Today I’m presenting a guest post from my great blogging friend and favorite online cook Jo Wright from Simply Being Mum. I virtually met Jo almost immediately after starting Ex-Consumer and she and I clicked right away.
I love Jo’s passion for simple cooking and the cost comparison on ready-made foods versus cooking mostly from scratch she wrote for me was a joy to read. I’m also always striving for ways to feed my family high-quality healthy foods on a budget, so Jo’s experiment was facinating to me!
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As a UK Mum on the road to a family life simply done, Jenny’s strap line of “Buy Less Crap, Save More Money. Be Free” has always struck a chord with me.
When we think about our purchasing habits, very often we think clothes, shoes, cars, gadgets, toys and life’s little luxuries and where we can cut back on our spend in these areas. This is highly admirable and effective, and I have implemented this into my family life – I adopt an attitude of conscious spending at all times. But how many of us think about life’s essentials? How many of us aspiring minimalists, life simplifiers and frugalista’s think about our grocery spend?
Could we indeed Buy Less Crap and Save More Money?
Okay… so crap is a strong word and it’s Jenny’s not mine, but you get my drift. I’m talking ready-made convenience foods – highly processed products and in some cases with multiple additives and other hidden nasties.
My passion is simple home cooking. I’m a fanatical meal planner and operate a No Waste Tastes Great policy at Chez Wright. The reduction and elimination of food waste is always firmly in mind.
For a while, however, there had been a nagging doubt in my mind that maybe the way I prepared meals wasn’t as economical as it could be. Comments had been passed that I spent time preparing meals that could be purchased cheaper if I brought ready-made. Subtlety suggesting I may be wasting my time. Although I have always budgeted for food, my main priority has always been the quality of the meal, not necessarily the cost. My presumption was that the way I did it wouldn’t be any more expensive than buying processed food but would be better quality.
I now had doubts — could it be true that I may be spending more?
So it was time for Simply Being Mum to spend one week doing a cost comparison on the main meal each day. I had no idea what the outcome would be.
The experiment wasn’t highly scientific, and the meals I prepared certainly weren’t made up of the cheapest ingredients. Meat content and other ingredients compared were unlikely to be exactly the same, although I tried hard to keep portion size the same.
It was also hard to find an exact ready-made match to my meals so there is some poetic license.
It wasn’t meant to be scientific, it was to prove to myself that a little organisation, preparation and time when planning and preparing meals is worth the effort.
| Day | Simply Being Mum Meal | Cost per serving (£) | Ready Prepared equivalent | Cost Per serving (£) |
| Saturday | Margarita pizza | 0.76 | Pizza Express Margarita Pizza | 3.00 |
| Sunday | Burgers and Baps | 0.58 | Ready Made Supermarket Burgers and Baps | 1.14 |
| Monday | Carrot and Ginger Soup | 0.35 | Fresh Ready made Supermarket Soup | 0.98 |
| Tuesday | Spaghetti Bolognaise | 1.00 | Spaghetti Bolognaise Supermarket Ready Meal | 1.70 |
| Wednesday | No comparison | 0 | No comparison | 0 |
| Thursday | Thai Green Pork Curry | 1.97 | Thai Green Curry Supermarket Ready Meal | 2.00 |
| Friday – Date Night | Chicken and Mushroom Balti with Rice | 3.98 | Takeaway Chicken and Mushroom Balti with Rice | 6.25 |
| £8.64 | £15.07 |
So what did I learn from my cost comparison?
- That simple home cooking rather than purchasing ready meals can indeed be considerably cheaper – overall my cost saving was almost 42%. In fact the main lesson learnt from this experiment came from the feedback my readers left. They suggested I could be buying cheaper ingredients, using less ingredients and stretching some ingredients to make my meal go further and therefore save more. This I took onboard and have since reduced by grocery spend a further 25% a week and some weeks up to 50% based on the meals I have planned. This could mean an extra £1500 plus a year (post-tax) in the bank.
- I enjoy cooking from scratch (well almost scratch – I do take shortcuts!). I like knowing what is in the food my family eats, and I love getting the kids involved and teaching them how to make bread and pizza, and showing them the process that ingredients go through in order to create the finished product. It’s good quality time with the kids learning a life skill. And it’s fun!
- Ultimately that if you can Buy Less Crap (Convenience Foods) that you can indeed Save More Money!
Thank you so much for sharing your cost comparison experiment with us Jo! For more about simple, wholesome cooking and eliminating food waste, head over to read more from Jo on her blog, Simply Being Mum!
How do you prepare meals? Do you try to make most of your foods from scratch? Or do you prefer the ready-made convenience foods?
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This was great to see! I thought there might be more back-and-forth, or that some days might have the “ready-made” items that were cheaper. Of course, this doesn’t even touch on the health benefits of knowing exactly what is in your food, which I think adds value, too. Thanks for the post!
Hi Kym – when I went into the experiment I really didn’t know what the outcome would be. There’s lot’s of talk/media in the UK that because ready-made options are so cheap to purchase that they are causing obesity etc… therefore my presumption was perhaps it would cost about the same but I obviously spend more time on preparation. It was such a relief to see that there were cost benefits also. For example the Thai Pork Curry was approx. the same price, but feedback from my blog readers was that I am using too much meat thus increasing cost – it is unlikely the ready made option had as much meat and in fact it was chicken I had to compare too anyway (which is cheaper) as I could not find a pork equivalent. Therefore this is one change I have made in some of my recipes.
