Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, well, since you talked about Mac and Cheese:

A box of elbow macaroni costs less than $2 at the store and probably contains enough to make three or four dishes.

A 32-ounce box of Velveeta costs about $9 and can probably make the same three or four dishes.

So, $11 for four dishes is under $3. To serve three or four people.

You don't put a bunch of fancy cheeses in Mac and Cheese anyway.

As for spending $3 a pack for frozen mac & cheese at TJs, how many servings is that?

OP here, Ok no offense but I would never use Velveeta. LOL. I only use real cheese. Two boxes of mac and cheese at TJs serves about 4 people. BUt what about the milk and cream you also have to add to the Mac and Cheese? I dont just cook noodles and melt cheese on top, there is more to making mac and cheese than that! Am I just too fancy???

Do you know how stupid you sound? You knock Velveeta but you'll buy processed food from TJs and think it's "real" food?

Op here, I never said TJs mac and cheese was real food -- i said it was processed pre-packaged food that was CHEAPER to buy than making my OWN mac and cheese. The whole point of this post is to get tips to AVOID processed foods -- it's just that I am spending a ton of money cooking from scratch.

Yeah, but some dishes (like Mac and Cheese) are basically inherently made with processed foods. I mean, pasta is, by definition, processed. So what are you going on about?

Anonymous wrote:I hear you op about the garlic head and ginger and herbs and chorizo and heavy cream and .... You waste a lot if you don't make dishes calling for rosemary for 5 consecutive nights!

Which brings me to my point: totally depends on WHAT you're cooking, doesn't it?

That was my thoughts too.

Salad is much better quality and less expensive to make at home. I put fresh fruit and nuts on top besides chicken breasts or salmon. That would cost a lot more in a restaurant or Whole Foods.

However if I cook a 5-dish dinner for guests, it costs more than taking them out.

You are comparing apples to oranges. Or actually apples to chips.

TJ's boxed mac and cheese isnt' made with three types of expensive cheese.

Apples aren't the same thing as chips. Apples are a lot cheaper than the packaged apple chips.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, well, since you talked about Mac and Cheese:

A box of elbow macaroni costs less than $2 at the store and probably contains enough to make three or four dishes.

A 32-ounce box of Velveeta costs about $9 and can probably make the same three or four dishes.

So, $11 for four dishes is under $3. To serve three or four people.

You don't put a bunch of fancy cheeses in Mac and Cheese anyway.

As for spending $3 a pack for frozen mac & cheese at TJs, how many servings is that?

OP here, Ok no offense but I would never use Velveeta. LOL. I only use real cheese. Two boxes of mac and cheese at TJs serves about 4 people. BUt what about the milk and cream you also have to add to the Mac and Cheese? I dont just cook noodles and melt cheese on top, there is more to making mac and cheese than that! Am I just too fancy???

Do you know how stupid you sound? You knock Velveeta but you'll buy processed food from TJs and think it's "real" food?

Op here, I never said TJs mac and cheese was real food -- i said it was processed pre-packaged food that was CHEAPER to buy than making my OWN mac and cheese. The whole point of this post is to get tips to AVOID processed foods -- it's just that I am spending a ton of money cooking from scratch.

Ok, I don't use Velveeta either.

But I big old brick of cheese from Safeway is $5. Buy 2, for mixing of cheeses. Buy a brick of cream cheese. Buy some breadcrumbs. And spices (these costs are negligible, and if you cook other things at home, you'll use them. For these amount of cheese, you're literally using like 6 boxes of pasta (always on sale for $1 each).

So your costs are:
Cheeses - $12
Pastas - $6
Spices/butter, milk, etc... - $6 (I'm really over estimating this with breadcrumbs, spices, parm, milk, flour, butter etc...)

That's like $24 for about 24 HUGE servings of Mac & Cheese (4 per box of pasta, which is large main-dish servings). And it's using three kinds of cheese AND I'm factoring in parm (fourth cheese!) and breadcrumbs for the baking process.

That's at least TWICE as cheap as the paltry TJ's servings.

Anonymous wrote:I hear you op about the garlic head and ginger and herbs and chorizo and heavy cream and .... You waste a lot if you don't make dishes calling for rosemary for 5 consecutive nights!

Which brings me to my point: totally depends on WHAT you're cooking, doesn't it?

exactly, like I made lentil soup with ginger, garlic, onions but then did not cook anything with those ingredients for the next week or so and they all went bad. Or the other day, I made stuffing with fresh rosemary and thyme and then did not cook anything else that required those herbs and they all went bad. I wasted so much money! but I love fresh herbs. I guess I need to freeze a lot more stuff and plan meals that contain the same ingredients in a row????

Anonymous wrote:If you want to eat highly processed crap foods, it is definitely cheaper to buy prepared foods. No debate.

