"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.

Re African village it is a local saying and it refers to nothing more than the way tribal villages will cook for the village rather than as individual families. You could try cooking for a Dutch/British/French village with one can of chickpeas, an egg, and a tomato but you might have a hard time getting all the villagers in one place.

Roast 2 whole chickens & next few days
chicken sandwich/wrap
salad with chicken
ramen soup - stock pots, Raman noodles frozen veg and some chicken & half hard boiled egg
Chicken stir fry w rice (can make large portion of Chinese brown sauce for stir fry, keep in fridge in a jar for a week or so and make rice and stir fry often)
pasta with chicken (pesto or red sauce)
omelette w veg & chicken

chicken, frozen veg staples
rotation of
Pasta, wraps, salad, Asian soup, omelette

Wraps/sandwiches - add humous, different sauces.

also Ham .. Sainsbury’s does a small end of a ham much better value than slices. It’s £5.50 for a chunk. Again / pasta with ham w peas & parm cheese, sandwiches/wraps, omelettes. Toasties.

red meat
burger bar or taco bar (kits)
put out the ingredients (lettuce, salsa, soured cream, cheese) & let kids do own

Agree with earlier poster who said, instead of thinking ‘what do we fancy for dinner this week’ and then buying to facilitate what you fancy, instead, work in the basis of a budget and possibly a mince beef meal, a chicken meal, a couple of veggie meals, a fish meal etc.

Expect simple meals that make use of basic ingredients like tinned tomatoes, basic natural yoghurt, herbs and spices and use pasta, rice and potatoes.

Its great the kids are invovled in cooking, but they will find it easier to say ‘I fancy fajitas’ and go from there, than to see there’s a big pack of mince that will make 2 different mince meals. Understanding some packs of meat or other stuff are needed for several meals, or to bulk cook isnt the first stage of cooking for most.

I’d factor in one or possibly 2 treat meals a week. But the rest should be basic everyday fare. If no-one says ‘wow that was amazing’ or is hugely looking forward to it, that’s fine.

Hello Fresh etc work on the basis that you’re having a special meal every day. That’s not the norm, but things like Hello Fresh give a mindset that it is. Well, special meals for every day aren’t in most people’s budgets, so a mindset change is needed.

The kids could be invovled with you saying ‘we have chicken for 2 meals. Look in the fridge and cupboard and see what else we have. Can you research 2 meals that make use of that stuff’.

WHAAAAAAT ? ? "canceled Hello Fresh to save money" ?????? But surely it is quite obvious that HelloFresh is ten times over market price , and it is yet another example of the super-rich and spoiled , who are desperate to squander money : The triumph of marketing over reason and common sense ? It was demonstrated in Cabot Circus last week and I ran a mile - because you see from 2 metres away that it is enormously expensive . Wot planet is average Mumsnet living on ?

I suppose once you get going you'll never need to buy it again as you'll just keep using some of your existing yogurt

This thread has got me wondering if I can make yogurt in the oven, which can be set at any temperature from 30 C upwards.

African villager starves etc , while mumsnetters : " Let them eat cakes ! ! " ? ( " there must be more than one Waitrose in Lilongwe , for gawd's sake , ok ya " )

Padding out meals is the best way to keep costs down IMHO.
Learn to cook flat bread, garlic bread, dough balls. The cost is SO low and it fills everyone up.
Make cheap salad, iceberg lettuce, grated carrots, tinned sweetcorn, onion, homegrown salad leaves and rocket and a few tomatoes. Serve with every meal. Its adds variety and freshness, plus you can do extra for lunches, throw in some cooked pasta and cheese and you have a nice salad bowl.
Make your own salad dressing, also super cheap.

A jacket potato with cheese and onion, is a lot nicer when you have a salad and a slice of garlic bread. You can also buy cheap tomato soup and have a starter of soup and garlic toast. It's romancing the ordinary.
Homemade pizza is super cheap to make, add the salad and some homemade wedges.

Make the most of the Lidl App….. If you plan your shopping you can make maximum savings from the App….
For example; if your budget has enough flexibility, buy extra cupboard staples to hit your monthly spending target and receive 10% coupon. I can’t do this every month, but I do this maybe every third month.
1st month stock up on cupboard essentials
2nd month 10% off coupon
3rd month cheap/ cheap live off what you have low budget spend on fresh items!
(plan as the spend resets itself monthly).

