"Normal" people who cook from scratch everyday - tell me this gets cheaper

[Frequency]

By normal, I mean excluding those who can feed a small African village with one can of chickpeas, an egg, and a tomato. Normal people, who eat normal portions of normal foods.

We've canceled Hello Fresh to save money, so we've started meal planning with a recipe-building app instead, otherwise, we just cycle through the same 5/6 meals all the time.

One child is away this week. The remaining child has picked;

Cheesy broccoli pasta bake, Piri piri chicken wrap “fakeaway”, easy creamy chicken curry, penne arrabbiata with roasted peppers and pancetta, easy chicken jalfrezi curry.

£75 fecking quid.

It's not even a full shop. I'm not eating breakfast or lunch coz the price now just for evening meals is way too much. I've added a couple of yoghurts and crappy pizzas for the kids lunches and breakfasts and we already have cereal in.

I bought cat litter and cat food earlier or that would have been added too.

Admittedly, we had to buy a lot of spices because Hello Fresh used to send them in handy little packets and DD has used most of the ones we did have jazzing up her instant noodles. But, the spices only added around £10ish. That's still £65 without breakfasts or lunches.

Obviously, next week we won't need as many spices and should have some butter and oil left but still...

If this is the best we can do I am going to have to consider rehoming a child.

I'd be curious to see the cost breakdown you have so far.

Asda sent me a handy list;

Items
The BAKERY at ASDA 8 White Mini Wraps 8pk, The BAKERY at ASDA 8 White Wraps 8pk, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA 20 Breaded Chicken Nuggets 320g, ASDA Crispy Skin-On Fries 750g, ASDA Stonebaked Cheesy Garlic Bread 295g, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Pepperoni Pizza 314g, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Cheese & Tomato Pizza 314g, ASDA Tender Chicken Stir-Fry Strips 250g, ASDA Tender & Crunchy Broccoli 360g, ASDA Fresh Double Cream 300ml 300ml, Anchor Salted Butter 200g, Muller Bliss Creamy Mascarpone Cherry Yogurt 4x110g, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Smoked Back Bacon 300g, ASDA Succulent Boneless Chicken Thigh Fillets 650g, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Hard Cheese 170g, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Mature White Cheddar Cheese 400g, ASDA Fragrant & Bold Garlic 45mm+ 3pk, ASDA British Milk Semi Skimmed 4 Pints 4 pint, ASDA Aromatic & Zesty Coriander 30g, Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce Medium 250g, ASDA Wonderfully Aromatic Basil 30g, ASDA Extra Virgin Olive Oil 250ml, Muller Fat Free Light Red Fruits Yogurts 6x140g, ASDA Warm & Fruity Red Chillies 60g, COOK by ASDA Paprika 90g, COOK by ASDA Ground Turmeric 45g, ASDA General Purpose Cleaning Sponge Scourers 10pk, ASDA Tomato Purée Double Concentrate 200g 200g, ASDA Roast Garlic Mayonnaise 270g, Schwartz Chilli Powder Hot 38g, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Onions 1kg, ASDA Penne 500g, Schwartz Ground Cumin 37g, ASDA Balsamic Vinegar of Modena 250ml, ASDA Crisp & Crunchy Little Gem Lettuce 2pk, Maille Wholegrain Mustard 210g, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Kitchen Towel 1roll, ASDA Fresh Berry Washing Up Liquid 500ml, Blue Dragon Original Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce 190ml, ASDA Red Pepper each, COOK by ASDA Ground Nutmeg 42g, COOK by ASDA Ground Coriander 34g, ASDA Sunflower Oil 1l, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Red Onions 1kg, COOK by ASDA Bird's Eye Chilli Flakes 32g, ASDA Green Pepper each, JUST ESSENTIALS by ASDA Baked Beans 410g, COOK by ASDA Garam Masala Spice Blend 92g, Aleyna Roasted Red Peppers 480g, ASDA 50% Reduced Sugar & Salt Tomato Ketchup 530g 530g, Munch Bunch Squashums Yogurt Blackcurrant 5 x 60g (300g) 5x60g.

