"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.

Try using turkey thigh mince, pork or lamb mince in some recipes as is hugely cheaper.

Pork mince chilli with rice or wrapped in lettuce leaves like a spicy yuk sung

Turkey mince fajitas instead of chicken breast

Lamb mince to make keema peas curry

Use a packet of decent sausages as the basis for different meals for 4 people. Sausage tray bake using cheap seasonal veg e.g cauliflower red onion squash potatoes peppers mushrooms etc. Salt, pepper and bit of chilli or other spices. Sausage and chilli tomato pasta using chopped tomatoes as the sauce base and pan frying sausages and veg of before adding tomatoes and seasoning.

Veggie pasta and risotto dishes. Buy big block of parmesan once a month

Utilising cheap cuts of meat typically available from the butchers e.g ham hock and root veg broth, beef shin madras, spiced crispy lamb breast wraps, crispy pork belly veggies and mash.

I bulk buy really good smoked bacon to use to lift an otherwise veggie meal e.g pea basil and pancetta pasta, pan haggerty and salad, dressed salad with new pots and crispy bacon

Try basa fillets as cheap alternative for fish dishes. Can be coated in flour and spices an pan fried. Cut into chunks and used in curries and fish stews. Roasted in the oven with veg.

My yoghurt maker is from Lakeland I think and I bought some live cultures from Amazon. ( you can probably start it off with live yoghurt ok but I found it easier with cultures ). I had muslin cloths ( unused ) from when DD was a baby and used it to strain the yoghurt to make it Greek style. Im
not sure how long it would take to get the investment back but a good lesson in self sufficiency for DD.

I haven't read the whole thread but I would be interested in a breakdown in costs.

For example, how much meat are you giving each person? Are you buying jars or curry sauce/paste or making your own (e.g. from tin tomatoes)? Same with the peri peri chicken- are you buying a meal kit (like old el paso - sorry for spelling) or a jar of sauce (e.g. nandos) or making your own sauce? What are you serving as a side? What kind of cheese are you buying (e.g., already grated), same goes with veg (e.g. already chopped onions)? Are you batch cooking? Rice, is this microwave (e.g. uncle bens) or normal rice you cook yourself? Are you buying organic?

As others have mentioned, once you buy your spices (in big bags from the market) they last forever and prices are low. I already own spices, so if I was going to make a chicken curry a 2 x tinned tomatoes would be 60p from Aldi. A fraction of a bag of rice (say 50p). 4 chicken thighs (say £2.50). Two peppers (£1). Spice cost is negligible. This would easily feed 4 people. £4.50 for a family of 4.

For the peri peri chicken the cost would be similar, but I would need 4 wraps @ 50p (rice would be a side, and I might swap tinned toms for kidney beans). £5 for a family of 4.

Anyway, I'm sure you answered this, and others have contributed, but I want to share my POV.

Oh and avoid specialist ingredients: use what you have (e.g. use cheddar instead of parmesan).

Maybe the moral of the story is: (1) don't buy expensive ingredients; (2) make or grown your own (e.g. sauces, veg, herbs); (3) use what you already have; (4) use cheaper cuts of meat; (5) reduce meat and bulk out with cheaper ingredients - lentils, beans, pulses, potatoes; (6) don't be afraid to depart from the recipe to do these things

I usually check what I have already and make meals around that, maybe introduce one new meal a week especially if you have absolutely nothing in that goes with those meals, like having to buy all the herbs/spices etc. Also try to make joints of meat do two meals so this week I bought a joint of beef that was on sale for £7.50 at Sainsbury's, so will make a roast with that and beef pie next day. So to do the two dinners, 2kg bag potatoes £1.39, bag of carrots 45p, onions 80p, gravy granules £2, pie crust £1, frozen peas 60p, so works out less than £7 per dinner (family of 6). A really cheap meal my family like is pork stir-fry: pork strips (these are on sale at sainsburys for £2), peppers, onions, peas, medium egg noodles, soy sauce, hoisin sauce and sesame oil, the last 3 ingredients once brought will do a lot of stir-frys. Also for a cheap breakfast my kids love home made pancakes, they're so easy to make and it uses ingredient you normally already have at home, 1 and 1/2 cup flour, 2 tsps baking powder, 1 egg, 1 cup milk, 3 tbsps melted butter, 1/4 cup sugar.

Switch to Morrisons, 3 for £10 on meats!

Yes it does. You get used to portions, you get familiar with ingredients to make a dish, you can look to make meals around what's on offer or what's reduced.

I can cook and feed 4 adults for £120 a week (all meals). It was under £100 but not anymore.

Muscle foods are a total rip off! I ordered from them and they are a total waste. The only good thing are their large meatballs.

