"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.

I actually find “ recipes” always have me spending more on a weekly shop because they tend to have so many ingredients. In your case having acquired the spices now might calm that down a bit going forward. But I tend to find it cheaper when all is said and done to focus on fresh, simple “ main ingredient “ cooking - even though many find that counter intuitive when saving. So if I bought chicken breasts we might just grill them with a baked potato, steamed broccoli and green beans for instance, with a sprinkling of herbs grown in pots. That way all the money is going into the main ( more nutritious) ingredients themselves. Whenever I try to make a new recipe I seem to end up with loads of “ filler ” items on the list to bind the main ingredients together and it’s often those aspects of the meal that add the fat/ sugar/ white flour etc. Somehow I find they cost a lot and either don’t stretch to a second meal or sit in the cupboard not being used. But perhaps I just choose the wrong recipes!

Sorry-posted too soon. Your shop does look look expensive. Are you building a store cupboard from scratch?

Just don't be fooled into thinking its a simple click and go process - you definitely have to think about it more than that.
It's that old quotation: "If something is free, you're the product."

For me, a recipe is just a guide, I think oh that sounds nice, then hmm I dont have that or that, substitute or omit and see how it turns out :)

Re the yoghurt - I make my own, a couple of kilo every week using 4litres of UHT skimmed milk from Lidl - £2.64 I use a ninja foodi 15 in 1, which was expensive, but it earns its place here as a yoghurt maker, bread maker, pressure cooker, slow cooker, as well as the roasting and air frying functions

We gave up growing veg. We live in NI and only have a tiny window of growing weather and the time and money wasted over the years - we gave up. I do grow Sage, thyme, rosemary, chives, and bay - cos they just come back year in year out

For me our meals are based around whats on special offer or whats been reduced . I dont have a weekly budget, because when legs of lamb and joints are half priced, I buy a few of each for the freezer. Legs are cut in half, with the leg meat from the knuckle end used for other dishes. Large joints are portioned into smaller sized ones. Lidl do chicken breast portions - badly cut fillets - they look like a fillet but the tops might be cut wrong - and they are usually a pound or more cheaper for KG. They are huge and I seriously can use just one to feed three of us ( in a chinese meal like chicken and black beans )

Rice I buy by the sack - 10kgs, does about a year. Pasta, that too is bought in the biggest bag I can find. And I dont be bothered about different shapes for different dishes, bolognaise is the same on penne as it is spaghetti :)

Lentils are your friend. Huge punch of protein for very little cost and cook into a bolognaise , you can halve the meat content. HM dhals are so filling , cheap and easy. Big pots of ham and lentil soup ( I buy a ham hock for £3, boil that up, use the stock for the lentils, take the meat off the bone, use some for sandwiches, some in a quiche and the rest into the soup ) - three different dishes of 4 or more portions - £3

Another trick I have, here at christmas especially, there are always huge packs of cocktail sausages reduced - like 80 for £2, I buy loads, split them up into small bags and they are great in a sausage casserole, into toad in the hole or even as a plate filler with a chicken dinner, and always handy for the grandkids. Usually I do a bread stuffing but at christmas, if theres the nice posh flavour ones reduced - I stock up on those as well

As a scratch cook I do have a huge array of spices and herbs, but only the ones we use most - we cook a lot of chinese and indian style dishes, so always soy sauces, rice wine, sesame oil, along with tumeric, cumin and coriander. When I get to the UK I always hit the chinese supermarkets for stuff like fermented black beans, dried mushrooms etc, the bits that we cant get here or they are ridiculously expensive. And stock pots - I do love the red wine ones ( cheaper then opening a bottle ). For general soup stock, the polish vegetable seasoning in a blue bag for 85p ( often 2 for £1) is superb

We are meat eaters but I do cut the meat and double the veg content as much as I can. Frozen veg is great save. They were looking £1.10p a cauli at easter and I needed 2. I got a kilo of frozen florets for £1.35, made a huge dish of cauliflower cheese that did 8 generous portions and Ive still some florets in the freezer. Stew mix - bargain, that and a pack of stewing beef, a stock cube, in the pressure cooker - 40 mins later dinner is ready

Doesn't sound particularly expensive tbh, our food shop is never less than £150 a week (breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 people).

There are plenty of cheap options for easy family dinners.

Carbonara is just just spaghetti, bacon off cuts, eggs and grated hard cheese. You could add peas /broccoli/spinach but I can feed 4 adults this for less than £6 using Lidl or Aldi. Left overs can be eaten cold for lunch.

Toad in the hole with veg and gravy. I can do that for less than £6 for 4 adults too. Or bangers and mash with veg.

Have baked potatoes with cheese/beans one night and do extra to keep in the fridge to be microwaved for lunches. Have a night of soup ( use random odd veg and protein lurking in the fridge. Or buy one pack of bacon off cuts and use half for the carbonara and half for a bacon and lentil soup) and serve with a cheese toastie.

