How much does it cost you to make a cottage pie, a lasagne, a roast dinner?

[WombatChocolate]

Just wondering what people spend on preparing these standard family meals?

So, for ease of comparison, please do your calculations to cover a decent 4-5 portion meal.

For a cottage pie I would include the following;

• 500g extra lean mince £3.75
• carrots, peppers, mushrooms - about £1.50
• potatoes -- £1
• herbs, Worcester sauce, stock cube - 50p

Total - £6.75. Does that sound pretty average for a meal of this type?

My lasagne would cost an extra £1.50 as I'd use a carton of passata £0.50 plus a jar of white sauce £1 (I know, cheating) so £8.25.

Is anyone making these meals much cheaper and if so how? I'm not keen to go for very cheap meat. I don't mind cooking in bigger bulk and freezing if it helps.

Many thanks.

Ooh I forgot, I also added 1/3 punnet of button mushrooms to the cottage pie so total cost £2.57 + 30p = £2.87

So just under 72p per adult portion.

I skimmed the excess fat off the mince with a ladle, but there wasn't all that much anyway.

You can always add a tin of baked beans to cottage pie to bulk it out - just put them in a colander and rinse off the juice first. I didn't use them this time because one of the people eating it today is a fusspot doesn't like beans.

Between £5 and £7 for those I think, most of it's the meat

Where do you shop OP?

These are my favourite things to cook!
I always use extra lean mince and its very expensive to buy at full price but I normally Rock up at Lidl or Aldi for 8am and raid their reduced section. Ive been known to come home with 5 kilo of mince for 90p a packet. I know that some people can't get there for that time but I'm always on the hunt for bargains.

I always cook lasagna sauce from scratch with a tin of passata and spices. But white sauce I always buy a cheap tin of macaroni cheese and blend it to within an inch of its life. Much tastier, cheaper, and lower in fat!

I am shopping in Tesco, Sainsbury's or Morrisons - mostly Tesco. There aren't any Lidl or Aldis anywhere near me. I could have cheaper mince - half the price would be possible for fattier meat. However, I think I'd rather keep with the lean meat and perhaps try to use less and try some lentils.

Do people use canned lentils? Any particular type?

We have recently been experimenting with beef & pork mince, that's cheaper and quite tasty but more fatty and you do need to drain the fat off.

Our shopping is 50% Morrisons, 50% Aldi/Lidl.

Cottage pie

I make 2 portions and freeze half, one portion feeds my family of 4.

500g mince £3.33 (I usually buy meat on a 3 for £10 offer)
1 large onion 14p
2 peppers £1
200g sliced mushrooms 60p
2 large carrots 10p
Tin tomatoes 65p
Tin lentils 58p
Seasoning, salt/pepper/pinch of dried herbs about 5p
Half a glass of red wine, probably £1, but only added if we are drinking the wine anyway.
Potatoes 30p
Butter and milk for mashing, 10p.

So about £ 7.86 for 2 meals for 4 people makes £3.93 for one meal.

Roast dinner:
Chicken £3.33 (on 3 for £10 offer)
Potatoes 40p
Parsnips 30p
Carrots 20p
Green veg 60p
Stuffing 70p
Gravy (onion, flour, stock cube, pan scrapings) 60p
Seasoning (butter, salt, pepper) 10p

£6.23 but leftover chicken will be added to another meal or two.

Don't generally make lasagne, but do make spaghetti bolognese which likely costs similar to cottage pie.

Last week I used 900g of mince to make 4 meals of cottage pie/ spag bol for 2 adults and 2 small children plus and extra 5 adult portions. So 13 adult portions plus 2-2.5 adult portions (at a guess) that the children ate.

So 500g of mince would serve about 8 people for me. But I bulk up with lentils, beans and veg for health and purse reasons.

To make things cheaper you can buy reduced veg, cut and freeze raw then it's ready to tip straight into the pot at cooking time. If you've got a magimix or similar it's very easy to dice and freeze.

Probably similar to my costs OP.

