To think that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable?

[AlternativePerspective]

I have always cooked from scratch, and I will be the first to admit that cooking from scratch has always been more expensive than buying e.g. jar sauces etc. However as things currently stand food prices are going up so much that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable for many people who are struggling to make ends meet.

And in an era where we’re being told to live healthily, to cut out additives where possible, and to use the healthiest ingredients, while this has always been hard to sustain, right now for many it’s unsustainable from a financial perspective, and people are going to be forced to eat jar sauces, ready meals and various other foods with additives they didn’t want or need.

I’ve just cancelled my milkman because I can no longer justify spending the money, and it’s going to take a lot before I will ever eat ready meals or cook from a jar. But compromises are going to have to be made, and in many instances for some people, it’s not going to be possible to compromise.

@Charles11, I'll take your cheapest ready meal at £1.60 and raise you Tesco Hearty Food Co at 75p. So £3 for four of you, plus rice. Now, I know it won't be as good as home-made etc etc etc ... but ... it's cheaper, which is what this thread is supposed to be about.

What about using a microwave? Not only cheaper fuel-wise but quick too. I only use mine for reheating but might start using it for main meals. I recall a couple of decades ago trying out cake recipes in the microwave - one recipe used a non metallic bundt cake container and I seem to remember the results were very good esp with nice icing etc! Also used it for stews and even (again a long time ago) a whole chicken - you had to brush with soy sauce to give it colour but I'm sure there are lots of recipes around. I'd love to know what people make in theirs!

I've had some fun trying to save money before it got warmer finishing off stews, soup and casseroles on top of the wood burner just to see if it worked. It does and well, just had to start them off on the top of the stove to get them started.

I find cooking from scratch much cheaper than ready meals etc. We could make a chicken curry for 4 much cheaper than 4 curry ready meals. I find convenience food much dearer. We do have pasta sauces in for days when you cant be bothered, but most days are cooking from scratch. I even find Pizzas now a days expensive. We make our own much cheaper.

🤣🤣🤣 to go cheap or dig deep that is the question.
I always cooked from scratch but also do it by batch cooking, it works out cheaper, I make sauces & freeze them they last for weeks in the freezer, I do cheat though I use tinned tomatoes I don’t faff about doing those, same with pies whip up a big batch of pastry & knock out a few pies & freeze the pastry in batches for different pies; I make cakes & freeze those & take out what we need, Give batch cooking a try; especially if you have a good market that you can buy veggies in bulk at a cheaper price xx

Less packaging to dispose of as well

Surely that factors in?

Where do people find the time and energy for all this meal planning and batch cooking and freezing and baking and whatnot?? I don’t know anyone who does this IRL (if I did I’d maybe get them to show me what to do) but I’m in awe of you who do. I can’t cook anyway to the extent I’d probably burn a salad so regardless there is no hope for me. Also I’ve no idea what it costs to run any of my appliances or anything like that. I’m 100% devoid of any of these skills.

That's not cooking from scratch; that's baking. A different thing altogether.

It also hugely depends how many your feeding.
two or five.
im a huge fan of frozen mash. But there’s only three who will eat it. A bag is 75p
i can’t buy the potatoes, cook them, mash them with a bit of butter and cream for that. Plus scrub the crappy potato water off everything.
that bag also does two dinners.

however, five of you. It’s going to be cheaper to make it yourself.

This.

i'll be damned to hell for saying this but that iceland frozen mash is so so nice too. the cheesy one is the best

Isn’t it just.

straight onto a cottage pie base. Half the faff cut out.

Absolutely this.

I think this may be the point; cooking for several, from scratch, is relatively cheap, because fuel costs the same, but for one, fuel costs are a large percentage of total cost.

Just make smaller portions and fill up with pasta, rice or potatoes/salad. Grow your salad in window boxes. If you have a garden give part of it over to growing veggies and fruit. Sorted.

