Is “home cooking” becoming a luxury these days?

I think too you have to factor in what quality do they mean when people say just grab something ready made - now I’m very partial to a good ready meal but at the level of M&S, cook , Charlie bighams etc and to be honest the ones for 1 always feel a bit meagre unless I bang a salad with them it cook some broccoli etc - multiply up by 3 or 4 and it isn’t cheap . I mean yes you can buy £2 ready meals in sone places - but they aren’t good or very ample either

These same people then describe meals that always cost ‘pennies’ however by the time you are buying the cheapest ingredients the result is no better nutritionally then the ready meals or the ingredients are so stretched (500g mince does us a meal for six with leftovers for the next day - yeah right!) the calories per person are so low as to not be enough food anyway - therefore needing bulking out with snacks or bread or whatnot

I think people are looking at this the wrong way. If you buy the same products but of lesser quality, leaving vital ingredients out or strech it simply with water, then of course you end up with something less nutritional.
Been there, done that.... and then I discovered veggy / vegan food and pulses! Game changers! Cheap, nutritious and very filling. Of course you have to learn to cook it but that should not be an issue to the average home cook. And DC will adapt if nothing else is on offer.
As a family we manage to eat veggie/ vegan 5-6 days/ week. I have enough money over from our shopping budget to buy some lovely top quality meat for our Sunday meal... and because I use better quality ingredients, I actually buy less food for similar money and everyone is full and satisfied for longer.

You’re comparing apples and pears so no wonder you’re confused.
ready-made (using the cheapest ingredients possible) and bulked out with onion
vs
hone-cooking using expensive olive oil and quality ingredients

theres no way ready-made is cheaper unless it has at least 2 reduced stickers on it.

I think the cost if everything has massively increased but it’s still cheaper overall to cook at home rather than ready meals. I just go down a step in terms of quality there days or choose a cheaper option - don’t buy extra lean mince, blended oil rather than 100% olive, pork instead of beef, bulk dishes with cheap veg like carrots etc. also make sure I eat up all the leftovers.

Pizza made at home is cheaper and nicer.

I make a massive vat of soup for the week with veg, beans/lentils and have that with a fried egg, cheese or leftover meat on it for lunch.

Sure, but that's just willpower. That's a different issue from the cost of ingredients vs. ready made.

I agree that food at supermarkets is more expensive but definitely not more expensive than buying something ready to eat. When you buy food at supermarket you get better quality and more quantity. Most basic veg such as carrot, tomatoes, courgette are not than expensive. Pasta you can find in Tesco for 40p. Also usually you have leftovers to make more meals out of it.

The problem is the executive function to go to the charity shop to buy the book, organise yourself to do all the shopping needed when you have a million things running through your brain.

I cook but I cook less healthy and sensibly when I have a lot of problems going on.

@meadowfinch you’re probably right (and that sounds delicious and a great idea!). I wish I had learned a bit more about seasonality, economical cuts of meat, etc growing up. I do try to be more aware of these things now but have so little mental energy leftover for cooking and planning meals after kids, job etc….
But I do think that while day to day cooking is still always more economical if you batch cook, use tins, freeze portions etc… doing something a bit ‘fancy’ at home or having people over can get extortionately expensive now between the cost of meat/ fish/ butter/ other things, if you buy everything from scratch - to the point where it starts to feel quite uneconomical and you might as well go out !

For me, eating out is still a luxury compared to cooking at home.

I would spend €15 on a piece of meat for a Sunday roast. If we were to Go to a carvery for Sunday lunch, we would definitely spend €60. Same with other dishes - pasta, curry, fish and chips. All cost considerably more to eat out.

With homecooking v ready meals, I don't think there's a huge price difference either. A tray of ready make chicken curry without rice is €6. I could probably make my homemade chicken curry for the same price, and we get more out of it.
Same for pasta.

I don't fry meat on a high heat with it, more lightly seared, and I also use it in salads, etc. If I was to make fish in batter, for example, then I would use vegetable oil. But the main oil that I use is EV oil, that I am used to.