I'm guessing things like cheese, mustard, vinegar, etc will last more than one meal and can be used again in similar recipes another week.

Stocking up the spice cupboard, and I include vinegars, mustards, oils etc in that, is an initial outlay but worth it in the long run.

How much are you spending on chicken alone for this meal plan?

I'm vegetarian and I'm shocked by how much people who claim to be struggling spend on meat. It's expensive stuff! (and so it should be I guess).

There are some really cheap meals on here. The chickpea curry is a favourite of ours.

Do you plan every meal.and buy for it, or sometimes do a 'what can I make out-of what I have' meals?

Breast is now cheaper than thigh per kg for me anyway. Since COL and everyone went for “cheap cuts” breast for example is £6.58 per kg and thigh fillet is £8 per kg.

but obviously check your own supermarket.

I bring the weekly price down by making my own bread, shopping at Aldi and having a baked potato and butter 3 nights a week, omelette one supper a week and a vegetarian pasta dinner and only 2 meat evenings.

We cook from scratch a lot, and it is cheaper in the long run. I double up and freezer portions too.
Meat is expensive though, we went mostly veggie (except for a weekly roast and occasionally fish) at the start of the year and that's helped a lot. I buy frozen ready chopped veg as far as possible to save time and effort.
This week we've eaten:
Macaroni cheese with leeks and ratatouille
Greek feta pie with roasted veg
Tomato, pepper and butterbean stew with cabbage and mash
Halloumi burgers with wedges and salad
Sweet potato and black eyed bean chilli with rice
Jacket potatoes with choice of tuna mayo, cheese, spring onion, sour cream and salad
Lentil bolognaise.
Fish finger wraps with salad.

Family of 4, I feed us all for about £80 a week.

We have just done five pizzas, six meals of vegetarian chilli, two meals of vegetarian, curry, and four meals of ratatouille, in a big, batch cooking session!

Everything, with the exception of stock, and chilli flakes, came to £32 from Aldi!

So it can be done! we do benefit from having a large chest freezer, and our batch cooking, also I guess being vegetarian helps.

That does seem rather a lot, though, cooking and freezing has been fairly life changing, otherwise we'd always have leftover ingredients.

The £9.90 is actually £8, it doesn't show the 2 for £8 offer, it takes off the extra £1.90 at the end. One pack does two meals, and one will be frozen for next week.

This. And it will be expensive if you’re eating meat every day

I bet you are still at the follow the recipe stage. In a few weeks you'll be happily omitting stuff and swapping in what you have. If you throw in an extra can of tomatoes and chop more onion you'll have portions to freeze for another day.

Shopping online and tweaking so you get within budget helps loads. Things that need portions say sausage stew, made with whole sausages (ie two each) won't go as far as if you chop them up. Then you can just laddle out a bit and no one thinks they've got less of whatever the main ingredient is

Frozen is almost always cheaper than fresh - especially in terms of meat and fish.
Sunday's I make up things like Shep pie and curry in bulk and freeze single portions. Occasionally I indulge and make a moussaka (aubergines are expensive!)

Often our meals are a pork chop and frozen veg, add a spicy rub to the meat for flavour if you need.

Almost all our veg are frozen, occasionally yellow sricker fresh stuff and a big pack of potatoes.

Dont under estimate bulk buying - especially pasta, rice, potatoes, oil, flour etc, even spices. Get a month+ in in one go.

The bulk cost of our shop is fresh fruit, snacks like yogurts and cheese. We have a toddler though.

You've not really got 2 kids, you're trying to feed four adults y'know. We are a family of two adults and a toddler and spend £80-90 a week.

If I was picky I'd say there's a lot of expensive junk on your list. But the spices will add up too.

If your family eats a lot of yoghurt it's probably worth getting a homemade yoghurt maker. You can get one for about £30 and make that back in savings pretty quickly.

Why are you sourcing everything from Asda? For example instead of buying one red pepper and one green pepper you could probably buy, for the same price, a whole bag of mixed peppers at Aldi/Lidl. Their spices are cheaper, too.

@Frequency that definitely seems a lot - I’ve been using it for over a year (was a very early user back when it was called Lollipop) and get my delivery from Sainsbury’s, so I would expect Asda would be cheaper.

