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.

@KirstenBlest with the risk of being accused of being bossy, the hummous was 69p, not £1.40

@QuattroFromagio , shop at a different shop then or buy something you can buy what you need. The packs are there to make you buy more.

You don't have to use things like cream cheese or creme fraiche -you can use a different recipe or use a substitute. You could use something like greek yoghurt

Not entirely sure why a couple of pps are making digs about me

I find it bizarre that soneo e can't grasp that spending £26 to bulk buy olive oil on a £30 budget is unattainable, but maybe that's just me 🙄
The funny thing is, I do everything that is considered 'good' on here - I batch cook, I cook mostly from scratch and I bulk buy. But I am not blind to the fact that these options are not open to everyone, unlike some posters on here

Maybe it's because you keep popping back to tell anyone who is just trying to offer an alternative to your POV that they're wrong and not listening to you.

Loads of posters are actually posting useful stuff that flies in the face of what you think. That SHOULD be okay - threads evolve and people have different experiences and wisdom - but you keep wanting to drag everyone back to a narrow it-can't-be-done POV, and then actually getting fairly arsey with people who disagree with you, or offer something different. Who is that helping?

The eyerolls are obv great, too.

@Katypp , not bossy at all. I'll admit to buying it is Lidl or Aldi sometimes, as it is cheaper. I don't shop there very often as they're not within walking distance. The £1.50 was for a tub in Tesco.

And it was 300g not 400g
link

It's not always easy for people to just shop somewhere else.

As it happens, I do have a choice of supermarkets - but there are all relatively small local ones, who tend to sell all the veg in packets. Doesn't matter if I buy different veg - it's the same problem! almost everything is wrapped up (which is another problem too of course). yes, I could get bus/bike to larger supermarkets on the edge of town, but not so easy every couple of days when there are shops very near, and for one person, it's easier to shop more frequently to stop stuff going off.

yes some things can be substituted, but loads of things come in larger packs really, and the recipes aren't as nice when you don't follow them properly - especially if you aren't a frequent or competent cook. Doesn't give much incentive to keep making things that way. So yes, for a number of things, a ready-to-cook dish probably does end up working out cheaper.

and the packs aren't there just to make you buy more, though that's part of it. Many supermarkets, especially small ones, only sell one size/type/pack of anything, so it's more likeliy to be a 3-pack. So you have to buy more in the end even if you just want one. But it's also easier to transport, store, display etc for the shop, easier for the self checkouts without weighing, less shoplifting, less wastage in the shop with things getting dropped/bruised, and so on. So there is very little incentive for the shops to sell things individually either, much as some of us might appreciate it.

Shops in other countries manage just fine🙈

I think OP's initial premise is odd. It might be cheaper to buy a ready meal lasagne, than make one from scratch, but it's even cheaper to make dahl or veggie curry with whatever veggies are cheap (yes there's an initial outlay but curry power is pretty cheap) or baked potato and cheese or beans on toast.

That is actually a very good point. Spaghetti bolognaise, the way it is meant to be made, is more of a luxury food.

Carrots are also an interesting example. They easily last 4 weeks in my fridge. Is there really anyone saying they couldn't use up a pack of carrots, however big, in 4 weeks? I make so much with it - almost all mexican street food, almost all Italian food, salads, starters (grated with apples), as a filler in anything tomato-based, made into soup with a bit of coriander on its own. Carrots don't go off in my household.

Tell that to the ones around here then. Those are the reasons they tend to give when pressed to sell more things individually. Yes, I'm sure there are ways they could overcome some of those problems. But they're not going to bother if they can just get people to buy 3-packs because that's what they sell.

Perhaps other countries have different distribution/supply systems, point of sales, size of shops, and other factors - or perhaps in urban areas like I am talking about, other countries might also have more packaged things that we're aware of.

There is one more 'market like' shop that I could go to, and do something, for veg or herbs, where you can get more unusual things or buy things individually. It's less convenient, and I can't get other things there though, but I do sometimes go. But it doesn't change the point that so much of what is sold isn't in sizes that make it easy for people to buy small quantities, whether because of budget or singledom, and those things might be more common in areas where people don't get in a car and head off to a big supermarket. The local smaller supermarkets are also more expensive even for the very same pack size and products as they are at the larger ones.

I doubt I'd use a pack of carrots in a month, not without really trying! I probably could make myself but I'd just end up eating most of them raw instead of other things like tomatoes or just adding them to things where they weren't needed, which is just using them up for the sake of it when I didn't necessarily want that many in the first place. And of course I'd be trying to use up various other veg and leftover bits too. Lettuce seems to always go off, for example.

Of course it's possible to be a much better cook and planner than I am. But cooking for one, especially if you aren't always in every night, is surprisingly hard and not always cheap to do from scratch without a fair number of compromises.

@Fixyourself cancer rates are soaring because people live longer. But yes, obesity is because of processed foods which are so widely available and cheap.

@QuattroFromagio

Carrots are excellent in soup and can bulk out Bolognese sauce and chili con carne - all of which can be batch cooked and frozen in individual portions.

Buying frozen veg is a great way of avoiding wastage

I've made a really nice beef stew and mash today but ingredients would have been £8-9 plus the gas and electric to cook it. Made 4 portions with some leftover mash but if I didn't have the seasonings/condiments it would have been way more to make
The only reason I make it is I'm on a cheap fixed rate for another month so I'm batch cooking while I can!

430g diced beef
Carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms
Tin tomatoes
Stock cube
Marmite
Mustard
Bay leaves
Lea and Perrins
Potatoes, butter

Perhaps other countries have different distribution/supply systems, point of sales, size of shops, and other factors - or perhaps in urban areas like I am talking about, other countries might also have more packaged things that we're aware of.

I am sure there are some differences in systems, however, i can compare tesco in here and in central europe and for whatever reason I can buy a single jam dougnut in the latter. Fuck, I love jam donut, but not 4🙈 they can't have it that different when it comes to supplies to not be able to sell it like that here. Lidl does it here. I like Lidl

World food aisle. Every main tesco has one so wouldnt consider that lucky.

Especially when it comes up when I search "chickpeas" on their website, like you did.

@QuattroFromagio , has it crossed your mind to shop at shops that aren't supermarkets? The greengrocers sell things by weight, and is in the high street.
It sounds to me like you are making excuses. I can buy veg loose in my local Tesco. I often buy just one or two. If I buy something like leeks, fennel or celeriac, I only cut off what I need for the dish I'm preparing.
It's easy to make a stew or soup from the needs-using-up veg.

Well obviously I do as I make that batch for salads andsandwiches for a week.

If you dont want that much then dont make that much.

Can we let the hummus lie?😂 Even my ME in laws don't talk about hummus that much😂
They also mainly buy it

Maybe veggie meals, like lentil or bean-based...

No, that's never, ever once occurred to me.
FFS.

Greengrocers where? I would have to drive into the town centre and pay for parking to get to one. Our local one has closed, probably because there was no parking. Also their opening hours means going into town on a Saturday no thanks as I work FT

I wish they would sell celery in sticks, I often need just one. But with wonky veg packs it's often still cheaper to buy the big bag of wonky veg rather than buy 3 onions/carrots whatever even if you waste what's left (I do try not to)

*hommos

Crikey you’re out of touch. Your example of Hummous says it all. That isn’t what families who are on the breadline are pulling their hair out over.

comparison.

ready meal, tomato pasta dish for kids. £3 plus.

packet of spaghetti. Tin of tomatoes. Dried herbs. Less than £2. Will feed 5.