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Costing out meals?
Downsizing__for_sanity
Posts: 390 Forumite
Hello all,
This is probably a really silly question, but if anyone knows the answer, you folks will. I've been looking for some kind of calculator in which you could put in recipe ingredients and the costs and automatically work out how much it costs per serving, so you could compare, for example, the cost of serving moussaka to serving lasagne for tea.
I KNOW that I should be using my mental arithmetic whilst cooking as I do whilst shopping, but I'm trying to get a general idea of quantities and prices. I've tried to budget approx £1 per person per meal - about £21 food shopping each per week - as for example, cereal for breakfast costs much less and things should balance out overall. Does this sound about right for 2 adults?
Many thanks,
DFS
This is probably a really silly question, but if anyone knows the answer, you folks will. I've been looking for some kind of calculator in which you could put in recipe ingredients and the costs and automatically work out how much it costs per serving, so you could compare, for example, the cost of serving moussaka to serving lasagne for tea.
I KNOW that I should be using my mental arithmetic whilst cooking as I do whilst shopping, but I'm trying to get a general idea of quantities and prices. I've tried to budget approx £1 per person per meal - about £21 food shopping each per week - as for example, cereal for breakfast costs much less and things should balance out overall. Does this sound about right for 2 adults?
Many thanks,
DFS
0
Comments
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Wow - sounds like a good idea! I can't imagine it as a product though, because I guess you'd have to be constantly updating the price of items before you could calculate per serving.
The closest I could suggest is making out a price per 100g / one tin etc. list of my most frequently used ingredients, something like that (in fact, that probably wouldn't take too long, as I tend to use the same sorts of things repeatedly), and work from there. A little notebook or something.
Or if you work from recipes again and again, or a favourite recipe book, work your costings and pop them in on post-its for future comparison, based on an average price of each ingredient...
Tricky that, perhaps someone else will know just the ticket...0 -
I know of no such gadget. Sorry
All I can recomend is that you keep your receipts and calculate the ingredients from them. Remember to pro rata down the cost of items you have only used half or a third of and then devide by the number of servings.
I would also recomend that you create a 2/3 week meal plan. It really does limit the amount of storecupboard ingredients you need to stock and you are safe in the knowledge that if you don't use all of something in one go it will be called back into action in 2/3 weeks time and so on until all gone. I can't rememeber the last time I had to throw something away because it had gon over its useby.
Also look at recipes critically. They are not written in stone and can be adapted to suit your needs and budget. Expensive ingredients such as meat can often been suplimented with oats, grated carrot etc to bulk them up so they feed more or you buy less. HTHLife's a beach! Take your shoes off and feel the sand between your toes.0 -
Just to give you a hand on your £21 per week shopping query. My partner and I spend approximately £40 every 2 weeks on grocery shopping. With a maximum spend of around £100 per month....and I could do it cheaper if I really wanted to.
over time you will know how much you can get out of each bag of flour, or each pack of meat or veg.
I couldn't keep track of the cost of every portion or 100g of each ingredient in my meals. So what I do instead is keep track of what is in the freezer, and my cupboards, the meals that we like to have every week, and my spends at the supermarket (or elsewhere).Baby Year 1: Oh dear...on the move
Lily contracted Strep B Meningitis Dec 2006 :eek: Now seemingly a normal little monster. :beer:
Love to my two angels that I will never forget.0 -
Thank you all for your prompt replies!
The annoying thing is that I can cook, and I used to do it on a budget of £10 - 15 a week for just me, when I was a student. (Less than that when I lived in France, but we made up for it with wine!)
You see, I work away from our home, and have to eat in the Mess. Very good food it is too, but a. you get used to rich sauces and huge portions and b. you become a bit detached from how much things cost when you're not in Tesco's every week.
However, due to a lot of moneysaving which I've learned from this site mostly, I'll be able to give up work totally. This means big changes and belt tightening, but I'm determined to try to make it as "fun" as possible.
Regards,
DFS0 -
i work it out quite simply...
The cost of the item/ingredients times by how many i use, or divided.
Spag Bol
1/2 pack mince 98p /2 =49p
Bolognaise sauce =50p
Pasta 1/4 pck = 22p
garlic = 5p
£1.16 per sitting, divide by 2 = 58p per person per meal.0
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