To think that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable?

[AlternativePerspective]

I have always cooked from scratch, and I will be the first to admit that cooking from scratch has always been more expensive than buying e.g. jar sauces etc. However as things currently stand food prices are going up so much that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable for many people who are struggling to make ends meet.

And in an era where we’re being told to live healthily, to cut out additives where possible, and to use the healthiest ingredients, while this has always been hard to sustain, right now for many it’s unsustainable from a financial perspective, and people are going to be forced to eat jar sauces, ready meals and various other foods with additives they didn’t want or need.

I’ve just cancelled my milkman because I can no longer justify spending the money, and it’s going to take a lot before I will ever eat ready meals or cook from a jar. But compromises are going to have to be made, and in many instances for some people, it’s not going to be possible to compromise.

Nope they won't. Why are they called "ready meals"? If you only need to do the cooking for 2min, the manufacturer has done most of the cooking for you already. And guess who gets to pay the extra of those increased energy prices?

There is also the time element of prep and waiting. I know that can be done in bulk and portioned but it is quite hard work and takes a long time out of your day.

The costs to the manufacturers is not on the same scale as a household and many will be prepared to pay a little extra at the till to avoid a larger energy bill from cooking it themselves. That's the way energy prices are going and every little helps really.

You're STILL not getting it. If you spend your last tenner on those ready meals,you haven't done your best with what you had. You haven't bought enough to feed your family and you've used all your money.

It's not about homeafe being better for you or tasting better....with those ready meal you are sending your kids to bed hungry, with minimum protein and vegetables. And you've nothing else to give them.
Whereas you could have given them a much more nutritious meal for the same money or less tant would actually meet their needs.

You HAVR to meal plan and put effortin and bulk buy and freeze etc to make home made be cheaper than ready made crap. If you want to actually feed your childre enough food so they aren't hungry or malnourished it takes effort.

And YOU might have been that privileged good cook witha great store cupboard, but I was that person on NMW who you patronisingly assume isn't capable of feeding my family on a small budget.

Try to grasp the point that your Lidl ready meal is not an actual dinner and is not cheaper than home made when you actual compare like for like. 28 gr of chicken is very cheap. It's just not dinner.

Surely a ready meal zapped for a few minutes is much better value, even a few times a week

No it's not, because its not a dinner worth eating. Value isn't about bare cost, its about what you get for the cost.

If I can make a dinner for you for 2 pounds the portion, that fills you up and gives you vegetable and protein and fat and you fill well fed after it, or you can have a ready meal for 1.50 that has scraps of meat and veg and is mostly carbs and you are starving an hour later...which is better value?
Yes, one is slightly cheaper, but will cost you more in the long run.

@Cupidstunt. I don't think I have been patronising at all, sorry.

If I can turn this around: YOU might have been that privileged good cook witha great store cupboard, but I was that person on NMW who you patronisingly assume isn't capable of feeding my family on a small budget.

YOU were that person who had time to meal plan, go all over the place tracking down bargains and able to budget to make large bulk purchases because you had done the other two things.

Stop telling me I don't get it. There is a long list of things that need to be in place before cooking from scratch is always the cheapest (note I didn't say best, I said cheapest) option.

Having a store cupboard and being able to cook are two of them, but having time is a big one, which seems to play a big part in your ability to cook cheaply (although I assume you're now going to say you worked 20 hour days)

Yes, one is slightly cheaper, but will cost you more in the long run.

And from that statement, I assume that you've never really been that hard up, if you can afford the extra 50p x 4 people = £2 just like that. l I rest my case.

YOU were that person who had time to meal plan, go all over the place tracking down bargains and able to budget to make large bulk purchases because you had done the other two thingsStop telling me I don't get it. There is a long list of things that need to be in place before cooking from scratch is always the cheapest (note I didn't say best, I said cheapest) option

I didn't have the time, I made the time. Because I needed to feed my family and that was the way to do it. These things aren't in place unless you put them in place. Thye're not that hard to do

You are being very patronising. You can't seem to compare like with like and don't understand that ready meals can't feed growing children.

You appear to be working off the wrong premise entirely, you are arguing about cooking from scratch ALWAYS beign the cheaper option. Nobody said it was. But it CAN BE ther cheaper option when you make it the cheaper option.

