What meals are "worth" making yourself?

Downsizing__for_sanity

I just wanted to know which meals you all think are worth (financially) making yourself. Obviously, the best part of HM cooking is knowing what went into your food, but are there any particular meals that are/are not much more economical to make yourself?

For example, for HM beans on toast, boiling haricot beans and taking hours to make the sauce yourself would be silly if you could buy the beans for 50p a tin! Silly example, but do you know what I mean?

I'm going to make HM hawaiian pizza and adding up the cost of the pineapple tin, ham, passata, mozzarella, la la la before you make the base soon adds up (especially when branded ones are on BOGOF!)

Ramble over - what's the most/least economical HM dish compared to bought?

DFS

Katgoddess

You pay 50p for a tin of beans? :eek:

Sandwiches are definitely worth making yourself. £3 for two slices of bread and some ham. Hmmm.

Bogof_Babe

Depends where you buy the ready made meal, and the size of the portion. For instance I reckon buying a ready made pasta thing that is basically a handful of pasta and a couple of tablespoons of cheese/tomato/other flavoured sauce, for anything over £1, is a total rip-off, when I could make six times the quantity for the same cost.

However something like a Fishermans/Admirals Pie for 99p is good value when you consider the fiddle of making it yourself - and a bit of fish costing nearly £1 before you add the other things!

calleyw

I was sad last week and worked out the cost of hubby's packed lunch.

It was:

Left over pasta and sauce
Pkt crisps
home made cake
Apple
Pkt soup and a flask of tea.

Cost came in at about £0.61p and I excluded cost of cooking.

What can you get for that now a days. Not a lot.

I have mentioned it before. Somethings are not just about money saving but about knowing what is going in your food.

Yours

Calley

elona

I have started to make my own bread, bread rolls ,pizza,ice cream , jam and chickenburgers - mainly because it tastes good and I know what is in it!:j

Bogof_Babe

It's all very well thinking we know what's going in our food, but I bet those who lovingly made home-prepared dishes with a shake of paprika in, didn't reckon on the Sudan-1 scenario.

And as for all the chemicals they spray on crops during the growing process :eek: ...

The only good reason to make rather than buy, in my view, is cost. For all other considerations, we are in the lap of the Gods - or should I say the manufacturers/farmers?

elona

You have scared me now! Still at least everyone enjoys it :j

misty

Bogof_Babe wrote:

Depends where you buy the ready made meal, and the size of the portion. For instance I reckon buying a ready made pasta thing that is basically a handful of pasta and a couple of tablespoons of cheese/tomato/other flavoured sauce, for anything over £1, is a total rip-off, when I could make six times the quantity for the same cost.

However something like a Fishermans/Admirals Pie for 99p is good value when you consider the fiddle of making it yourself - and a bit of fish costing nearly £1 before you add the other things!

I use to buy these for my son - he's 3 and loves his fish but I loathe it. Now I buy him skinned cod a large piece will be cut into 3 pieces(freeze 2) - 5 minutes in the oven in foil and milk and butter - mashed potato and easy cheese sauce and some veggies. I can make this in less time than it took to cook the other one in the oven - there's a much higher fish to mash ratio and it's cheaper or equivilent ot the admiral. I do like spicy beanburgers but don't think I could be bothered to prep all the ingredaints and faff about binding and coating when I can buy them ready done. Whenever, I've tried to make burgers of any kind - they've fallen apart on me at some stage.

Magentasue

Bogof_Babe wrote:

And as for all the chemicals they spray on crops during the growing process :eek: ...

The only good reason to make rather than buy, in my view, is cost. For all other considerations, we are in the lap of the Gods - or should I say the manufacturers/farmers?

Well yes, but those ready made meals also contain ingredients treated and sprayed but don't have the nutrients of 'real food'. Plus you know the quality of the ingredients you put in and apart from rare exceptions (Heinz tomato soup, for example) home cooked food tastes better!

So cost is certainly a factor, we couldn't afford to eat what we do if I was buying it ready made from M&S but it's not just that. Those plastic loaves are cheaper than bread I make at home but there's no way I'm buying them!

moggins

Chicken and Mushroom pie. I can make a family sized one for pennies instead of buying an over priced under sized one from a shop.

Bogof_Babe

Got to concede that meat things are out of my general everyday experience, being married to a strict veggie.

However we do buy cooked chicken for the cat (vet's advice some years ago, and now can't wean him off it ) and I am flabbergasted at the price of a couple of cooked chicken breasts.

Of course if you use in your pie leftovers from a whole chicken that you've cooked yourself, then I am sure you could bring it in for a reasonable cost!

That fish meal sounds interesting too - do you buy your fish from a proper fishmonger? Even a little (and I mean little) cod portion costs about 99p in the supermarket nowadays.