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.

*roast dinner obviously

Livvy no not mark downs, a medium size chicken in Aldi is £2.50. A bag of roast potatoes is around £1 and I would say half a bag for 4 people? Carrots 40p for a large bag and you'd use maybe half of that, a head of broccoli is about 50p. I can't remember off the top of my head what the yorkshires cost but I would have thought about 80p for a bag and you'd only use half a bag.

Aldi is cheap 🤷‍♀️

I’ve never tried this myself but you can reduce the fat content of mince by adding cold water to it when it’s cooked (before adding sauce or veg),as fat will float to the top and can be skimmed off. Then drain mince and turn heat back up.

You can stretch mince with breadcrumbs, rice or lentils, or less noticeably, with cheaper quorn mince.

Or you can just empty into a sieve and wipe the pan. It's far less messy.

I recall when my mother made spag bol or a stew it would be left overnight in the larder and in the winter she would just remove a layer of solid white fat.

1960's - the meat must have been very fatty and the larder very cold.

450g mince easily does 6 of us, are but it from a free range meat company so it costs £4.88 for the meat. I reckon a lasagne would cost around £9 and easily feed six of us. A bit less for Bolognese. I’m happy to pay that for the free range meat.

If I want to make it stretch further I do as others suggest and add lentils- either tinned green lentils or I add dried red lentils and some extra liquid and leave it to cook longer.