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

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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.

Basil is a an annual so will flower and die quite quickly so you have to continually resow it. It also needs a lot of sun. I just can't be bothered with it so buy that in. (Coriander the same).

I grow things that don't die or come back the next year: rosemary, thyme, sage, chives. I think parsley lasts two years and seems to like our climate so that's probably worth growing if you like it. You can grow in tubs to prevent the dog or slugs attacking it. Tubs in the garden seem to be much easier to keep alive than tiny pots on window sills.

Re. Basil, the only thing I'd ever use it in large quantities for is pesto, but you can make pesto with any leafy green. I use leftover spinach and kale for pesto and its really nice! You can even use young nettle leaves which looking at my garden are incredibly easy to grow!

I've found all leafy green things worth growing. Spinach, lettuce, cabbages, rocket. All grow well here and you can just pick what you need instead of throwing out manky bags of lettuce that don't get eaten. You can grow fine in tubs or troughs.

You can also grow tomatoes, rocket, beans and shelled peas and courgettes in the garden easily plus blueberry bushes and bell peppers and other veg. Not overly sure how much cheaper it is than buying.

That is good. That will definitely bring your costs down.

If you use bay leaves a bay tree is handy to have. Even those tiny ornamental oranges someone once made me loads of marmalade from those trees.

Look critically at your receipt and see where you can cut down; I never use fresh herbs for normal home meals (just special stuff) just dried.

I’m in Ireland and it’s so much more expensive to buy food here but this is an excellent resource- just very simple recipes for everyday cooking - no expensive stuff.

https://mabs.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/101_Square_Meals_2018.pdf

Sage is also useful. The kitchen windowsill is fine. I love my basil in the summer.

We grow tomatoes, the glut towards the end I just throw into a big pan with chopped onion, basil, chicken stock and cook down. Let cool, then put into plastic bags and freeze. It's gorgeous for pasta dishes.

Mind you we do have a chest freezer in the garage.

I think you'd find it cheaper to not use the recipe app by the sound of it.

I came on here to help, but we are veggie and mostly eat Asian ( I am indeed one of those people who can feed 3 people on a can of chickpeas and a tomato). I do find it far cheaper to cook from scratch, but I have a massive store cupboard of spices and lentils.

I find it quite distressing that you are only eating one meal a day. Could you do more veggie meals with frozen or local veg? You can get protein from eggs, paneer, tofu, lentils if the kids will eat them.

all this advice abotu growing your own.

Be careful. I have a largish garden and it is never cost effective for me. You have to be really good at gardening seriously and following through. Plants are expensive, slugs and snails are rife and bad weather loses you a whole crop. So while it is fun to do, personally would not be looking at that as a money saver, unless I was my mum, who can grow anything from nothing and eats it all summer, saving herself loads fo money

I'll have to source a table or bench of some kind to grow things in pots but I'll keep an eye on FB. It is worth considering.

The dog is a big dog and has been encouraged to dig in a built-up planter because he was ruining the garden. We also have a front garden but I think next door would lynch me if I started growing veg in it. She puts in constant complaints about our raspberry canes (or weeds as she calls them).

People who grow tomatoes.. have tried this more than once and always get blight. Is there some trick to preventing this?

Agree with the comment about a bay tree, absolute must. Fresh ones taste great. Haven't bought a packet of dried in 10 years.

You're eating a lot of meat, which is bad for you and your kids. It would be better to eat meat maybe twice a week.

Switch chicken curries to chickpea and spinach curries, add a veg risotto meal, and you could replace chicken for black beans in wraps. Healthier, better for the planet and will be cheaper too.

For your meat-inclusive meals, make them X2 and freeze for the following week.

Forgot about our bay tree 😂

Are you building up a spice bank?
Not sure why those meals are working out to be so expensive for you?
I can buy three/four meat based meals, plus fruit bowl, sandwiches, dairy, cereal, juice, household for £90 every five days for five people.

Looking at your shopping docket OP, I think one of the best things you could do to save money would be to get out and shop for yourself. At least for the fresh ingredients. Hopefully you're driving soon, if not I'd consider organising to go with someone else or whatever else you can think of.

You're missing out on the opportunity to go to cheaper shops and to see what's marked down that you could sub in. Even just to compare all the basil in Asda, for example, and pick the best price for the weight.

I rarely go with much of a list these days. My list will say 'fish' or 'green veg' rather than specifics. I cycle through a few different places - Aldi one week, my local 'ethnic' shops and markets another, Costco occasionally. I buy what's interesting, in season and good value, thinking about what I already have at home, then build meals around it.

You can still have a meal plan this way, just be a lot more flexible, e.g. Monday is fajitas, Tuesday is curry, Wednesday is pasta bake, and you work out what's actually going it in once you're at the shops. I think after a few weeks of following recipes you'll all feel a lot more confident doing this, hang in there!

Red lentils are £2.50 a kilo!

Agree that gardening isn't always cost effective. It can turn into a lot of work if you start planting all sorts. A small herb garden is quite cheap and easy to maintain though. If you sow a bit of rocket or lettuce in the summer, it stops you having to buy those expensive bags of leaves.

I wouldn't bother growing things that are cheap to buy like carrots or spuds or even beans though, unless it was purely for fun.

The chicken curries could easily be a pack of paneer, tofu or a can of chickpeas to cut down cost. Add in a baked potato night and you could probably save enough on dinners to actually eat lunch.

Yes. I did think we had spices but when I checked the cupboard it seemed my spice-loving youngest has spiced up her already spicy Bombay pot noodles with them.

All we have left is flour and Chinese 5 spice.

Bone in thighs are even cheaper, if you can be bothered to take it out/cook with it in. I never buy breasts for meals now, only to poach and slice for sandwiches (cheaper than packet/deli meat)
We also have a couple of veggie meals a week, just simple things like veg curry, pasta or chilli.

Generally meat is cheaper per kg in bigger packs than small. Buying a bigger pack of meat than the 250g stir fry strips and cooking double or triple would have made things cheaper per meal.

If you’re not a leftovers kind of family then buying a big pack (say 1kg) and using half of the meat one night and the other half of the meat the next night will also save money.

Technically buying chicken pieces where the bone and drumstick are joined together and shredding it for wraps would have been the cheapest way to cook a Nando’s fakeaway

I think you have a lot of prepared sauces in your list, which is why it's expensive? But those shold last you a while, so next week will be cheaper.

In our house, this is what we call a gourmet pot noodle 😃

A menu like that is going to be expensive. We might have some of those meals but also cheaper things like pasta with homemade tomato sauce one night, or a baked potato, or a cheese and tomato risotto. Things like noodles with stir fried veg (I use onions, carrots and a couple of peppers not the fancy veg) and a bit of chicken are relatively cheap too. Another good one is veg pilaf with roasted drumsticks. I think the menu app is raising expectations unfortunately!

I avoid a menu where I’m going to have to buy an expensive protein for every meal because the bill will get out of hand very quickly.

I would buy the spices from the Asian aisle of the supermarket or from Asian stores. buy the big plastic packs by east end spices. it works out waaay cheaper than buying schwartz jars. and once you buy the large bags, they last ages as long as stored well in airtight containers.
also no jarred curry pastes etc as that would push your price up.
agree re more veggies/chickpeas/beans for protein.
also if buying rice, Asian supermarkets are much much cheaper. you can buy a 5 kilo bag and it works out loads cheaper. it lasts for over a year in an airtight container. if you have a Chinese supermarket near you, they also have really good cheap rice/spices etc.