"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.

OP - have you got the Too Good To Go app? That's good if you ever have a few quid spare for a super-cheap takeaway. Our local Harvester does a massive veggie carvery a couple of times a week for less than £3 a head.

but I am still pretty sceptical of any claims to feed a family of four for less than £100 a week, for every meal. That's £25 per person per week. Hmmmm.

I can do this, but as I said, we dont eat meat or a typical British diet. Also don't drink. But as I also said, I have a large store cupboard of spices and pulses built up over years. But that is how the poorest people eat worldwide; they built up stores because it saves money in the long run. ( I am not poor though).

@horseyhorsey17 , growing your own veg is cheaper in the long run.
I grow things that are easy to grow and are quite expensive to buy. Things like herbs, salads, spinach, pak choi, beans, courgettes.
Carrots are sold as a loss leader and are in the soil a long time, so although home grown tastes better, I buy them.

I don't eat meat either so the only meat I buy each week is a packet of bacon for my son, and I have some frozen sausages for him in the freezer. I shop at Aldi/Lidl and I'd say my average weekly shop (one adult, two kids) is just over £100 - but that's when the kids are at school and so doesn't include their lunches. The amount of food we get through during the holidays is really quite something! They have hollow legs!

It does worry me though when I think of the proportion of my income that goes on FOOD. It's not like we're living high on the hog, dining at the finest restaurants every night either!

I can cook main meals for 4 which average £5-6 each. At £6 that would be £42 for the main meals.

I can do breakfast and lunches, plus cleaning products and toiletries for another £40-45.

Honestly, lots of people do it…..because they have no choice because they can’t afford to spend £100 a week.

And they often eat good and healthy diets.

It might mean simple fruit such as bananas, apples and grapes rather than expensive berries. It might mean simple veg such as carrots, peas and broccoli. It might include some cheap meals which cost less than £4 for the family of 4, but it can be done…and without misery too.

I grow veg and it really isn't cheaper. It costs me more by the time I've factored in grow bags, slug pellets, the time spent weeding and watering and spraying and nurturing. It might work out cheaper if you do it on a larger scale but it definitely doesn't save me money. I like it though! I love making jams and chutney with stuff from my own garden.

We're a normal family :D I work FT and have 2DC (one is a teenager). Things will get cheaper as time goes on - in that, when you're buying in new ingredients (like spices/herbs etc) to build up pantry/cupboard, it will be more expensive....but once you're there, the grocery shop will get cheaper. If I had to replace all the staples I have for spices/condiments/herbs/pulses/baking stuff etc etc, it would cost me a LOT!

Cost wise, as PP have mentioned, it will depend on what you buy. We do buy meat but rarely. I do a lot of dahls, Middle Eastern (where I'm from) and Far Eastern dishes and things like that. We use a lot of vegetables and pulses (I'll often add lentils to mince-based dishes to get it to go a bit further), and have an Oddbox delivery (not the cheapest way of getting veg in but it's nice having the variety - we discovered that we like swede!). I'm trying to learn more English recipes (it's good to try making different meals from different nationalities). Typical weekly menu here: a pasta dish; a curry; a risotto (I have an Instant Pot - makes it v quickly!; a soup (having minestrone tomorrow); a Middle Eastern dish; pizza or fish and chips (I make wedges and buy frozen fish or pizza - I tart the pizza up with extra toppings for my fridge); oh and leftovers!! I've recently discovered Scotch broth - I use a bit of bacon in this instead of lamb, and green beans instead of peas (I can't eat peas). Sometimes, I'll do a roast meal or a pot roast. Bones are kept for stock/soups.

Tonight, we're having chilli con carne (with real meat, rather than veggie/soya mince). I'm also going to make a big vat of potato and leek soup to freeze in portions (I got a load of leeks to use up from the veg box). I inherited my mum's bread maker (in her final years, she didn't have the strength to knead dough), so we make bread/doughs using that. I make a big vat of yogurt each week (using the IP: 2L milk, 1tbsp yogurt, cream to thicken it up). I have it for breakfast or for a snack (as do the kids) and I use it in cooking. The kids have food flasks and I reheat leftovers for them to take in to school (and I take leftovers as lunch for me at work).

