Would creating certain foods from scratch with a processor work out cheaper?

emperorstevee

Hello everyone,

Being on a small income and also finding saving money satisfying, I have been looking for things to buy to save money in the long run. One item I was recommended is a food processor. Several types of food can be made from it, which I will list alongside how much I'd currently pay for them ready made from Tesco, and perhaps someone could tell me if I'd be making a saving buying a food processor.

Curry Sauce: 24p/ jar
Pasta Tomato Sauce: ~30p/jar
Pesto sauceL £1/jar
Salsa dip: 79p/jar

And also what price would you recommend that I do not need to go over? And what sort of processor am I after for creating sauces, creams, crushed up salad items?

Thanks

Callie22

The thing you need to remember is that if you make homemade items, you're not comparing like with like if you base your prices on supermarket value ranges. It's possible that you could get to a point where you can make 'curry sauce' for around 24p a jar, but you would have quite a high initial outlay in order to buy sufficient bulk ingredients to get the prices of your ingredients low enough to make that kind of saving. However, even if you only make smaller batches then you need to remember that what you'd be making wouldn't be comparable to the value ranges - if you make something from scratch, leaving out the cheap fillers and additives, then you'll end up with something that's equivalent to a supermarket premium range (albeit with probably less fat, salt and sugar) - so around £2/£3 a jar rather than 24p. The same goes for things like pasta sauce and pesto - if you look at the ingredients on things like the basics ranges, they're often bulked out with cheap filler ingredients which you're unlikely to use at home.

Also, realistically, you don't really need a food processor to make things like curry sauce or tomato pasta sauce. Pasta sauce is really easy - olive oil, gently fry a bit of garlic (if you like), add some dried herbs (again if you like), chuck in a tin of chopped tomatoes, simmer and add salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes are a bit bitter (now compare that to the list of ingredients on the back of the basics jar ...) You can make this in bulk and freeze it. Same goes for curry sauce, google 'basic curry sauce', make a big batch and freeze portions. Making decent homemade pesto *is* more expensive as pine nuts and parmesan aren't cheap, but if you can grow basil that reduces the price considerably. Or you can find recipes that use different herbs, nuts and cheeses which can be cheaper.

It really depends what you're likely to be doing as to what kind of processor you'll need. Most 'sauces' (like tomato pasta sauce, curry sauce, white sauce etc) don't need a food processor at all, just a chopping board, knife and pan. A food processor can be good if you're chopping a lot of vegetables or making a lot from scratch, but if you're single, for example, then unless you're heavily into bulk cooking and freezing it's probably always going to be easier and cheaper just to chop stuff by hand. I love to cook but it's just me and the OH, and I have a tiny kitchen, so I manage with a 'mini-chopper' (excellent for curry pastes and small quantities of pesto etc) and a stick blender for soups/sauces etc. I bulk cook often but usually it's easier for me to chop onions etc by hand. I *would* like a stand mixer one day for bread dough but at the moment, there's no room. It really depends what's going to work for the space you have and what you're planning to do.

jenniewb

TBH it's not just the time and items you need to buy to cook with, it's also the clearing up time and the sourcing what you need from markets and travel costs. I think the pasta sauce could be cheaper or more expensive depending on what you put in it; eg you may not really want garlic puree, cerain herbs and so on so that's a saving, but if you did want those things, and had access to all the products (not always easy if you are looking for preservatives and sweeteners) you may find it's cheaper. Given that you are rarely going to be able to find exactly what a processed food contains it's unlikely your going to be able to make a direct like for like comparison so would be comparing to a sauce you prefer the taste of which makes it difficult for anyone other than yourself to work out.


With curry sauce, you could try herbs and so on but bare in mind, herbs and seasonings have an expiry date and whilst they wont grow wings and bat around your kitchen at the close of the day they expire, they do begin to degrade in taste. Add to this that heat or things like damp air can speed up this degradation, and that you don't just need to consider how you store the herbs and spices, you also need to consider how the stores keep them and how they have travelled, you can't always be sure how long certain herbs and seasonings will last before they don't taste as good. This means buying in bulk (and penny per gram can work out a great deal cheaper if you buy in larger quantities) you risk throwing some herbs and spices away which adds to the overall cost if you are buying twice to replace things you didn't get around to finishing in time- unless you are cooking in huge mass quantities.


If you also consider not just changing costs of ingredients, but also storage space (I know of no one for whom space is not a premium, especially fridge and shelf space) you'd be better off in my opinion, just buying what you need and cooking either on the night you intend on eating the meal or cooking in smaller batches, entire meals to store in a freezer a few days at a time.

Slinky

Unless you're growing your own tomatoes I don't see how you could make pasta sauce for less then 30p per jar. However home made and supermarket basic will be so different in terms of quality it's like comparing apples with lamb chops.

emperorstevee

+Callie

I'd be cooking for myself and partner. Looking at what you wrote, factoring the fact that I am only cooking for a small number of people, and that sauces can be made without a processor, I'd be better off not buying a processor.

