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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder if it's best to go for quality or quantity?

62 replies

DrSeuss · 08/01/2015 21:31

Food bank donation
Scenario 1-
I spend £10 on stuff for the food bank. I take time in the supermarket to buy the maximum for the money. I buy stuff I know to be cheap and nasty but I get a good size bag.
Does this not say, "Here, poor people. Take this crap. It's vile and I wouldn't eat it but that's what you get."?

Scenario 2
I spend £10 and get slightly nicer stuff. Nothing fancy, just not the absolute bargain basement stuff that tastes like shit. No seed mix, no kidney bean canapés, just food that is not actually unpleasant eg mid priced beans not the really cheap ones that are disgusting.

However, this reduces the volume of my donation, giving the food bank less to give out.

Anyone know which way to go? I can't just spend more, I can't afford it.

OP posts:
LuisSuarezTeeth · 08/01/2015 21:54

Oh right. Here we go again. Yawn.

LadyLuck10 · 08/01/2015 21:54

It's not rocket science. It's food.
Well done to you if that's what you wanted.

Trills · 08/01/2015 21:54

What is the question of reasonableness here?

You're not interested in whether it's reasonable to "wonder".

You are asking for advice.

So just do that.

MrsTawdry · 08/01/2015 21:55

And STOP calling the food many people HAVE to eat "crap" and vile.

OriginalGreenGiant · 08/01/2015 21:55

It goes against the grain to make people eat crap I wouldn't touch because they are poor. I am lucky that I don't have to use a food bank. I should treat those who do as I would like to be treated

Well there you go then. You've solved your own moral dilemma.

MrsTawdry · 08/01/2015 21:56

And don't trip over your own largess when you go either.

DarylDixonsDarlin · 08/01/2015 21:56

I just choose from the needed list, items which I would be happy to consume myself - brands or own brand, whatever. I don't deliberately choose basics/value range, but if I've tried it myself and I know its decent, I'm willing to donate it.

For example I have no problem with value toilet roll, considering what its used for Hmm and I know the Tesco one 'works well'. So Id give it. But at Christmas, teabags were on the list, so I bought Tetley to donate, cos I know they are nice! I probably could have got a few more value teabags for the same price, but if they're grim it doesn't matter how many is in the packet, they'd still be grim!

There's something about seeing the foodbank trolley at the end of the supermarket checkouts, filled with value items, that makes me feel really sad. It is almost like, is that all people think its worth? Fucking value beans and crisps (that isn't a dig at anyone btw, and I know that's me projecting brand snobbery onto it. Just cant shake the feeling. Iabu to feel it, I know!)

Tinks42 · 08/01/2015 21:58

Also, when I do a good deed, I don't splash it all over mumsnet either. Grin

MrsTawdry · 08/01/2015 21:58

Listen Daryl SOME people can only afford value beans for themsevles!! They're not going to fucking buy best brand for the foodbank are they!

This website sickens me at times. And YES "Poor people" DO donate to foodbanks. They give what they can. Stop fucking popping at the people who give what they can.

OriginalGreenGiant · 08/01/2015 21:58

I probably could have got a few more value teabags for the same price, but if they're grim it doesn't matter how many is in the packet, they'd still be grim!

Just goes to show how much opinions differ - there's no ultimate right or wrong. I buy the cheapest tea bags I can - they taste the same to me! but I'd never scrimp on coffee

notauniquename · 08/01/2015 22:04

"But do they make own brand quinoa?" tesco do.

OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 08/01/2015 22:07

Most value items are absolutely fine and 99% of the aversion to them is simply snobbery. Often when people say they don't like them, it's often because it's slightly different to what they're used to.

Some people will only be able to afford to buy value brands to donate. Depending on offers, brands might be cheaper anyway.

Surely most people would prefer enough food, rather than an insufficient amoun of their preferred brand?

ChippingInLovesChristmasLights · 08/01/2015 22:09

As others have pointed out, plenty of people on this site will be buying the cheapest food possible to make ends meet.