When you have a 10% coupon then get to Lidl when the reduced (30/60%) items are available and stock up on meat etc. you will get 30 or 60% off + 10%. Freeze or make huge meals and get ahead with delicious home cooked meals in the freezer!
if you get a voucher for a freebie…. Consider what’s the best value item you can get - Remember it will be the lowest value qualifying item at the checkout!
And remember £1.50 boxes!!!
From the box I roast, Blanche veg etc and then freeze to stretch out meals… or for extra appeal…and very good savings

@soupfiend You only have to buy a tiny pot of LIVE yoghurt once. After that, you save a little bit of your home-made batch to use as a starter for the next batch. (Perhaps after a few months it might be an idea to get a fresh little live yoghurt and start the process all over again.) And you don't need a yoghurt maker - a thermos is fine but otherwise a glass jar/bowl with a lid or some foil to make one, a biggish bowl (to hold warm water for the glass jar/bowl to sit in) a couple of tea towels /thick hand towel (to cover the whole assemblage) and a warm place -near a radiator or -best! - in an airing cupboard for 24 hours....

@Frequency OP It's great that your daughter has at done some cooking for the family for a week or so. That's really good. But - please excuse me - I wonder whether part of the (widespread) problem people find with affording food is the MASSIVE change of food culture and of peoples' expectations that has taken place since I was your daughter's age. When I was a student, I can remember eating meals of lightly boiled cabbage/greens/broccoli with melted cheese stirred in. That was all. I had little money; the greens were SO cheap; local shops also sold very cheap miscellaneous 'grated cheese', made with the remnants of all sorts of fresh unpackaged cheeses that they had had on sale. An omelette, cooked on fellow-student's gas ring, was a real - and cheap - luxury.

I'm not remotely suggesting that your daughter tries anything like that. BUT packaged, breadcrumbed food - nuggets, pizza etc etc - were simply not available when I was her age. We survived very happily without them. We had not been brought up to think that they were nice. I still don't think they are. (Similarly, just as previous poster very wisely alleges, sites like Go Fresh might encourage us to think that every meal must be a fancy meal.) It's not your daughter's fault that so much "fancy" pre-prepared food -to my mind, over-spiced/salted and either too dry or too gluppy and/or tasting of stale fat - has been pushed on the British population, nor that cookery lessons have disappeared from the school curriculum. What they did was to provide an invaluable basic cookery skillset and instill confidence. If your daughter is interested in cookery, she could do a lot worse than learn some very, very useful skills from dear old Delia: https://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook

I totally agree with other posters who say 'cook at home' and 'simple is good'. Tonight, for example, I'm having cauliflower cheese (leftovers from yesterday - learning how to make a basic sauce is so useful) plus (as a separate dish) mushrooms and peas cooked together - cook mushrooms first in a little olive oil, then add petits pois (Lidl, frozen, an absolute steal) -takes about 5 mins - plus steamed spring greens. Am not particularly hungry, but if I were, a baked potato (microwave at first, then finish for a short while in the oven) or baked potato wedges or baked sweet potato wedges with something like harissa powder - would go well.

I really, really do not wish to sound holier than thou. Regretfully, I probably do.

Best of luck.

This doesn't sound extortionate for what you've had. Lots of tips from other people, but I've got a few to add:

• Don't buy the branded spices - the ones in 100g plastic bags in the ethnic food aisle are cheaper, but even the unbranded ones in jars will be cheaper - if you're near a home bargains they also do cheap herbs and spices, and a chilli flakes and garlic grinder that your DD would probably like for her noodles and would keep her off the rest of the spice cupboard.
• RE Autistic DD who needs to exactly follow a recipe - can you have her choose recipes she likes the look of, then re-write the recipe out using the substitutes for her rather than her following the original? (Eg if the original recipe is 4 chicken breasts, but you're swapping for 2, plus a can of butterbeans, you re-write the recipe out with those).
• If you're on a really tight budget and don't have a choice of supermarket, you probably want to cut down on single serve and branded things and swap them out (eg buying one big 1kg pot of plain greek yoghurt over 4 muller yoghurts and a pack of munch bunch squeezy yoghurts, or not buying packs of pre cut chicken strips, but just getting one big pack of chicken breasts and chopping yourself).
• If you're on a tight budget, when your DD is cooking and planning, let her know in advance - 'we're sticking to £50 this week DD, so you might want to consider a dahl with the lentils in the cupboard and the veg in the freezer for a curry, over buying chicken' or 'it's gonna be a bit tight this week, so we're having a 'feed us for a fiver challenge - can you make us all a full meal for a fiver on Tuesday?'
• If you can, spending a small amount of money to stock up on essentials will save you money in the long run- I'd suggest; a couple kgs of rice and pasta, a big 3l of veg oil, a variety of dried herbs and spices (for me basil, oregano, paprika, garlic powder, curry powder, chilli powder, chilli flakes cumin are always in the cupboard), soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, cheap honey, lemon juice, stock cubes, tinned tomatoes, tinned coconut milk, lentils, flour, sugar, salt and pepper, dried egg noodles, kidney beans. Then you've got stuff in for emergencies, the basics in for lots of meals, and you can just top up as needed.
• Trade one night a week for a fridge clear out night - chuck all of the leftover/ soft veg into a curry/ pasta sauce/Spanish omelette, and use the rest of your cupboard essentials.
• Stop buying some of the pricey sides or make them yourself - you can make naan breads from flour and yoghurt.
• Frozen veg - often cheaper and last longer, or can be used to bulk out meals - you can buy pre frozen or you can chop up veg that's going soft and freeze yourself. Onions, peppers, carrots, celery and squash all freeze really well at home.

Agree 100% with @456pickupsticks. Very, very good advice.

Delia Smith's Frugal Food cookbook is good. It's probably covered by her website.

Hello! I consider us a 'normal' family of 4. 2 adults, 2 adult sized teens. Our weekly shop, which includes cat food, toiletries, cleaning stuff etc is around £90 per week. This gives us 3 meals and snacks a day.

Things I've found help... order weekly, even if you think you can stretch it. We order from tesco (I like to collect points and exchange for stuff like free railcards) to deliver every fri or Sat. This stops us going to the corner shop as much.

I rotate ordering things like cat litter, dishwasher tablets, washing powder so I buy on different weeks and again, rarely run out, as its so expensive at corner shop.

Foodwise,We order pretty much the same each week, but rarely have the same meals. I make sure we always have rice/pasta/potatoes. We always have whatever fruit and veg are in offer, plus basics like onions. Then I always order chicken (I buy frozen breasts, £5 for 1kg), anither meat like mince or pork steaks and then 1 meat to roast. We always have butter, milk, cheese and tinned goods like beans, tomatoes, pulses. I then throw in some wraps/pitta/bread. Cheap cereals, eggs. In the freezer I generally have emergency chips, veg etc for days I can't be arsed.

Then i add at least one or two different items. It may be a new spice, a different sauce, different grains, etc.

It means we have the means of making loads if different meals. For example, this week we are having ratatoille and pasta, celeriac (was my unexpected item) curry and rice, eggs, chips n beans, chicken noodles, morrocan beef and cous cous, pizza and salad, burgers. Lunches are soup/sarnies/something on toast.

Every week I make soup with the left-over veg from the week before. I often make too much pasta intentionally for pasta salad, mash potatoes for potato cakes etc. Left over meat is used for wrap night, you don't need much.

It's easy, once you get into the habit.

I'm a bit older than the main demographic on here I think (late 50's) and have read a lot but not all of the thread. My children are grown (but some still at home) and I feed my grandchildren a few times a week. I was bought up to never waste food (my grandparents and parents went through WW2) Some things I have always done:
Keep a store cupboard stocked- even when I don't need will buy a passata / tinned toms weekly or spices/ herbs on offer.
Make my own pastry (half lard/ half baking block or just baking block for vegetarians) .
A couple of grated carrots and an extra tin of toms will stretch many meals with no one noticing.
Cheap cuts of meats slow cooked are just as good as expensive cuts.
Waste nothing, always think how can I use this even if a tiny amount
Treats- people may disagree but I've always found these to be helpful not only to make people feel they're not going without but a small fill up at the end of a meal: I save individual yoghurt/ jelly pots and re-use:
Individual portions of jelly and tinned fruit
Home made rice pudding with jam/fruit/dried fruit
A big treat is trifle (jelly/ tinned custard/ whipped cream in posh glasses) only on high days and holidays)
I have a basic muffin recipe which I add different things to; banana and honey muffins, apple and cinnamon muffins for breakfast, cherry and coconut muffins, choc chip and almond for tea, leave the sugar out and add cheese/ herbs/ finely chopped onions or courgettes to go with soup.

