A dinner advertised as “under €5” does not necessarily require only €5 at the supermarket checkout. Whole packs and the ingredients actually used are two different numbers. For an auditable example, this article prices one large salmon-and-vegetable dinner plate using public ALDI SÜD product listings in Germany on 20 October 2026. This is a €5-per-plate budget, not a claim that every ingredient can be purchased for €5 in cash today.

The result: seven packs cost €13.33 at checkout; the measured quantities used for this one plate cost €3.72 before electricity, seasonings, transport, and any food subsequently wasted. The mathematical value still sitting in the remaining packs is €9.61. It is food you own, not €9.61 returned to your wallet. Because €3.72 is less than the €5 budget, the unspent portion of that allocated budget is €1.28.

The one dinner we're actually costing

This is a single hearty plate: one 125 g salmon fillet, 250 g raw unpeeled potatoes, 180 g raw carrots, 60 g raw onion, 100 g frozen creamed spinach, 80 g natural yogurt, and 10 ml rapeseed oil. These quantities are weights before cooking. The vegetables will lose some weight when peeled, but that is already included in the amount purchased. This is a large portion; adjust it to your appetite and recalculate rather than treating it as a standard portion for everyone.

The fish package has two 125 g fillets. The calculation uses just one, half a 250 g pack. The other remains frozen if kept in accordance with the label. The spinach is a creamed product, not plain frozen leaf spinach; it contains dairy and must be replaced and repriced if you need a milk-free meal.

The full receipt versus this plate

Product (public ALDI SÜD listing) Package bought Checkout price Used for one plate Cost allocated to plate
Frozen salmon fillets 250 g (2 × 125 g) 4.99 € 125 g 2.50 €
Small potatoes 1 kg 1.89 € 250 g 0.47 €
Organic carrots 1 kg 1.79 € 180 g 0.32 €
Yellow onions 1.5 kg 1.49 € 60 g 0.06 €
Plain yogurt, 3.5% fat 500 g 0.89 € 80 g 0.14 €
Rapeseed oil 500 ml 1.39 € 10 ml 0.03 €
Frozen creamed spinach (contains milk) 450 g 0.89 € 100 g 0.20 €
Total 7 products 13.33 € — 3.72 €

The listed amounts are illustrative public prices, not a saved receipt from a named branch. Prices, availability and package details can change by shop, region or date. Some product-detail URLs from 20 October have since been retired, so the affected rows now link to the official ALDI product category or brand page instead. These replacements are navigational references, not proof of the historical pack price. The amounts in this worked example remain a dated price snapshot, not newly verified live offers; the package sizes are essential to reproducing the calculation. Compare your own till receipt if you need a true personal cost.

All seven products are required for this example when buying from an empty kitchen. If you already own a bottle of oil or some yogurt, the new cash outlay falls; the plate still uses a portion of their economic value. Conversely, a second dinner using a new ingredient can add a full-pack checkout cost even when the new portion is cheap.

Show the arithmetic, not just the rounded labels

For each item, multiply the price of the pack by the share of the pack used. Work in euro amounts before rounding. Examples:

  • Salmon: €4.99 × 125 g ÷ 250 g = €2.495, displayed as €2.50.
  • Potatoes: €1.89 × 250 g ÷ 1,000 g = €0.4725, displayed as €0.47.
  • Carrots: €1.79 × 180 g ÷ 1,000 g = €0.3222, displayed as €0.32.
  • Spinach: €0.89 × 100 g ÷ 450 g ≈ €0.1978, displayed as €0.20.
  • Oil: €1.39 × 10 ml ÷ 500 ml = €0.0278, displayed as €0.03.

Onion and yogurt use exactly the same calculation. Adding the unrounded seven values gives €3.7173, or €3.72 after final rounding; €13.33 − €3.72 = €9.61 after displaying cents. Rounding each row can sometimes create a one-cent difference from rounding the total; in this example both displayed approaches happen to give €3.72.

This is ingredient allocation, not accounting profit or a refund. It deliberately includes the purchased raw vegetable weight (including peel), rather than charging only the pretty pieces left on the chopping board. If the second fillet, extra potatoes or opened yogurt expire before use, the cost of the food you actually eat across the week rises.

The hidden distinction: edible yield

Peels and trimmings are a cost even when they are not on your plate. To keep the method transparent, assume 90% usable potatoes, 90% usable carrots, and 85% usable onion in this one kitchen. These are illustrative assumptions, not a promised or researched universal yield. If you cook potatoes with skin on, or trim very little, your yield can be higher.