On Saturday I used 2x 500g Tesco finest mince packs £6.66 total both packs in a multibuy offer. I made a big batch of sauce with the 2 packs, added canned sliced mushrooms, carrot, celery.

Used some for cottage pie, with 6x potatoes £1.50, then the remainder I made into Bolognese sauce with carton of Passata 30p, mixed dried herbs pennies, splash of red wine, fresh lasagne sheets just over £1 I think? Then value range spaghetti for the spaghetti Bol on Saturday night, we had the cottage pie last night and having the lasagne tonight.

I'm cooking a chilli for 4 adults now.

I've used 375g 15% mince £2.25, a tin of kidney beans, chopped tomatoes and adzuki beans at 3 for £1, an onion 10p, sachet of aldi chilli con cane sauce mix 25p. So £3.60.

Will serve with rice £1, and steamed broccoli 60p.

So £5.20 for all 4 of us.

Our roast chicken dinner is similar to @Whathappenedtothelego but it entirely depends on what meat you choose.

Reasonable pork joint is about £4-5, beef £7-8 or lamb £9-11. We sometimes have gammon instead and that's about £6. There's usually meat left over from those so will easily stretch to sandwiches or a couple more meals next day.

I cook more veg than I used to, and fill people up with that on their plates. So far, they haven't noticed

I bulk my cottage pie with brown/green lentils (60p), as well as meat and veg.

Oh and buy potatoes in a sack at the veg shop for around £5.

I'll give it a go Chocolate but I have been slated on here for being too extravagant.

Cottage pie: £7.14
Mince £3.50
Carrots 40p
Mush 90p
Onion 25p
Stock pot 50p
Tbs flour 5p
Herbs 40p
Worcester sauce 10p
Salt and pepper 4p
Potatoes £1.00

Lasagne £11.09
Mince £3.50
Onion 25p
Tin toms 50p
Puree 25p
Glass red wine £2
Salt and pepper 4p
Oregano 30p
Sauce:
Butter 40p
Flour 5p
Milk £1
Cheese £2
Parmesan £1
Bayleaf 5p
Pasta 75p

Roast:
Hmm tricky
Veg, gravy, roasties and things like mince sauce or horseradish, I reckon £5.00

Chicken plus a bit of stuffing add £6.50
Pork loin joint £10
Half leg of lamb £10ish
Single rib of beef £25

I would always make double cottage pie or lasagne and freeze half. Would feed 4 greedy adults and one lunch next day.

I'd happily spend £1.50 less on mince for those dishes by buying basics but it's hard to get now. Sainsbury's shopper.

Roast-
Chicken £7
Potatoes £1
Carrots 60p
Swede 50p
Broccoli 65p
Leeks £1
Stuffing 75p
Oil/butter/gravy maybe 50p
Total £12 for 5 or 6 people

Lasagne
Mince £4
Onions 30p
Garlic/stock 50p ish
Mushrooms 50p
Tinned tomatoes 85p
Passatta.35p
Basil 50p
Lasagne sheets £1.20
White sauce 60p
Cheese £1 ish
Total £10.10 it will serve 6 though.

Traditionally lasagne doesn't have cheese in it so if you want to save money, missing out the cheese could be an idea!

Re extra lean mince - fat isn't the enemy! It's actually good for you and brings lots of taste. I always use fatty grass fed mince, tasty and relatively inexpensive.

I do a batch of cottage pie:

2x400g packs of mince
2 onions, 2 cloves garlic, about 4 large carrots, a half a punnet of mushrooms, maybe a courgette/a leek, and about 2 cups of frozen petits pois (most veg finely diced in food processor, peas left intact)
Squirt of tomato puree (from a tub, or a pack that is half the size of the little tins) - about a tablespoon or 2
a tin of tomatoes
beef stock cube, some seasoning, decent dash wostershire (sp?) sauce
About 2kg of potatoes
Tablespoon of butter
a cup of milk (roughly)
About 1/3 of a 200g block of cheddar, grated - I usually stock up on cheddar when it is on offer

That makes at least 2 large family sized cottage pies, and at least 2 more 2 person sized ones (often more).

