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.

But the exact point I made was that while many people can compromise by changing what brands they shop etc many are already doing that and given those prices are also going up those people are going to struggle.

And the expensive ingredients in a cake aren’t the sugar or flour. It’s the butter, cocoa etc and the fuel to cook it.

And even with cheap ingredients there is often a trade-off. So e.g. Aldi sell stock cubes for 80p. But each one of those stock cubes contains 4.2g of salt, which if someone struggles with high blood pressure, water retention etc is incredibly damaging.

While it is much more expensive than it was, you're not accounting for the fact that pre-made items are usually bulked up in some way or form. The ready jar will have far more water content than if I were to make at home. Likewise with ready cakes, they will contain all sorts of other things that are cheaper than good butter, flour, sugar and eggs. Buying a ready item that is comparable in terms of the quality of ingredients will cost far far more

If you lose the meat and cook from scratch using only veg, pulses etc its much cheaper.

If you don't want the difference in taste, which a lot of people aren't bothered by, then a family lasagna from Iceland/Tesco is definitely cheaper to buy than make. Likewise cakes. It depends on what shops you have available to you, if you buy a weekly bus pass, or don't count the cost of the petrol and cooking fuel etc. We are told to cut down on sugar/cakes/biscuits so those who don't have big families, lots of visitors and large freezers won't use the bought ingredients before they are out of date. The only things I'm finding cheap to make are curries. Mushrooms and frozen veg don't seem to be going up in price.

The stock cube would be used in the entire dish though, not for one person individually?

A cheap shop bought cake will be made with cheap ingredients. Not butter but the cheapest least healthy margarine.

Making your own pasta sauce with a tin of tomatoes an onion some garlic and dried herbs is cheaper than the equivalent jar, surely?

I can't think of many things that are cheaper to buy a good quality ready made version than cook from scratch.

"Buying a ready item that is comparable in terms of the quality of ingredients will cost far far more"

That's the point though, people are having to disregard quality and nutrition. A vast amount of people's health will suffer.

But then using your stock example - if cooking from scratch, I can make a stock using all the skin and offcuts from vegetables that are going into the soup/curry/pasta sauce that I am making and then freeze the excess. So the additional cost to the stock is the fuel used to make it

It's only 1 g of salt per person then which seems ok? There will be far more salt in any ready meal

The stock cube would be used in the entire dish though, not for one person individually? compared to an oxo stock cube which contains just 0.86G though the difference is still huge.

if you’re cooking a dish for 4 with a stock cube in it you’re still consuming more salt than the oxo stock cube would add to the same dish. I.e. 1.05g in one portion of a dish vs 0.86G for the whole dish made with oxo.

I'm staying with family at the moment so haven't been buying much food, I'd not noticed the price creep so much.
Today I bought 2 large potatoes to make jackets potatoes, £1.40?!! For 2 loose potatoes? What on earth?

Yes but you could cook from scratch using cheap ingredients for less than the ready meal version, was my point. The previous poster was saying it cost her more to make a cake herself with butter than a shop cake that contained no butter which isn't a fair comparison.

Making a pasta sauce yourself is both cheaper and healthier than a jar so it cheaper isn't always less healthy.

It’s an added cost needing to run a freezer big enough to make bulk cooking cost affective.

if you’ve £10 to feed your family for the week and £10 on your electric meter. Bulk cooking and storing goes out the window. Getting through the week is what your doing.

as we move into a winter of excruciating fuel costs and blackout rumours, in some homes, every appliance is going to be looked at. Don’t forget A rated items generally cost more.

its the old shoe saying all over again.

theres limits on the amount of salt and sugar they can put in premade food. There’s not at home.

Agree with previous posters who say cut down on meat.

no one NEEDS to eat meat

Some people seem to eat meat with every meal. It’s so unnecessary

I cook from scratch and find it cheaper, largely, but if you do it the Ocado way (ie, fall for the tempting marketing) and spend £3.90 on a tiny jar of cumin seeds, not so much! Yes, the push to buy organic, which I love, is next to impossible for many. I have had to reduce it myself.

I have recently stopped pending a fortune on food which i did through the pandemic as was bored, so got excited about new recipes. Now I am simplifying, making lovely chicken salad wraps at home with my own flour, and trying to spend a lot less.

I am also a victim of online marketing regarding 'healthy' or 'pure' foods: which has resulted in a slightly disordered behaviour towards carbs, processed, etc. There is a definitely a vested interest in us overspending (£5 fancy bag of lentils because the regular ones with kill you!!! messaging) and becoming more repressed about food.

