Is it Cheaper to make or buy Lasagna?

Lasagna has always been a comfort meal to me, and I especially love it when the weather turns chilly. The meat, the pasta, and the cheese just warm your whole body and makes you ready for a nap!

Lasagna has a long tradition of being a meal served for company, a dish given at funerals, and saved for special occasions. Lasagna can be expensive to make, so let’s look at the cost of homemade lasagna versus premade frozen lasagna.

How much does an average lasagna cost?

To find out how much a homemade lasagna costs we need to make a list of all the ingredients that we will need.

Lasagna Ingredients

Lasagna Noodles	Great Value 16oz noodles= $1.37
Tomato Sauce	Great Value Tomato Basil Garlic Pasta Sauce, 24oz jar= $1.48
Ricotta Cheese	Great Value 15oz container= $2.48
Mozzarella Cheese	Great Value 8oz bag = $2.20
Ground Beef	All Natural 1lb 73/27 ground beef roll = $3.84
Italian Seasoning	Great Value 0.95 oz jar = $1.00
Garlic	1 bulb of fresh garlic = $0.53
Total Cost: $12.90	Cost per Serving: $1.61 per serving (total of 8 servings)

Now let’s look at what a premade frozen lasagna typically costs.

Frozen Lasagna	Cost Per Serving
Stouffer’s Meat Lasagna 96oz /12 servings = $15.77 at Sam’s Club	$1.31 per serving
Rao’s Meat Lasagna 27oz/3.5 servings = $11.29 at Meijer’s	$3.22 per serving
Rana Meat Lasagna 40oz/6 servings= $13.99 at Kroger	$2.33 per serving
Bremer Lasagna with Meat 38oz/4 servings=$8.79 at Aldi	$2.19 per serving
Drake’s Lasagna with Meat Sauce 38oz/4 servings = $14.99 at The Fresh Market	$3.74 per serving
Average Cost per Serving:	$3.03 per serving

By comparing the average cost per serving of homemade lasagna and premade frozen lasagna, we now know that making your own lasagna is the cheaper option.

The homemade lasagna cost per serving was $1.61 which is about 46% cheaper than the average frozen lasagna serving of $3.03.

Is lasagna difficult to make?

Lasagna is very similar to a casserole and if you can brown ground beef, you can make lasagna!

Some recipes may differ slightly, but the basics of making a good lasagna start with ground meat mostly ground beef. You add your meat to a pan and stir slowly until fully brown and cooked.

Then you will drain the meat and stir in your tomato pasta sauce. You can set your meat mixture aside while you start your lasagna assembly.

Lasagna is basically layers of pasta, meat sauce, and cheese. So, the next layer is the cheese. Take a container of ricotta cheese and mix it with one egg, shredded mozzarella cheese, and some Italian seasoning.

For the pasta, you can use no boil or pasta that needs to be boiled first. The price difference is really minimal between the two options, so for the time savings I usually go with the no boil noodles.

In a glass casserole dish, I start with a little meat sauce on the bottom so my noodles don’t stick to the bottom. Then I start layering noodles than ricotta mixture and meat sauce. Keep layering until you fill your dish.

Most lasagnas take about 30-60 minutes to bake in the oven. This will mainly depend on the thickness of the lasagna. Your meat and sauce are already cooked so our goal is to heat up the entire dish.

Make sure to save some shredded mozzarella to sprinkle on top for the last 5 minutes of cooking so you have that ooey gooey cheese on top!

How to make a cheap lasagna?

Now spending almost $13 on one meal may sound like a lot and I would agree, so there has to be a way to make lasagna but get the price down. My goal is to keep my grocery budget below $100 a week, so spending more than 10% on one meal is just too high for me.

Let’s take a look at different ways to lower the cost of lasagna:

9 ways to make lasagna cheaper

Switch out the Ricotta cheese with Cottage Cheese– This easy swap can save a few bucks and honestly tastes about the same. I like to get the small curd cottage cheese and once you mix it with the shredded cheese it looks very similar to the ricotta cheese.
Switch out the ground beef and pasta with frozen beef ravioli – This not only lowers the cost but will also let you save time because you don’t have to brown the meat. You can jump straight to the assembly phase and make layers of frozen ravioli with tomato sauce and a cheese layer. Then you can bake in the oven until fully cooked.
Switch out the ground beef with ground pork, sausage, chicken, or turkey– There is no law that says lasagna has to be made with ground beef. You can easily substitute any other ground meat if it is cheaper than ground beef. We regularly see ground pork on sale for $0.99 a pound, so that is a much better deal for us. Walmart sells rolls of ground turkey for about $2.50 each and that is another great option.
Skip the meat and make a vegetable lasagna– Instead of using ground meat, make that layer out of vegetables. You can use a bag of frozen vegetables like California blend (broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots) or you can use spinach (fresh or frozen). If you have a garden, think about using yellow squash or zucchini for a nice summer twist!
Utilize leftovers – have some leftover cooked chicken breast or taco meat? Make a lasagna using what you already have cooked. Chicken breasts and spinach can be combined with jarred Alfredo Sauce to make a white chicken lasagna. That taco meat can be combined with black beans, salsa, and canned corn to make a Tex-Mex lasagna.
Switch out your noodles – Just like there is no law that says you have to use ground beef, there is no law that says you have to use lasagna noodles. Lasagna noodles tend to a be more expensive per ounce compared to pasta shells or penne pasta. Go ahead and make your lasagna in traditional layers but use any cooked pasta that you already have in your cabinet!
Bulk up your lasagna with beans and vegetables – If you are working with a small amount of ground meat, consider adding canned beans like kidney beans and canned vegetables like diced tomatoes and canned mushrooms. These will not only add a heartier flavor, but they will also make it more filling. This is an easy way to sneak in extra veggies too!
Shred the Cheese yourself – Next time you are picking out cheese in the grocery store, check out the prices based on if you shred it yourself. Sometimes the price is no different, but other times you can find the same amount of cheese is cheaper if you shred it yourself! (Check out: Is shredding your own cheese cheaper?)
Make Smaller Portions – Instead of just serving lasagna for dinner, try adding a side salad, garlic bread, green beans, and a portion of fruit to your plate. You will still get all the yummy flavor, but you also balance the expensive part of the meal with more low cost and filling options.

So just how cheap can we make lasagna? Let’s breakdown the prices of some of these suggestions and see how low we can get this price down.

Super Cheap Lasagna on a Tight Budget

Ingredients	Cost
Festive Ground Turkey 1lb roll	$2.54
Del Monte Traditional Pasta Sauce 24oz can	$0.90
Great Value Shells 16oz box=	$0.78
Great Value Small Curd Cottage Cheese 16oz tub	$1.98
Great Value 8oz mozzarella block	$2.00
Total Cost: $8.20 8 servings total	Cost per Serving: $1.02

We have now taken a $13.20 lasagna down to $8.20 while still getting that same great yummy lasagna taste. If we utilized leftovers from other meals, we could get this a little lower, but I am happy with the $5.00 (almost 38%) reduction in cost.

This lasagna easily makes 8 servings, so that means we can have a great dinner and have leftovers for lunch or another dinner.

If we think outside of the “rules” of what we traditionally know when cooking a meal, we can save a lot of money and still maintain the yummy.

For more ways to save money by doing it yourself, check out “Is it cheaper to make your own oatmeal?” and “Is it cheaper to make your own Peanut Butter?“