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.

@40andlols ok so I shop at Aldi caus I find it v cheap. I buy a bunch of veg (as listed) on a Monday chop it all up and then use it Monday to Thursday a sample menu would be-
Veg fried with soy, rice vinegar and chilli powder. Served with rice.
Veg fritters- Grated onions , carrots, courgettes , s&p, paprika and lemon mixed with egg and flour. Served with a jacket potato and peas.
Veg pasta- courgette, onions, mushrooms, garlic, peppers, carrot, tin of toms, s&p oregano, with pasta
Tray bake- roast veg and sweet potatoes with S&P, rosemary and thyme.
Veg curry- fried veg, cauliflower, toms, coconut milk, cumin, garam, chilli powder , veg stock served with rice
Tomato soup - onion, carrot, tin toms, lentils, garlic, veg stock. Served with bread.
Veggie bulgar wheat- fried veg, lemon, Greek yog and bulgar wheat.

Weekends we have meat (mostly mince, pork or chicken) tend to do bolognaise, curry, chilli , soups, stew. Rice, lentils, pasta , bulgar wheat are all fairly cheap bulkers. Lots of veg as it's cheaper than meat.

So fit and healthy, I'm guessing she walks to uni and her work so no daily busfare or car to run.

She lives near enough to a couple of the cheaper supermarkets and isn't reliant on deliveries which have to be over a certain amount.

I'm assuming she is in a house / flat share because of the 1 freezer drawer. Does she pay for electricity or just heating?

What happens if the freezer breaks? Or what happens if another student leaves the freezer door open (my brother did this on a visit to me, I didn't notice for 2 days and I cried)?

In my situation (live alone, budget not unlimited) cooking from scratch is cheaper. I don't think it's as black and white as people are saying though. It's cheaper if you plan, nab bargains when you see them, buy in bulk and avoid convenience, single serve or branded foods. It requires work but over time becomes easy.

Build up a store cupboard, week by week and eventually you will be able to take advantage of specials etc rather than buying when you need it. Butter freezes very well for example. I buy flour and rice in 5kg sacks when on sale etc. I buy spices and dried beans, nuts etc from an Indian wholesaler. Jars and containers are easy to get at charity shops.

Stretch any meat meals - one small 1kg joint will feed me multiple times (slices of roast meat, then leftovers which become for example beef stroganoff, curry, toasted sandwiches etc). Meat should be treated almost as a condiment, for flavour.

I only buy cheap cuts, generally whole chickens, roasting joints and marinade them or put them in the Instant Pot to tenderise them, if required. I don't buy chicken breasts, steaks etc as they are more expensive on a per 100gm basis.

Visit the supermarket when they do yellow stickered markdowns - great for meat to freeze or vegetables/fruit, sacks of potatoes, herbs etc.

Make your own fast food. I make pasta sauce - 500gm mince gets stretched with 2 cans of tomatoes and chopped veg etc. I get 8 portions - 7 of which then go into the freezer for other meals - it's the base for lasagne, a quick pasta or gnocchi sauce etc. Pizza dough is a 5 min job and can be started before you leave for work.

No waste ever. Make stocks, compotes, puddings etc.

thanks @autienotnaughty I appreciate you doing that

As a student 18 years ago I used to be able to live on £10 a week - and that included hygiene products. I did this through careful meal planning every week (my flat mates and I used to share a group bus fare once a week to shop together as the nearest supermarket was too far to walk) and cooking from scratch all the time.

When I started working this had to stretch to £20/w, but included feeding a baby/ toddler and a pack of nappies a week.

We ate very nutritiously and healthily and nothing was wasted. Friday evening was meal planning day so that Saturday's weekly shop was fully covered.

