Whats cheapest - cook from fresh or ready meals?

MortgageMamma

I'm looking to cut my shopping bill. at present its around £90 a week for 2 adults and 2 children. We all have "good" appetites and are often a bit indulgent when chocs, biscuits etc are concerned - but no matter how hard I try I just can't get the bill down

I've always tried to cook the majority of my meals from fresh but now I'm moving towards some of the ready cooked stuff as it works out cheaper than buying all the ingredients fresh. We are pretty bored with what we are eating too.

Any suggestions for some cheap nutritious meals?

milliemonster

Well, we are a family of 4, our kids are 10 and 6 but the 10 year old eats like an adult, we can get our weekly spend down to around £50 and I know it could be lower if I really needed to.

I don't tend to buy ready meals mainly because you don't get much and I would have to bulk them up with other veg etc anyway.

Do you shop around? by that I mean do you go to different shops for your food? yes this is a pain but if I did my weekly shop all from Tesco then I would easily spend £90 a week. Instead I first make a mealplan for the coming weeks meals based around what we already have in the cupboards/freezer. Then from this I start a shopping list.

Then I have a white board in the kitchen where I write during the week things we have run out of and will need when I go shopping.

I also am signed up to some of the supermarkets emails so I get emails each week about their special offers. This helps me decide where to get certain things from.

So when I go shopping, I will get my bread, milk, coffee from farmfoods, then go into Lidl for fruit and veg, then usually Tesco last for anything I can't get. Sometimes I will go into Netto if I know they have something I need on special offer.

Mealswise, I will cook things like, shepherds pie, spanish stew, lasagne from scratch with salad, stir fries (for instance sharwoods stir fry sauces in tesco are 99p but in B&M they are 29p!!!), roast dinners, curries, spag bol, chilli, loads of things in the slow cooker like beef casserole etc.

A lot of it comes down to planning, sticking to buying only what you need and not what you fancy, not doing extra shops during the week (once we run out of biscuits/crisps etc, thats it until the next weekly shop) and then being prepared to go to different shops for different things which is time consuming but necessary if you want to keep your bills down.

We all have healthy appetites aswell and like indulgent things like chocs, biccies etc, so I tend to bake a lot aswell, oh and yes I do work full time!!!

andygb

I think £90 sounds way too much. We (2 of us) buy all our stuff at different shops, and try to get it all done on one day (apart from meat, we like that fresh). So, we see if the market is cheapest for vegetables, compared to Lidl, Aldi or Netto. We don't often have biscuits or sweets in the house, but if we do buy them then it is always from the market, at a fraction of the price of supermarkets (sell by dates are sometimes just out, but we are still alive.), the same goes for crisps.
You could try baking your own bread, and forget using a breadmaker, that is just extra cost. I now use supermarket own brand strong flour, and instant packet yeast. I use either olive oil or butter and salt and sugar. Two medium sized loaves work out around 30p each - BARGAIN! They also taste a lot better than shop bought loaves, and I think they have less calories. Use cheaper cuts of meat, and if you slow cook them, they taste great. Not only is home cooked food tastier, it is also healthier, because you know exactly what you have put in, and cheaper. Stock up on "Value" tins of chopped tomatoes (30p a tin?), because they make a good base for sauces. Lots of onions are required as well, but they are really cheap if bought in bulk.
I reckon you could feed a family of four for less than £50 a week, if you really tried.
Andy

ChapelGirl

Suggested old-fashioned winter dishes:
* Maccaroni cheese
* Lancashire hot pot
* Beef cobbler (beef mince with scone dumplings)
* Fish pie (made with frozen coley etc. and a few prawns to jazz it up.)
* Roasted belly pork on a bed of sage, onions and potatoes

newlywed

I'm reading this with interest as I have a protein hungry hubby and 2 step kids at high school and can't ever seem to get our shop down below £80 a week

OH also tries to cut down on carbs, so no pasta dishes :rolleyes:

That includes cleaning stuff, toiletries and loo roll etc though.


I do find it hard to shop round all the shops as I work full time so shop in my lunch hour (busy evening dropping off and picking up kids - and I refuse to spend my weekend doing food shops unless it's to lidl 2 minutes away).

Eltee12

ChapelGirl wrote: »

Suggested old-fashioned winter dishes:
* Maccaroni cheese
* Lancashire hot pot
* Beef cobbler (beef mince with scone dumplings)
* Fish pie (made with frozen coley etc. and a few prawns to jazz it up.)
* Roasted belly pork on a bed of sage, onions and potatoes

Yum, thanks ChapelGirl - you've just given me ideas for nearly a whole weeks dinner menu mmmmmmmm


MortgageMamma - I find cooking from scratch the cheapest (and tastiest) option. I tend to make 4-6 portions and freeze any leftover portions (there's only 3 of us). I freeze smaller portions to grab for nuking in the micro at work (got beef casserole today mmm).

Olliebeak

ChapelGirl - woman after my own heart! Love the sound of that Roasted Belly Pork on a bed of sage, onions and pots AND the Beef Cobbler :drool:.

MortgageMamma - I know that cooking from scratch isn't always cheaper (due to the initial buying of ingredients) - but you normally get MORE for your money, you know what's actually in it regarding ingredients/preservatives AND you can tweak it to suit your own family's tastebuds.

Like Eltee12, I also freeze at least half of what I cook (only 2 of us in this house most of the time) and that provides evening meals later in the month OR lunch the next day if no room in the freezer.

MrsAnnie

ChapelGirl wrote: »

Suggested old-fashioned winter dishes:
* Maccaroni cheese
* Lancashire hot pot
* Beef cobbler (beef mince with scone dumplings)
* Fish pie (made with frozen coley etc. and a few prawns to jazz it up.)
* Roasted belly pork on a bed of sage, onions and potatoes

Toad in the hole is one of my favourite cheapy homemade dishes and a veggie or two on the side and some gravy/with onions. Delish! :j

narabanekeater

Can I just say hi Lisa how you doing?

milliejo

have you joined the supermarket challenge? it has really helped us. For 2 adults & 1 child who eats as much as an adult we were averaging around £80-90 pw in total for the supermarket shop, trip to butchers & bits during the week. over the course of 12 months we have reduced it to around £40- 45 per week & that often includes a bottle of wine.
we have done this by taking the advice available here - planning meals, going down a grade & buying basic lines where they are ok ( we use sainsburys) & also learning what time the nearest M & S simply food does its daily markdowns. We buy some cheaper cuts of meat from the butchers or when buying chops etc just ask for small ones.
Just work at it gradually - it took us around 8 months to feel we had really got the hang of it.

Nordictat2

If you see a good sale..load up! Buy 1 get 1 free or even better buy 1 get 2 free I load up on good offers so i won't have to buy those things for awhile and why pay reg. price when you can get it on sale?