You can get much more meat from Aldi, for less.

reduce meat to 3 - 4x per week and reduce amount served.
meals like fajitas, with a lot of extras , cost a lot more. Simple meals 3 x a week are fine, jacket potato, frittata, something on toast.
Try to make more of something to use the following day. Eg arribiata sauce, can be used as a pizza base the following day. If you make mash with a roast on Sunday, have bangers and mash/ egg and mash on Monday.

I think you're picking the meals from the wrong perspective.

You need to check what is on special, and then build the meal around it, rather than deciding beforehand.

If you are in striking distance of an asian or Indian shop buy your spices there. Also check out the veg while you are there, fresh coriander in my local Indian supermarket is 50p for a huge bunch. And you can freeze it, then you just crumble it into your curry.

Check out other shops that do deliver. There used to be a webpage that you could select what you wanted and it told you the price at other places, unfortunately it has closed but it is worth looking.

I pay £4 a month for unlimited mid week deliveries from Sainsbury's, it is worth checking out the different offers.

Iceland do free delivery if you spend £40.

You said you don't drive yet, but how much does a taxi cost? It might be worth a trip by taxi to Lidl / Aldi.

Are you having driving lessons? Ask your instructor if you can have your lesson finishing at the supermarket.

I menu plan around what is on special for the week. I also buy a lot of things in bulk, cleaning stuff from Costco etc.

a young mum friend recently bought 1 onion for the meal she was planning on that night. She didn't realise that per kilo, that 1 onion was considerably more per kilo than buying a small net bag of onions (which keep in the pantry for a few weeks).

Getting to understand labels and how things are priced, can make a huge difference, esp. the per 100 gram price (in very small print) on the shelf pricing. Same with toilet paper, know if its 2 or 3 ply and how much per 100 sheets.

For some stupid reason, the hot chocolate I buy when on special is cheaper to buy 2 smaller containers than the big one. Ivé yet to figure that out.

Don't turn into me OP! I am a self-confessed spice/herb/oil/ vinegar hoarder. The one's you really only need are paprika, garlic or onion powder ( for when you run out of fresh) , cinnammon, curry powder, a form of mustard ( pref a nice jar of dijon) and some sort of Italian herb mix. If you can grow basil, sage, oregano or a chilli plant etc that's great too. ( little pot gives you heaps). Off the top of my head you could get around most recipes with those. Waiting to get corrected! 😁Obviously am assuming you have sugar/olive oil/salt and pepper/ red wine vinegar/worcestershire. Personally, I need something like 5 spice or cumin but that's just me. Once you have those basics you won't need to buy them again for ages. Also agree with a pp that where I am chicken thigh fillets are dearer than breast fillets. Frozen brocolli is great when it is out of season. ( embarassing photo attached)

Skip the app. Often their recipes are quite expensive.
Reduce the meat.
Look into sale/reduced items an plan from there.
Look into saving/budget food groups on FB - lots of inspiration.

bbc website is good for cheap healthy meals

Just adding to this... if you can learn to bone and joint a whole chicken you will save even more money. Takes about 5 mins max and you can pop the bones in the slow cooker/pressure cooker for fresh stock for the freezer or homemade soup.

£75 sounds a lot for just evening meals though. Did you buy any ready made sauces etc in that?

Eggs, cheap.

Rice, cheap.

Pasta, cheap.

Spag bol, with or without mince, make your own sauce, water, tomato purree or passata or cheap chopped tomatoes, cumin, garlic powder/purree, a few gravy graules or stock cube, cinammon powder, salt, pepper, mushrooms if wanted. So cheap and you can also use these ingredients for chilli con carne just add in chilli powder an whatever other spices you may have, I make chilli with the tin of mixed beans from aldi without mince meat for me and with for the kids. Throw some rice and pasta with these 2 dishes and it is seriously cheap. Nachos if you like with the chilli 47p a bag in aldi.

Omelette with small potatoes, I know some people may not like the tinned new potatoes so can use fresh if you want but add garlic powder/purree, butter, salt and pepper and parsley from spice jars and then you habe a garlic and parsley sauce. Again cheap and tasty.

Chicken breast or chicken thighs, marinate in Greek yoghurt or don't, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, then you can make chicken skewers under the grill with the chicken breasts, or fry with a tiny bit of olive oil, for the thighs they can go in the oven. Abit of rice, salad and the potatoes above or add some crusty bread, part baked rolls less than a pound to bulk it out.

I make other dinners too lile thai green curry and butter chicken sometimes but the above I think are very cheap especially once you have all the ingredients like spice jars in which you have.

