How to cook cheaply in Switzerland: the method

Updated regularly. Cooking cheaply has little to do with going without and a lot to do with two decisions: fresh over ready-made, and own-brand over brand. A study by the Federal Food Safety Office (BLV), carried out by the Bern University of Applied Sciences (2014), showed it clearly: a weekly basket of fresh ingredients cost a couple household around CHF 109, while the same healthy basket from convenience products cost around CHF 145. It is not health that is expensive, but convenience.

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How do you really cook cheaply in Switzerland?

With four ground rules. 1. Cook fresh instead of buying ready meals. Per the BLV study (2014) this is the biggest lever: around CHF 36 per week difference between fresh and convenience, for a two-person household. 2. Rely on cheap staples. Structurally cheapest per portion are dried pulses (lentils, chickpeas, beans), eggs, low-fat quark, seasonal vegetables, and own-brand pasta and rice. The most expensive are fresh meat, fish and ready meals. 3. Own-brand over brand. Kassensturz (SRF) measured in November 2025 that the M-Budget basket was around 38 percent and the Prix Garantie basket around 51 percent cheaper than comparable branded products. 4. Cook around the promotions. Because no chain is permanently the cheapest, it pays to build the menu around what is on offer, rather than the other way round.

From principle to plate

These rules are evergreen, but the specific ingredients change every week with the promotions. So no fixed recipe list tells you what is cheapest this week. That is exactly what the Rappn recipes section is for: it suggests dishes whose ingredients are on offer right now, across every chain. That turns "fresh, own-brand, seasonal" into a concrete weekly basket.

Batch cooking: cook once, eat for days

Cooking a large batch once and eating it across several days saves on three fronts: money, time and energy. The cheap base, meaning lentils, rice or pasta, can be bought in bigger units, and the larger pack is usually cheaper per kilo than the small one. Planning one big pot also means a more targeted shop and less thrown away. That pays off twice over, because less thrown away is money directly saved.

The trick against boredom is variety from the same base. One big pot of lentils becomes a curry today, a bowl tomorrow and a soup later. Because you heat the stove only once, you also save time and energy. Whatever you will not eat in the next few days, portion it and freeze it. This is exactly what the Swiss anti-food-waste bodies recommend: plan the week and batch-cook in one go. What is left is to know what freezes well.

• Cook one big pot of a cheap base (lentils, rice, pasta) and vary it: curry, bowl, soup.
• Buy the base in bigger units; the larger pack is usually cheaper per kilo.
• Portion and freeze whatever you will not eat soon.
• Freezes well: cooked rice, pasta, soups and stews, bread, cooked meat. Poorly: leafy salads, cream- or mayonnaise-based dishes, whole potatoes.

Download Rappn, get recipes matched to the current promotions and find the cheapest basket through the price comparison. For what healthy cooking really costs, see eat healthy on a budget, and how to cook under five francs per person, cook under CHF 5 per person.