Not every meal needs to be a big fuss, you can easily save money by simplifying things and yet still get your nutritional needs covered.

Also for herbs and spices I never ever ever buy from the little jar section. I go to a whole food/Chinese/Indian supermarket and buy them in bigger bags and then pour them into saved jam jars/coffee jars and it saves me a fortune over the year. I'd start with at least oregano, basil, cumin, smoked paprika, bay leaves, curry powder, chili powder, some salt and pepper seasoning, five spice, nutmeg and ginger. The initial outlay will be bigger but they will last you much much longer. Also pick up some bigger bags of rice, lentils and split peas to make it worth the journey ( or get it delivered).

I find most of the recipes on the taming twins site are very tasty without needing lots of different ingredients, so work out cost effective. There's also some meal plans on there with shopping lists for the week, so they may be a useful resource whilst you're getting used to cooking from scratch each day: https://www.tamingtwins.com/family-meal-planner-23/.

I would definitely consider stocking your freezer up with bags of frozen veg, as you can't really tell the difference in curries and pasta sauce style dishes. I think Iceland offer free delivery over £40, so you may find you can get some things cheaper with them than Asda.

Hi OP.

Lovely food list, but yes a touch pricey. See my cheaper options which hit the fortnightly rotation

Always chicken thighs, non-filleted
Always Omlettes and Jacky P dinners each week
Beige food platter with Iceland goodies in place of takeaway
Big fat meat joint on offer (2 day meal) with rice
Spaghetti dish with meat/bolognese type (2 day meal)

Your menu sounds ace BTW, am jealous of your DDs food diversity.

These tips are so helpful thank you. Has anyone got any tips on keeping their (three drawer) fridge-freezer organized for cost effective meal planning? I was thinking about a making three separate drawers of protein, frozen veg, misc in the freezer? I hoard into my small freezer space where I can and so rarely have space to rifle through and plan a meal.

DP likes to keep a lot of bought ice cubes in bags in there which drives me nuts. I like to freeze bread which is low value and bulky but I hate it going off when we don’t eat it quickly enough. Meanwhile we need to be meal planning for cost-saving, freezing, batch cooking and eating more healthily but that sounds like it will need a lot of freezer space. And bring organised- probably a chalkboard to remind me and everyone else. sorry if this is derailing

If you can be flexible at times with what you eat you could look at Too Good To Go (where they sell food on the use by date cheap).

We have a Co-op near us that does it and we get bags a few days a week where you approx £12 of food for £4. It's a gamble on what you get and some days you're have trifle for a while but others you get meat; ready meals and vegetables. We freeze a lot of what we get to help stock up.

I buy 3kg bags of lentils/dried peas/chickpeas from Amazon. They cook up very quickly in the instant pot and are very versatile. Either for veggie dishes or to add to meat based dishes. I've just had a breakfast of homemade humus, some chopped tomato and cucumber and a chopped boiled egg. Yum.

I didn't see any mention of eggs on your list. Even free range eggs are cheaper than meat and again, very versatile. Omelettes, poached, scrambled, French toast, Yorkshire puds and pancakes, added to veggie curries. I hard boil a few at a time and keep them in the fridge for an instant protein hit.

we have a couple of fancy meals a week and cheaper boring ones the rest. I’m also a devil for a reduced sticker, do actually check they are a bargain though (waitrose I’m looking at you knocking a tiny percentage off). I try to stretch any meal I can with extra carbs, sides, salad or vegetables.
when we have a season change it always takes a while for me to catch up with good stretches that can be done.

saturdays I do something a bit bigger, like your fakeaway and I’d add a few sides to make it feel like fake nandos. The m and s meal deal is really good for that one!
we were spending a fortune on takeaway that we’re just a bit shit, this way it’s cheaper, nicer and we still get the family to eat together.

I write a list when I defrost it.
its not fun.
nor is it fun keeping it up to date.
i don’t mean this to sound condescending, I realised I was buying bread out of habit. One or two slices were being used, that was it. Now I only buy it when I know we will use it.
i am also good at making a banana, nutella bread and butter pudding for the times I get caught out.

I know you are right about buying the spices in bulk ( mind you'd have to use a lot to get through them before they lost all their flavour so possibly false economy) but more importantly I wouldn't be able to do this at the supermarket.

I think that once you've got the basics in and topped up (chopped tomatoes, tom puree, lentils, herbs, spices) it does get cheaper. I have a veg box delivered for £14. That comes with a recipe sheet so, when the box arrives, I'm a whirling kitchen dervish batch cooking the whole lot.

I live on my own, but did the same when DC were at home. It did cost a fortune at the start, but once you've got the basics stocked, it's affordable.

This works with the root base of anything in the onion family - so also works with onions, leeks, shallots, etc.

Carrot tops will also re-grow.

Plus, if you scoop out the seed pulp from tomatoes and let it ferment and go mouldy for 3-4 days, the seeds become viable and you can grow tomato plants for free.

