'Why can't my husband understand that cooking from scratch saves money?

[bytheMoonlight]

He makes me so frustrated and I'm fed up of going round in circles each week.

I do the shop, and as we are on a small weekly budget, the less we spend on a weekly food bill the easier the week is.

DH is insistent that jars are cheaper and no matter how much I try and show him that a meal cooked from scratch (bolognese, chilli) are cheaper in the long run we still end up having the same conversations over and over.

Arrrrghhhh!

Don't really know why I'm posting I just needed to vent!

of it's cheaper to cook from scratch.

maybe you could both get a fiver to spend on ingredients for bolognese (for eg) and see who gets more portions for their money. I'm sure you'd win.

Of course you are right.

That's a good idea, he can buy the ingredients and so can you seperately, then portion each one up and see how much it costs per portion made from scratch or using jars.

Plus you will then have loads of spag bol in the freezer!

And you know exactly what goes into it!

Try some simple maths on him.

Vegetables from a farmer cost £1.00. If sold by a shop they want 30% margin so retail at £1.30.

Vegetables from a farmer cost £1.00. They are bought by a canner and turned into a processed food and the canner wants a 30% margin so they sell at £1.30. If then sold by a shop at 30% margin then they would retail at £1.69.

So, by buying processed food,you have to pay more to people who all take their share so food costs more. Simples!

OK so this ignores volume discounts that the canner might get etc but the principles are valid. Hence the "save money cut out the middleman" adverts that you see.

Yes I am male but your post is blindingly obviously correct to me!

In some ways you can cook cheaper from the very low budget stuff so in some ways your OH is right but it'd be full of rubbish and fillers and goodness knows what. If you do comparable quality I'd say scratch each time - but some short cuts OK like tinned tomatoes and stuff.