I will make up batches of food and freeze it (normally on my days off): pasta sauces, Indian, Chinese, food, soups etc. If I have an excess of fruit, I'll prep it and freeze it for smoothies, stew it (to go with breakfasts or as a pudding) or make jam/chutney. I make a stock paste out of knackered veggies and that is what I use instead of stock cubes. Sometimes I don't do a grocery shop for a couple of weeks as there is enough at home to use up/make things from.

If I run out of a herb or a spice, I'll Google a suitable alternative from the stuff I do have. I'm crap at gardening, but have sage, rosemary, mint, chives and thyme in the garden. I bought a potted basil with my grocery order and split the seedlings, and they're doing really well in the pots on the windowsill.

NB I do NOT stand for hours cooking each night, as I don't have the time. I just hate waste and try to use up what I can, when I can. When I do cook, I increase portions to be able to freeze some, as well as have meal that night.

I honestly don't know how they do. I spend over £100 a week (that includes everything though, laundry stuff, cleaning products, loo roll, cat litter etc) and we are (mainly) non-berry-eating vegetarians! I know a lot of people really can't have much choice - but of course this is exactly why food bank usage is so high now.

That's crazy not to eat breakfast, OP. I make porridge with water because I don't like milk and put raisins, banana and any cheap seed mix in - not at all expensive and really sustaining.
Don't rule out M&S if you've got one near you. Their eggs, butter, spaghetti and some of their chicken and bananas are all a great price now. You can see their cheap range online - I think it's called something like 'remarksable value'. Their tinned fish is really good - with leftover potato, fishcakes cost a couple of quid to make.
What works for me is to see what's cheap and think 'What could I make with that?'

We eat a lot of greens: spinach, amaranth, some things I don't know the English name for. Perhaps looked upon as a side dish in the UK or maybe even poor people's food, but a staple for us.

Some time ago, Michael Pollan, I think, came up with a superfood "Icarian stew" , a kidney bean, tomato, and onion stew which he claimed was a complete dish and cure you of anything. It's actually plain old Punjabi rajma, which I have been eating all my life. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/apr/02/dried-bean-recipes-butter-beans-harissa-preserved-lemon-rajma-saffron-rice-crisp-onions-ravinder-bhogal Cheap, easy and freezable, can eat with rice or naan or in a toastie.

@BarrelOfOtters and @littlegrebe
have you tried Jerusalem artichokes on your allotment’s

very expensive to buy but all you have to do is plant one, it grows and flowers ( lovely sunflower ) when the flower starts to die cut it back 1m off the ground and dig up the artichokes as and when you want them. Then for next year just leave one back in the ground. An endless supply, hardly any cost and lots of roughage.

More Daal-type meals might be the way to go. The Tesco feed a family for £25 which I've just looked at is great and it might be okay for 1-2 meals a week or at the end of the month when we're skint but it's a bit more convenience food than we're used to for family meals. The freezer stuff I bought ie pizzas, chicken nuggets (which were subbed for hash browns, weirdly) were for DD2 and her boyfriend to share for lunches/suppers not for family/evening meals.

It's still gone into my notes app for ideas. I live within walking distance of Tesco so could walk there and back for the stuff for 1-2 meals a week to make money go further.

Daal, if I could convince them to try it might go down well, at least with DD2. I plan to tell them it is curry/veg curry and not mention lentils which they are convinced they don't like (they eat them almost every time we have a mince based meal. I just don't tell them!).

Or stir fry with a tiny bit of chicken/prawns and more veggies. Or rice and vegetable dishes, like egg fried rice, peas pulavs, biryanis. Or Mexican dishes like quesadillas and burritos again with a tiny bit of chicken or meat, but stuffed with veggies and black beans.

They do like black bean quesadillas and burritos are a favourite when me and DD1 are cooking but it was DD2 on her own this week so I allowed her to pick what she thought she could cook. She did manage. There was some confusion when she couldn't find the skin-on frozen fries that were on her recipe and I told her to use potatoes and make her own when she texted me. I ended up having to text her a step-by-step guide to slicing and baking potato fries while I was at work, otherwise she coped pretty well but is glad DD1 is home soon and she will be relieved of cooking duty. She did say she might try making her own oven chips again but she won't be cooking any proper meals for her and her boyfriend. They'll go back to pizzas and chicken nuggets and beans for suppers

DD1 is back tomorrow night so things should go back to normal.

