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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that a roast dinner isn't necessarily an expensive meal to cook?

337 replies

Granllanog · 03/10/2021 17:51

Just been chatting to a newish friend, she asked what we were eating today and I said I had cooked a roast chicken dinner........she said she loves a roast but considers it an expensive meal. I asked her what she was having today and she said they were having fresh pizzas from Morrisons (£10).
I told her my roast dinner cost less than that to make!!!

Obviously, if you buy a very expensive cut of meat then the cost will be higher but a roast doesn't have to break the bank surely? Today we had a simple chicken dinner, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, swede, peas, carrots, stuffing and gravy.

Breakdown of today's simple roast
Chicken .........1.4 kg £3.33 (part of a multibuy offer)
Potatoes .......... 30p (taken from a large 7.5 kg bag)
Carrots 25p
Peas (frozen) 30p
swede 45p
parsnips 30p
homemade stuffing 25p onion, fresh herbs, my own breadcrumbs
homemade gravy 10p spoon of flour and some gravy browning

OP posts:
Loveshelly · 03/10/2021 21:00

@bigbeachedwales
Why do you NEED chicken

I have no problem with the people on here who at least say they give zero fucks about chickens or welfare. At least they’re honest.

If you think you deserve a fucking chicken even though you don’t have enough money for one. Then that’s fucked up.

bigbeachedwales · 03/10/2021 21:02

@Standrewsschool

Our roast beef was £13 from local butcher, more than some people pay but that fed three adults. It’s our weekly treat.
We don't get a weekly treat. I have about £30 for food for the week. You're all so lucky.
bigbeachedwales · 03/10/2021 21:04

[quote Loveshelly]@bigbeachedwales
Why do you NEED chicken

I have no problem with the people on here who at least say they give zero fucks about chickens or welfare. At least they’re honest.

If you think you deserve a fucking chicken even though you don’t have enough money for one. Then that’s fucked up.[/quote]
My kids love roast chicken. It makes them feel happy and normal, like their friends, who get a roast on a Sunday. Makes me feel like a good parent. That's more important to me than chicken welfare. Sorry but it's true.

Original poster
Granllanog · 03/10/2021 21:04

Why do I buy non-free range or organic chicken? Because I'm on a budget that's why. We are a single wage household, dh works full time and I am a full time carer to disabled ds. I would rather buy a whole chicken than processed chicken products and I make sure I use every scrap of the bird, it may be inferior in taste to a free-range organic bird but it is still a tasty meal. I'm hardly alone in buying a cheap chicken as that is what the majority of people eat every day!!!

OP posts:
Loveshelly · 03/10/2021 21:05

@bigbeachedwales
Don’t eat meat. And don’t be bitter about people who care and can afford to think animal welfare.

liveforsummer · 03/10/2021 21:06

[quote Loveshelly]@bigbeachedwales
Why do you NEED chicken

I have no problem with the people on here who at least say they give zero fucks about chickens or welfare. At least they’re honest.

If you think you deserve a fucking chicken even though you don’t have enough money for one. Then that’s fucked up.[/quote]
What?? So because she's poor she doesn't deserve chicken for her family? A very basic and staple food! Wow!

Comedycook · 03/10/2021 21:06

We don't get a weekly treat. I have about £30 for food for the week. You're all so lucky

My food budget is more than yours but I still can't afford organic or free range meat. I buy ordinary supermarket meat, like pretty much everyone else I see in the supermarket. I don't really care. I care about feeding my family food they'll eat that I can afford. I think if you can feed your family on £30 a week, you're amazing

Loveshelly · 03/10/2021 21:07

@liveforsummer
Is Not a fucking basic staple food. Are you smoking crack

It’s a fucking living being

Comedycook · 03/10/2021 21:08

[quote Loveshelly]@bigbeachedwales
Why do you NEED chicken

I have no problem with the people on here who at least say they give zero fucks about chickens or welfare. At least they’re honest.

If you think you deserve a fucking chicken even though you don’t have enough money for one. Then that’s fucked up.[/quote]
Not as fucked up as you for lecturing people on a budget who just want to feed their kids.

Noogar · 03/10/2021 21:09

I'm hardly alone in buying a cheap chicken as that is what the majority of people eat every day!!! I eat chicken about once a week or once a fortnight do people really eat chicken every day? I ask that genuinely.

KingsleyShacklebolt · 03/10/2021 21:10

[quote Pedalpushers]@kingsleyshacklebolt if you read up on factory farming, the issues with it go far beyond basic animal welfare issues. It's horrific for the environment (from global warming to local water supplies) bad for people in the communities where the commercial farms set up, bad for the mental health of the workers and creates conditions that will spread antibiotic resistance and create novel influenza viruses that will give us another handy pandemic some day.[/quote]
I have no interest in reading up about that though. Just the same as I have no interest in seeking out information about how other things are made or produced.

