To price recipes per amount of the ingredient used not the whole cost of the ingredient?

[pontipinemum]

I'm in a 'budgeting' group. I've posted many recipes in the past. But on one recently someone said it's stupid to list the cost of the ingredient used not the cost of the pack since you need to buy the whole pack. A few people jumped on saying yes it is very misleading and unfair to people that truly are on a budget.

Yes you do need to buy the whole pack but it's not like you throw out the rest once you are done!

E.g. the 1tbsp of curry powder needed for the whole recipe is 20c, whole tub €1. But I will not throw out the rest of the tub. I will use it again. Same with all the ingredients I use.

What do you think?

YABU - It is unfair to list the cost of the amount used and you should list the full cost of the ingredient

YANBU - It is normal to list just the cost of the amount of the ingredient used

Completely on the fence about this one.
I meal planned this week, the ingredients for the first meal cost a fortune as I needed fresh and dried herbs and spices I don’t have. The subsequent recipes didn’t add much to the cost as I was able to use left overs from the first.

I do get that people have the initial outlay. There have certainly been times in my life when I have not been able to buy certain ingredients especially if I had no clue what else I would use it else in. It was daunting when I first started buying herbs/ spices but they build up quickly.

Fair enough if you were going to use the ingredient just for that recipe then bin the rest you should use the full price. But would you say a bowl of cereal costs €4 because that's how much the whole box cost, or that it is 40c per serving.

Someone said about ginger - you can freeze ginger and grate it straight from the freezer very handy.

Sorry, just being pedantic, but chicken stock is not 0. You don't just make niceish edible stock from the chicken only. Bayleaf, allspice, parsley, onion, carrot etc should go in.

Yes, people can buy and freeze ginger (i have a bag of it. Princess of stocking up and using every part of everything) but that doesn't change the fact that the bigger price per piece has to be paid at first. People who do cook very low budget usually do it because they have very low budgets so the initial outlay mentioned should be there too so they know. It doesn't change the fact recipe comes to £1 or whatever. It just gives people chance to budget for the shop better

Chicken stock isn't free to make. There's other ingredients and it takes a long time. And how much roast chicken is £1.67? Surely not enough for 2 adults?

@InYourHeadZombieeeaeaeaea @Fleabane I got the chicken in the Tesco 3 for €10 deal. I pressure cook the chicken and then strip it, then use it between two dinners. I tend to cut the brown meat up very small to and leave the breasts as larger pieces. I put all the bones etc back in the pot and pressure cook for 10 mins.

I get what you are saying about they have a very low amount to work with so recipes with loads of ingredients won't be possible. But for practically everything apart from a ready made meal you will end up with more than what you will use in 1 meal. Rice, pasta, broccoli, eggs, butter, bread, mushrooms, peas, none of these are sold in single portions (and if they are they are prob expensive)

@pontipinemum You're assuming someone has a freezer and this knowledge. I'm sorry but this is, again, not me trying to sound pedantic but growing up I didn't have a grater or access to a freezer. We lived in a rental that had tiny freezer inside the fridge which was permanently covered in ice. Many of my friends grew up the same. This is London in the 00s!

I would honestly just do both costs seeing as you're plotting this all onto excel anyway.

Still doesn't change the fact that chicken stock needs more than chicken though. Hence not 0.
I make my own all the time from different animals.

No one is saying price whole meal basef on initial outlay. Just that it would be good to mention the initial outlay as well as the cost per meal

That still doesn't make your stock free. You need a pressure cooker and lots of electricity! Sorry but this is coming across as a bit of a hobby for you, whereas I imagine the people complaining really don't have access to this sort of thing. It is no hate on you, you're clearly trying.

"Rice, pasta, broccoli, eggs, butter, bread, mushrooms, peas, none of these are sold in single portions (and if they are they are prob expensive)"

Lesson number 1 in poverty. Being poor is expensive.

