"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.

Poor dogs.you will end up spending more at the vets.stop letting your kids decide everything and do a proper weekly shop.forget hello fresh

racist ? It's MUMSNET , so evryone is on day 24 of the cycle , and in any case in a 2-person household . . . . . on £ 90 000 but think they are " not wealthy " and " below average wealth "

Why are the dogs poor?

I've not even posted what food they get.

@Cindy8910 that's a lot for 3 people!

" Question Time audience member prompts widespread bewilderment after refusing to accept £80,000 salary means he is in top 5% of earners " Middle England (and Mumsnet ) feels poor on £80 000 ??????

So if you use half a bag of pasta on a pasta bake, use the other half later in the week.

Do people really need to be told things like this? Surely it's simple common sense, same as buying large packs and freezing part of it! £75 for that menu seems very expensive, some planning would reduce the cost massively.

That's a good idea and the bone and skin could top up the dog's food for a couple of meals.
When we had a dog, decades ago, it was considered a huge no-no to give a dog chicken bones, something about them splintering and lacerating their insides if I remember rightly, perhaps check in case this is still right?

@Frequency Following my previous post, I do meal plan, but I tend to do that around any offers I've bought and what needs using up, which keeps the cost down. We also don't eat meat at every meal.
I'll adapt recipes to use what meat and veg I have available, and I generally use less meat than suggested and up other content (eg, lentils, veggies, etc). I'll also buy yellow stickered stuff and freeze in portions, if not needed immediately.

For example, I made moussaka the other day, but instead of 600g lamb, I used 500g lean pork mince, which I'd bought previously for £2.00 (£2.59 full price). To bulk it out, I used 100g red lentils, 1 red pepper, and half a carrot, grated. I also used 1 large onion (diced) and cinnamon and allspice. 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes (rather than 500g fresh tomatoes), 1.5 Tbsp tomato puree and 3 cloves of garlic. I also sliced about 700g white potatoes and par boiled them, as well as slicing 1 large aubergine and frying it in 2Tbsp oil. I made the white sauce with 30ml of oil (rather than butter) and 30g flour, as well as milk and then added 3 small eggs. Also, 180g of cheddar. This made 8 portions, which I serve with a side/green salad. The extra portions can be frozen for later use, or kept in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Red lentils are £2.50 for 2kgs un Asda World food aisle, so will make plenty of meals. 100g costs about 12.5p, si even with everything at full price that meal cost about £5-6 to make, so about 62-75p per portion (plus salad).

I'll often buy a whole chicken around 1.6 to 1.8kg in weight and roast it, serving about 100-120g meat per person (3 of us), then I'll make a curry or something similar with the meat I've taken off and with the carcass and scraps of meat that's left I'll make a stock for a soup or stew using up any veg (etc) that needs using, so that meal costs pennies per serving.

Edited to add:

So in answer to your question, it definitely gets cheaper once you've built up a store cupboard of ingredients/staples and the more experienced and flexible you can be.

Aha, I see in your posts @Frequency , you have already considered whether your dog can have the chicken bones!

A few questions

1. how do you know when items are 30/60% reduced, is it just experience
2. I’ve heard of the £1:50 boxes but never seen any, are they order only?

Aha, I see in your posts @Frequency, you have already considered whether your dog can have the chicken bones!

Yeah, they can eat raw chicken bones provided they are not small enough to swallow whole. He does have chicken thighs (whole) as a treat now and again but looking at the size of the bone without the meat, no he cannot have them.

He has a raw marrowbone I bought him earlier that he's been happily crunching on all day and there are some lamb stock bones in the freezer for him that were 99p a tray.

Raw dog food suppliers often stock chicken carcasses, wings, and thighs.

https://www.durhamanimalfeeds.co.uk/product/daf-chicken-carcass-zcc1/

I think going very early… shortly after opening for both!

@Caththegreat

what are you on about poor dogs?

With spices, I'd say experiment with what you've got - and get a 'signature' blend going. Don't follow recipes slavishly as you'll buy tons then they'll just go stale. Waste of money.

You could try blending the lentils with a tin of tomatoes or any steamed veg to make a sauce.

Ive just done this to make tonight’s curry.

Your dc will get all the goodness without even knowing about the lentils

Oh ok.
Thankyou!

Try different lentils. I don't like the red ones much but do like green and brown ones.

Always good to mention though to keep in people's minds.

One of my parent's dogs (A beautiful airedale called Kara) scoffed some chicken bones and it pierced something and she died in my father's arms. 💔

I think it’s expensive because it’s complicated OP. There’s plenty of meat but also a lot of that list you posted is frills for complicated recipes that’ll never get finished and that’s expensive. I am an untalented but competent home cook who’s been cooking from scratch for years and I’d go mad/bankrupt having to create that list of multi-step multi-ingredient meals every night of the week. I’d do a couple of these more involved recipes and then mix in a soup, jacket potatoes and tuna, a simple tomato based pasta etc. Cooking from scratch doesn’t mean making an elaborate spread every night. A protein, a starch and a veg will do the job. If it’s not made from things I keep in and use regularly then I’m probably not making it for Wednesday night dinner. I’d guess your budget will go much further if you pull it back a bit. I’d guess you’re also much more likely to sustain it if it isn’t like a part time job. As you get better at scratch cooking you’ll start to see where the much ridiculed Mumsnet chicken comes from, look at what’s left over and what’s in your cupboard and find another meal from it.

The reason people who don’t do it think cooking from scratch is expensive and hard work is because they think we’re all making lasagne with 8 hour ragu and a home made bechamel after work and before Cubs. On Saturday maybe, but on a Wednesday night A bag of pasta, some butter and cheese and some cut up cucumber and tomato costs a fiver max, is 15 minutes all in, and from scratch.

I'm sorry about your parent's dog @FairyBreadQueen. I agree it is always worth mentioning in case people do not know and if I'd seen the same post I probably would have mentioned it too. I should have specified that I meant raw, not cooked.

Dogs should not eat any cooked bones (or rawhide) but chicken bones in particular are harmful if fed (or pillaged) cooked. We always make sure we put cooked chicken bones at the bottom of the bin and if the bin is too full and he'd be able to reach them (he can get in the bin, he used to get stuck in the wheelybin regularly when he was a puppy) then we freeze them and put them in the bin after we take it out to the street where he can't get at it.

Another good tip I picked up from an internet cook in Japan is to add quinoa and a handful of frozen beans to rice - more filling and more nutritious, and means you need less protein (ie more expensive fish or meat) in the main dish.

I don't think they'd eat rice with beans in, kidney beans, maybe. We've never tried quinoa before but I will try that.

You barely notice the quinoa, it's just a bit more texture. In my local Turkish cafe they add bulgar wheat & that's really nice too.

Oh no! I am so sorry to read this, how very sad, your poor folks, the poor little dog....💐

When their dad was with us we visited Turkey often and they loved the local food so they've probably tried that without knowing what it is. I'll add it to my list and call it Turkish rice

It's the idea of eating things that put them off not the actual food. Like I said they eat lentils almost every time I cook a mince dish and never notice.