I don’t home cook

[Jjustsancs]

I know not everyone will agree with me
I am not rich I am far from it. This year I dropped the guilt. This isn’t AIBU

once you count what your time and energy is worth and the fact you could be doing something else cooking and doing the dishes, meal planning and buying all the ingredients - and all the waste that goes in the bin when a takeaway is inevitably ordered because you’re tired and want something tasty - it’s cheaper and easier to just buy something ready made or easy food in the first place. You can get everything ready made now including sandwiches, soup, and family dinners like big lasagnes.

If it's cheaper than home cooking it's probably full of UPFs.

Maybe try batch cooking, or slow-cooker meals ready for when you get home? Both very cheap and healthy options, and neither involving more effort than a take-away when you get home from work.

You can’t buy health but you can certaintly invest your money in your health, good quality food and opportunities to exercise will make a big difference to most people’s long term quality of life.

I don’t even eat bought sandwiches because they’re chilled -who wants chilled bread?

Most of the things I cook take less than an hour. Roast chicken legs, potatoes and veg is very cheap less than £8 for 4. Mince, herbs, tin tomatoes pasta very cheap too. I only have a takeaways as a treat.

Well I agree because I hate cooking when tired and do long hours at work, but that isn't true for everyone

So a lot of deli food, cook frozen food, pre-prepped stirfries, Waitrose, some m and and Charlie B over here

It does help to be able to shop higher end though. And you need to check ingredients. and add veg. And sometimes more protein.

Yes I have to say even as a non cook I don't buy sandwiches. Pret sometimes for lunch.

There’s an increasing amount of good quality ready meals that are as they would be cooked at home. They are pricey of course but some of them are really nice. Thinking of Cook, Ruby, Charlie Bigham, Field Doctor. You could do a lot worse than those (and I’d imagine a large proportion of the population do do a lot worse!)

I don't relate to anything in your post and don't know what you're trying to say

I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of home cooked food doesn't end up in the bin and being replaced by a takeaway. OK if you arent good at cooking but suggesting that buying ready made food is a cheaper alternative to cooking is nuts

What do you do with the time you save?

If it’s sitting watching television perhaps it’s not such a good decision.

Do you have a family if so why would you not want to provide healthy food.

Are you buying "cook" meals.or lions prep type stuff or literally just ready meals?

@Jjustsancs couldn’t you just batch cook once or twice a month so an afternoons expenditure of energy and time would lead to a freezer full of dinners?

once you count what your time and energy is worth and the fact you could be doing something else cooking and doing the dishes, meal planning and buying all the ingredients - and all the waste that goes in the bin when a takeaway is inevitably ordered because you’re tired and want something tasty - it’s cheaper and easier to just buy something ready made or easy food in the first place.

I disagree with just about everything you say there.

Your time and energy has no monetary value unless you're going to do overtime at work instead of cooking. Of course you may want to prefer to spend the time doing other things than cooking.

Waste that goes in the bin? Are you saying you buy food from the supermarket then chuck it away in favour of a takeaway? No, doesn't happen here. And I never, ever order a takeaway just because I'm tired. It's much quicker to rustle up some pasta and a sauce.

Up to you, but even discounting the considerable cost, I couldn't live like you do.

I totally see this OP.

personally, I don’t think cooking is all that- today I had pasta, soft cheese, peas and smoked trout- practically a ready meal, just boil and Pour 😂 it’s in no way superior to a ready made lasagne, neither was it cheaper.

its so dull when people bang on about bulking out with lentils and like it’s in any way interesting or necessary for most people. If rather have an omelette

Fair enough, if that’s what works for you! Personally I find dealing with a takeaway more stressful (annoying apps and working through the menu on my phone, then not being sure exactly when it will arrive and having to worry about do you tip the driver or is that rude/weird, how to do it when payment online etc) than cooking a simple home made meal (a curry with fresh vegetables and chickpeas for example as it’s what we had tonight). I’m not winning any prizes for fancy cooking but it feeds the family, including a bottomless pit teenage boy, and it’s less hassle for me after a days work than any alternative!

It doesn't have to be one or the other.

Ready meal, frozen oven food, omelette, full on gourmet dinner. Most of us use a variation to get through the week.

I don't know why you bother buying a sandwich though. So much cheaper and fresher to make at home.

As pp says, for ready meals to be cheaper then you almost always compromise on quality. The 'good' read meals are £4-6 or more a portion. I don't spend £20 for a dinner for the four of us when I'm cooking from scratch and always have left over for lunch the next day. It's not everyday, but doing it 2/3 times a week makes a big difference.

I’ve never had a ready meal that I couldn’t cook better myself, and that goes for most takeaways too. Plus no deliveroo or just eat here so by the time it gets here it’s cold.

I've never seen meal planning as a chore. It takes a nanosecond. I shop once a week - 45 mins on a Friday evening.
There's no waste, and I can feed ds and me, fresh healthy food including 30 different fruit & veg, for £50 a week. I love my ds. I don't want him eating rubbish.

Needing to stick to a budget focuses the mind. Living somewhere there are no takeaways helps too. 😁 I can cook better food than most ready meals so it's a no brainer for me.

Can’t relate.

i might buy a sandwich or ready meal once a month. Go to a cafe or restaurant once or twice a month. The rest of the time, the food I cook is much healthier, quicker, cheaper and tastier!!

somwtimes I think people haven’t been set up for life being taught to cook some basics as a child or young teenager.

i shudder thinking about all the salt and UPFs in your food

“i shudder thinking about all the salt and UPFs in your food”

why? Do you have an eating disorder?

I like cooking and I like eating good food that I know is nutritious and not full of salt, sugar, e numbers, sundry crap or meat that has been raised in God knows what conditions.

When you think how important health is to happiness surely there are few better ways to spend your time and money than on investing in what you eat.

😁

How often do you eat fresh veg?

I hate cooking. I’d rather an omelette or cheese on toast with a salad.

I live in an EU country in Central Europe and we just don't really have much convenience food in the shops that tastes good here. Very few takeaway places, although there are more than there were since covid. I consider frozen veg as a convenience now! But I don't mind cooking, it tastes better and I know what is in it.
I didn't live on those things when we were in the UK. I don't enjoy eating them. There's very little waste in my kitchen.

I do my meal planning on the commute which makes use of otherwise dead time. I get my groceries delivered and do my orders then too. I do find it a bit of a chore but I find it helps to have a couple of easy standbys (stir fry, lentil bolognese and chickpea curry for us) and then a few more novel things so it doesn’t get too boring. I find a lot of recipes on Pinterest.

I can’t say that I’ve ever ordered a takeaway instead of eating what I’ve cooked though- even with complete culinary disasters we would just have toast or something instead. Are you cooking things that no one likes? Could you cook the kind of stuff you’d order from a takeaway instead?