Ingredient weighed before peeling Bought/charged Assumed preparation yield Edible after trimming Discarded
Potatoes 250 g 90% 225 g 25 g
Carrots 180 g 90% 162 g 18 g
Onion 60 g 85% 51 g 9 g
Total 490 g — 438 g 52 g

The edible vegetables here total 438 g from 490 g purchased, with 52 g discarded. The cost calculation above charges the purchased 490 g, not just the edible 438 g. At the stated pack prices, mistakenly charging only those peeled weights would understate this plate's ingredients by about €0.09. Because the fish, yogurt, spinach and oil are counted as sold/used without a modeled trim loss, no arbitrary yield factor is added to those items.

If your recipe instead specifically demands 250 g peeled potatoes, you would need approximately 278 g before peeling at 90% yield (250 ÷ 0.90), not the 250 g purchased in this example. Weighing the food in your own kitchen is better than accepting a fixed percentage.

Cook the plate without turning the budget into an abstract example

  1. Prepare the ingredients: weigh the unpeeled 250 g potatoes, 180 g carrots and 60 g onion. Wash and peel as preferred. Record the scraps if you want to check the yield assumptions. Keep the salmon chilled until cooking; follow the pack's thawing directions.
  2. Cook the potatoes and carrots: cut the cleaned vegetables into small pieces. Boil or steam until soft, usually around 15–25 minutes depending on size; timing is a practical estimate, not a safety endpoint.
  3. Heat the spinach: cook 100 g frozen creamed spinach according to the package, ensuring it is hot throughout. Finely chop and soften the onion using 10 ml rapeseed oil in a frying pan.
  4. Cook the salmon: add the 125 g fillet to the pan or cook it separately. FoodSafety.gov recommends 63°C (145°F) at the centre for fish, or until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily (official safe-temperature chart). Do not serve undercooked fish as a shortcut to the budget.
  5. Plate and finish: put the cooked vegetables, salmon and spinach on one large plate. Spoon over 80 g plain yogurt as a cool sauce; season if desired, remembering that seasonings are not priced in the €3.72 example.

Preparation is approximately 30–40 minutes depending on thawing, equipment and piece size; cooking times are not guaranteed. Serve immediately. Avoid contact between raw-fish utensils and the yogurt or cooked vegetables.

Three meanings of “the dinner cost”

Question This worked dinner What the number means
How much cash to buy every full pack today? €13.33 Upfront checkout outlay if you own none of the seven items
How much of those packs goes into this plate? €3.72 Allocated ingredient cost, with raw vegetable trimming included
How much food value remains in the packs? €9.61 Remaining pack value, not money returned or a guarantee of zero waste
Is it inside a €5 ingredient budget? Yes, by €1.28 Only on this price-and-quantity example, excluding other costs

These answers are different without any of them being dishonest. Problems arise when an article quotes the €3.72 allocated cost but implies that a first-time shopper can leave the store after paying only €3.72. Equally, pricing the plate at the full €13.33 would count six partly unused items as fully eaten in one dinner.

What happens to the unused food?

The remaining 125 g frozen salmon, 750 g potatoes, 820 g carrots, 1,440 g onions, 420 g yogurt, 490 ml oil, and 350 g frozen spinach are only useful savings if they can be stored and eaten safely. These are the as-purchased remaining quantities, not cleaned edible weights. Store each food according to its label, keep refrigerated foods cold, and keep the unused frozen fillet frozen if it has not been thawed. If you opened a package, its remaining shelf life may shorten.

For cooked leftovers, FoodSafety.gov advises refrigerating within 2 hours and generally using refrigerated leftovers in 3–4 days (leftover guidance). This does not automatically give the same shelf life to opened raw salmon, yogurt or thawed spinach; follow the package instructions for those specific products. If half your purchased food spoils, a cheap-on-paper dinner becomes more costly in practice.

How to use the result without overstating precision

The simplest useful number for repeating this exact plate is €3.72 of measured ingredients at these listed prices. Check it against your price labels, account for ingredients you already have, and remeasure when portion sizes change. For a broader framework, our general explanation of how to calculate cost per meal; for the difference between recipe portions and store-package arithmetic, how sale prices affect cost per serving. This article focuses on one worked €5-budget dinner, not sale-price calculations or a generic per-meal-cost tutorial.

What is not included: electricity or gas, dishwashing, spices or herbs not listed, the monetary cost of time, travel, storage and any later spoilage. The price of the serving is not a fixed dietary or nutritional recommendation. A plate can be under a €5 ingredient budget and still require more than €5 in cash upfront.

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