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.

I just got a too-good-to-go magic bag for £4 and it had in it 2 large ready made egg salads, 2 sandwiches, 2 sausage rolls, a houmous, some carrots and a punnet of tomatoes.

full of salt i'm sure but it'll do me for 2 days

Agree. The govt. need to do more to tax processed food and subsidise single ingredients. I'd like to see a person who can coon a lasagne for the store bought price

It really isn’t - buying mushrooms, tinned tomatoes & chilli flakes is more expensive dove than tbe cheaper non branded pasta sauces (which admittedly are a bit shite)

Well I costed the Hemsley salad at £6-7 tops. If you don't have coconut oil or ghee, just use butter or whatever oil you have.

Likewise use honey if you don't have maple syrup, doesn't matter. Can also use bottled lime juice if fresh limes look expensive.

I might expect it to be £15 if you're buying all the ingredients from Waitrose, and ignore the fact you'll have loads leftover for other recipes, otherwise I can't see it.

Thanks for some backup on the dhal quantities, only someone who doesn't cook would consider using an entire bag of lentils in one go and not expect an enormous pan full. They absorb a lot of water.

It costs about 90p a week to run a freezer so I think statement is a bit dramatic…….

I used asda and all own brand where available. you could use honey and butter instead of coconut etc. but then it wouldn't be as yummy as PP found it. Even £6/7 isn't cheap as chips though is it?

salads here are an iceburg with some tomatoes and salad cream, egg if you're lucky. now that's cheap!

although for the next two days i've got my waitrose egg salads from my magic bag at about 50p a pop

Garlic cheese chips in my local takeaway is 7.50.

If I was to buy the frozen chips, the garlic sauce and the grated cheese it would be cheaper.

If I was to buy potatoes, blocked cheese and make my own garlic sauce itd be even cheaper again.

With shops like Lidl and Aldi it is very easy to eat healthy homemade food on a budget. And in regards to your baking point OP, when you work out cost per bun homemade v shop bought, homemade is cheaper as you still have all the ingredients leftover to make more batches. Including energy costs!

Hubby makes a fab lasagne for approx 9 decent size portions (Simon Rimmer recipe) for around £8.50.
Shop bought lasagne is rarely good. Sloppy and over seasoned to compensate for cheap ingredients. Definitely cost effective to make it yourself in a larger amount and freeze. Also, saves you time on meal prep.

@BarbaraofSeville lol at assuming I am someone who doesn't cook.
I am 55 and I have cooked every day since I was about 15. I make all my own bread, cakes, granola, yoghurt etc as well as cooking professionally in the past. Just because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I don't cook!

@BarbaraofSeville - that's the thing - people have been describing their real life practices and pricing accordingly rather than guessing at recipes they've not even tried.

As the dahl lady said - 'lentils are nutritious and filling - learn to cook them if you don't already'.

It’s definitely cheaper to cook from scratch if you’re using the supermarket cheapest brands of flour, tinned tomatoes, pulses etc.

So not really cheap as chips

I am single and don’t have good cooking skills. I have a disability which should not stop me cooking much but affects my shopping. Not being confident means I’m not sure what I can substitute or how to fix a disaster. I’m learning a bit like adding sugar or tomatoes if too much chilli

my nearest shop is Sainsburys or a corner shop. There is an Aldi but no public transport and it would negate any savings to take a taxi there.
This will factor into whether ready meal is cheaper or not for people who cannot drive or cycle to cheaper, or afford bus fare to better value shops or markets or afford an online shop. Buying fresh at the local shop is more expensive. The ready meal does probably taste worse but without transport fresh and even store cupboard ingredients may be more expensive.

i hear what a lot of people say about comparing fresh delicious home made lasagne with ready meal but the ready meal still fills you up, even if it is less healthy.

I’ve tried batch cooking once and it was a bit of a disaster as maybe I didn’t seal it or use the right pack as it was just a load iof ice crystals on the top (or is that meant to happen?)

I completely disagree, it might be cheaper to buy one meal but generally if you make from scratch you will get multiple meals so overall its far cheaper.

@bagadverts yes the ice is fine. Defrost or take it out the night before and it would be fine.

@40andlols You’re right. I didn’t consider buying the spices as I have those already. The main ingredients halloumi, carrot, onion, chickpeas came from Lidl and were less than a fiver. I substituted cashews, coconut oil etc for what I had already. It made dinner for four… It was was seriously good though!

These are just examples. So I think the issue is more lack of knowledge and practice than cost.