My menu would look something like this:
-cereal with milk (every morning) or homemade porridge from oats/ milk/ sugar
-sandwiches (using any leftover meat/ cheese on toast/ peanut butter) for lunch
-spaghetti bolognese (using peas/ peppers/ carrots/ onion to stretch the meat)
-chilli using leftover sauce from the day before
-pasta bake with mixed vegetables (see above - peas, carrots, peppers, tinned sweetcorn)
-omelette/ eggy bread
-toad in the hole/ bubble and squeak/ leftover curry with noodles/ leftover pizza (it's amazing what can be thrown onto a pizza base and taste delicious - we'd even have leftover chilli pizza)
-leftover stir fry

I'd drink water or tea with the occasional homemade hot chocolate of one of us had bought cocoa powder for baking. We baked about once a week on a rotation, so often had sweet treats as a snack - cheap and healthy, such as a fruit crumble topped with porridge oats to save on butter.

The two of us who could cook (ironically, both raised outside of Britain, so grew up in cultures where cooking from scratch was the norm) were financially way better off than the three who couldn't, so I make sure my kids know how to cook from a young age before they leave the nest.

Having said all that, fast food is insanely cheap over here. Where I grew up you'd pay double or triple of what a normal takeaway over here costs, save for some street food, which would be comparable to the prices I'd see for a delivery here.

I suspect that there comes a point in poverty whereby cooking from scratch becomes expensive

... when you don't have spare cash to buy bulk, buy extra to freeze when price is low, keep a stock of herbs and spices
... when you don't have much cash for actually heating the food
... when you live in a very poor area with no low cost supermarket in walking distance and can't run a car/ pay bus fare to go round a few stores for the best deals , the average coop or nisa is way more expensive than Aldi but it is all that sone have access to

However there are also people who don't have much but can at least manage to cook cheaply and healthy.

Poverty is not a competition

@becausetrampslikeus You are absolutely correct.
There are three types of poster on this thread:

1. The ones who maybe post once, state it's always cheaper to cook from scratch, nothing to back it up other than they think so, then disappear


2. The food snobs who state they would never buy ready made, even if they had no money at all (they would)


3. Those who wisely state that shop bought is not the same as home-made because cakes do not use butter etc. For good measure, they usually state home-made is more filling, healthier, uses 'real' ingredients and so on, completely missing the point that if you only have £20 to spend, you don't want to spend nearly half of that on ingredients for one cake, even if it means you have the ingredients in for the next three you might want to make at some point in the future.

If anyone's up for a challenge, I'm in.
Post last night's evening meal, cost out all of the ingredients (including those that 'cost pennies' and are 'practically free') and find a near equivalent ready-made version.
For the purposes of the exercise, we are not turning our noses up at ingredients and how much better your version is, we are just looking purely at the cost (as someone with very little money to spend would).

Here's mine:

Thai red chicken curry

Home made (for 3):
1 tbsp rapeseed oil: 5p
Half a jar of Tesco Thai red curry paste: 75p
Tin coconut milk: 75p
1 lime: 17p
1tbsp fish sauce: 13p
= £1.85

Bought equivalent (says serves 3):

Tesco red Thai curry cooking sauce: 95p

Obviously I needed to add chicken, veg and rice whichever route I took, so I haven't included these.

But out of interest, Tesco also do a Thai red chicken curry ready meal at £2.80, or 3 for £7, which includes rice. I haven't got time to work it out, but I wonder if this would be the cheaper option overall?

I very much doubt the ready meals would be cheaper overall.

The more sensible option is forget Tesco, go to a Asian market or your local equivalent, and stock up when your money comes in. A very large bag of rice means your per portion price is about a quarter of your Tesco price. Proper red curry paste is cheaper in a larger tub and stronger so you use less. Coconut milk cheaper etc etc.
Then you add chicken that you bought from the yellow sticker cabinet when you spotted it some time ago, for 80% off and you grabbed all they had, and add some cheap broccoli from the grocers.
Also you make 3 times as much and freeze it so you don't use the cooker three times and you have food there when you're in a rush and then you don't waste money on the ready meals...

Cooking (and you can do it well) on a tiny budget isn't just about what is cheaper in Tesco. It's about planning and knowing where to go and when and what combinations of food costs, energy uses and time useage saves or costs money. I did this for years, to feed a family well on a tiny budget is a lot of work and mental effort.

