Cooking From Scratch Cheaper Than Processed Foods?

meritaten

I mostly cook from scratch for the two of us - and as long as I can afford it I will carry on doing so. there are ways to cut the cost - such as making more meals and freezing them, using up scraps to make more meals etc.
but, it isn't that - I truly believe that 'home-cooked' meals are of far better quality and more nutritious. I can also control all the ingredients - I find that salt and sugar is high in processed foods - so is fat - and I have absolutely no idea where the raw ingredients came from. the product may be 'made in britain' but, who can say where the ingredients came from?
lastly - the TASTE, modesty aside, home cooked usually tastes far superior to the processed version!

rozmister

I don't really buy processed ready meals but whenever I look I can't believe how much they cost for one portion (at the quality I would eat). A ready meal I would eat is £2.50+ per person - crazy! I don't buy other processed things either like jar sauces or ready made chips or anything because I can make them all at home for less.

I normally spend about £30 on food a week which does all my breakfasts and lunches and then dinners for 2 people and leaves me with so much food we're having to eat out the cupboards and freezer at the moment! If I spent £30 on processed foods for my breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2 I don't think it'd come to £30 per week.

sonastin

I don't find the portion sizes of ready meals to be sufficient to feel full - they always seem miserly compared to the portions I was brought up on. I don't think it would end up cheaper by the time I'd finished snacking on other stuff to fill me up. Homemade might appear more expensive but with planning, buying the right ingredients & not wasting stuff and then freezing extra portions along with having enough dinner to avoid needing junk later, I think it works out cheaper for us in the long run.

OH will happily stuff himself with asda smartprice biscuits no matter what I feed him for dinner. There's no amount of home baking that could keep up with this sweet tooth so cheap biscuits it is!

-taff

It doesn't have to be more expensive...again, check out a girl called jacks website.

In any case, as long as I can afford it, i'll do that rather than buy processed food because it just tastes of chemicals to me, especially anything with tomato saucve in it, god knows what they do to that, I expect it's never even seen a tomato.

After the horsemeat scandal, I'm surprised anyone would buy it, because nothing will have changed....