What are the most cost effective foods to make at home?

Bishi

As a family we're pretty good at mostly cooking from scratch but there are certain foods we buy a lot of like yoghurt, hummus etc. where I'm starting to wonder if we could save money by making ourselves. Anyone got any good tips about the most cost effective foods to make at home? Willing to put in a little effort if it saves us money and/or tastes better. Conversely any tips about things that definitely aren't worth making at home in terms of either time or money?



 

-taff

hummus is so easy, tin of chick peas, bit of tahini, garlic, salt, oil [ but not a strong oil] whatever other flavours you like, whizz. Although, I would say whizz the tahini up first with a little bit of oil or lemon juice, you get a better texture atthe end [ I read about it and thought hmm, ok,  maybe, tried it, definitely]

Puff pastry is definitely not worht it at home. I would say, think about what you're diet is, where you buy ready meals, where you buy ready made, and cost out if it's cheaper to do at home, without knowing what you eat, anyone could suggest all sorts.

Peronsally, I make chuck togethers a lot, no recipe, just add whatever I have, or fancy, or will go together in terms of flavour. These things are cheap because I have them here and no one makes anything like that...And I cook on a gas hob, so most of it is in a saucepan blipping away [ as Jamie would say] with no other intervention.

You need to look at what you spend and what you spend it on. Do you meal plan? Do you have access to cheap sm's?

A question about cheaper to make rarely gets answered easily because of the factors involved.

CJRyder

Hummus - Yes. Just blend chickpeas, oil and salt. Anything else is just flavouring. I pressure cook large batches of beans. Kidney bean hummus is nice.

Yoghurt - Not cost effective unless you're not working and have free access to milk. 

Is there at least one person who isn't working in the house? Remember that time should always be accounted for.

Bishi

-taff said:

hummus is so easy, tin of chick peas, bit of tahini, garlic, salt, oil [ but not a strong oil] whatever other flavours you like, whizz. Although, I would say whizz the tahini up first with a little bit of oil or lemon juice, you get a better texture atthe end [ I read about it and thought hmm, ok,  maybe, tried it, definitely]

Puff pastry is definitely not worht it at home. I would say, think about what you're diet is, where you buy ready meals, where you buy ready made, and cost out if it's cheaper to do at home, without knowing what you eat, anyone could suggest all sorts.

Peronsally, I make chuck togethers a lot, no recipe, just add whatever I have, or fancy, or will go together in terms of flavour. These things are cheap because I have them here and no one makes anything like that...And I cook on a gas hob, so most of it is in a saucepan blipping away [ as Jamie would say] with no other intervention.

You need to look at what you spend and what you spend it on. Do you meal plan? Do you have access to cheap sm's?

A question about cheaper to make rarely gets answered easily because of the factors involved.

Thanks taff. I see what you mean about it being a hard question to answer. I don't think I phrased my initial question very well. We don't buy ready meals and do mostly cook from scratch, but I suppose it's the individual component ingredients that I am starting to wonder if we would be better off making ourselves. I guess what I was wondering is if there are any things that we just take for granted we should get in a packet but could actually make ourselves cheaply and easily. For instance, I made oatcakes for the first time a few weeks ago and was very pleasantly surprised at how easy they were to make, and basically just oats, salt and a little bit of butter (and water). Much cheaper and tastier than store bought. I suppose that's what's set me wondering what else we could be making ourselves that we haven't previously considered. I do take your point about it being a 'how long is a piece of string' type question though! 

CJRyder said:

Hummus - Yes. Just blend chickpeas, oil and salt. Anything else is just flavouring. I pressure cook large batches of beans. Kidney bean hummus is nice.

Yoghurt - Not cost effective unless you're not working and have free access to milk. 

Is there at least one person who isn't working in the house? Remember that time should always be accounted for.

Thanks CJRyder. That is a good tip about kidney bean hummus! I'd never thought about that. I find they're often some of the cheaper beans to buy too. Also good point about time being accounted for. My husband and I both work full time but he works from home, so if there are any tasks that need just a little bit of attention throughout the day, e.g. kneading bread etc. he would be able to do that. As a family we do like cooking so don't mind spending a little more time on things, but within reason. For instance, I have a friend who was really trying to cut down her plastic waste and starting making tofu herself - that is probably a step too far for us at the moment! 

