Cooking from scratch....not finding this any cheaper!

[Podrick]

I have been cooking from scratch almost exclusively for the last month or so - cakes, biscuits, the lot!

The food has been great but it hasn't been cheaper as I had been expecting...my best friend saud she thinks it costs more!

What is your experience?

I meal plan and it always costs less at the supermarket when I foloow my list than when I free shop. If you have only recently started cooking some things it is going to cost a bit more as you build up your store cupboard.

Same as yours Pod and especially now as I have started Slimming World (again), so am replacing lots of meaty things with quorn stuff (I'm not mad about meat anyway, but DH is quite insistent). Keep looking through some of the tips on here though, there are loads of ways to cut the spends down (I'm just a teeny bit lazy to do some of them )

It really depends on what you are cooking from scratch and what you are comparing it to.

homemade cakes and biscuits are not cheaper than value ready made but they do work out cheaper than the finest range

I cook from scartch and it is most definitely cheaper than shop bought. I made pizzas yesterday and it worked out less than £1 per pizza - not sure you can even buy a pizza that cheap - certainly not that good quality.

Yes I think thats a good point from conniedescending - you have to compare your own homemade cakes with ones from the poncey stall at the farmers market not with run of the mill supermarket stuff thats made from the cheapest margerine etc.

I cook from scratch and would say that it is cheaper for us considering what we eat. I spend about £150 a month on food/cleaning.. plus another £50 on fresh as i need.

That's for a family of 5 including dh a huge eater, a teen ds.. and two good eaters.

I couldn't buy the quality of food I can make for that amount tbh.

but I do keep chooks, have a veg garden and make bread, jams and pasta etc.

Good points re building up store cupboard & comparing to the finest ranges not the value ranges!

Also I am buying mainly organic meat and dairy ingredients so I guess we are eating better quality for the same cost and perhaps I should be happy with that!

I really love the mumsnet recipes bank. I am trying homemade pizza this week! Up until a month ago I had hardly cooked any dishes from scratch so it's a whole new world to me!

I think I will concentrate on menu planning better and on being more organised and not wasting stuff - that should make a bit of a financial impact. I am still spending over £100 a week for 3 of us at the moment.

I am also trying to shop less with Tesco on world domination grounds and more with the Coop and Waitrose

Buying in bulk definitely helps me. Things can be stored easily flour/sugar/pasta etc.

Cooking from scratch is cheaper if you do simple recipes with approximatly half a dozen ingredients and make sure that the next day dish uses 2 or 3 of the same ingredients.

if you pick 7 dishes that are all different and with a whole list of stuff to get for each meal it will work out expensive.

Things like roast chicken on Sunday followed by cold chicken and bubble and squeek on Monday and chicken curry on Wednesday and Spanish omelette on Thursday, Fish with sauce on Friday and pizza home made on Saturday.

Or you can do a free week, you cook for three weeks and for 7 of the meals out of the 21 meals you freeze another dish so that the last week of the month you just pull your meals from the freezer.

So spag bog home made and make twice as much, freeze half, fish pie, chicken casserole, chicken curry, beef cobbler, cottage pie and so on.

One idea (you probably do it already) is to make a huge pan of tomato sauce whcih can then be turned into spag bol, chilli and maybe lasagne. Pretty cheap to make, especially if you don't mind it being veggie.

Spag bol sauce = basic tomato sauce with some fried onions, peppers, maybe courgettes or sweetcorn or carrots.

Veggie chilli = basic tomato sauce, chilli powder and paprika, tin of kidney beans and tin of cannelini or butterbeans, vege as wished.

Just make a large chicken or beef casserole which can be bulked out with pearl barley, tinned tomato, carrots potato all the vegtables that you enjoy and then eat this for three to four days. The stew casserole will get better each day. It saves on having to cook and washing up is healthy, use inexpensive vegtables and it will cost around 50p per portion - as long as there is a whiff of chicken/shin beef and not overloaded with the meat.

These are brilliant ideas! Thank you!
At the moment I am cooking double and freezing a meal quite often..I love the idea of a free week!

I have made a lamb stew so I could try adding to that each day - sounds like a cool and fun idea! And good idea about making lots of a basic sauce as well. Menu planning better is probably going to be where I start to save!

We often do a roast chicken then make chicken salad and soup from the leftovers, but as yet I have not mastered chicken curry or chicken casserole. Maybe I will make them next on my list of recipes to try!

Chicken casserole - make up your own.

