Is “home cooking” becoming a luxury these days?

[PetsNPaws]

I was chatting with a friend the other day about how expensive cooking at home has become — not just food prices, but everything else too. Energy bills, cookware, ingredients that used to be cheap but now feel like treats. Even a simple pasta dish doesn’t feel “budget” anymore if you want decent olive oil and veg.
It used to be that eating out was the luxury and home cooking was the sensible, money-saving option. But now, between the cost of groceries and the time it takes (especially if you’re working full-time or have kids), I’m not sure that’s true anymore.
I genuinely enjoy cooking, but I’ve noticed I’m doing it less because I can’t justify the effort when it’s often cheaper or easier to grab something ready-made.
Has anyone else noticed this shift? Do you still find cooking from scratch worthwhile, or is it turning into something only people with time and money can afford to do properly?

I buy frozen berries, not long ago they were 2.25/bag, then they went up to 2.50/bag and now £3/bag, they dont feel like a cheap option anymore if there isn't an offer on.
(And most offers encourage you to buy more - which is ok for me , I have freezer space - rather than reduce the individual item)

I think it depends a lot on what you’re cooking. There’s only adult ds and I at home, and, yes, food has got more expensive, but I still find it cheaper to cook from scratch, plus most ready meals I’ve tried are rank!

Big bag of mixed sized potatoes goes a long way, I buy large bags of pasta/rice/flour too, Costco for big trays of chicken breasts etc (plus they currently have 5l of extra virgin olive oil for £24.39, so £4.38 per litre) and fruit is good from there.

This week so far, I’ve made fajitas, chicken parmo with potato wedges and coleslaw, casserole veg(mainly frozen veg plus diced potatoes and carrots) with mince (3 for £12 frozen from Iceland) done in the pressure cooker and chicken and bacon pasta bake with frozen broccoli, sweetcorn and peas, and a cheesy sauce. Nothing extravagant but not expensive either. Got rump steak tomorrow night which I got for less than £3 each from B&M of all places. Not the best quality, but we’ve had it before and it’s pretty decent, then homemade pizzas and salad on Saturday and chicken kebabs, flatbread and salad on Sunday.

I shop around a lot though, alternate supermarkets and buy in bulk, which I appreciate is difficult for some people, but our shopping budget is £100 a week, including toiletries/household items, and we eat pretty well on that, although we do only eat twice a day as neither of us are big on breakfast.

@Starconundrum I do totally agree with you by the way that home cooking is not a luxury - for me it’s my 1 big luxury (along with living in a nice area ) but as you say we choose to eat like this - I could just as easily cook well for 2 on £60 a week if my H was a bit less of a food snob!! The devil I think is in knowing how to make a decent stew, casserole, stir fry, curry, - how to bulk out ( I make chilli and cottage pie for instance with50% steak mince and 50% Linda McCartney soy mince ) and actually prefer it that way - or line tonight I made the big mushroom stroganoff with just 1 chopped up chicken breast added for extra flavour and texture. I make dumplings if I make stew etc, etc - it most definitely isn’t cheaper to live off ready made if you are at all interested in quality but then again plenty are more interested in £2.50 pizzas and quantity over quality- it’s a US attitude I think - I’ve had some appallingly bland beige meals there but are reviewed well because ‘there’s lots of it’ -

I think this is great.

I wasn't pooing on these choices.
I was just saying, in a thread where the title is 'home cooking is a luxury',
That no it bloody isn't, and you can make some very very good healthy tasty choices that cost a lot less than the Mumsnet posts that are 😢😢😢 I'm spending £200 a week for 4 people and I can't bring it down.

Yes you can. My example, at the end of my long procastinated process, cost £25 for 6 days for 2 people. You absolutely can still, and if you have the money, please do, as food is life, have a budget for treats.

And treats are berries.

Trust me, if I had the cash, I'd be knee deep in raspberries and artichokes. But these are just as much a luxury as ready meals. You don't need them. But if you scrimp in other areas and you can afford them, them fill your boots!

My point being that's entirely possible to provide a non upf balanced diet for very little for comparatively little effort.

If people want to make the choices that cost more, that's great, and I would do the same. We all budget where we can.

What I absolutely object to is people saying they can't. The wah wah wah that they can't eat beef rib.

i also, for balance, absolutely object to people saying you HAVE to eat as per my example. No you bloody don't. But equally, noone can then say £95 a week UC is enough to live on while they're crying about how much their £6 of fresh berries a day cost. Those bitches can fuck off.

The bitches eating their lovely Berrys and salmon and understanding that's it's hard to eat healthily on a budget but support and understand it's not as fun and is hard for others absolutely have my support and I love them.

I'm not a shit. I was responding to a poster who said it was crap that you could well for little
You can.

It's just more fun and EASIER to eat well with more.

I think I agree with everyone btw so I'm not sure why I'm writing essays when I think you already get me.

It's late on a thursday so apologies

It's definitely still cheaper to eat at home.
I made us udon noodle soup today with some fresh prawns. It cost £4 a bowl. Same thing in a restaurant would be 4x the price.

Thank you for listing out a shopping list. I am unsure whether you can get 250g butter for a £1 nowadays but could you please show how that translates to meals for two people for four days? Doesn’t seem enough food for me. Or do you mean four main meals for two people?

Also a little to my point earlier if you are getting sausages for £1.50 the quality of your home cooked meal will be little better than a ready meal - in my opinion!

I thought the same about the butter! I don't disagree with the fundamental point that cooking is almost always cheaper than ready meals as well as nicer but I don't think this list is quite right.

It also misses all herbs/spices/condiments.

E.g. I do make a soup most weeks which is pretty cheap but it does involve salt, stock cubes, pepper, other spices usually, I don't buy these all every week but I usually need to top something up every week.

Tea/coffee/drinks also absent

Most herbs, spices and seasonings cost almost nothing unless you're daft enough to buy Schwartz jars. Almost all supermarkets sell 100g packs of spices for about £1 which is enough for 10 to 20 meals.

Buy potted herbs and repot in a larger pot and they'll live for weeks or more and I say that as the world's worst gardener

It depends what you buy - I was including in that things like harissa paste / tahini - I agree basic stuff doesn't cost lots but it all adds up.

And as I say, I do agree with the fundamental point that cooking is a lot cheaper, I just don't think that list is quite right

You are 100% correct - when our business went bust we lived for 2 weeks on cauliflower cheese, cereals, mashed potato, beans and cheese made into a bake, sausages and mash and veg, omelettes, pancakes , veggie stir fry’s and veggie chili or veggie Dan Dan noodles - we didn’t starve- I just found it a bit dull - it was perfectly doable