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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
DriftingBlue · 03/10/2021 19:08

It also depends on if you have the base supplies already and if you will meal plan efficiently. If you are calculating just the cost of the carrots you used from the bunch and will use the rest that week you are good, but many people will mess up and the remaining carrots will go to waste. If you are using gravy granules, you have to buy a whole jar even if you will only use them once or twice a year.

Hdhdjejdj · 03/10/2021 19:08

To the poster who talked about not everyone having a well stocked kitchen, i’ve asked for nice dishes, pans or roasting trays for Christmas or birthdays in the past. I use them every day. I can guarantee that you could get really lovely things in charity shops. I’ve bought a full dinner service from one which I use for special occasions. Most seem to always have Pyrex dishes on sale.

Pixxie7 · 03/10/2021 19:08

As I live alone I will sometimes a pork chop as my meat for a roast so doesn’t have to be expensive at all.

HundredMilesAnHour · 03/10/2021 19:09

@Youcancallmeval

Depends whether you are prepared to eat unhappy chickens really. A well kept chicken is expensive.
This!! I'd rather do without than eat chickens than have been treated so cruelly.
EmeraldShamrock · 03/10/2021 19:10

Your list prices are based off portions not how the supermarket works unfortunately.

ElephantOfRisk · 03/10/2021 19:10

I grew up in poverty. My DM couldn't have imagined the luxury of going round a supermarket buying what she wanted. We did go hungry sometimes but mostly she would do her best to fill us as well as she could. I can afford to buy decent food so I do. If it was a choice between cheap meat or none to feed my DC then they win over the animal.

kateg27 · 03/10/2021 19:11

Do some of the people on here not realise that some people can't afford to buy organic meat? Don't you realise a lot of families are struggling to get by.
I would never judge somebody for buying a cheap chicken ffs! The important thing is they are feeding their families. Judgemental posts like some of these would make some others feel absolutely rubbish.

Happyoldbat · 03/10/2021 19:12

Has anyone mentioned roadkill yet? I’ve got friends who have eaten it for years.

Hdhdjejdj · 03/10/2021 19:12

@ElephantOfRisk I think Jack Monroe would agree with that. She mentions frozen meat quite a lot which must mumsnetters would turn their noses up at, but it’s an important source of protein for dc.

Granllanog · 03/10/2021 19:13

@HermioneAndRoger I have a magimix and grow herbs in the garden. I also make stock from bones and have a well-stocked freezer and pantry.

OP posts:
Fridafever · 03/10/2021 19:13

Your post is odd to people I think because you seem quite into quality food in some ways (fresh herbs, making your own bread) but prepared to buy and eat horrible cheap meat. It’s a bit of an unusual combo.

BananaPB · 03/10/2021 19:14

I agree with you. A roast for a group is a surprisingly affordable meal.

Hdhdjejdj · 03/10/2021 19:15

I don’t think anybody feeding their dc a 3 for £10 chicken as part of a roast dinner should do so, especially if they are on a tight budget.

MalleytheAlleyCat · 03/10/2021 19:16

I quite often do chicken breasts rather than a whole chicken, but also buy a lot of frozen or steam veg from Aldi. I always get at least two roasts out of a bag of potatos and parsnips. I reckon including the cost of gravy, stuffing etc costs me about £9 to feed the 5 of us x

BananaPB · 03/10/2021 19:17

It's surprising how many people don't realise that the meat toppings on their pizza are probably as low welfare as a £3 chicken.

ElephantOfRisk · 03/10/2021 19:19

@EmeraldShamrock

Your list prices are based off portions not how the supermarket works unfortunately.
No but you can plan for a week. I'll use the other half of the veg I bought with another meal. Bits of leftovers do lunches or get put in an omelette or a pasta or rice dish or i'll make a pot of soup.

It's skills that have been lost or aren't being taught that is the issue. I did Home Ec at school and we talked a lot about fuel economies and planning out meals so were taught that you could stick a crumble or baked apples in the oven when cooking a main dish, cooking a big pot of something and then keeping half to be added to something else, even doing your ironing in a bigger batch so as to not waste energy constantly bringing a cold iron to hot.