Get some chicken thighs from the supermarket or the butcher. You want about 3 per person for three to four males.

Dont bother cutting them, you can skin them if you like the skin off. Then put them in your largest oven goable pan, or slow cooker lay them on the bottom.

Next slice some swede, parsnip, turnip, potato, sweet potato, mushrooms, carrots - pick at least 5 of these and put them on top of the chicken.

Next pour over two tins of basic chopped tomato, and a pint and a half of stock (I use vegtable stock made up from a small tin) Chuck in a hand full of pearl barley, now put the lid on and cook in the oven on gas 2-3 at most for around 3 hours.

If you want about an hour from the end chuck in some frozen sweetcorn and peas.

The chicken will fall off the bone as it has been cooked slowly. Serve what you require and put the rest in the fridge or just leave the slow cooker on. I will leave my slow cooker on low for two days - just stir every now and then.

If you reheat the casserole make sure it is up to temperature and cooked all the way through.

Go and ask the butcher for a pound of shin beef and do the same - the shin beef is good for cooking slowly just dice it up and coat in flour at the start. The supermarket dont know often what shin beef is - I have asked and they look at me gone out! It has a good flavour.

If you have some wine that you want to use - chuck that in aswell, some bacon lying in the fridge pop that in. Some butter beans or kidney beans than pop those in if you fancy.

No need for lots of expensive stuff just use the root veggies you like and a few of the things you know the family will eat.

IME of cooking from scratch, I would agree that it depends what you compare it to. But for basic filling everyday meals, as long as you meal plan and don't buy fresh things that you either won't get a chance to use or don't need it is cheaper.

But I have started to revert to my mothers favourite of left over night. Basically trying to use up all the bits that were too small to freeze. Also generally the children eat for lunch what DH and I have eaten the night before, if that makes sense.

Ivykaty, how much would a pound of shin beef be from a butcher? We were planning a stew on evening through the week

Think if you're buying organic you're never going to see the advantage in simple cost terms between a pre-packaged biryani and the same thing made with good quality ingredients at home - but boy you will see it in terms of health, supporting humane farming and taste. Plus reduced packaging - it's all good.

Have you got Jamie's Ministry of Food? The man clearly (and quite possibly rightly) believes the foundation of any dish is: 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery and an onion. Add in random other bits, some tins of toms and you're good to go.

Meal planning is a lifesaver for me, in that I work f-t and have to do all the cooking as dh is disabled so can't stand at the cooker. In the weeks where we've gone off-piste the profits of M&S Food Hall in Leeds station triple (and even then I can't go mad on the processed stuff as dh is wheat-intolerant so other than the odd biryani it's expensive Cook stuff with a prepared sauce).

I made loads of homemade fishfingers tonight that fed 3 adults, a 5 year old and a baby from £1.88 worth of coley from Morrisons, 2 slices of bread and an egg. [proud emoticon]

Can I please have the home made fish finger recipe?

IME organic is too pricey and my DH thinks it's a conspiracy anyway, organic is never cheap. We prefer to think of the food miles.

Local produce (ie find a green grocer or market), is better quality and longer lasting. We are big fans of veg boxes, but that throws meal planning out sometimes!

Sure: you get a big old fillet of coley or something just as cheap as long as its a white fish.

Cut it up into even strips - some will be fatter than others but hey ho. Put the oven on at gas mark 5,and feel along the fish and remove any really big bones.

Get flour, mixed up egg and some breadcrumbs ready - I just put two toasted slices in the food processor - I think you can use polenta and lots of other stuff as well but have never tried it.

Anyway coat your fish in flour, then egg then breadcrumbs and put it on a greased tray in the oven for about 10 mins.

Today my breadcrumbs were more bits of bread and I thought it was going to be weird but actually that was really nice as well...

my 5 year old ds loves to do the coating with me - its the same coating we use if we are going to do the fish fillet whole or in fact fishcakes as well.

Ivykaty44 that's brilliant, thanks a lot for the recipe - I am definitely going to try that one, and I am thinking of getting a slow cooker as well!

I will have a leaf through the Ministry of Food book in the book shop & see if I think it will help me!

Am v impressed by homemade fishfingers. Another one to try!

Agree with the food miles thing - I don't buy much organic fruit and veg and prefer the locally sourced stuff. Fresh peas imported from Kenya just seems ridiculous to me.

Thank you giantkatestacks, that will be a little job for tomorrow. My DS eats anything he's had a hand in (not that anyone else would want to) so I'm sure he'd love the stickiness of that!
Will report back!