It’s cheaper to buy it done for you.
I love when people say this, because the thing I’m interested in is the total cost of ownership.
Since lockdown, we’ve kept up many of the dishes and techniques we learnt when we had more time. And when you are doing the cost, you really should take your time into consideration. When you are money rich but time poor, that sum may come in favour of buying pre-made food (aka ready-meals).
Some things we do, we do regardless of what we’re earning. I have never bought a batter mix, or premade yorkshire pudding. Or a white or bread sauce mix. Because they do not cost in if you own a pair of scales – when you set up home you need a means of weighing out ingredients! That one investment will pay itself back in no time.
Really?
Yes. You need a pair of scales and a 500ml jug as a minimum. Some just use volumes to combine ingredients in the right proportions (many American recipes give everything in cups and spoons. I don’t, I often use metric units, and kilograms and grams are the scientific units for mass.
Let’s have a look at the total cost of ownership for a cheese soufflé. I’ve chosen this recipe because it is often a choice in the ready meal section and it is deemed an tricky meal to get right, using techniques many believe are difficult to master. It is easy to see why you would choose this ready meal over making it yourself.
Ingredients.
| Ingredients | Quantity in recipe | Unit size | Cost per unit | Cost of item in recipe |
| Cheese | 40g | 150g | £2.00 | £0.53 |
| Cornflour | 14g | 250g | £1.30 | £0.07 |
| Butter | 14g | 200g | £2.95 | £0.21 |
| Eggs | 2 | 6 | £3.40 | £1.13 |
| Milk | 75ml | 1136ml | £1.25 | £0.08 |
This makes the ingredients worth £2.03.
The cooking takes me 30 minutes. I use my hand blender, and either a manual cheese grater or a food processor attachment for my hand blender. Every utensil cooking this item goes in the dishwasher – I have included packing the dishwasher in this calculation.
The microwave is used to make the roux for the soufflé. It is used for 90seconds at 1000W => 0.025kWh at £0.25 per kWh, that’s £0.01.
We’ve also got 18 minutes in the oven function for the microwave. My combination oven uses 1.38 kW when it is used as an oven. I’m going to add the 7 minutes to warm the oven up – essential for a soufflé. So our power cost is (25/60)*1.38 kWh => £0.14.
So our total is the cost of the power and the cost of the ingredients. That’s £0.15 + £2.03 = £2.18. Excluding our time.
A cheese soufflé from Waitrose is £4.50 for the same quantity. It takes 18 minutes in the oven – we tend to use the microwave for the job. So the power is (18/60)*1.38 kWh = £0.10. Giving a total of £4.60, excluding our time (about 5 minutes).
Basically the question is, is my time worth £2.42?
Yes, that really is the question. The washing up or running the dishwasher happens what-ever meal you have. I would also put to you that the ingredients used here can be used for many different meals, where as the cheese soufflé from Waitrose can only really be a cheese soufflé.
Sometimes, it is really good to have some nutrition that isn’t made from involved recipes like a cheese soufflé. Beans on toast, a sandwich or piece of toast that is so simple you can do it with both hands tied behind your back.
Some say that you can have such emergency food through batch cooking. This needs planning – I am not sure I have ever been that into planning my meals in advance! Some food works well being reheated: some does not.
It takes more than planning. Containers for storing the food well, and somewhere to put the containers. Washing up and storage when there is no food in the container.
Then you have to eat the food before it goes past its best. We try not to cook more than we need for the vast majority of our meals.
Roast dinner and Christmas dinner are the exceptions. Mostly because we cook meat. An animal died to feed us – not eating all of it is wasteful.
How do you run things?
Posted: December 21st, 2025 under 42, Driving off the grid.