Hope this helps someone, I like to eat quite mediterranean as it is in me a little so I'm not really a pie and gravy person but you could also do jacket potatoes. Chicken wraps. I mainly bulk out dinners with salad and rice.

Depending on where you are you need to get to an Asian supermarket, not only will you get more spices per gram for your money but you'll also be able to pick up larger amounts of meat and poultry at a better price. Those tiny bottles of herbs and spices at asda are a rip off.

frozen herbs are great, basil, coriander
we did get bags of spices from an asian supermarket but they were huge. took far too long to use.
if you can get smaller bags they are better value.
i have a well stocked spice cupboard, buy from asda or lidl, cumin, coriander, thyme, oregano, garam masala, turmeric, cinnamon, paprika, chilli flakes.
not what i would consider an expense

I found your OP distressing.

You mention ‘an African village’. Not sure what the implication was - but of those of my relatives in an African country who live in villages rather than cities, animals are kept / bred either to work or to eat. No African I know would keep a big dog that they choose to feed instead of feeding themselves. Particularly if the dog was destroying the land and plants they relied on for food and income. So you’ll have to forgive me for finding your way of life extraordinary. (I’m English and have lived in England all my life.)

I do cook from scratch every day if I’m at home. I have multiple cookery books but mostly just improvise based on what’s in season (weekly veg box), what I feel like eating, and achieving a good balance of different food groups across a week. Pescatarian, so lots of tinned fish plus occasional large deliveries of freshly caught fish which I freeze. I don’t bother with supermarket fish. I buy lentils, beans, split peas, chickpeas, quinoa, several different grains, etc, in bulk - so couldn’t judge the cost of one day’s or one week’s servings per person. They form the basis of most meals.

Could you not find a 5 kg sack of oats, or wholemeal flour, or eggs from your cheapest source, instead of all that expensively cut up chicken, so you could have something for breakfast every day? It seems utter madness to allow your teenager to dictate a meal plan that leaves you without basic nutrition for most of the day. It’s not cool at all - it’s incredibly selfish, and I don’t understand why you haven’t stepped in to correct this?

If you’re skipping breakfast and lunch then you really can’t afford to keep a cat and a dog.

I always buy bone in thighs and remove the bone, which is a bit of a pain, but much cheaper. I’ll normally still cook the bones as they have meat on which my ds will pick at very happily.
I’ve also used Simply cook a few times, you don’t need to buy many ingredients, but more importantly they have made me try quite a few recipes I would never have thought of cooking otherwise. So nice to have some different ideas!

My top tip is to buy and cook a whole chicken on a Monday. On Monday night we used cooked chicken in a stir fry/risotto/rice dish then we have leftovers for lunch sandwiches and the dog gets the less nice bits of the chicken.

So dh and I do veggie Monday-Thursday which saved a lot.

Once you have staples in like herbs it's cheaper.

For example this week we are having-

Monday - quinoa, courgettes, onions, mushrooms, garlic , cauli, lentils in tomatoes with Indian spices.
Ds had meatballs and pasta with sweet corn

Tuesday- omelettes and jacket potatoes with peas

Wednesday - veggie curry - same veg as above with brown rice, Chinese spices and soy sauce

Ds had a chicken breast, roast potatoes, gravy and carrots.

Thursday- Chinese noodles soup - same as weds veg but with extra stock and nodules.
Ds had egg, beans and toast.

Friday - salmon, chips with peas.

Saturday- chicken pasta bake

Sunday- beef mince chili, rice . wraps, nachos , salsa, cheese, lettuce

We also have an adult dd who will eat wit us maybe 50% of time. Ds is 8.

Did weeks shop with Asda delivery - for ingredients for those meals plus breakfast stuff, staples, lunch stuff as it's holidays, snacks, cleaning products, toiletries , beer for dh. It came to £105 including delivery.

That will last the week but will also nip to shop for milk , bread , missed items etc usually spend another £15.

I do find Lidl/aldi cheaper. For above it would be around £90 but they don't deliver in our area and I find Asda next cheapest.

We are a family of 5 and are under £100 every week 😁

we shop at Asda and I meal plan. I think the problem might be that all your meals are entirely different in terms of ingredients so your not reusing the same things for meals if that makes sense?

I vary it each week but as an example I buy 4kg of chicken, a huge bag of rice for the rice cooker and whatever veg we want, I prep all the meals for the week and then season all different types of chicken so their might be Cajun chicken, peri peri chicken, Korean chicken and bbq or crispy chicken. It’s then put into Tupperware with rice, whatever veg matches the theme of the chicken and then drizzle any extra sauces etc ontop and they go in the fridge ready to grab whenever. Obviously they don’t all have to be rice, we do some pasta sometimes too or salad like baked burritos. But it really keeps costs down,

xx