@Foxesandsquirrels true I am just going off what I have. In my first flat tho I had one of those half fridges with the tiny freezer part that was difficult as two adults and no kids let alone as a family. I post that excel sheet.

If you post that sheet with the outlay price than I have no idea why they moan!

Except the 0 on the stock 😁

If I were you I think I'd include another column for cost per pack size and then it will be clearer what the initial outlay is as well as the individual meal.

I didn't know about the 3 for £10 deal so thank you

Give both costs then people can see.

I like it when a budget type recipe offers alternatives - so says perhaps you need this spice, but if you don't have that spice then you can substitute with (couple of suggestions). If you can't get this vegetable, you can use anything with these characteristics.

I tend to be the kind of cook who will swap out and substitute things, but I've got confident at doing that because of these kinds of instructions. If you're not very experienced in the kitchen it's nice to be able to follow a recipe more directly.

I'm guessing the 3 chickens for £10 aren't mumsnet chickens. Seeing as how they only do two meals.

If you post the excel sheet with both prices than that's fair. However, maybe post it separately too so it's obvious. I remember looking up cheap recipes as a teen and I'd have no clue what on earth that excel sheet was about.
Thank you for all your work though! It's very time consuming and I promise you some poor kid out there probably appreciates you. I know I did.

I think mumsnet chicken is actually an ostrich

I'd probably just stop contributing, but I have little tolerance for people who complain about something offered for free. You're not being paid to share recipes; you're doing it as a hobby (I assume) and to share information with people. If they don't like the way you present the information, they don't have to use it, or they can do the pricing for themselves. Prices vary by brand, location, and date, anyway, so I'm not certain how much use it is.

Giving both prices would be the easiest way of appeasing the grumblers, or don't mention prices at all. It doesn't take a genius to work out if specific ingredients are in your budget or not.

I think for the majority of people counting the ingredients used makes sense as long as you will use the rest.

For example I made lentil soup yesterday and used approx 30p of red lentils, 40p worth of ham stock cubes and a splash of oil say 10p, 15p for an onion, 40p for a leek and 15p for carrots. This makes my soup £2.40 for the pot or 60p per portion.

If I counted the initial outlay for the soup it would be £1.80 for lentils, £1.50 for stock and £2 for oil, 90p for a pack of onions,, £1.20 for pack of leeks and 30p for carrots which would be £9.20 for a pot of soup or £2.30 each.

What happens with my lentil bolognese next week? Are the lentils and onions free now or do I count the amount used in that meal?

I am a member of a budget cookery group which was based on £1 a day per person (which I think would be impossible now) and they had a plan for a week where you had £1 in your hand each day. On day one you can buy bread, jam, and beans and have say 15p left, next day you have £1.15 and buy porridge and have 40p left and still have 10 slices of bread and most of a jar of jam to carry forward to the rest of the week.

I think both the price per portion should be listed AND the cost of the actual item/initial outlay, to be honest.
The first time you make the meal the initial cost should be correct then the second and third time the per portion / per meal cost will be accurate.

So your under 3 Euros meal actually costs just under 9 Euros plus a pressure cooker.

You could add =SUM(C4:C10) in C11 and make it clearer that way.

Do you always count the cost of kitchen items in the meal cost @NeverDropYourMooncup ?

Where does it stop? Do I count part of the cooker, knife, grater, pot, chopping board, wooden spoon and ladel in the cost of my soup?

I do understand that there are people who don't have cooking facilities so most recipes would exclude them.

unfortunately they were all out 😂

ah it seems to have been helpful to quite a few people. A lot of people apparently are pretty bad at budgeting their meals. I've had people shocked it is cheaper to make your own lunch instead of buying it out every day.

It's an important thing to do actually. If you can teach people to cook you help them to eat better as well as to save money.

I remember going to a conference session some years ago about this, pointing out for example that it was better to give quantities as mug sizes as so few people have access to scales or measuring jugs.

If that's what you're posting, I think people are very unreasonable to complain. It's very clear what the prices are.