People should experiment a lot more IMO. I've discovered by chance for instance that lots of recipies are just as good with 70% of the sugar required by the recipe, that you don't really need vanilla extract in everything (with a few exceptions like custard, maybe), pricey nuts can be replaced with raisins, lamb mince could be as effective as pork mince with the right process and spices, etc.

If you are on the bones of our arse you cannot afford to experiment. Whatever you make that day has to be eaten or your child will go hungry so are you going to risk spending money on something that might be rejected? Or are you going to buy the cheap nuggets you know they will eat?

Knowledge takes time to acquire, if you are working full time and have a couple of children then you can't spend an hour on YouTube learning a new recipe.

The rations posted upthread, I was surprised by the sugar and the amount of milk but I suspect there were a lot of sweet milky drinks being made.

I know there would be occasional temporary changes to rations such as more sugar in autumn with the expectation you made jam or preserves.

There were also 'British restaurants' that made meals to provide 1/3 of a person's nutritional requirement and were 'off ration' and cheap.

It would be nice to see something like this now, I know we have food banks and some community larders and kitchens but somewhere you can take the kids and know they are getting the nutrition they need.

Many of you go on about batch cooking and then freezing but I have a tiny freezer. I think cooking from scratch if you have a family to feed, plenty of storage etc is probably cheaper in the long run but for someone like myself who lives alone in a small flat without any storage (freezer and pantry - who the fuck has a pantry these days apart from my mother) cooking from scratch is costly and wasteful. So it really depends on your circumstances, amount of storage and, if you live alone, do you want to eat the same meal the whole week.

I’ve tried batch cooking once and it was a bit of a disaster as maybe I didn’t seal it or use the right pack as it was just a load iof ice crystals on the top (or is that meant to happen?)

I don't think it's meant to happen, in that it's not a problem if it doesn't. But it's fine if it does, it's just water. Happens to us all the time (we're pretty dedicated batch cookers) and nothing bar has happened as a result yet.

Exactly!!

Ready meals are also absolutely tiny. No way is the average supermarket curry or pasta meal enough for me without adding side dishes at extra cost. I say this as a 126 lb woman with a sedentary lifestyle. DS and DP (manual jobs, gym goers) would need three each. A 'family' lasagne might do two of us with added salad and garlic bread, but is no way as filling as a home made one, and the need to add extras or have a pudding or snack makes it false economy.

I do think cooking from scratch can be cheaper, in certain circumstances, but I absolutely disagree it's always cheaper. But I do think lots of posters on here are absolutely clueless about how many families struggle with the price of food and feeding families for as little money as possible.
There is gross oversimplification about home cooking and costs seen over and over again on this thread. A particular mention to the poster who thought growing your own was the answer to feeding a family. 'job done', indeed.
To sum it up, home cooking can be a cheaper way to feed a family on a budget if:

1. No-one is especially fussy or has particular dietary needs
2. You are vegetarian or don't eat much meat
3. You have a well-stocked store cupboard and well-equipped kitchen

4 you are not especially concerned about energy costs

1. You have plenty of time to meal plan, cook and shop round for good prices
2. You have spare cash to bulk buy to save money
3. You can afford to waste the odd experiment that no one likes.

I would argue most families don't have all of the above, so for most families, cooking from scratch won't save money.
Caveat: home cooking is better, healthier, more filling etc etc etc

4

And 7, have plenty of fridge and freezer space to store batch cooking

growing your own veggies is expensive! I’ve turned some of my garden into a veg patch and believe me it’s not as simple as what people think, compost, pots, seeds, equipment all adds up not to mention the watering the garden in dry weather..water bill etc

im lucky enough to be able to afford to do this but it’s not sustainable in the long run to feed your family on home grown veg. I do it simply for my own enjoyment, to educate my kids and it’s free therapy in a way not because I want to save money.

I do wonder how most of these posters on this thread would actually cope if they were in a position where they only had a few pence in the meter and only a few quid or less to feed a family of five due to a change of circumstance that was not their fault.

I’ve been there in the past, it was horrible. I can cook, I cook a lot from scratch because I can afford to. Once again fuel poverty is a real thing and so is having kitchen equipment supplies to cook from scratch in the first place.

Yes growing your own is expensive and it’s not guaranteed (pests, things just not taking). You also have a glut and need to know what to do with that and have space to store it.

you also need to not rent or grow it all in pots, as well as have space to do that.

it’s much safer to use that money to buy your produce.