Cost per portion?

purpleivy

Is there anyone here who actually has a grasp of how much each of their regular meal choices costs? I'm wanting to start and look at this and make sure that we have, say, our cheapest 3 every week.  I try and make a list of half a doz things I have stuff for each week from what is in stock, but would be happier choosing from the 'cheap ' list. 

maman

I don't actually calculate it but I do know which are our cheapest meals.

They tend to be those where I've added minimal (if any)  meat so veggie chilli or  HM Bolognese sauce packed with veg or a stir fry with one small chicken breast between 2 of us and again more veg. I deliberately make enough to have leftovers for lunch and serve up large portions so spend almost nothing on snacks. 

I also try to buy YS meat and fish whenever I can so that helps too. 

It'll be interesting to hear what others do. 😊

purpleivy

I do feel a spreadsheet coming on!

C_J

I think you must have been reading my mind purpleivy, because I am planning to do something very similar!  I have started to create a spreadsheet of my "cheap" meals, and will cost those out per portion. The plan is that I would like at least 30 dishes on that list so that there is some variety, and would pick three or four from these a week. On the other days we'll have slightly less frugal dishes so that we still feel like there is some luxury, but I will still cost these meals out per portion and look for ways to reduce the costs (Aldi shopping, yellow stickers, growing our own veg etc). I don't want to feel like every meal we have has been padded out with grated carrots or red lentils, but equally I would like to control costs as much as I can, especially as there are likely to be price hikes during 2021.

Each meal on my spreadsheet hyperlinks to a recipe in a desktop folder (if a recipe is needed), and I am spending time this week populating those records.  These in turn feed in to the Meal Planner spreadsheet, and I plan about a month in advance (but with the option to tweak).

A few months ago I also started a spreadsheet with tabs for each of my freezer drawer contents, and that has been a real help in ensuring everything gets used and not forgotten about.

joedenise

I don't cost my meals but do cheap meals as far as I can.  I cook a lot of vegetarian meals like vegetable biryani, vegetable tagine, vegetable curry.  I also use lots of dried pulses and soup mixes, pearl barley etc.  As you can see a lot of my cheap meals involve spices which I mix myself.  Lots of vegetable soups at this time of year as well and making meals from the leftovers of a roast dinner.

@C_J you are obviously expert with spreadsheets!  I'm sure it makes life easier but I can't get my head around them I order to do hyperlinks etc - I can do a basic spreadsheet but that's about it!

purpleivy

C_J said:

I think you must have been reading my mind purpleivy, because I am planning to do something very similar!  I have started to create a spreadsheet of my "cheap" meals, and will cost those out per portion. The plan is that I would like at 
A few months ago I also started a spreadsheet with tabs for each of my freezer drawer contents, and that has been a real help in ensuring everything gets used and not forgotten about.

I try to maintain a current freezer list as an 'aide memoire'.  I find it really helps. I go through the freezer every few months or  when I feel I need to in order to use what needs using and discover what has gone off the radar. 

I forget to do a basic  lentil/veg curry once the freezer stock of meals has run out, but in fact my hub loves this and would eat it every week. Sometimes we have on its own (he has rice or naan) and sometimes with leftover sausages, meat etc. 

I recently started to always have jacket potatoes on a tuesday when the online delivery arrived so that the coleslaw doesn't get overlooked. Never has more than about 4-5 days on it.   Then having got the can of beans open, hub has one half on his J Pot and the other half with eggs beans and toast. I don't eat bread and don't care for bought baked beans, so I have something that needs using up or soup from the freezer. 

Challenges with pricing up meals include things like the home made thick broth that is on the go at the moment,( leftover turkey stock, leftover other stuff and some soup mix) . I need some way of doing that. 

joedenise

The way I see it I'd say all the LOs are "free" so it would only be the amount of soup mix used divided by the number of portions it's made - so, say 50p for soup mix which made 5 portions would be 10p per portion (although I suspect it would work out less than that per portion!).

maman

Surely cost per portion will be constantly changing but some meals will be relatively cheap compared with others most of the time. I've just used some carrots for tonight's dinner. Carrots are always a fairly cheap vegetable but these were from a 15p per kg Christmas bag so better value than usual. 🤔

It's possible that shortages will push up prices in the coming weeks and months so current portion costs will change. 🤔

Floss

I used to bake celebration cakes and had a spreadsheet of costs with a tab for each recipe & one for the ingredients by unit (100g/ml), which I used to update when prices changed. That linked to the relevant cell in the recipe cost tabs, with simple calculations to give the cost for each ingredient, each cake and its price.

Maybe that's the way to go? It's certainly easier to update when costs change.

tessie_bear

just to muddy the waters as it were another way of looking at cheap meals is to go to the reduced fridge and have ideas ready for whatever you find....diced pork i make goulash....cheap milk i make rice pudding.....eggs make a frittata....mince well the worlds your oyster....any fish save in the freezer to build up a few then make fish pie. Some meals are cheap even cheaper than reductions such as soup/omelette/quiche/on toast

purpleivy

tessie_bear said:

just to muddy the waters as it were another way of looking at cheap meals is to go to the reduced fridge and have ideas ready for whatever you find....diced pork i make goulash....cheap milk i make rice pudding.....eggs make a frittata....mince well the worlds your oyster....any fish save in the freezer to build up a few then make fish pie. Some meals are cheap even cheaper than reductions such as soup/omelette/quiche/on toast

I don't go to shops, so reduced fridge isn't an option for me. I'm fine, but I'm carer for my DD who has severe CFS ( in bed at the moment, but housebound) so don't want to get ill so I can't look after her or unwittingly give her something she can't fight. I regard the leftovers in the fridge at home in the same way.