To say think a roast dinner can be a cheap meal?

[HuffyPuffyStuffy]

I grew up eating roast dinners, always on a Sunday and often midweek too. I don't always cook a roast on a Sunday now but we always have a least one roast dinner a week. I mentioned to a newish friend earlier that I was cooking a roast today and she was teasing me about being "posh" and that she only has a roast on special occasions a roast costs so much!
I tried to say that a roast can be a cheap meal and she thought I was lying when I said that today's meal for four (2 adults and 2 teens) would cost under £6.00 and that we would have leftover meat for tomorrow. Obviously, a big joint of sirloin beef or a new season leg of lamb would be expensive but I couldn't get her to accept that a roast dinner could be cheap! I was so miffed I costed it out .........

1.5 kg joint of pork shoulder (Aldi) £4.21
Potatoes - roasted (Wonky Morrisons) 25p
Parsnips - roasted (Aldi) 20p
Carrots - boiled (Aldi) 15p
swede - boiled (Aldi) 20p
frozen peas (Morrisons) 30p
Stuffing made from leftover bread, half an onion and herbs from garden. 15p
Gravy - made from meat juice, plain flour, veg water.......10p

£5.56 for the roast

I didn't use my oven today. Meat was roasted in the slow cooker, potatoes and parsnips cooked in an air fryer and the veg cooked in my pressure cooker.

If you did a roast today how much did it cost?

…and cheaper still if you’re a vegan and the bulk of the meal is vegetables.

A roast dinner is a great hardy meal to have. It is very inexpensive, tasty and healthy. Always meat left over for sambos for lunch next day or to add to a curry. Left over veg great for homemade soup 😋

It is sad that there was a thread where people were saying they might have to decide whether to heat their home or eat but on here some are making fun of posters who are doing their best to feed their families. They can't afford high quality, organic meats and vegetables so they need to be mocked.

@user1471439310

It is sad that there was a thread where people were saying they might have to decide whether to heat their home or eat but on here some are making fun of posters who are doing their best to feed their families. They can't afford high quality, organic meats and vegetables so they need to be mocked.

Yep, I agree, it really shows the snobbery on MN, people looking down their noses at women who buy a £5 Supermarket chicken as opposed to a £15 free range organic. Going on about animal welfare etc, for some people putting a roast dinner on the table is a weekly treat and in the real world how that animal got there won’t be at the front of their mind.

@VelvetChairGirl

hmmm so lets say I eat meat which I dont.

you want me to get the 2-3 buses there and back to a aldi to get1.5 kg joint of pork shoulder £4.21 plus £3+ for travel.

you want me to shop in morrisons for the Potatoes (Wonky Morrisons) 25p which I have never seen because morrisons rarely actually have any of the wonky veg or fruit in, and I go there about once or twice a week after taking my kid to school, the last wonky thing I saw in there was the wonky mangos which I did buy 3 for £1.65 about 2 weeks ago.

Parsnips - roasted (Aldi) 20p again dont have one never been to one as far as I known the nearest is 2 buses away maybe 3, never been there, Carrots - boiled (Aldi) 15p, swede - boiled (Aldi) 20p.

frozen peas (Morrisons) 30p if you say so never noticed any that cheap in there unless your talking tinned.

Stuffing made from leftover bread, half an onion and herbs from garden. 15p, dont have a garden, you have not factored in the price of bread and an onion and are assuming someone has those things anyway (I dont buy sliced bread, only flatbreads normally)

Gravy - made from meat juice, plain flour, veg water.......10p, how is it ten pence, you need to buy a bag of flour thats not 10p.

so for you with the shops you have in your area and how they are regularly stocked it costs that much along with what you have in the cupboard normally, that doesnt make it the same for everyone.

and then theres the price of gas and the assumption you have a cooker large enough for all that, my oven has 1 shelf and the max tray size it can take is the IKEA konics 34x24cm tray.

You can hardly blame the OP for any of this! The OP has never said that everyone should do as she says either or that you should be trekking around seeking the ingredients ffs!

I can do a good roast, with ethically reared chicken or pork, all the trimmings for about £10, and that would give the two of us at least two or three more meals (and some bits for the DDog)
The OP is right, with a bit of planning and effort it isn’t difficult to cook a decent meal, whether vegetarian or omnivore.

@user1471541711

Do I feel a mumsnet chicken coming along?!

😂

@user1471439310

It is sad that there was a thread where people were saying they might have to decide whether to heat their home or eat but on here some are making fun of posters who are doing their best to feed their families. They can't afford high quality, organic meats and vegetables so they need to be mocked.

I don’t see any mocking. Only pointing out that cheap meat comes at a cost to animal welfare. Also don’t see any organic veggie posts but might have missed that. We have farmers in the family and you won’t believe how much it costs (time and effort) to raise animals with even a modicum of standards.

I was raised mostly vegetarian, meat was a treat. Thé Sunday roast (our our meat equivalent anyway) would be a treat because it’s the only time we have full hunks of meat. Otherwise they’d be in curries, stews and stir fries, small pieces all padded out with vegetables. We’d never eat say a pork loin steak, or whole chicken legs.

But if you eat loads of meat anyway..then yes the ‘Sunday roast’ is just another cheap normal dish.

*i dont mean vegetarian but less meat centred

Go to any supermarket and you'll realise that vast majority of people buy bog standard, non organic meat. I do. I'm under no illusion about it. My priority is cost and feeding my family what they want to eat.

maddie I was most certainly NOT mocking anyone. I was simply saying that mass-produced cheap meat mostly comes with another price - animal cruelty.
I never mocked anyone who chooses to pay that price; it's their decision. What I DID say that I can't afford expensive humanely-produced meat. Threfore I don't buy it. That's my choice; for me. I'm not judging or mocking anyone.
What I do think is wrong, however, is the whole system that puts so much pressure on farmers etc to produce food at ridiculously cheap prices. As others have said, not that long ago, when we were younger, roast chicken and indeed any roast meat - apart from cuts such as breast of lamb - were expensive; they were treats. Those animals had much better lives, on the whole. There's no law to say we have to eat meat every day. In the past, an awful lot of people did not. On another thread, there's a mention - which I think many older people might agree with - of how good old-fashioned simple meals actually tasted. (The OP there was talking about egg and nice home-made chips.)

Yes totally. But I don't eat pork, which seems the cheapest meat. I like brisket slow cooked, I did one today enough for me and my daughter about £6 for the meat.

Roasts are very cheap, easy to do and easily feed a family well for not much money. There are always left overs too. I use to do them twice a week when kids were younger and at home.
However if you start buying more expensive cuts of meat and adding in fancy extras then inevitably the cost goes up.
Can't beat a cheap roast chicken dinner. Love them and always gets eaten