that I need to add egg and butter to than buying all of the ingredients and the ingredients were going manky between times I used them so it worked out much more expensive!

Monkey - but they are only sugar and flour in theism mixes!

A cake without mix would be flour, sugar, egg and butter. With mix would be still egg and butter.

I personally could never eat a ready meal due to the taste, nutritional value and processing. If I wanted something quick and cheap I would make a lentil and veg soup (much nicer than in sounds) in bulk so portions for the freezer, eggs on toast, a salad, a stirfry. Most of these take a few minutes to make.

I agree that cakes etc are much cheaper to buy than cook from scratch but they taste nowhere near as nice as one made at home, which has real butter, no flavourings, no processed fat.