Ask yourself why every suggestion I make for people to feed their families cheaply and properly you keep arguing against and wittering on about crappy ready meals as an option? What is that all about? It is patronising and frankly bizarre. Are you trying to sabotage people?

Yep, £2 was a significant amount of my weekly budget. I used to use smart price noodles a lot, a great simple carb and at the time about 12p each. I also had people on higher incomes insisting I could magic up money for bulk buying, a freezer and mountains of fresh food. Funnily enough none of them had ever lived on £12 a week!!!

Christ you're hard work.

Just like that? As I have repeatedly explained to you, you have the "extra" 2 quid because you've put the fucking effort in to budget and you haven't wasted your money on shitty ready meals.

You do not get it. You will never get it. Jog on to waitrose.

Cupid, I have no doubt that you mean well with your arguments, but you are coming across very badly, arrogant and patronising too. Not necessary.

Can someone who has actually fed a family on £10-15/week without cooking (largely) from scratch say how they’ve done it?
Examples of each main meal per day and its cost?

@CupidStunt22
sigh
I don't shop at Waitrose. If that's the best you can do ...

CupidStunt22

I know that an hour later people will be hungry again after a pot noodle, but its cheap and that the crux of the matter and when you don't have a proper cooker and its cheap to boil the kettle - thats what will get eaten

a microwave is cheaper to buy than a full cooker so ready meals are ideal to put in, costs little on the meter compared to half an hour with the oven turned on

I don't think twice of putting the oven on this morning as I fancied baked, but its not the same for many people on low income worried about the meter running out. to for them to be batch cooking and run out of gas will mean no showering, bathing or heating

I cycle regularly to Aldi, but I take in my bags to fit on my bike so I don't over buy and can balance it home - I do it cos its such a hassle to queue for parking and makes it quicker, I pop in on my way home a couple of times a week. No way could I carry a bag of rice that size safely and wouldn't risk it

Asda selll cottage pie for 90p, lasagna for 90p, chicken hot pot 90p and spaghetti bog 90p, fish pie £1 toad in the hole £1, cheese and tomato pasta bake £1, chicken curry and rice 90p

box of weetabix and milk, sliced bread and a filling, 7 ready meals and you're looking at feeding a person for £13 for the week and electric cost minimal.

@Maggiethecat I don't think it's possible to feed a family on £10/15 a week, in all honesty. I fed four on £45-50 a week four years ago, but prices were lower and energy was not such a big cost back then.
I did things like:

1. Used three sausages between four people in a pasta sauce or made six sausages feed four by making toad in the hole and mash instead of sausages and mash. (If you did that, every 2-3 packs of sausages gave you a 'free' meal)


2. Used extra mashed potato and less filling on things like fish pie and cottage pie. Fishcakes for four with one tin of tuna or one piece of white fish (sold as such, not cod)


3. Had potato wedges with just about anything I could!


4. Made 1 pack of mince last two eg Bolognaise sauces by adding an extra can of tomatoes and veg;


5. I seem to remember puddings featured quite heavily at the time (Value custard was 17p I seem to remember) as they filled people up


6. Lots and lots of pasta and rice with less sauce, curry etc


7. When I made a roast, I stripped the carcass and froze the usable leftovers, even if there was just a tiny amount. Over time, enough accumulated to make a risotto, paella etc


8. Used 'value' everything I could, even chicken, which really went against my beliefs but needs must.

Happy days (no they weren't!)

Katypp - I get that it may not be easy/cheaper for some people to cook from scratch but many on here have said that it is for them. They are using their experiences and circumstances, not someone else’s. And I imagine that for many of these people there’s been belt tightening, of varying extents.

Others have said that they cannot cook from scratch more cheaply, and again that is based on their experience/situation.

The starting point cannot be that everyone has little money, no time, little or no cooking skill, nothing in the store cupboard, insufficient fridge/freezer space, live far from the cheaper supermarkets etc.

If I had my last tenner to feed my family I believe that I would be looking to get a bag of rice (tho perhaps not the cheapest for unit price), a bag of pulses, some canned butter beans, chick peas, some canned tomatoes, cheapest pack of chicken or mince, onions, garlic, carrots, other fresh veg if possible. I know that I could turn around a few meals that would be filling and nutritious for my family of 4, including fuel cost.