Yup, and TJs is filled with highly processed crap foods (such as this Mac and Cheese), so that probably is why the OP is confuzzled.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, well, since you talked about Mac and Cheese:

A box of elbow macaroni costs less than $2 at the store and probably contains enough to make three or four dishes.

A 32-ounce box of Velveeta costs about $9 and can probably make the same three or four dishes.

So, $11 for four dishes is under $3. To serve three or four people.

You don't put a bunch of fancy cheeses in Mac and Cheese anyway.

As for spending $3 a pack for frozen mac & cheese at TJs, how many servings is that?

OP here, Ok no offense but I would never use Velveeta. LOL. I only use real cheese. Two boxes of mac and cheese at TJs serves about 4 people. BUt what about the milk and cream you also have to add to the Mac and Cheese? I dont just cook noodles and melt cheese on top, there is more to making mac and cheese than that! Am I just too fancy???

Do you know how stupid you sound? You knock Velveeta but you'll buy processed food from TJs and think it's "real" food?

If you want to eat highly processed crap foods, it is definitely cheaper to buy prepared foods. No debate.

I hear you op about the garlic head and ginger and herbs and chorizo and heavy cream and .... You waste a lot if you don't make dishes calling for rosemary for 5 consecutive nights!

Which brings me to my point: totally depends on WHAT you're cooking, doesn't it?

OP, are you talking about fresh ginger? You use what you need for a recipe and freeze the rest.
If you buy the dried ginger in the jar, while there will be an initial cost to buy the jar, it will last you for months and you can make many dishes out of it.
It is cheaper to cook from scratch, but ONLY if
you can organize your shopping and cooking.
I like to cook from scratch, both for cost purposes and taste purposes. That said, I've also got a busy schedule, so I also have prepared foods on hand for when I don't have time.

Well cooking from scratch is way cheaper than eating out. Sure you could buy pasta roni and Kraft Mac and cheese for cheaper than 3-gourmet cheese homemade stuff but did you really need those 3 cheeses or just choose them? I plan my meals using ingredients in separate meals, so I'll use ginger twice instead of once (btw: ginger freezes well. Just throw it in a freezer bag and peel the outside and grate it still frozen into what you need. I keep a knob of ginger for 6 months).

I often cook double a meal and freeze half for later so a specialty ingredient does get uses up.

If you buy meat in bulk you can split it and freeze it.

Yes produce is expensive. We use a combo of fresh and frozen.

Also--think of the health "cost" if you but prepared packages food. It has a ton of sodium and random ingredients like soy lecithin that you don't have when you cook from scratch.

Anonymous wrote:Ok, well, since you talked about Mac and Cheese:

A box of elbow macaroni costs less than $2 at the store and probably contains enough to make three or four dishes.

A 32-ounce box of Velveeta costs about $9 and can probably make the same three or four dishes.

So, $11 for four dishes is under $3. To serve three or four people.

You don't put a bunch of fancy cheeses in Mac and Cheese anyway.

As for spending $3 a pack for frozen mac & cheese at TJs, how many servings is that?

OP here, Ok no offense but I would never use Velveeta. LOL. I only use real cheese. Two boxes of mac and cheese at TJs serves about 4 people. BUt what about the milk and cream you also have to add to the Mac and Cheese? I dont just cook noodles and melt cheese on top, there is more to making mac and cheese than that! Am I just too fancy???

Ok, well, since you talked about Mac and Cheese:

A box of elbow macaroni costs less than $2 at the store and probably contains enough to make three or four dishes.

A 32-ounce box of Velveeta costs about $9 and can probably make the same three or four dishes.

So, $11 for four dishes is under $3. To serve three or four people.

You don't put a bunch of fancy cheeses in Mac and Cheese anyway.

As for spending $3 a pack for frozen mac & cheese at TJs, how many servings is that?

OK so I can buy 2 packs of frozen mac and cheese at TJs for like $6. If I make Mac and Cheese myself it costs an arm and a leg! The 3 kinds of cheeses I need themselves cost well over $6. Everyone always says cooking yourself with whole ingredients is cheaper, but I am not seeing it at all. Often I have to go buy stuff I dont have -- like ginger, garlic, that will then go to waste b/c I will not use it again in the next week or so. So, I have to run out and purchase stuff I do not have which wastes time, gas, etc. Also, the individual ingredients often cost WAY more than buying the food frozen or in a package. What am I doing wrong?

Also, produce is SO EXPENSIVE and our family eats a lot of it. Obviously buying 10 apples for snacks is going to cost more than a couple bags of chips.

I hear conflicting things -- some people say "It's expensive to eat healthy and cook from scratch, that's why poor people are fat." And then others talk about how expensive processed foods are and they save so much money cooking from scratch.

I am cooking from scratch and finding it is WAY more expensive. Can someone help me?!??!