I'd be up for making pasta and curry sauces using the bare minimum. So, with the pasta sauce it'd probably just use oil, tomatoes and some pinches of herbs. The value jars cost around 40p, do you think I'd make a saving making it myself? Even if it only a very slight saving, still let me know if you think there is a saving as it'd also benefit me nutritionally to use home made sauce.

Well, I think I'd buy a week's worth of meal ingredients. I would have one of each meal during the week: Pasta, lasagne, curry, Jacket potato, sunday roast, stir fry and one undecided. (Looking for high protein meals)

storytime

I use my processor to grate cheese and make home made coleslaw. I also chop onions, celery and carrots to put in the slow cooker with tomato puree & mince to make a ragu sauce. I freeze this in portions to then use as a sauce for spag Bol, chilli and in lasanga. I also make a lot of soup using up vegetables and then wiz in processor. Hope that helps.

Callie22

emperorstevee wrote: »

+Callie

I'd be cooking for myself and partner. Looking at what you wrote, factoring the fact that I am only cooking for a small number of people, and that sauces can be made without a processor, I'd be better off not buying a processor.

I'd be up for making pasta and curry sauces using the bare minimum. So, with the pasta sauce it'd probably just use oil, tomatoes and some pinches of herbs. The value jars cost around 40p, do you think I'd make a saving making it myself? Even if it only a very slight saving, still let me know if you think there is a saving as it'd also benefit me nutritionally to use home made sauce.

Well, I think I'd buy a week's worth of meal ingredients. I would have one of each meal during the week: Pasta, lasagne, curry, Jacket potato, sunday roast, stir fry and one undecided. (Looking for high protein meals)

If you look at it from a purely financial point of view, then no, you're probably not going to make a saving making homemade pasta sauce. Let's say your value pasta sauce is 40p, and you buy it, take it home, open it when you need it, put it in the pan and eat it. There's minimal time and effort for that 40p. For homemade, even assuming that you buy the cheapest value tinned tomatoes, you're looking at 25-30p a can (ish?), then you have to factor in the other ingredients (oil, herbs, seasoning) and the time it takes to make the sauce. So there's probably no (or a very minimal) saving in purely cash terms. But as I said earlier, you're not comparing like with like - your homemade sauce won't be equivalent, ingredients-wise, to the basics sauce. Nutritionally, your homemade sauce will probably be better for you and you know exactly what's in in - no preservatives, emulsifiers, bulking agents and so on.

My philosophy for homemade is that the savings come when you look at everything you do as a whole, rather than as individual products. So there might not be much of a saving on one portion of pasta sauce, but there are other things that you can make that can save you huge amounts of money. Fresh soup for example - you're looking at £2/£3 for a carton in the supermarket that'll probably do you two portions at most. For £2/£3 you can get sufficient ingredients to make a huge pan of homemade soup that will be fresher, tastier and will give you loads of portions, so the savings can be significant. Or if you want 'high protein' meals, then making home-made will enable you to take advance of cheaper sources of protein than just meat - beans and brown rice for example.

Hermia

emperorstevee wrote: »

I'd be up for making pasta and curry sauces using the bare minimum. So, with the pasta sauce it'd probably just use oil, tomatoes and some pinches of herbs. The value jars cost around 40p, do you think I'd make a saving making it myself? Even if it only a very slight saving, still let me know if you think there is a saving as it'd also benefit me nutritionally to use home made sauce.

Bear in mind that the cheap tomatoes in the supermarkets are often not that flavourful so the resulting sauce may be a tad bland. Why not stock up on cartons of passata when it is on offer. I think Sainsburys sell one for 60p and I have bought it on BOGOF before. It is enough for more than one meal. Then at least you have the base of a sauce without the additives and it is full of flavour.

bouicca21

I cannot for thelife of me think why anyone would buy pasta sauce. It's just tinned tomatoes/passata with chopped onions, garlic and herbs. And I don't think it's much longer to prepare - you get it started and leave it to simmer while you boil some water and toss the pasta in. Even if you buy pasta sauce you still have to do step 2 - boil the water and toss the pasta in - so the only time saved is chopping the onions and garlic, which I suspect only takes a few minuteslonger than opening the pasta sauce bottle.

bouicca21

Just made a bbq sauce and peeling chopping etc onions garlic and a pepper took just under 5 minutes.

And remember once you have slung the ingredients together for a basic pasta sauce you also have the basis for a bolognese or chili (either of which can be made with lentils instead of meat).

Ilona

All I use my Kenwood processor for is making peanut butter, because I know what's in it, just peanuts. I have a small Kenwood mini chopper for chopping nuts and seeds for my breakfast. For soups I use a stick blender in the saucepan.

I am an oddball here, I don't make any sauces, and don't buy ready made ones. I add curry powder, turmeric, garlic powder and spices to my cooking.

Ilona