I’m not sure what I could get by way of ready meals but I doubt that I’d get as many meals.
I’m an ok cook but nothing special and I can walk to my local supermarket. The meals would be fairly quick - Dahl, stews, stir fry.

I know these are just my circumstances but others will be able to relate I’m sure.

@CupidStunt22 All this is getting rather silly now.
But for the record, I have been on the bones of my arse, I can cook, and I think I have probably bought about 10 ready meals in the 55 years I have been alive!
I suppose I think I can see beyond my own circumstances, both now and then, and can see why people would go for the ready-made option as it's cheaper and they can't always 'make time' to trawl around and meal plan.
I have done some work with food banks recently, and I think until you see how some people are living, it's difficult to grasp how they couldn't just find an extra £2 because - from our position of privilege and knowledge - that's the better option in the long run.
As an example upthread, someone suggested homemade chicken nuggets were cheaper than bought. They then went on to cite grated carrot and beetroot, breadcrumbs, herbs and spices etc. Now, I'm sure all of these ingredients would cost a lot more than the £1.60 chicken nuggets I found in Tesco, but they would make a lot more, which would mean extras in the freezer for next time.
BUT - and it's a big but - to go down the homemade route, you would have to be able to cook, have the imagination to do what the pp suggested, have the funds to buy extra ingredients in the first place, have the time to make them and lastly, have a child who would eat them. And have a freezer to put the remains in and hope they eat them next time.
Can't you see that buying the pack that you know your child would eat and having dinner ready in 20 mins is an attractive option?

Katypp - I’ve cross posted with you.

So people with £10-15/week are feeding their families with?

@Maggiethecat

The starting point cannot be that everyone has little money, no time, little or no cooking skill, nothing in the store cupboard, insufficient fridge/freezer space, live far from the cheaper supermarkets etc.

I agree. But the lack of just one of these things could tip the balance. My arguments is we can't start from the assumtion that everyone has all of those things.

If I was down to my last tenner, I would do the same as you, although I have the additional problem of a very fussy autistic daughter to contend with so she would have to starve that week😂😂😂

Yes, its got silly because you are so clueless!

You said upthread that someone who was down to their last tenner could buy 4 specific ready meals and "some sort of pudding" and that would be dinner done for a family of four.
I've explained how you could spend the same amount and actually feed them so they wouldn't starve and still have money left over. You don't listen.
Then you think me saying to spend 50p more per portion for far more food is some kid of gotcha moment even though you spent the same imaginary 2 pounds on fucking cake in your scenario!

You'r wrong, and worse you're shouting down sensible suggestions that might actually help people in favour of stupid suggestions that would leave kids malnourished.

And for the love of fuck stop the continual "poor people can't cook" narrative. It's insulting.

@Maggiethecat I'm not sure anyone has said they only have £10-15 to feed a family with, have they?

@CupidStunt22 For goodness sake.
I have never said poor people can't cook. I have said I can understand why poor people might not cook.
You do you.

Maggiethecat

However as things currently stand food prices are going up so much that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable for many people who are struggling to make ends meet.

this is how I read the post, this is about prices increasing that much that those struggling with money will not be able to sustain making home cooked food, it reads to me not about peoples own experiences but those experiences of not having enough money to make ends meet

Yes you have
BUT - and it's a big but - to go down the homemade route, you would have to be able to cook, have the imagination to do what the pp suggested, have the funds to buy extra ingredients in the first place, have the time to make them and lastly, have a child who would eat them. And have a freezer to put the remains in and hope they eat them next time

And that's just ONE of your comments.. "don't you see you have to be able to cook, w're talking about poor people here, a ready meal is a better option for them".

Fucks sake. Kids would starve to death if you were in charge.

@CupidStunt22 You clearly have an axe to grind and are completely misrepresenting what I have said. It's a pity you can't debate without throwing insults around and making things up, but whatever.
Kind would starve indeed.

Ivy - I think people are struggling to make ends meet to varying extents and them being able to cook from scratch will depend on their personal circumstances (and the various factors that affect this referred to upthread).

Separately, the OP’s starting position is that she has always considered cooking from scratch to be more expensive than using jars et cetera and some people have simply expressed a different opinion (again, based on their circumstances)