It's horrible to call that food 'rubbish, nasty, vile yuk'. It comes across as really snotty and very bitchy.

The idea of a food bank is to help people out, not to teach your child A Valuable Lesson. Buying food for 'The Poor'. Fgs.

Grow up. No matter how cushy your life seems right now, that could be any one of us should something terrible happen. Do you really think people expected to be using a food bank to get by?!

Thankfully I have never needed to, but if I did, I'd be grateful for whatever we were given. Whatever stopped my kids going hungry.

I buy bits each time I shop. I buy what we eat, because at the moment I can afford to. If we couldn't afford to eat what we eat, I'd buy the budget brands for us and the food bank for as long as I could.

Sometimes I buy things I wouldn't drink/eat, like UHT milk, simply because it's practical. Sometimes I buy 'treats'. Often if things are 2 for1 I'll keep one, donate the other.

It varies. I use my common sense. Scarily it doesn't seem that 'common' sometimes Hmm

ChippingInLovesChristmasLights · 08/01/2015 22:14

I could have answered that so much more briefly.

Take your head out of your own arse.
Stop making comments that are nasty.
Use your god given common sense.

emmelinelucas · 08/01/2015 22:21

So bargain basement stuff "tastes like shit"
That is what I eat, then.
I have no choice.

Tinks42 · 08/01/2015 22:24

Applauds Chipping. Nothing worse than a pretentious well giver Grin

wonkylegs · 08/01/2015 22:24

I much prefer Morrison's savers beans as they are not sickly sweet like Heinz (and lower in salt & sugar than the branded ones so healthier too)
I buy quite a few things in the basics ranges not because I have to but because they are a good price for a fine product. I'm pretty sure nobody cared or even noticed that they ate savers kidney beans & sweetcorn at my last dinner party.
Generally for me, things that are 'ready made' - soup, ready meals etc tend to be not as nice and sugar/salt laden than staples - rice, pasta, tinned veg etc.
I think treat others as you would like to be treated. I would buy what I am prepared to eat myself but be as generous as I could be. (However I'm not weirdly snobbish about these things as some people apparently are) Check out food bank to see if they have a list of necessities.

MrsTawdry · 08/01/2015 22:25

Me too Emmeline. And GOD FORBID there's no "own brand quinoa"!!

I also buy own brand to put in the food bank trolley. Now I know people are sneering at it as they educate their children, I won't feel quite as helpful.

RichardParkerTheTiger · 08/01/2015 22:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PacificDogwood · 08/01/2015 22:27

Hang on, I found 'own brand quinoa' really funny Grin
For the record I find quinoa vile - even the branded stuff!

MrsTawdry · 08/01/2015 22:34

Ooh you're right Pacific Tesco does one! There you go OP. You can provide "the right sort of food" at knock down prices! Maybe they do own brand oatcakes to go with the quinoa!

WooWooOwl · 08/01/2015 22:35

Buy what you want to buy, it's ok for your donation to be whatever you want it to be.

If you want to do it with your children, let them have a pound each out of your tenner and let them think about something they might like to give to children similar to them.
Then buy what you want to give, you don't like the cheap soup and the cheap beans, so don't buy them. You do like the cheap hot chocolate (for example) so buy that to donate.

You can't really go wrong.

Shockers · 08/01/2015 22:49

I like that idea Woo.

I tend to stock up on items that I usually buy that are on 2 for 1 deals. Cereals, beans, sweetcorn, pasta (and sauces for pasta) seem to be on these deals quite often, as does toothpaste, loo roll and shower gel.

LuisSuarezTeeth · 09/01/2015 00:49

Kee noir is horrid.

I agree with WooWoo

TheHermitCrab · 09/01/2015 01:06

Nevermind the food bank, I almost always buy the "cheap and nasty" version. Read the back of the packages, you'll probably find over 90% have the exact same ingredients, in fact, some of the cheaper stuff can be healthier too.

But then I am admittedly a poor person.