I’m totally with you on the health benefits. The added value of the peace of mind that I know what my family is eating is so worth the time I spend in the kitchen. Which I’ve got to say isn’t too much anyway as I am a simple cook, and most days my slow cookers take the strain rather than me! Thanks for commenting!
Jo@simplybeingmum recently posted..No Waste Tastes Great 23 September 2011
I love this! Thanks, Jo and Jenny. I tend to not like being in the kitchen, but this might be the thing that convinces me to get in there and try to like it more.
I wonder how the prices would compare if one used organic food choices.
Hi Nenette – Firstly the cooking bit…
I do love being in the kitchen so this isn’t an issue for me, but it really doesn’t have to be a chore. Although I love cooking I’m not a fussy chef! It’s all very simple. In fact a good proportion of my dinners are slow cooked, which really is a chuck it all in, leave for 6-8 hours and eat job. Seriously simple! I can’t recommend slow cookers enough, it changed my life (and they are nutritionally a good way to cook). I have a “stay at work late” Hubby on certain evenings and it solved all sorts of timing problems for us. A lot of things can be batch cooked and reheated also.
Ref the organic angle, when I did the experiment I did use pretty high quality ingredients as that’s how I tend cook. For example I only ever use free range chicken (organic), the pork and beef was very lean and good quality. I’m very particular about meat. I’m thinking that organic wouldn’t increase cost dramatically as I have been told that my meat content could easily have been reduced in this experiment.
I’m using an awful lot of homegrown produce in my recipes at the moment, and this has the cost benefits of being free! haha! Lot’s of it donated, as we come to the end of Summer quite a few friends and family have surplus. I am slow cooking my way through 6lb of cherry tomatoes this week! Thanks for commenting I’m glad you enjoyed the post
Jo@simplybeingmum recently posted..No Waste Tastes Great 23 September 2011
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I also have been actively cooking home-made from scratch meals rather than the convenient option. Mine comes down to two factors; wanting to reduce my rubbish output and knowing it tastes better (it really does!). I had accepted the idea that it would take a bit more time and cost a little more for good quality fresh ingredients. But amazingly I have found that my food bill has actually gone down! I attribute this to being prepared. Every week I prepare my meals in advance, this allows me to shop for only the things I need, reduces waste on fruit and vegies and limits the amount of processed food I buy. Now I buy meat, fruit, vegies every week and most other items (rice, pasta, spices) I buy in bulk. I’m also buying less takeaways and bringing lunch from home. It’s made a huge impact to my grocery bill and I’d never go back to pre-packaged over processed foods.
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Way to go Rachel! A woman after my own heart! I’ve got to say that since doing the experiment, I am struggling to purchase a takeaway. Friday Night is Date Night at Chez Wright and we always had a takeaway. I’m going to change is to Friday Night is Curry Night at Chez Wright since discovering I can prepare a homemade curry with side dishes and wine for half the price!This was what swung it for me Cooking From Scratch Cost Experiment – Day 7 – Date Night
Jo@simplybeingmum recently posted..How To Reduce Your Weekly Grocery Spend By 50%
Thanks again for this amazing guest post Jo! I’ve been cooking from scratch much more over the last month or so, and reading your cost comparison helps to keep me motivated to continue.
Thanks Jenny for letting me Guest – it was an honour! The key to cooking from scratch is to keep it simple and do not let it become a chore. Pick simple recipes, and let the slow cookers take the strain – have I mentioned I love slow cooking?
Jo@simplybeingmum recently posted..No Waste Tastes Great 30 September 2011
Did your cost-per-serving account for the value of your time to prepare the meal? Perhaps you could add a column or two to the chart indicating preparation time. If the ready-made, frozen, or takeout version costs a bit more, but saves me an hour of prep time, which really costs more? Depends on what price I put on an hour of my time.
Personally, I do some of both. When I have the time, I like cooking “real” food. But if I am tired or busy, I’ll take something out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave.
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Hi Mike – yes good point. As someone who works for themselves and sometimes charges by the hour this is most certainly something I am aware of. However the benefits for me of cooking in this way balance out the cost of my time. The recipes are actually very simple. 4 of the 6 meals are slow cooked. The way I slow cook is to chop and chuck it all in, I’m not a fussy chef, so literally 10 mins prep maybe, then leave for 6-8 hours and eat in most cases. The most time consuming are the bread based meals such as making dough for the pizza base and when I made the baps (buns) for the burgers. Dough takes about 10 mins to make and knead and then at least 1 hour to rise and a further 10-30 minutes to cook, so it is time-consuming (although not hands on for all that time). However the way I approach this is to involve the kids and make it an activity. I am very keen to teach them life skills. For me one of the most fundamental is being about to bake bread from scratch. We don’t do it all the time, I do buy bread as it doesn’t always justify the time spent, but as an activity it does. I also make extra dough and put in freezer or fridge so there is some to hand.
As with much in life moderation is key, I don’t cook everything from scratch all the time, but if I have the time and inclination I do – and I am trying more and more to make the effort to make more from scratch.
Although it is a cost experiment, I discovered that for me it’s not all about the money… although it was a relief to discover it was more economical also!
Jo@simplybeingmum recently posted..No Waste Tastes Great 30 September 2011
I’ve heard this point before and I realize it comes from the vantage of a working person. I can say for my family it makes much more sense for me to spend the time to prepare our meals from scratch because I have more time than money. I don’t work and my husband’s job doesn’t pay much, so I use the resource I do have (time) to balance out the resource I don’t have (money).
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