I have a severely coeliac daughter who is also diabetic and a vegan daughter in law so have to adapt stuff which is not always easy but op mentioned no allergies (apart from the dog!)

Yep, I have never bought baby yoghurts like Petit Filous or any for older kids like Muller Fruit Corners - which are really sugary. We always get a massive tub of Greek yoghurt as I love it with granola and DC have it with frozen fruit and a few other bits added. A bit of honey, nuts, chia etc (stuff I tend to just have in my cupboard - everyone has different stuff that’ll work just as well) and it’ll be like something from Pret that costs a few quid! The frozen fruit bags last us ages as you don’t need a lot. The berries are really tart so a little goes a long way. And if your kids prefer strawberry yoghurt or mango or whatever, simply mash the fruit into the plain yoghurt. Much healthier, I’m sure.

Jeeeez! Where are you shopping? Check out CardiffMum on Instagram. She does 5 meals for £25. She’s also got a cookbook out which is very good! I’ve made loads from
it and everything’s been great so far! There’s a lot of similar people on Instagram if you don’t fancy her recipes

I can only imagine what my mum would have done to me if I refused the meal she paid for and cooked.
Even now at 33, I won't do it!

I used to use muscle food for bulk chicken, 5kg chicken breasts for about £28/29, but they occasionally have on offer for like £23/25, but you pay about £6 postage. I used to put in smaller portions and freeze and use over a couple of months. Per kilo Costco works out the same so I get it from there as it's only down the road so saves me postage.

To cut costs and still cook from scratch you are prob best doing some mince meals like spag bol, cottage pie etc and packing it out with veggies, I add grated carrot, celery, and courgette to mine and it makes a pack of mince do about 3 or 4 meals for the 3 of us. If you like peas etc you could use them too. Use veg to pack out your curries too.

Once you build you larder of spices and things obviously costs will come down too.

She cooked the meal, hence she picked what she felt capable of cooking. Ordinarily myself and my other DD share the cooking.

DD2 despite being taught by me and her sister has never got the knack of nor the love for cooking but she did her best this week and apart from the odd hiccup here and there she did well. She still hates cooking and she will still be feeding herself and her boyfriend nuggets and chips from the air fryer for supper.

Despite being as skinny as a rake she has a massive appetite and will often make herself and her boyfriend a second meal late evening, they often pay for this themselves but I will usually buy a couple of basic own-brand pizzas and a pack of nuggets for them. I don't know where her love for highly processed food has come from. It's stuff I would buy so we had quick go-tos if I picked up an extra shift or they brought home friends who didn't like what we were eating that evening but we've never eaten those kinds of foods for our typical family meals.

Prior to Hello Fresh I did all the cooking and DD1 would assist.

Top tips

Eat vegetarian as much as poss (and def not pancetta)

frozen not fresh - meat, broccoli etc - you can barely tell the difference and much cheaper and easier to use only what you need and keep the rest frozen

shop at Aldi/lidl - quality at Aldi is good for most things and you will save ALOT we usually do big shop at Aldi and if I ever do go to Sainsbury’s which is actually our closest option, I am always AMAZED at how much more it is!

I keep the costs down by running a well-stocked pantry of basics (chopped tomatoes, rice, pasta, canned pulses, herbs or spices we use a lot) and buy them in bulk when they're on offer.

We don't have lots of meat which keeps the costs down.

Most meals have additional vegetables or pulses added to them to bulk out and then I cook twice as much to freeze a meal.

I have an "eat next" box in the fridge of vegetables or items that are close to their best. The aim is to put them into meals before buying new food.

You've got too much variety in your recipe plan. Work your meals around one thing, and/or what you've already got in your cupboard.

a small African village with one can of chickpeas, an egg, and a tomato. Normal people, who eat normal portions of normal foods. Wow - racist much?

Family of 3 with 2 pets here, and food shop is at least £150 a week! It's a nightmare isn't it. We tend to cook from scratch and my husband doesn't eat breakfast and I don't every day. Food is just so expensive now