To get annoyed when people parrot that it's always cheaper to cook from scratch?

[Katypp]

Caveats: Home made food is usually:
A. Nicer
B. More nutritious
C: Made with proper ingredients that you can control
D: More filling
E: Not made with fillers, starch etc

But it's not always cheaper!

Time after time, when people post about food costs, the trope is always make it yourself, you'll save money. This post is in frustration after yet again, someone tripped it out on a budgeting forum. Someone commented that Tesco budget hummous is quite nice, to be told, as always, you can make it cheaper yourself.
You can't. Eastman's hummous 69p

Tesco chickpeas 60p + lemon 30p = 90p and that's before you add olive oil and tahini.

Yes I know you can soak your own chickpeas and buy in bulk at an Asian grocer etc, but that level of organisation for most people is beyond the effort of just picking up a tub on the weekly shop.

For the record, I am a very keen home cook and have also run a food business and written about food in the past. I enjoy cooking, but I am sick of people trotting out this line without thinking about it, especially on budgeting and money-saving forums.

I agree that poor people eat worse in the UK than in other poorer countries

It's true. Sadly in the UK, cooking ability and knowledge of food is seen as the preserve of the middle class and wealthy.

@ProbablyPossiblyPerhaps this was a good thread from ages ago, I'm sure she did it with a gammon too, or maybe brisket
Might have some ideas for people

I am going to Mumsnet the fuck out of this chicken! http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/2540871-I-am-going-to-Mumsnet-the-fuck-out-of-this-chicken

Just come back to this thread and I give up😭
Even with the caveats in my original thread, posters are still rattling on about home cooked food being more filling, healthier, more natural and are comparing the price of Cook or Bingham ready meals to prove home cooking is cheaper.
So, to sum up, home cooking is always cheaper if:

1. You have the money to batch cook
2. You can afford to buy food and not eat if for a while
3. You have a freezer and containers to put it in
4. You live near Asian grocers, greengrocers and every suoermaeket
5. You can afford to spend on energy to cook your meals
6. You have a groaning storecupboard
7. You have plenty of time to find recipes and batch cook
8. You only buy top-end food so the comparison is skewed

Honestly, check your privilege. There are a lot of pps deluding themselves here.

Absolutely ages ago I watched something on tv (the name escapes me yet again , damn the menopause) but it showed a young woman in Jamaica living in a tin hut in a area of tin huts. She had a job, she washed clothes in a bucket and frankly looked fabulous. She had few clothes as you would in a tin hut, she shopped daily for food and could buy 1 egg or two eggs, spices by the teaspoon, etc. And part of that was money/cost, partly because living in a tin hut doesn't make for security, pans were scarce, I imagine hoarding food could lead to being burgled for it. I was struck at the time cos I was beyond broke, and being able to buy one egg would have been bloody handy for me at the time.

Buying even 6 eggs was far beyond my means then. I hope actually that she now lives in a better place.

Do,you use a food processor?

Found the brisket one

My mumsnetted brisket http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/foodandd_recipes/2580563-My-mumsnetted-brisket

Obviously it's healthier to cook from scratch, this post is about the cost of it.

PeloAddict just looked - only a three person household. Same chicken but only three people eating it.

You can't do multiple meals no matter what meals 2+ are when the carcass is absolutely picked clean at the first meal (roast dinner)!

Obviously you could roast then not serve a roast dinner but ration it out for pies, curry and soup.

I didn't boil the carcass because I cba - I realised that I could do that 🙃

Yes, a good example.

There was another one in California, where first-generation immigrants taught people how to cook. They hadn’t lost the knack, unlike some later generations, and were used to cooking with rice, vegetables and pulses. I listened to a radio programme about it a few years ago.

@mathanxiety ^

Lol, how very self congratulatory of you to return to confirm how very correct & clever you are
whilst obviously slating anyone with they temerity to have a different pov to you
checking privilege? You just want a big round of applause and sycophantic posts confirming your greatness

Except:

• lemon juice costs 60 pence - Tesco prices - they do not sell by the squirt
• a couple of garlic cloves - 30 pence - Tesco prices. Tesco do not sell two garlic cloves for 6 pence and the cheapest garlic is a bulb for 30 pence
• vegetable oil - unless you already have it, the cheapest bottle at Tesco is £1.75
• yes, chickpeas at 60 pence.

so that takes us to £3.25 initial outlay for DIY hummus.

And given that even the cheapest humus seems to have tahini in it, that takes us to £5.55 (the cheapest tahini at Tesco costing £2.30).

And the cheapest humus in Tesco is 69 pence - what a bargain..

Having said all that, I do make my own humus 😂😂😂

It's not really about the calories in processed food it's about the amount of unhealthy crap that's in there . I will pick health over cost every time.

@Katypp you are of course right. In many cases it is not cheaper.
In quite a few it is. But overall it is now always cheaper.

I cook a lot and lot from scartch but i still don't shy away from jarred sauce if it would otherwise require to buy ingredients I use once a year🤷🏻

You can put as many clear caveats on as you want to but on MN they are worth nothing😂

🤣

so that takes us to £3.25 initial outlay for DIY hummus.

All those ingredients are likely to be stock items if you cook regularly. They are in my kitchen, including the the tahini.

Even my arab spouse doesn't make his own hummus. No need for the performance when you can find perfectly good one in shops (there is one in tetra pak which is bloody delicious)

Oh and the Sabra one in tesco and asda with zaatar. So nice

@Zone2NorthLondon you've posted some pretty self-congratulatory stuff yourself.
Of course I think I'm right - I started the thread!
As I said, I am a keen home cook, making my own pasta, bread, pickles, jams etc, but I do it because I enjoy it. It's my hobby. I am not deluded to think I am saving money though

I think even the sainted Jack Monroe's recent cheap shop relied on store cupboard essentials and spices she already had. I don't think there's any way around it except to make that initial outlay which will work out cheaper in the long run. And yes, I do know many people can't afford that outlay or the energy. It's a vicious circle and I don't have a solution.

I think yes, cooking from scratch has gone the same way as sewing or knitting your own clothes - it's a better product but usually costs more in terms of raw ingredients and time invested. In olden times it saved you money but processed food is usually cheaper now.
I cook from scratch a lot now but consider this a luxury. I'm also fortunate enough to have the time to make pizza dough and the like and have developed some cookery skills that I didn't have until I was going on 40!
When I had a demanding job and a young child I depended on processed food a lot more.
I find meal planning helps keep down costs and wastage. I used to waste a lot of food and I've heard that the average uk family wastes 30% of what they buy, that was probably true for me. I'd say now it's maybe 5% max.

I feel the same way about the words ‘blitz’, ‘chuck’, ‘pinch’, ‘squirt’, ‘glug’ etc

It replied on full cupboards and lots of meat and fish in freezer, not just essentials. Which is another thread, but yeah.

I will stand by pinch. It's a good show of how much 😁rest is just bluegh

That definition made me smile , especially the reference to toad in the hole. In her last couple of years, my mothers absolute favourite was Aunt Bessie’s £1 toad in the hole (sadly now £1.40) - but what a bargain for a ready meal that made an old frail lady so happy