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.

Might it not be time to actually teach children to recognise some basic, edible plants again?

I am always amazed how many children can't tell a dandelion from a buttercup, know that clover flowers or that nettles can be edible.

So many children switch off druing plant-based modules in the curriculum, but it's amazing how much food grows in our gardens if we know what to do with it. My grandmother has taught me to look out for chickweed, which is like catnip to the birds I keep and ever so nutritious.

Might it not be time to actually teach children to recognise some basic, edible plants again?

No, food should be affordable. Children shouldn't be having to forage in order to eat... This is the UK in 2022..not North Korea in the 1990s famine where people resorted to eating tree bark.

I love Black Forager on Instagram. She is american, but lots still apply. And fun!

But yes, kids shouldn't be needing to forage to eat nowadays.

Yes I can imagine it could be a fun hobby but not something that is necessary in order to eat

You honestly think sensing every school child out to forage for things to add to dinner is the solution? Where are they doing all this foraging? Foraging is a quirky fun hobby when a small amount of people do it. It becomes a bane of nature when thousands head out and decimate the wilderness.

Foraging is absolutely normal in many countries, not just quirky hobby and the nature is fine. But yes, here it would cause issues because people are not used to the ethics around it like not taking 3 bin bags full of wild garlic.

Again, not saying kids should need to do it to eat!

I don't for a minute think anyone could forage for enough food that would even make a dent in your weekly shop....especially if you live in a city. It's ridiculous.

Why do so many people on here have an all or nothing approach to things? No, no one should have to forage as the main prt of maintaining their diet, but there is nothing wrong with occasionally supplementing it.

We are also here on a thread which, as its premise, is debating whether it is cheaper to buy ready made or cook from scratch, and if we take foraging into account, then of course cooking works out much cheaper.

if we take foraging into account, then of course cooking works out much cheaper

Much cheaper? Really? What on earth are you going to forage for that would make a significant dent in the cost of your food shop?

Doesn't that very much depend on what you're into?

I can make a salad out of leaves around here, make tea with others, I recognise wild garlic and other alliums, I can pick brambles and other berries, can recognise fruit trees and some edible mushrooms.

All because I have been taught how to. And I live in a large town, not on the countryside, but had grandparents who were dirt poor and passed those skills on to me.

And if everyone in your town did that, every household or let's say 60% of households... would there be enough?

We have too dense a population with not enough areas where these things grow in abundance.

It's not 60% of the population that need it. From the area I live in, maybe 15% would need to occasionally forage, and if they are ethical about it (i.e., as mentioned above, do not take 3 bin bags full of food at a time), then yes, it would be sustainable.

I grow food in my garden, often from seed and, where economical, from young plants. The £3 strawberries I planted this year will give me well more than £3 of strawberries back next year while also growing like weed, so producing more than that the year after.

I have planted some alliums in pots a few days ago which are beginning to sprout - free herbs in weeks, free garlic and free onions in a few months. The seeds were 99p each and will produce much more than they cost to plant.

I also have rhubarb I can hardly contain, an apple tree and I am planning on growing pumpkins and squashes from seed when October comes.

Again, the question was whether it was cheaper to cook from scratch. I am someone who, through necessity now, but also for fun in good times, can look after the pennies without feeling deprived.

And while it has already been pointed out by many PP that even with supermarket ingredients it is cheaper, foraging and growing your own is even more so.

free herbs in weeks, free garlic and free onions in a few months. The seeds were 99p each

A bag of onions costs less than a pound and lasts me at least six weeks. Seeds cost about a £1. So at the three month point I start saving money...less than 10-15p a week. Ok better than nothing but not going to make a dent in my gas bill.

I grow my own things and no, it is not necessarily cheaper at the end for some items when you consider soil, feed, protection etc.
It is for some, but not all at all.

Jesus, how many people are you expecting to cook for that you need a car bulk ingredients.
You hardly need a crane for a 5kg bag of rice (cheaper than 10 500g bags), nor for a couple of kilos of mince to make a large batch of chilli/bolognase

I have an allotment and I grow lots of food but I wouldn't say it was necessarily cheaper than buying by the time rent and the price of seed are taken into account. This year I have grown lots of strawberries and raspberries and they are cheaper than buying them but if I hadn't grown them I wouldn't have bought very many.
Things like potatoes and onions are often cheaper in the shops.
Beans pay for themselves.
It's a fairly cheap enjoyable hobby but not a big money saver

I find farmers markets much cheaper than supermarkets, specially around this time of year , it’s full of fresh fruits and veg, not for long though!
.

That was my point but I'm glad you agree!

That's why women traditionally drank nettle tea, made from the nettles that they would pick, free and full of iron. we forget that dandelion was drank to prevent UTIs etc. I do worry about the wildlife, though, especially pollinators, when foraging is mentioned.

I grow a few things but agree that you don't really save a lot of money that way once you've deducted seeds, compost, etc. Getting really good at growing things is a lot harder than being a half decent cook too. Making the most of what you have is sensible though - eg if you have an apple tree or blackberries growing near you that's a free source of fruit.

I’d never suggest people GRow your own to save money.some herbs, lettuce etc yes. I grow a lot of veg and fruit but I don’t think it saves us much money.

I have blackberry bushes which I pick and buy some apples or find some one near to my place with a apple tree. I grow some herbs like mint and garlic and the onion like herbs.

U can make hummus cheaper . A bag of chickpeas and a jar of tahini will make more hummus than u are going to buy . The olive oil and garlic will be already in your cupboard
And that 69p hummus isn’t actually hummus . It’s not hummus if it’s not made with tahini. Just call it chickpea dip

Now this I agree with. I can measure out the rice exactly and still somehow we end up with 6 portions. Only recently I followed a recipe to the letter, and yes the rice was divine, but hell it could have fed 7 or 8, and I really do eat a lot.

The hummus I've said before i do not like.
I still think people in general should think before they state scratch cooking and batch cooking are cheaper. In many many cases they are not.

Most people have use of a car, plenty dont and carrying masses of shopping isnt an option, not everyone is online or trusts using cards online (as was proved a while ago when someone had money £90 i think for fuel taken into like escrow even though they hadn't got that much fuel and had to wait a while for it to come back) the people we are talking about have the minimum already, they dont have the money to cook lots/store lots or the freezer space and guaranteed electric to run the freezer. They are not blessed with pots, tubs, utensils.
Some of you may think this is entirely ridiculous, but not that many years ago this was me. I live in minor dread that it could happen again.
I still dont have a car, I can cook pretty well, I can make something from nothing, yet still I lived on 6p a packet noodles that just required boiling water and 3 minutes.
I could not afford any more electric, I had to measure out the water for the noodles and the cheapest tea bags for a cuppa(occasionally I bought the cheapest coffee and had half a teaspoon of *coffee in my hot drink. Washing up liquid was beyond my means. Hell, hot water for washing up was beyond my means.
Just to add a bit after this very low point in my life I could afford a bit more electric and went dumpster diving for food.
Because I ate such shite, we do agree noodles are shite yeah? I didnt have the energy to walk to the shops and back with too much to carry, so noodles fitted the bill.
I tell you this , not to feel sorry for me, but to think before you say stuff like of course its cheaper, it may be, but it can be impossible to even think about cooking well when your in such a desperate place. Plenty of people are in a similar situation now.