Parents aren't passing this stuff if they never learned it themselves. People generally have both parents working too so it's sometimes easier to have ready made stuff or you might not want to spend time showing someone when you've been at work all day and just want to get dinner on the table.

Adult DS and I have signed up for an evening class on baking as although I cook and he can to an extent, i've never really baked so I thought we could learn together.

TheFormidableMrsC · 03/10/2021 19:22

I've done a roast tonight for me and DS. I don't do it often as it's just the two of us. Including Yorkshire puddings and stuffing, it cost about £8 for the two of us. There is leftover chicken which will be used for sandwiches or I might make a chicken chasseur tomorrow night. It's a very economical meal I'd say!

Ilovegreentomatoes · 03/10/2021 19:22

I'd rather go without than eat a cheap chicken which is why I don't eat chicken anymore.If you saw how the poor factory farm chicken were reared it would put you of chicken for life anyway .

HermioneAndRoger · 03/10/2021 19:23

[quote Granllanog]@HermioneAndRoger I have a magimix and grow herbs in the garden. I also make stock from bones and have a well-stocked freezer and pantry.[/quote]
I don’t think you have taken my point. That kind of preparation and frugality takes resources - not least time, space, and organisational skills.

hibbledibble · 03/10/2021 19:23

I'm surprised someone who can afford a magimix, and a garden big enough to grow herbs, would buy disgusting and unhealthy cheap meat. Boak!

CatKittyCatCatKittyCatCat · 03/10/2021 19:24

@Hdhdjejdj

To the poster who talked about not everyone having a well stocked kitchen, i’ve asked for nice dishes, pans or roasting trays for Christmas or birthdays in the past. I use them every day. I can guarantee that you could get really lovely things in charity shops. I’ve bought a full dinner service from one which I use for special occasions. Most seem to always have Pyrex dishes on sale.
My point wasn’t a moral one but you seem to have conflated it with one.

In that vein. So you have sufficient friends and family who have the financial capability to buy you gifts and you draw on their support.

You live in an area either that has shops in easy walking distance or you have access to transport to get you to those areas. The charity shops in the areas you can easily access have good quality stock on a regular basis.

Really not true for everyone.

And then there is the time, energy, effort etc spent acquiring the equipment. So you’ve just substituted time for money.

My point was simply that not everyone has as much at hand, both in terms of ingredients and utensils, to quickly whip up a roast. And if they don’t, then it can be a lot of initial outlay (in money, time, whatever).

They might not have these things due to lack of inclination as much as lack of resources. There’s no moral superiority in running a wells rocked kitchen.
I run a well stocked kitchen. I usually have homemade stick kicking about somewhere etc.

But I’ve also cooked really well in a situation where I had one pan, one heating ring, one knife, a chopping board, no spatulas etc just a fork etc.

That that latter situation cooking a full roast would have been a very expensive meal. First, buy oven..

Pancakeorcrepe · 03/10/2021 19:26

You can eat cheaply and ethically, but that doesn’t involve £3 chickens. I’d rather do without than put such a small price on the life of an animal, and that is what I do.
There is a choice for everyone, but people just don’t care and prefer to plead poverty. No one needs meat.

Againstmachine · 03/10/2021 19:26

Jesus people getting there knickers in twist about the chicken, but probably don't know where rest of food comes from.

HermioneAndRoger · 03/10/2021 19:27

[quote Granllanog]@HermioneAndRoger I have a magimix and grow herbs in the garden. I also make stock from bones and have a well-stocked freezer and pantry.[/quote]
PS you’ll notice a hell of a difference in your home-made stock if you spend a bit more on a higher-welfare bird which has used its bones during its lifetime.

KingsleyShacklebolt · 03/10/2021 19:27

Agree that a roast dinner is not an expensive meal.

I also disagree that the only meat worth buying has to cost ££££. Look in my freezer and there's lots of meat and fish. All of it has yellow stickers on it. I have just picked up a pack of chicken drumsticks from the Co-Op for 65p. That's tomorrow's dinner, with bbq sauce, rice or cous cous, corn on the cob... cheap as anything.

But then, I don't buy into the rabid vegan/veggie "how little do you value a living creature thing" either.