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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to be angry with people who do not buy free range eggs?

646 replies

ohnoudidnt · 08/04/2011 19:58

I know that they cost more, but surely it is worth the extra to know the bird has had a better standard of living.

OP posts:
scottishmummy · 08/04/2011 20:38

is this prosperous chatterati opining how others should eat? lording it over the wee folk and berating them for not being free range/fair trade/organic/from artisan/made in commune in cumbria

LoopyLoopsChupaChups · 08/04/2011 20:39

What chickens just said.

expatinscotland · 08/04/2011 20:40

Oh, I'm sure the HA would love it if we got some chickens. In a flat. Where you're allowed to only have 'two domesticated animals and no livestock' (well, this is a rural area :o).

I'd give anything to have a place with a garden and keep battery hens and rescued rabbits and guinea pigs.

It ain't gonna happen any more than we can magic up any money before now and next week so we have to do the best we can for now.

southeastastra · 08/04/2011 20:40

we're all fucked - though expat's family is more fucked than all of us as usual

scottishmummy · 08/04/2011 20:40

straight choice 15 eggs or 6 free-range?if skint id buy 15.pragmatically it makes more grub and im not sentimental food on table is more important than some worthy notion about hens

FunnyBumbleBee · 08/04/2011 20:41

I have to say, I am in no way wealthy and I am certainly not one of the people scottishmummy has described but I am going to hold my hands up... I had no idea how little money some people are surviving on. I hold my hands up and say sorry for sounding so judgemental. I reserve my anger for people who can afford to buy free range and don't...

LoopyLoopsChupaChups · 08/04/2011 20:41

I know this is going to sound churlish, and I don't mean it that way at all (and I'm not one to talk, can't be arsed with gardening) but how about an allotment? Friends of mine just got one for £14 per year.

Thingumy · 08/04/2011 20:42

Our local market sells half a dozen free range eggs for £1.

I buy them as I prefer the local guy gets my quid rather than tescos.

battery hens only lay 15 eggs more a year than free range eggs,I choose free range over animal cruelty.

zukiecat · 08/04/2011 20:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

expatinscotland · 08/04/2011 20:43

There's nothing left to economise anymore here! Nothing! We are so poor I lie awake at night worrying about money.

It's important to me to pay the council tax next week so we don't get one of their nice, threatening demand letters as we're already late with it.

It's important to me to pay the bills.

There's nothing left anymore. We had to sign a contract, too, with BT, who used to be the only provider here until 3 months ago, for phone and stuff so now we're stuck paying that. We had to sign it because otherwise they were going to charge us £137 as there was no line in here.

There's FA in here. We're on a donated couch, two rugs in the whole flat.

Still need to eat and buy power to make food.

Bogeyface · 08/04/2011 20:43

Loopy, I dont mean to sound churlish but how about just accepting that some people cant afford, or simply dont want, to live by your principles and please stop trying to solve that "problem" for them?

You are actually making yourself sound more U with each (well meaning) suggestion.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 08/04/2011 20:43

Prosperous? I work very part time because I care for OH and DS2, OH works very part time because he has a degenerative neurological disorder. We survive on our wages and disbility benefits.

We have an income of less than 15k a year. We have four children.

We manage but we are not prosperous and fuck only knows where we will be once all these cuts kick in.

I am describing what I do and why I do it.

hissymissy · 08/04/2011 20:44

I have gone through my finances with a fine tooth combe in the last few months, and there is literally nothing else i can cut back on except food. Like many families, my income has been frozen, no pay rise (even though they promised those of us in the public sector in the lowest pay would get a pay rise - liers!), no rise in CB or tax credits, and everything, everything has gone up (including my housing association rent by 5%, not to mention water rates 4%, gas, electric, and petrol, now after school club and school dinners have also gone up too).

I have to count every penny. I didn't take holidays before the credit crunch, so I can't cut that... I have had the same clapped out old banger for 5, which I will keep till it dies on me.

Go ahead, be angry with me. Sit on your high horse and pass judgement. I am now beyond giving a toss because I have far, far bigger problems to worry about than some poor old chickens and some self congratulatory, smug mumsnetters.

expatinscotland · 08/04/2011 20:44

'I know this is going to sound churlish, and I don't mean it that way at all (and I'm not one to talk, can't be arsed with gardening) but how about an allotment? Friends of mine just got one for £14 per year.'

Our council doesn't have any.

Is that okay with you?

I get the eggs in a shop downstairs for £1 for 6 of them. They come from the nearest farm. That's all I know and at this rate, I'm not asking fucking questions.

I needed some to make muffins for breakfast tomorrow.

LaWeasel · 08/04/2011 20:45

I would love an allotment! Grin we're on the list (it's 8 years...)

It's a bugger actually as we'd just got to the top of our old list and we had to move half way across the country when DH lost his job.

millie30 · 08/04/2011 20:45

Surely it's up to individuals what they choose to prioritise in relation to their budgets? If you can afford free range, or make a decision to forego something else in order to buy free range, then good for you. Let others decide what is best for them.

scottishmummy · 08/04/2011 20:46

dont be so sentimental about chickens when folk are skint and eking out a living

misplaced sentimentality about hens when folk are skint in a recession is really misplaced

disposable income is the luxury to chose and spend actively to fulfil one ideologies.this goes out window when skint

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 08/04/2011 20:46

Eggs that you buy from a local shop/farm are likely to have better conditions than cheap eggs from supermarkets. Although a lot of the supermarkets are moving to better welfare eggs because consumers demand them.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 08/04/2011 20:47

Fuck me!
I am going to txt OH and tell him how rich we are.

Who knew?

Itsjustafleshwound · 08/04/2011 20:47

Why has this degenerated into a comparison of hair shirts??

I don't buy organic because I don't believe the hype and the reason for charging a premium for the self same thing (what the f**k is an organic avo??) ... if I started looking behind the labels of everything I buy, I would have a major headache ...

southeastastra · 08/04/2011 20:48

expat i used to like to you but lately i really want to whack you right between the eyes

expatinscotland · 08/04/2011 20:48

I don't assume people who buy free range eggs are rich.

I don't think about who buys what at all anymore, tbh.

I'm too busy trying to eek stuff out and hope we don't get a letter from teh council on Monday.

expatinscotland · 08/04/2011 20:49

Thanks for the abuse, south.

I can't say I give a damn.

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 08/04/2011 20:49

I don't buy organic. I keep hens and they're not organic.

LaWeasel · 08/04/2011 20:49

Ah, come on don't get into competative poorness.

income doesn't mean much compared to what fixed outgoings you have and can't do anything about (especially contracts you're stuck in)

It was easier when we were on a fixed piddly income than it is now when we're coming out of unemployment with contracts hanging over from when we earned more and owing people money...