Is “home cooking” becoming a luxury these days?

Not world wide. I am an immigrant my parents worked and cooked. So did my grandparents, so does our gen. Dh admittedly did have non working mum which was standard there (different country), though this gen, both parents work.
When my family first visit me in UK they were taking pics of ready meal isles in supermarkets to show back home. They were stunned by the sheer amount of these.
Now there are few racks, not just shelves, of ready meals too in there, but still nowhere on UK scale. Most people still cook whether they work or not because it's just basic function.

Mentioning that I always saw big difference in attitude to food and cooking between my immigrant and british friends.
We also do have a giggle when some of our "chaleap poor foods" are called MC here.

Whole an issie for the very low income, I think the cost of energy for cooking is rather over estimated. I cook from scratch pretty much every day and our daily gas and electricity cost (without heating) rarely goes above £3. With heating it may reach £6 on a very heavy energy use day. Are people baking and roasting things in the oven for hours or something?

Comparing a ready meal to a home cooked meal solely on the basis of price is a bad comparison.

And I still think home cooked is cheaper.

I don’t think home made is more expensive unless you are eating total crap - which isn’t really comparing like with like - but even crap processed food is expensive

We do still cook from scratch most nights, however food prices mean it is more expensive than it used to be.

I cooked steak last night and for a 2 pack of rump steak in Tesco it was £12.75 so that is £25.50 for 4 people just for the meat. Cooked a simple lasagne at the weekend and a 500g pack of meat is over £5 now.

In comparison we can order a chinese takeaway for the 4 of us for around £25.

It's a mind set. The fast food industry has had a hold on us too long. Time to take our health and money back. Once you start it doesn't take longer than grabbing a take away.

I've noticed im getting less colds because of this!

Yes food is more expensive than it used to be but eating out is astronomical - our weekly food bill is roughly the same as one meal out would be.

That's a greay example of what the pp and I mentioned.
It's 10.70 a kilo. Probably what should be very cheap cut.
Wagyu brisket is 11.99 a kilo.
21 day matured roasting joint 9.99
Meat prices have nearly leveled on medium priced and cheap cuts.
Which is annoying.

Eating out is outrageously expensive now. Even fish and chips costs a fortune for a family.

Quite right.
Tescos own is £2.95 for 250 mls.

Depends what you cook, surely?

I cook about 90% of our meals from scratch. We always have oven chips in the freezer for an easy option, I also sometimes buy tortellini, ready made soup, pizzas, garlic bread, and samosas! Oh and ready rolled puff pastry for pies. Other than that it's pretty much all home made.

There is absolutely no way I could afford to feed us all on ready meals day in day out though. I don't understand how anyone thinks that's cheaper for a family? Maybe for a single person if they don't have proper cooking facilities.

Historically, the vast majority of human meals have been made by someone whose sole job is to prepare and serve food. From housewives to street vendors to servants, the idea that a working adult should also be responsible for feeding themselves is largely alien.

Ive found the reverse really. Eating out has become so expensive around here (I understand why) that cooking at home is even better value that ever before. I dont have to pay myself business rates, minimum wage or NI and domestic fuel is cheaper too.

In terms of ready meals,they are ok value but they have less protein than im used to.

I think the cheapest, quickest option is doing things like omelette or jackets with beans for tea.

We don't have any Groupon or First Table restaurants near us. We occasionally use the Kids Eat Free in the holidays but it can still get to £80 if we have drinks etc.

Again, these are niche situations.

The majority of adults will have, at some point, had enough money to buy a few basic pieces of cooking equipment and enough time to teach themselves a few basic dishes. .

It’s more that they have not prioritised it, and could never envisage a day when eating ready made food would get too expensive.

I find cooking from scratch mostly cheaper than convenience food

Eating out though - if you use Groupon or first table, it can be cheaper than cooking.

No way I can do 6 tapas dishes for £14.99!
http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/las-iguanas?utm_campaign=UserReferral_mih&utm_source=undefined

And 50% off food with First table means you can get a steak dinner for 2 people for £26. Other food is even cheaper

We tend to only eat now when we use a deal - am convinced a bargain tastes better!

I think the root cause of people not cooking from scratch is laziness (physical and/or mental) and a lack of confidence (brought on by advertising).

I cook every single day. It's one of the things that I just do. Not all my meals are elaborate - most just have two or three main ingredients. How hard can that be?

Roasting meat is not time intensive - you bung it in the oven and let the oven do the work.

I think there may be a generational reason for the lack of home cooking. I grew up in the 70s/80s and it would have been unthinkable to not cook from scratch - there weren't really alternatives. I also did proper home economics at school - none of the namby Food Tech stuff in those days that equip you for nothing.

One onion, one bulb of garlic (simmered in a bit of water if you dont have oil), a value tin of chopped tomatoes, pasta.

Let me guess....it's privileged to own a knife....

Because I find complaining that you must buy food and cook to be very out of touch. A lot of people on this planet would love for that to be the worst thing they go through.

Aldi diced beef is £4. Bulk it out with veg etc and it’s still a cheap meal.

I think it depends what you are cooking. I buy fresh meat at Aldi which is reasonable. I always have frozen onion, mushrooms, peppers, etc in the freezer and sauce packets in the cupboard. Stick them in the slow cooker. You can make a meal for 4 for about £5-£6 if you really think about it. I have made a cheesy chorizo chicken & mushroom pasta bake for 8 people which has cost around £7/£8. I don't have much spare cash after bills so planning ahead and having food staples in the freezer and cupboard really does bring the cost down. A chicken or sausage casserole or a beef stew in the slow cooker can be relatively cheap and goes a long way. And a big bag of dirty potatoes (get big sack from farm shop straight from the ground). Burger and chips for 4 people with homemade chips can cost less than £5.

But then the pub round the corner does meal nights, you can get a curry and a pint for £10, pizza and a drink for £12.

You are being ridiculous.

If you want to eat something ready prepared, do it. If you don't want to cook, don't.

But bleating about the cost of ingredients like this?

Yes, exactly.
For people with no financial leeway at all they have no option but to by the cheapest thing to feed themselves and their family now, today, this week.
I think many mumsnetters (and mps!) don’t appreciate the hand to mouth existence which living on benefits or minimum wage creates.
There is also the cost of energy to cook, and many people are on prepayment meters so can only afford that day’s heat and light.
Also may not have cooking equipment.

There isn't a good range of shops near my home, just big supermarkets. Increasingly, it's getting harder to obtain traditional simple basics for cooking or baking from scratch. Lots of ready-made foods, limited basics.

For example, my local supermarkets no longer stock ground rice, barley, brown lentils, dried milk, wholemeal pasta ... all recipe standards that I use regularly. There is so much missing I now have to order these online!

Xposted😂