CupidStunt22 Which is all fine if you can carry the large bag of rice home, have enough in your weekly budget to purchase the rice and the other food you need, have access to Asian markets which aren’t a bus ride away, have the money to put on the meter to cook it

pot noddle is cheaper and no cooker needed, no nutritional value but stops hunger

Sorry, no. It's excuses. If the shops are a bus ride away then they are, you're still going for your pot noodles and ready meals. It'snot an added expense on the budget cooking.
I used to cycle with the 10kig rice in the baby seat on the back!!

The pot noodles aren't cheaper for a family of 6, and you're hngry again in an hour and need more food.

You're not looking at the overall picture. And I'm not sure you actually have any experience of trying to feed a family on half nothing.

I'll go...

Lidl chicken and chorizo paella for 1 = £1.59
Ingredients from asda (because I don't drive and the bus fare to Lidl is £3.80) = £13 (assuming you already had oil and salt and pepper, which at times I have not)

The ingredients would make 4 servings... you'd have spices left over for other things but it's not much use for the here and now.

Plus energy costs to cook on the stove for 25 minutes rather than microwave for 8 minutes.

So readymade is £6/7 cheaper even without energy costs. Plus I only had to spend £1.59 and I don't physically have £13 in my bank account right now.

I could have probably eeeked out ingredients for a basic stew for £1.59 to be honest but god it's boring! I have homemade chilli x 3 in the freezer for the next 3 days which was cheaper than shop bought, just. I made 8 at the start of the months when I was able to buy in bulk and batch cook.

The point has to be made that feeding one lone adult is a very different thing in terms of costs, value and nutrition than feeding children and teenagers.

@CupidStunt22 , I have, as stated above.

You are right in what you say, but you are making quite a lot of assumptions in your post above.

I very much doubt the ready meals would be cheaper overall - you are assuming without going into much detail

The more sensible option is forget Tesco, go to a Asian market or your local equivalent, and stock up when your money comes in - You are assuming everyone has an Asian market 'or local equivalent' - I don't, unless I take a one hour bus ride to our nearest city (£4.90 return) or drive there (petrol + parking)

A very large bag of rice means your per portion price is about a quarter of your Tesco price. Proper red curry paste is cheaper in a larger tub and stronger so you use less. Coconut milk cheaper etc etc. - you are assuming people on a very tight budget are happy to shell out a fairly large amount of money for very large bags of rice and large tub of curry paste. I don't know the cost of these things at an Asian grocer, but if I can assume for a moment, £10 for rice and £5 for curry paste? That's £15, which is a chunk of cash for someone on say, £50 a week budget. It is cheaper in the long run, obviously, but many don't have that luxury - I didn't.

Then you add chicken that you bought from the yellow sticker cabinet when you spotted it some time ago, for 80% off and you grabbed all they had, and add some cheap broccoli from the grocers - so you are going to supermarkets then, and also grocers. You must have quite a bit on time on your hands?

Also you make 3 times as much and freeze it so you don't use the cooker three times and you have food there when you're in a rush and then you don't waste money on the ready meals...* *You have a freezer and can afford to bulk buy to fill it

Cooking (and you can do it well) on a tiny budget isn't just about what is cheaper in Tesco. It's about planning and knowing where to go and when and what combinations of food costs, energy uses and time useage saves or costs money. So you do have plenty of time to do this as well as shop at Asian grocers, greengrocers and supermarkets?

I did this for years, to feed a family well on a tiny budget is a lot of work and mental effort. I'll agree with you there

My food budget for a long time was £12 a week, I couldn’t afford to buy things like rice in bulk, unless I lived on nothing but rice that week. I didn’t have access to a freezer. I am asian, I’m aware that not only do most people not live near an asian supermarket, but I’m well aware that rice brands etc tend to be premium, so a 10kg rice sack would usually be cheaper at a standard supermarket.

@CupidStunt22
The point has to be made that feeding one lone adult is a very different thing in terms of costs, value and nutrition than feeding children and teenagers.

You are right. But using @40andlols example above, four portions would cost £13, whereas 4 ready meals would cost £6.36 = less than half the price.