Ha, though the NHS suggesting 9-a-day......er fuck off, who the hell has that much veg and salad in the fridge who lives alone? What a serious amount of waste at the end of a week. Quickly perishable items, and asparagus at £3 a bunch now.....People suggest it is cheaper at Lidl, but I unashamedly hate Lidl so they can pretty much take a hike too (too many experiences with open packets of meat and rotten eggs, furry fruit and poor storage).

Can't believe my eyes. Cooking from scratch is always cheaper than buying readymade dishes, jars, sauces etc.,

You have to compare like for like. Yes, I can't make a cake that contains good quality chocolate, butter and cream cheaper than the cheapest shop bought cake, but that cake won't contain the quality ingredients. But I can make a carrot cake more cheaply than buying one in the shop (doubly so as I'm coeliac) as the carrot cake recipe i follow uses oil.

Cutting down on meat is the only way I can save money really (and fish). I got 2 large bag for life full of shopping yesterday and it was £90! It was all full of mostly fresh food (not finest) and a few cupboard staples. The fresh food doesn’t have very long dates on it either so I struggle to get time to cook it in time. I bought frozen fruit last week because it’s cheaper and not much fresh in the shops but I am going to have to reassess how easy it is to eat healthy without spending a fortune (I am trying to lose weight and don’t want to eat any processed foods)

I don't think you're taking into account that in many instances, especially when baking, while buying the ingredients is more expensive that 1 cake, when you work out the cost per cake to make, it's still cheaper! You don't just get 1 cake from a bag of flour!

I'm not a stickler for making everything from scratch, mostly due to time with very young children, but it's definitely still the cheaper option IMO.

Somewhere between YABU and YANBU.

Cooking from scratch can be more expensive on the basis that you're buying decent - and "proper" - ingredients. Yes, I could buy a cheap cake from a supermarket for a couple of quid but when I look at the ingredients it will be a shedload of crap. If I make a cake at home it will be eggs, flour, butter and sugar. No emulsifiers, no stabilisers or preservatives, no palm oil or fructose syrup. And I will have most of the ingredients left for other things.

Generally cooking from scratch is a lot cheaper - I could make tomato sauce for well under £1 using a tin of chopped tomatoes, a squeeze of tomato puree, some chopped onion and maybe a clove of garlic. A jarred sauce will cost much more. Cooking with pulses and cheaper vegetables also brings the price down considerably.

Ultimately, in my experience, it comes down to a number of things: meal planning to make sure you're using ingredients you've already got and to make things go as far as possible/avoid waste, and knowing how to make cheap ingredients taste good.

Meal planning also allows you to shop more effectively - much as many have got used to doing shopping regularly, this often means convenience stores which always charge more. I plan for the week, having looked at what I've already got, then do one shop.

I don’t find cooking from scratch to be much, if any, cheaper than buying ready made food. Main problem for me is that I live alone. I can’t batch cook everything and around here it’s impossible to find anyone selling single portions. So for a stir-fry, for instance, I end up having to throw so much away because as a single person I just can’t use enough of the ingredients before they go off, and it doesn’t freeze well. Also can’t benefit from a lot of the multi-buy deals, for similar reasons.

I wish more supermarkets would let you buy loose produce. And have more money off deals and fewer multi-buy deals.

I cook from scratch. I'm on a low income. For meals that are combined ingredients like stew, Bolognaise, tacos, casserole, I use frozen veg from farm foods. 5 bags for £4 I think it is. The casserole packs are brilliant and is all pre chopped onions, carrots and celery. The chopped peppers and onions are great, mixed veg works a treat for packing out a cottage pie. I'm not a fan of the broccoli/cauliflower/sprouts as they seem really wet. For a roast dinner or for side dishes I use fresh veg as it's much nicer. I reduce costs for dishes by using chicken thighs/legs . I use the meat for fajitas/curry/soup and then boil the bones for my next batch of soup/gravy.

I don't spend a huge amount of money on food. Chicken thighs £2 creamed sweetcorn £1 2eggs 50p, home made stock, fajita packet 50p, frozen Peppers 80p, wraps £1 1/2 bag bread flour for 2 loaves for the soup 50p

That's £6.30 , call it £7 for bits like stock cubes, yeast and seasoning- for two meals for 4 and a lunch or two left over. That's not expensive.

A fridge freezer costs around £50 a year to run ( d-f rating so not top notch, size depending)

It doesn't cost more to have it stuffed full

*Ha, though the NHS suggesting 9-a-day......er fuck off, who the hell has that much veg and salad in the fridge who lives alone? What a serious amount of waste at the end of a week.

So don't buy stuff that perishes fast. Forget lettuce and strawberries

Buy fruit and veg that easily last a week in proper storage.

Potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, parsnips, peppers , apples, oranges, bananas, cucumber, tomatoes, celery, garlic.cauliflower, green beans, beetroot, grapefruit. melon, sweet potato, butternut squash, mushrooms.