It's the right time of year to be planting everything.

As someone with an allotment, I'm not sure I agree that growing your own veg saves you money 😆

What does save me money, though, is making my own bread. I have a sourdough culture on the go, and have a mega easy method (you just mix it all up in the evening and chuck it in the oven the next morning- I have a healthy distrust of all the baking gurus on Instagram- I think they make their processes overly complicated to foster the sourdough mystique 🙄).

This also works for pizza dough, flatbread and focaccia, although that only takes about 2-3 hours.

Making your own shortcrust pastry is also pretty easy and saves quite a lot.

Has anyone got any tips on keeping their (three drawer) fridge-freezer organized for cost effective meal planning?
Do you have room for another freezer? You can probably find one on Freecycle. Or charity shops sell electricals these days.
I do the same as you - a drawer for protein, a drawer for veg, etc so you can see at a glance what you have. I also have a small half-drawer at the bottom in which I keep all sorts of flavoursome ingredients e.g. the other half of the ginger / chorizo / miso paste / whatever that I didn't use; the yellow-stickered herb; some pig-product (bacon / lardon / continental sausage / etc) that really lifts a meal.

@Frequency if you roast a whole chicken one day, then is does two meals making a curry the second day. same with bargain roasts on one day and make stovies on the second day when there is not quite enough meat for a second meal.

Oh and last suggestion is the tubes of pastes( ginger, lemongrass, chilli, garlic etc) They are a bit dearer but they last absolutely forever in the freezer so you always have them. They just squirt straight out of the tube even when they are frozen, straight into whatever you are cooking. Fab product.

growing your own veg only makes financial sense if you have a big allotment and a lot of time.
and space in freezer/pantry to store.

herbs and salad though are very economical, even on th window sill. one courgette plant will keep you covered from june - september.

Don't waste precious freezer space on bought ice. Make your own ice and keep a smaller bag of it. Then keep making ice if you need a stock of it, no need to fill your freezer with it if you don't have loads of room.

If he's buying ice regularly, better ice cube trays might be cost effective. I got some that made decent sized cubes from John Lewis for about £5.

My other money saving tip is to split growing herbs into multiple pots or at least repot into a larger pot - the ones they come in aren't big enough to sustain growth, but if you can keep it going, you can reduce the number of pots of herbs you need to buy if you don't find growing your own cost effective.

Reading this thread has opened my eyes a bit. The shoestring budget menus I’m seeing feel really deprived to me. Stuff like pasta with a sauce and no protein. I’m ethnically third world living in london w all ethnic local shops around us. It costs pennies to feed a small family. But CoL and family, kids, time, budget location habits and tastes all make a difference.

The main differences I’m seeing is that we get most ingredients whole unprocessed and in bulk, from the local Asian grocer not supermarkets. Several whole chickens, couple of kilos of bone in mutton, mince, big bag of yellow lentils, whole frozen fish (Asian types not cod), enormous bags of basmati rice and vegetable oil. Big bags onion, garlic. Big containers ghee, bolst curry powder, cumin seeds, cassia bark, cardamom pods, whole cloves, cumin seeds, coriander powder, turmeric, paprika, chilli powder, salt, (oh and PG Tips) which all last several months.

So we don’t refill our entire base ingredients in a weekly shop, it’s more replenishing fresh stuff which is higher quality at the supermarket vs the local shop, like bread for morning toast, eggs, margarine, salad veg, fruit, crisps and chocolate (!). Obviously this means lots of storage and habitually eating the same 5-10 curries on rotation every week. We have rice plus chicken or red meat (all bone-in) with almost every lunch and dinner, once in a blue moon it’s dahl, curried sliced fish or coriander omelette with rice instead (if the family gluttons have eaten all the curries!). Shop on Sat and 4-5 giant pots of curry cooked up every Sunday (the main time and effort is expended) and eaten over the week. Meals are not cooked from scratch every day. I think most third world type cuisines have a similar emphasis on stewing / slow cooking / currying giant pots of cheap cut meat until tender with aromatics and served with a simple cheap carb (always rice for us).

This is the cheapest way to buy garlic or ginger from supermarkets.

https://groceries.asda.com/product/scratch-cook-vegetables/taj-crushed-garlic/26059076?&cmpid=ppc--ghs----google---_-dskwid-_dc&s_kwcid=AL!11432!3!!!!x!!&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwwr6wBhBcEiwAfMEQsyEa_5A3HdEQ2W0ps1Oqwg4TRaUub8sTljUC1AkvuCOl7o-UE4-OMRoCFmkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

@QuirkyCyanScroller I agree with you some of these suggestion feel really too frugal if someone is actually OK financially and very dull.

I see people buy packs of ham in the supermarket and think you could buy a piece to cook and have sandwiches all week that would be far far nicer than sad floppy cheap ham.

Using lots of different veg in different meals.

Eating cheaper fish rather than farmed salmon, but in a lovely pie or a curry.