I agree might aswell subscribe to a Hello Fresh box I doubt they’ll be upping their prices

I think it depends what you are making. I cook meals but can only afford to cook the basics. So I use passata or tinned chopped tomatoes to make sauce myself rather than fresh tomatoes unless the fresh ones are reduced or on offer. I don’t make pasta from scratch I purchase bulk bags of dry pasta and rice and that is the base for pretty much everything I make. Add in fresh or frozen veg depending what I have and the tomato sauce either with added spices for a curry taste with rice or as is with pasta. I used to always add in mince or chicken etc but now I can rarely afford to.

i make bread and cakes from scratch also, it is more expensive to buy ingredients than bread or cake from the shelf however it’s just so much nicer and not always more expensive once you’ve made several portions from your one lot of ingredients. I hate the taste of shop brought cakes, there is just an after taste that is vile when compared to a homemade one. However I don’t use specific ingredients or recipes for cakes either. I might use leftover over ripe bananas instead of butter for example or if I’m short on flour I might throw in some oats etc.

Are people whose incomes are suffering really going to batch cook and then store it in the freezer with the threat of power cuts which could ruin the lot

This

I throw a whole lot of veg and potatoes in a pan, add stock, herbs and a can of cheap tinned tomatoes, put chicken thighs on top and simmer for 40 minutes. Take out the chicken thighs and use them with chips for one meal. The soup and bread for another meal. Not at all expensive. And cake? Before being diagnosed coeliac, I remember I could have eaten a whole bought cake because they seemed to be very insubstantial. But my Victoria sponges, while light and moist, were filling in comparison so one slice was enough. And flapjack is cheap and tasty.

To keep the bills down I have sold my freezer. I live on sandwiches, crisps, fruit and salads and have stopped using the kettle, toaster, juicer and cooker. I only drink mineral water and I just can’t use the cooker like I used to and I am constantly trying to save money as the bills go up yet again in October. It’s awful and I really feel for families with kids as it’s just going to get much worse. at this rate people won’t be able to heat or eat.

@Katypp - people may be costing slightly under if not fully accounting for spices etc but I suspect their figures are not far off. You have nit picked through people's recipes without knowing the where and how of their shopping while being cavalier in your own chilli recipe which you would have had the spending information for. So your estimate of a fiver turned out to be £3.86 when you did the sums - and yet you are questioning pp on 25p when you don't know the details of her shop.

I was guessing @motogirl 's shop when I costed the rice at 60p for 4 and will go further and guess the red lentils to cost about 54p for 300g based on Tesco's 18p/100g. So round up to £1.20 and spices etc taking it to £1.50 maybe?
What I don't need to guess is that we regularly cook 300g of lentils for 4 full sized appetites, with leftovers - regardless of what BBC Good Food recipes suggest.

Of course I don't know the actual breakdown of the person's spend but I don't find it difficult to believe that the rice and dahl + spices could come in at £1.50 yet you are emphatic that it didn't.

I don't consider the above example to be woefully unrealistic as you would have us believe.

Yes, cooking from scratch is not always cheaper and depending on one's resources of time/energy/skill and financial circumstances it may be better to buy a jar but in many cases it will be cheaper to cook from scratch.

I made a salad from scratch last night - from the new Melissa Hemsley book. I don’t have the book - it was online. Just wow!
Halloumi and chickpea rainbow salad - possibly the best food I’ve ever cooked in my life and seriously as cheap as chips!

Whenever I've costed up biscuits, tomato sauce, cakes or pies, they cost way more for me to make in ingredients alone then to buy. And that's before I put in value of my time at say, £10/hour.

I cannot buy the ingredients as cheaply as a large bakery can. Eggs, chocolate, fat, etc. Now, I like the taste of stuff I made better, but that doesn't make it cheaper.

I just looked this up because it sounds lovely... then I costed it (because i'm petty and bored) and without even taking in to account the olive oil it was £15 from asda.

even if i took off £5 for potentially having some of the spices in my cupboard, it's 100% not cheap as chips!

delicious though i'm sure