Do you really not get it? The facts are staring you in the face!

If you only had £10 in your purse, you could buy a ready meal each, and some type of pudding for afterwards and still spend less than the home-made version.
(Not as nice, not as nutritious etc etc). That is the dilemma some people are facing and posters on here just don't get it.

@Simonjt Excuses, excuses ....😂

I find its extremely hard to believe it would cost 13 pounds for 4 portions the same size as 4 of the ready meals. Impossible, in fact. Even more impossible that you couldn't significantly cut the cost with planning and effort.

No, the facts are NOT staring me in the face at all. You just don't get it.

You could get the 4 ready meals and a cake for a tenner, sure. But you could get easily twice that for your tenner if you did the kind of planning and budgeting I talked about. AND the ready meals would fill a teenager for about 5 minutes and they'd be badgering you for more food which you then have to pay for...

I've been there, I've done it, and you do not get it at all. If you had a tenner in your purse, you don't spend it all on one meal. You work out how the fuck you are going to get 3 meals and some snacks with it if possible! Because it's you last tenner...

I've just checked your Lidl paella. It weighs 400gr amd contains 7% chicken and 7% chorizo.
Thats 28 grammes of chicken! One forkful. 31 calories of chicken Same of chorizo. just over 100gr of chicken in all four meals. 28 grammes of tomatoes and 24 grams of peppers
Where the fuck are you getting 13 pounds for ingredients from? I'm guessing 13 pounds is including a whole chorizo and a whole chicken or packet of chicken breast etc. You could make 20 portions!

Clueless. Comparing apples and oranges and declaring bananas are cheaper!

@CupidStunt22 you seem to be making assumption again. As I stated above, I have done it. And I do get it. And I did planning and budgeting, professionally as a matter of fact.

I find its extremely hard to believe it would cost 13 pounds for 4 portions the same size as 4 of the ready meals. Impossible, in fact.

So are you saying that @40andlols has made this up? Instead of finding it hard to believe, why don't you have a try at costing up up? As I have said many times on this thread, I firmly believe people completely underestimate the cost of cooking from scratch.

I'm saying they are mistaken, and nobody is doing a proper comparison.

How much is 112gr of chicken, 112gr of chorizo, 112gr of tomatoes, 96gr of peppers and 752 gr of rice? I think you'll find it is very much less that 13 pounds.

And btw, ask yourself if 28grammes of chicken and 52 grammes of pepper and tomato are enough protein and vegetables for a growing child or teen, that will be enough until breakfast the next day.
Because you have to add that to your comparisons.

Underestimating? No. Over, yes. And severely overestamiting the food content and value of the ready meal.

And severely overestamiting the food content and value of the ready meal.

Back to that old chestnut. Look, we all know home-made is better. I have said that over and over and over again. But you seem to be struggling with the concept of someone who only has a small amount of money in their purse who needs something to feed the family tonight after finishing work. Not someone who has meal planned and walked here, there and everywhere to track down the cheapest way to buy bespoke ingredients and has a freezer full of yellow sticker items.
I did what you did, minus the Asian grocers, because I worked flexibly and had the time to do so. I also had a decent store cupboard from when money wasn't as tight, a well-equipped kitchen, a freezer and was a decent cook to start with. Don't you see these are privileges someone working a NMW job might not have?

@Katypp bang on- like you , I've walked that walk!!

If you have a tenner in your purse would to me make more sense to buy a cheap chicken or some good sausages and some veg presuming of course you have enough electric on meter- or are non metered, however it's not instant and also presumes you have time to wait for an hour and a half. (Chicken) However I did go in Aldi yesterday and they have very cheap ready meals, I can't see though they wouldn't last more than about 8 mouthfuls for a bloke or a teen. To some though it will seem an easier option.

Soon the cost of actually cooking on the hob or whatever, whether in bulk or one off will add a good chunk to the expense. Surely a ready meal zapped for a few minutes is much better value, even a few times a week?

Ready meals are cheaper than cooking the equivalent at home, even though you have to keep an eye out for additives etc. because the makers cook in humungous volumes, but we can't really do that.