For all those thinking of growing their own
or
think growing your own is expensive

It really isn't

Once you’ve grown your first set of veg from seed just allow one or two to go to seed and collect that seed for next year. And so on and soon.
Don't buy seed every year

For things like potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes etc just put one back in the ground from your harvest. One potato from your harvest will grow another 6/10 for next year

Remember home growers didn’t pop to the shops every year and buy a packet of seed, the6 collected their own.

Boneless chicken thighs seasoned with salt and pepper and a knob of butter are delicious...I chuck them into a large roasting tin with a bag of smallish new potatoes and some chopped up carrots, drizzle with a little oil and roast on 5 for 45 to 50 mins. I just microwave some peas to go with it and some instant gravy..all in one pan and so tasty. Also what about ham, egg and chips....jacket potato stuffed with whatever you like..cheese, beans, tuna mayo etc and a nice side salad. You could make burgers using whatever minced meat you like..just squish them into balls and splat them into patties, nice roll and some coleslaw. My go to easy, quick meal is cook some pasta, fry some bacon, mushrooms or whatever you like. Mix them together and stir in a jar of red pesto, grate some cheese over...enjoy 😁

Buy packets of herbs and spices from the 'world' (or similar ) section in supermarket rather than small jars. Or buy from an Asian grocery if you have access to one.
Batch cook bolognaise and chilli - big packs of mince can be much cheaper too

live within walking distance of Tesco so could walk there and back for the stuff for 1-2 meals a week to make money go further.

Just remember that the local stores are often more expensive than the big ones. Drives me mad.

Just to add to all the comments, we do a lot of meal that have meat, but where we use a relatively small amount of meat. So a normal pack of 6 sausages used in a pasta sauce goes much further than sausages and mash. We use bacon and chorizo in similar ways.

I also always make mince go further by upping the ratio of meat to veg. We love a pork mince stir fry around here but I was feeling like I needed OSOOOOO much mince to feed everyone. Byt then I realised I was being a bit stingy with the veg. I'm back to one packet of mince (I think it's 350g but might be 400) and everyone gets a massive portion - because I've added so much broccoli, onion, baby corn, beans, carrots, cabbage etc etc etc.

It is a big Tesco, but thanks. We do tend to be lazy and rely too much on Co-Op and Spar for topping up when we could walk to Tesco and back within 20 minutes. That's something we need to keep an eye on.

It's probably not worth going to Tesco just for a carton of milk but if we need a couple of things or something more expensive like cat biscuits or laundry powder we should probably make the effort.

if you have a thermos flask or slow cooker you don’t need to buy a yogurt maker!

I hear you. We recently got a second fridge and it's been life changing for us because I can actually do a full week's order online because I have space to fit everything in vs the regular £20 shops at our local co-op. Maybe it's just us but not only are basics more expensive at Co-Op, but inevitabl I come out with something extra too. Sigh.

Honestly, I think the fridge will have paid for itself within a year.

Did YOU mean to be so rude @Frequency ?? African village wtf! A number of people have commented yet you still haven’t explained what you meant by it??

Once you get into a routine of cooking the same meals often, you will spend less as you have a lot of the ingredients already. Also, we often cook “not particular dishes” if that makes sense, ie chicken thighs (cheese than chicken breast) with rice or potatoes and veggies on the side, sausages with veggies for the kids, meatballs with pasta and tomato sauce (ok guess that is a meal but not a special one). Just preparing food you have rather than aiming to make a particular dish is a lot cheaper.
Also, DH cooks a lot of bean stews, like Indian or Eastern European inspired, and kids don’t like them but then we eat that and they have maybe sausages or pasta with cheese and cucumber and tomato on the side. Now talking about cucumber and tomatoes, we often end up throwing a lot away as it doesn’t get finished and the next day it’s just too soggy to eat, so just today I suggested to DH we should put the cucumber and tomatoes on a small
chopping board at the table and cut up
slices as we eat, so no more than what is eaten gets chopped up. I’ll see how it goes w that!

I just dumped a yoghurt maker today, sat in the house for about 10 years, used it about twice
What annoys me about home made yoghurt is that you need to buy yoghurt to do it, I never understand that

She doesnt have to explain it. You either take it as it has been taken by the majority of people or you read something into it. Thats your choice.