I don’t think it’s true that eating out/ grabbing something ready made is actually cheaper. The prices for all of that have gone up too.

However, I have noticed that my standard of catering is rubbish compared to my parents who are retired and have time! Not rushing in from work to feed teen and tween before their hobbies/ continuing homework etc

We’re very stir fries and simple curries here, soups when the fussier dc isn’t here, whereas my parents seem to eat an array of amazing meals every day!

These same people then describe meals that always cost ‘pennies’ however by the time you are buying the cheapest ingredients the result is no better nutritionally then the ready meals or the ingredients are so stretched (500g mince does us a meal for six with leftovers for the next day - yeah right!) the calories per person are so low as to not be enough food anyway - therefore needing bulking out with snacks or bread or whatnot.

I think it's because people have very different definitions of cooking. There are loads of extreme budget cooking videos on Youtube, including how to shop for groceries to get the cheapest items. The result is always a mess of unripe, cheap produce, UPF laden processed items, skipping on essential flavour carriers like herbs, fats, spices and tiny portions. Yes, I do believe it's possible to cook from scratch for less than a fiver per day but most budget cooking recipes literally look like human dog food. It's a conglomerate of chopped up ingredients, heated up without any real seasoning, sauces or flavours.

It's simply not possible to create extremely tasty and nutritionally healthy dishes on a very tiny budget. Especially if you take animal welfare and organic farming practices into account. It's probably healthier to get a supermarket sandwich than buying the lowest quality of raw meat and eggs just to claim you "cooked" from scratch.

Yep. Supermarkets have been full of cheap plums lately. I think it's down to using what's seasonally available and knowing how to substitute things.
Plum crumble
Plum tarte tatin
Plum sponge
Plums with cinnamon and Greek yogurt, etc

Any seed oil can be described as 'natural', and so can butter. EV olive oil is expensive, has a strong and distinctive flavour, and a low smoke point - I think it's quite unusual to use EV olive oil to fry everything? Blended olive oil not as unusual, obviously.

@LadyKenya I cook with olive oil too - just not EVOO - that is for salads etc..

I agree its eye-watering cooking a nice meal for friends now. But homecooking generally is cheaper than similar quality take outs or ready meals.

A woman after my own heart 😊

You could cook seasonally instead. People are giving apples away at the moment. You could have made a large tart tatin with butter pastry for £3.

I do. It is natural, and good for health. I buy a big bottle, and it lasts a while. I am not sure that it is out of the ordinary to do so.

Using largely seasonal, U.K. grown veg, and stretching any mince based dish with red lentils (nobody will notice) helps to keep costs down.

Chicken thighs are cheaper and tastier than breasts.

In cold weather, substantial multi-veg soups (not puréed) with added red lentils and/or pearl barley/orzo pasta, are a cheap and popular staple in this house. Serve with grated cheese for protein.

I think there is a huge difference between "occasion" or "treat" cooking at home that often uses pricing luxury ingredients and the every day basic cooking to feed ourselves that can be done fairly economically.

I do think the OP is right on some things. I wanted to make a homemade pudding for the first time in ages recently but by the time I’d bought all the ingredients (admittedly this included ground almonds which are expensive) the total for my basket came to nearly £20 just for the stuff I needed - the next time we had people over my husband got two nice puddings from Waitrose for £7!

You can use cheaper olive oil to cook with - cooking with EVOO is madness in my view.

Me! It’s really good for health and suitable for cooking. Just be careful with how you use it.

When the recipe says to use one tablespoon, measure it. Don’t just add a splash to the pan.

If you are cooking a piece of meat or fish, coat the meat or fish in a little oil, salt and pepper. Then cook in a hot dry pan on the stove, or bake / air fry.

I get through a litre every few months this way.

I don’t deep fry anything ever. Deep frying in olive oil would be expensive!

This! I only use extra virgin olive oil for salad dressings. For shallow frying I use veg oil for everything 🤷🏻‍♀️