I dread to think to be honest, I like a bit of luxury in my meals so always add wine, extra cheese, cream etc when I cook as does DH. I am however intrigued now so I’ve been on the supermarket site to see.......

Lasagne:
Aberdeen Angus beef mince- £4.30 500g
1 Red onion & Whole tub mushrooms- £1.20
Half a tube of garlic purée- 50p
2 table spoons tomartoe puree- 25p
2x Tin of chopped tomatoes- £2 (in summer I would use fresh ones from my garden)
1x250ml glass of red wine- depends on the bottle we are drinking at that moment, right now probably £3 a glass
1/2 pouch fresh beef stock from supermarket- 1.50 for half pouch
Herbs, black pepper- minimal cost
1mozzarella ball- £2.49
White sauce- (Full fat milk, drop of double cream, butter, flour, bay leaf) umm having trouble guessing the price!
1/2 block grated extra mature cheddar cheese- £3 for half the block
1/2 box Pasta sheets- £1.50 half box
So yes expensive I guess but lasagne isn’t a quick mid week meal to us, it’s sauce is cooked slowly for hours etc and it’s indulgent for weekends or get togthers with friends.

Roast chicken dinner
Whole chicken- £12.25 (from village butcher, organic etc)
Broccoli- 50p
Frozen peas- minimal

Carrots- few pence we buy big bags so dc can snack on them
Parsnips- 84p (24p each in my supermarket)
Honey glaze for Roasted veg- free as a relative keeps bees
Cauliflower-£1
Cheese cause for cauliflower- (full fat milk, 1/2 block cheese, black pepper, few chives, touch of cream, flour, butter) - well £3 for the 1/2 block cheese not sure of the rest
Roast potatoes- ? pence as 2kg of Maris pipers are 1.80 and we don’t use a whole bag
Goose fat for roasting potatoes- 3.49 a whole jar and I’d use 2 tablespoons for roasting so not sure
Gravy- minimal as we use pan scrapping, flour, bit of veg water. Stock cube etc

Those of you that use lean mince, why? The flavour is in the fat! I use 12-15% fat mince and never drain. The extra lean mince is normally sold at a premium too so if your someone how is looking to budget it’s not the best option...

Cottage pie for 4 - 5
500g mince £3.50
Potatoes 50p
Carrot 10p
Onion 10p
Oxo cube 12p
Herbs from garden
So £4.32

Roast would be so varied depending in the meat. Cheap chicken is about £3, an expendive bit of beef might be £20. The potatoes and veg would come to about £1.50, then gravy and stuffing /yorkshires /sauces would be another £1

Forgot to say, I do usually sprinkle in a generous handful of red lentils, you don’t need to soak those ones. I buy 1kg packs very cheaply and when leaving the sauce simmering for about an hour they easily cook fully but you don’t really notice them.

Cooked a roast dinner Ystd all ingredients from Aldi.

Chicken £2.50 (enough for 4 portions.)
50p ready made roast spuds
Veg £1.50 (broccoli, carrots, roasted parsnip)
20p ready made Yorkshire's
Gravy 30p

So £5 ish

Spaghetti Bolgnaise

Soya mince one bag £1
Onion 30p
Carrot 20p
Mushrooms 60p
Oil 5p
Tin of tomatoes 50p
Stock cube 10p
Red wine £1
Marmite 5p
Tomato paste 10p
Spaghetti 20p

£4ish?

Chicken and pork roast dinners are cheap.
I only do beef or lamb for special occasions, or when they're on offer, e.g. 1.4kg beef was c. £10 in Sainsbo on Sat, so cut in half, froze 1, therefore 2 meals for 4 people. Meat was therefore £1.25 per head per meal.

Tinned lentils are a bit more expensive than dried. I usually use the dried orange lentils that I use in dal. They are very cheap if you buy them when they are on offer. They don't need any soaking and cook in about 10 minutes, just throw them in the mix. Sometimes I use the tinned green lentils.

@Girliefriendlikespuppies were your toast dinner ingredients mark downs? Half price or less? I mean your chicken, ready made pots and yorkshires? I’m just intrigued to see how you could make a meal for 4 with those costings