Plus the loaded judgement appears to be that if you really knew what was going on everyone would be vegan/veggie, or if you knew what went on and ate it anyway you're a heartless bastard.

The reality is that people just aren't that bothered and have bigger fish to fry.

HarrisMcCoo · 03/10/2021 21:10

[quote Loveshelly]@bigbeachedwales
Don’t eat meat. And don’t be bitter about people who care and can afford to think animal welfare.[/quote]
Very close to reporting your post. You are coming across very aggressively here...

Noogar · 03/10/2021 21:10

So because she's poor she doesn't deserve chicken for her family? A very basic and staple food!

I am asking genuinely, is chicken a basic and staple food? I thought stuff like bread, potatoes and veg were but have always seen meat as a twice a week thing. Or maybe ham might be a staple for sandwhiches.

CiaoForNiao · 03/10/2021 21:10

[quote Loveshelly]@bigbeachedwales
Don’t eat meat. And don’t be bitter about people who care and can afford to think animal welfare.[/quote]
God how dare poor people want to eat meat. Next they'll be asking for shoes too. Ffs.

I eat cheap/low welfare meat because its all I can afford. A variety of health issues and dietary requirements mean meat is the easiest way I can get everything I need in my diet. That's all there is to it.

Loveshelly · 03/10/2021 21:11

@Comedycook
I’m not lecturing anyone. As I said. At least the people who don’t care don’t care. I actually respect them
The rest of the people persuading themselves it is ok and they just want to be like everyone else. You can’t be like everyone else.

Go watch the culling of 150,000 pigs. Because they can’t sell it to you cheap enough. Disgusting

Noogar · 03/10/2021 21:13

@bigbeachedwales that's a good point. There is something that makes it feel a bit special when the whole family sit for a roast. I sometimes do a roast with sausages and that seems to go down well. But yes there is a lot to be said for if people feel cared for then why not eat cheap chicken.

KingsleyShacklebolt · 03/10/2021 21:13

[quote Loveshelly]@liveforsummer
Is Not a fucking basic staple food. Are you smoking crack

It’s a fucking living being[/quote]
To state the obvious - when it's sitting shrink wrapped in the chillers at Tesco, it's a staple food. It's most definitely not a living being.

liveforsummer · 03/10/2021 21:14

@Noogar

So because she's poor she doesn't deserve chicken for her family? A very basic and staple food!

I am asking genuinely, is chicken a basic and staple food? I thought stuff like bread, potatoes and veg were but have always seen meat as a twice a week thing. Or maybe ham might be a staple for sandwhiches.

I'd say so. I don't buy ham - it's too expensive and it's processed and unhealthy. I'd rather make sandwiches from chicken left over from a roast.
Loveshelly · 03/10/2021 21:16

@KingsleyShacklebolt
Tbf. Good point!

Noogar · 03/10/2021 21:16

@liveforsummer thanks, that's a really good point about the ham. Maybe I'll look into eating a bit more chicken and do stuff like sandwiches with it. Or pies.

Comedycook · 03/10/2021 21:16

[quote Noogar]@bigbeachedwales that's a good point. There is something that makes it feel a bit special when the whole family sit for a roast. I sometimes do a roast with sausages and that seems to go down well. But yes there is a lot to be said for if people feel cared for then why not eat cheap chicken.[/quote]
I always feel a sense of satisfaction when I dish up a roast meal for my family...makes me feel like a proper mum Grin plus it's the one thing my kids are guaranteed to eat all of.

Comedycook · 03/10/2021 21:18

I don't buy ham - it's too expensive and it's processed and unhealthy. I'd rather make sandwiches from chicken left over from a roast.

Decent ham is expensive. I've started cooking a gammon joint and using the leftovers as ham instead. Works out much cheaper

VestaTilley · 03/10/2021 21:18

YANBU, we had a roast (of sorts) today - pork steaks, roast potatoes, homemade apple sauce, gravy, carrots and stuffing - no way did it come to a tenner, even allowing for the oven being on.

Pork, chicken and chops are fairly cheap. If she thought you meant a leg of lamb or sirloin of beef I’d agree with her, but for a chicken it’s a fairly cheap meal to make.

AveryGoodlay · 03/10/2021 21:23

All these people with the luxury of buying organic free range chickens need to remember that it is a luxury and for a lot of us the cost of your chicken needs to cover 2 or 3 meals My family and I can't afford to eat animals which haven't been reared and treated well. Therefore we eat a mostly vegetarian diet. We eat meat maybe once a month at most because we don't want to contribute to poor animal welfare. People are acting like there is no choice for poor families. We do have a choice, eat less or no meat.

hardyloveit · 03/10/2021 21:24

I did a roast. A gammon as the supermarkets keep running out of chicken.

Cost about £3.50

All veg including potatoes were home grown.
Spent probably 50p to make Yorkshire puddings.

Meals can be as expensive or as cheap as you want them to be.
Even buying the veg roast doesn't have to be expensive and the meat can always go to other meals