I buy chicken breasts from a local butcher, which actually works out cheaper than Sainsbury’s and is better quality. I also use the add your own recipe feature, which takes a while to get set up, but means family favourites can be easily added to the meal plan.

The only other thing I can think of is to check the items selected and make swaps appropriately - for example I’ve noticed some pasta dishes will automatically select pre-grated cheese, whereas a block of cheddar will be cheaper. This works the other way too - budget isn’t an issue for us so I sometimes swap to nicer alternatives.

I’ve found Cherrypick great and think it definitely will help you save money in the long run…however I don’t use it to plan 5-6 meals a week. We probably do at least 1 a week which is quick/easy/more pre-prepared - for example tortellini, roasted veg and sauce, goujons and wedges etc.

So your £75 includes pizzas and yoghurt and nuggets and ketchup and scourers and all sorts of stuff, not just the 5 meals you planned.

Maybe a better exercise would be comparing your broccoli bake costs to pizza night costs and seeing the difference. Might be cheaper doubling up on the bake and eating it again as leftovers a day or two later.

Is the Nandos sauce for your piri piri chicken? You might be able to get a pack of dry piri piri spices that will go further for the same money.

That’s a massive list! So my weekly shopping list for a family of four with two teenage boys (main meals only) would be pack of chicken thighs, baked beans, 2 broccoli, 2 cauliflower, green beans, bag carrots, bag of potatoes, pack of pork chops, pack of 6 fish cakes = that is three dinners Mon-Wed. On Thursday we may have stir fry = bag of prepped veg, pack of chicken thighs, pack of noodles and we use a bottle of oyster sauce £3.99 and lasts about 5 stir fry’s). Aldi pizzas x 4 on Friday with leftovers for Saturday lunch. Pack chicken thighs, 2 green peppers, 1 onion, plus tin of toms and Pataks paste plus rice for Saturday. Roast for Sunday.

OP- where do you shop? Strangely, I've found Sainsburys at £2.15/kg, to be the cheapest for chicken thighs! They are in a 2kg fresh pack (not frozen) with skin and bone which I remove. The bones goes into a soup. They price match many aldi items, but not all.
Its easy in some stir fries and dishes where the meat is chopped up or mince, to add in more veg/lentils etc and cut the meat to use in a another dish

I think someone up thread mentioned it, but baked potatoes are another favourite for a cheaper meal. I generally do 2 options, with grated cheese also. Tinned tuna/corn and mayonnaise, bacon/pineapple/spring onions, home made coleslaw or coronation chicken. Often made with left over chicken from a weekend roast.

What about those who can feed a small English village with one can of chickpeas, an egg, and a tomato? Are you including them?

Aldi and Lidl do not deliver and I can't drive as yet. Once I pass my test I do plan on driving to Aldi and Lidl, which happily are next door to each other.

By the way, the little pots of herbs and spices are a lot more expensive per gram than a larger bag bought in the ethnic aisle or market or even on Amazon.

Well other then the usual batch cooking, freezing leftover for next week ect.

I plan a few variations on ingredients or tweak a bit with what i have in the cupboards. For example, if i am doing a homemade skewer kebab with pitta, next day i do pitta pizzas with topping from the leftover veg/salad/meat but cooked a bit differently. Ie chicken kebab, next day pulled chicken on pitta pizzas.

With chickpeas, i do a satay chinese 5 spice dish with rice in the evening. Next day the left over chickpeas satay gets turned into a salad buddah bowl.

Near the end of the week i pimp out basics. Baked beans on sweet potatoes (but add bits into the beans, either make them spicy, bbq ect) and mix into the filling of sweet potatoe. So just jazz up the cheap quick dishes. Or when i am scavaging i see what odd tins i have, veg thats turning and google what i can make up 😂

You save money by ditching some of the recipes and including some of the same 5 or 6 ‘boring’ meals in your meal plan.

You also need to base a few of your meals around what is already in your fridge/cupboards instead of recipe ingredients

Pork is generally cheaper than chicken, loin steaks or tenderloin fillet can be cut into strips and stir fried or added to fajitas like chicken.

What's the app?