-taff

In that case, flatbreads and tortillas a cheaper, and taste better. The first one is flour and water, the second, masa flour and water and little bit of oil. Any flatbread type can be made at home, naans, or pitta etc and you can add the ingredients to anything else you like, like peshawari, or spinach or whatever really, stuff them with things..

Wasn't meant as a how long is a piece of string, was meant as, need more info

mumtoomany

Not a meal as such, but popping corn, turned into popcorn. A fraction of the price and entertains the DGC too. Serve sweet or savoury, or even with milk for breakfast, mumtoomany.xx

bouicca21

I use dried chickpeas for hummus (pour boiling water over them, leave to soak overnight, before cooking them next day). It freezes well.

hadn’t thought of using kidney beans - will do that next time.

Effician

As an alternative to yogurt we make milk kefir, a pro-biotic without the faff or heat needed to make yogurt ( used to make our own Greek style), great on cereal or as a filling cold drink, also use it as an ingredient in homemade naan bread.

Brie

It depends on what you consider with cost effectiveness.  Buying the yellow sticker items and cooking/freezing on the day is great if you can just wing it with meals.  Whole fat milk/cream that is on it's best before date and so discounted could make really cheap yoghurt/cheese or freeze for baking.  But do you have the space and time and will power to do this on a regular basis and keep track of all the various frozen things you are storing?  A large enough freezer, electricity to power it?

The over all cheapest thing to make is soup.  All you need is whatever left overs.  My mom always had a large plastic container in the freezer.  Any scrape of left over veg would go in there and then would be pulled out to make soup when there was enough.  It may be a case of thawing and heating with some stock.  Or maybe whizzing some of it.  It depends on your taste.  Add left over gravy perhaps??  

The problem with home baking is that the various ingredients don't really tend to be cheap, the mixing and baking takes time and energy and the result is usually so good you eat it up twice as quickly as something bought in a shop.  In the case of bread that usually also means vast quantities of butter (& possibly jam or honey) are also consumed.  

Oh! Honey!  Get a bee hive!!!  then you can stop buying sugar!!!

leftatthetrafficlights

Hommous is definitely cheap to make as previously stated - I don't use oil in mine  just chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and tahini - I do all of my beans now from dried as I acquired an instant pot multi-cooker so it's a lot cheaper than buying tins. You can use any type of pulse for a bean dip and you can change the flavours by using different aromatics (I did a lemongrass, ginger and cannellini bean one recently) 

As @Brie said, soup is absolutely cheaper to make from scratch, as is tofu (which is actually very quick and easy to make); seitan is a lot cheaper to make than buy, condiments, jams, chutneys etc are also cheaper to make depending on your access to raw ingredients.

I think the main thing is looking at the time things take and also storage - part of the savings with cooking things yourself is the ability to make lots at once from a relatively small amount of ingredients which is no good if you can't store the stuff! I once bought a ys sack of onions and made onion marmalade- absolutely fabulous and very cheap but I ended up with 15 jars of it - managed to get it in the cupboards but it certainly impacted what else I could make! 🤦‍♀️😂

bupster

Agree re bread - I love to make it and it's fun but I don't because I work full time and the supermarket bread I love the most is (a) better than I can make myself and (b) £1.10 a loaf or thereabouts - adding in time, effort and ingredients and it's just not worth it for me. Plus there's only me in the house. Similarly I have a yoghurt maker but it's just not worth the effort for the amount of yoghurt I currently eat. Every year I want to make jam but never get round to it and in any case I have a cupboard full that others have made - and I throw away black bananas because I don't really have time to bake. On the other hand I never buy ready meals or soup - I'll cook from scratch once or twice a week. 

My best friend's husband is home a lot with the kids and he makes almost everything from scratch because he has the time, they're vegan, and there are four of them. Totally worth it for them. It's all about personal time and investment I think rather than just the cash.