Is “home cooking” becoming a luxury these days?

YABU. Prices of everything have gone up so yes, it’s more expensive to cook at home. But show me what ready-made options there are that are cheaper (assuming that you’re comparing a balanced family dinner - not just junk food).

The thing is that home cooking is cheaper over a longer period of time (obviously depending on what you make, comparing like for like, etc). To cook from scratch you have to fill your store cupboard, your spice rack, your freezer. That costs a lot initially. So if you mean the cost of making one meal from a point of having literally nothing in the house, then yes it would probably be cheaper to get something ready made.

All food is more expensive, meaning the cost of eating out is also much higher, as are ready meals.

The cheapest way to a healthy meal is still cooking at home.

In some cases, pre-prepared, mass-produced food is cheaper. It could cost more to make a quiche at home than buy the cheapest supermarket alternative. Same for, say, a cake. Obviously the quality, taste and nutritional value differ wildly.

I'm not sure what working full-time or having children has to do with it as some new phenomenon. My late DH and I worked full-time in demanding jobs, mine enabling routine OOH work in the evenings and at weekends, and had a child.

All meals were cooked from scratch. Not by me I might add, he did all the cooking.

I also don't get why single people should be out of the house more than anyone else.

@Amba1998what’s this £2.50 virgin olive oil from Tesco ?

The thing about rising ingredient costs is that it affects ready made items and takeaways too. It's not like home cooking ingredients have gone up while everything else stays static.

(I do know that in some cases, usually single people who aren't home to cook every evening, it isn't always so economical to cook at home. But for a family I'm having a hard time creating a scenario where it's more economical not to cook.)

What happens is that we all start cutting corners on what we make.

I don't think that's true. You can't compare rubbish processed crap with homemade meals. Low price ready meals will use the cheapest lowest quality ingredients, with a bonus of additives and fillers.
So easier yes, but not cheaper because it's not comparing like for like. Your homemade pasta dish will be healthier and tastier.

I do agree that with inflation we had to make compromise on some stuff. So we definitely buy lower quality produces, particularly for things like olive oil.

Do you add an expensive protein like steak or lobster to make your pasta expensive?

I use supermarket own brand olive oil which I assume isn’t what you’d call decent because decent sounds like you mean premium.

There are some very good ready meals out there and I pick ones that I would have time to cook from scratch.

YANBU. I do cook from.scratch but have always recognised the privilege of it, particularly coming from a background where convenience food was much more the norm.

I was fortunate that my parents, DM in particular, did indulge me when I wanted to cook different things at home in my teens. DF was fussy but DM would eat almost anything and loved trying what I made. Also DF really did appreciate fresh food even if his tastes were plain. He did the food shopping and we'd go to the butchers and greengrocers and have roast meat and salads at the weekend, and more convenience stuff in the week.

Even a few years ago planning meals and cooking healthy food from scratch was cheaper but I'm not sure that it is now factoring in energy costs and that good, fresh ingredients are so expensive. Even on a very good salary I do a lot more in the airfryer and slow cooker as I'm not keen to empty my bank account into the coffers of the energy company every month.

I can't see how it's ever cheaper to 'grab something ready made' if the quality is anywhere comparable.

Home cooking can be very economical and any ready made food for a similar price will be absolute junk.

It can be time consuming but often isn't. Pasta cooks in little over 10 minutes and you can do the sauce/dressing in the mean time. The amount of olive oil that is used per serving will be pennies and if you use seasonal veg, that's usually not expensive.

You can spend a lot of time and money on cooking but you can also do it very cheaply. If you don't have a lot of time or money, then there's always things like omelettes, egg or beans on toast, that sort of thing. Cheaper and less unhealthy than cheap ready made food.

All our cookware comes from supermarkets or Ikea and isn't particularly expensive and lasts for years/decades. Despite cooking quite a lot, using electricity, which is more expensive, our electricity bill is under £2 a day and that includes the shower, lights, dishwasher etc as well

What ready made food are you suggesting is cheaper and quicker than the examples above? And that's before you consider taste and quality - anything ready made with 'decent olive oil and veg' will cost a fortune - you're looking at Charlie Bigham, Cook, artisan farm shop stuff, which is all £££s, especially if cooking for more than one person.

Pans last years. You don’t need to replenish oil and seasonings in every single shop. You can get a decent extra virgin olive oil for £2.50 in Tesco

pasta, tinned tomatoes, mozzarella, seasoning, bag of carrots, fresh tomatoes, peppers, courgette surely will only come to a few £. Add in a pack of mince for almost a £5 but for 500g it will feed a family of 4

we eat out once a week and spend about £80 including wine. So no I wouldn’t class making a pasta dish at home as the luxury.

ready meals these days are also like £4 per portion so if you’re feeding a family of 4 on a ready meal it will be expensive! Plus you can’t really beat making your own sauces

all in all making a pasta bake or a spag bol still seems the more cost efficient way IMO

You can try frozen veg to bulk sauces out etc