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.

I dont cook either.
I live out the fridge and cupbord quick grab eat done.

I don't agree, but I just cook for myself and when I cook for others, they are not fussy. I don't have problems with food allergies, and at the moment nobody I am cooking for is vegan or vegetarian or gluten-free or dairy-free or anything else, so they're fairly simple to work with. Although I have cooked for people that have all of these different restrictions.

I don't agree that take out is cheaper, but, it depends what you're buying it depends on your skills it depends on your resourcefulness and your wastefulness,
Depends on how big your freezer is how big your fridges, there's a lot of things to take into account But I would say that cooking for yourself is cheaper

I'm not much of a cook, but I always do it because it saves money

I don't get takeaways or deliveries. I used to live opposite a nice fish and chip shop so that was a very rare treat - maybe once every three months or something, usually if I've been abroad for work and couldn't face cooking. They're good because they actually do a half portion of chips so you don't end up with a mountain of chips for one person.

Generally, it's just very expensive. I do have some ready meals in the freezer. But I don't have them much as I find they never live up to expectations on the cost. It's more in case I get ill or something.

I'm sure some people will think I've been tight all my life 😂 but I like to save money where I can.

I suppose we've all got our thing that we're prepared to spend money on, so for me, there are times I would take a cab and others wouldn't.

takeaways are probably yum compared to my food but I would also be the size of a house if I went down that road!

I'm sorry I don't believe Cook and similar companies are at New Covent Garden, Smithfield and Billingsgate in the early hours choosing whatever looks good that day and that they modify their offering to suit. They all produce standardised food in huge quantities so they will be ordering in advance from the usual suppliers. Meal plan for yourself, choose things that are in season and don't be afraid to change the plan if you spot something unusual or different. That way you get good food at a good price and there is nothing more satisfying than sitting down to a freshly cooked meal you've made yourself, well maybe a 3 star Michelin would be better but that's not in my price range.

I absolutely hate cooking, but it’s far cheaper and also for health reasons, we do a large amount of batch cooking and freeze most of it, then use that as the base and just add some fresh stuff on the side.

I am lazy as fuck so I cook myself a meal that lasts 4 days minimum. So eat the same thing every evening. But atleast it's good (; just what I like). A shame I still have to cook for the kids. But ready made salads are great for lunch and no upfs as far as I can see..

You don't have to have an eating disorder, prepared foods are high in salt and additives. Fine if you have something now and then but your entire 3 daily meals?

I mean… most people don’t throw away their food because they ordered a takeaway. There are lots of simple dishes that don’t take long to cook and don’t contain preservatives and uneccessary filler ingredients.

But it’s your life so do what you want like you say. Nobody is stopping you…

I personally think you need to give your head a wobble or own that you earn a good wage, and are what is known as cash rich and time poor/

As someone who is cash poor and time rich, we eat the best of meals on a shoe string

We also dont waste food, not a bite of food is wasted, yes I had three bananas well on past their edible stages - I gave then to my friend who has alpacas , they love a black banana

How can a take away be as cheap as a home cooked meal? We had curry tonight - 1kg chicken thighs - £2.99, tin of chickpeas - 50p , 4 cubes of frozen spinach - 30p and a mix of herbs and spices - lets go 50p and a cup of rice from a sack so lets say another 50p

£5 for 6 potions - less then a £1 a head

Took me about 15 mins to prep , actual cooking - 30 mins in which time I was on Facebook and having a wee drink - so no bother at all

No UPFs , no added sugars and salts, full of protein and fiber

Im not a saint, I buy frozen spinach, chopped onion and casserole veg, but that just means I can get dinner on the table quick, even on a roast dinner Id only be in the kitchen solely cooking for 30 mins?

Fish cooks as quickly as a ready meal in a microwave.
Baked potato takes no effort.
Chicken leg or breast, bit of oil and stick in air fryer, easy.
Bag of salad and some tomatoes and cucumber on side.

Rarely ever. I do eat a lot of fruit though.

YANBU if you’re prioritising convenience and your budget but unfortunately if you eat ultra processed LT you may be compromising your health as takeout/ready meals usually have greater salt, fat, preservatives, additives etc.

It’s easy to just wrap a seasoned piece of chicken or fish in foil and throw it in the oven for 30 mins or so and then throw a bag of frozen veg into the microwave. You could also go down the air fryer route which I understand may be even faster.

Small changes like this could help prevent health issues in the future because as the saying goes ‘the body keeps score’.

How much packaging waste do you have?

The OP doesn't like cooking, it is not that she is unaware that meals planning exists.

Cooking is one of my pleasures in life so I don't see it as time and energy wasted. The financial and health benefits are a nice bonus but not why I do it.

A lot but less than someone else buying a load of ingredients which also comes in packaging

How's your health, OP?

How much do you spend pcm?

I have to say I find it interesting when some American people on TV shows say they don't cook, you see this a lot on Selling Sunset. I always wonder if it's because they have chefs, order in or just don't eat, with their money and looks I suspect it's a mix of all three. But I never heard of anybody not cooking anything at home in the UK.

This isn't my thinking at all OP. I work full time but do value decent food. The laziest meals I have are freezer fish and chips or tortellini with sauce and veg. Other than that it's actual meals cooked from vegetables and pulses with occasional fish. We waste very little and never order takeaways as our food is nicer and we know what is in it.

And how is ordering in cheaper/quicker/healthier or better than chucking things in on a tray in the oven or slow cooking? It's really easy and requires zero skills, waiting time is the same but you spend less and eat healthier?

I home cook 90% of the time. Its definitely cheaper, healthier and tastier. If I can't be arsed to cook i grab something batch cooked from the freezer. The vast majority of ready meals, even 'posh' options are full of shit.

I wonder how much it costs to live a life of never cooking, takeaway bill must be wild

Ok that's odd tbh. So takeaways stop feeling like treats?

What kind of home did you grow up in? Was your mum a good cook?

We started looking at additives and UPFs and there is so much in ready made food. We used to buy a lot of it..
Surpisingly though Iceland has a lot of frozen ready foods that have no additives and preservatives in.
Their currys and frozen mash are completely free from anything except the proper ingredients.
I still buy some ready stuff but the frozen foods are actually usually better than the chiller foods for ingredients.
If you are going to only eat premade food then take a look at the ingredients and find the best ones. They arent always the most expensive.
There is an app called yukka that you can scan a bar code and get all the info.
I found out that pringles are pretty much shit. So I stopped buying them in favour of kettle chips for example.

High fat, high salt, chemicals, packaging .... that's for starters ....
You may not be bothered now but wait 30 years when your arteries silt up and you have a stroke .......

People who batch cook once or twice a month- how many meals are you making in one day?

I cook everything, including lunches, that we eat Monday-Friday lunchtime on Mondays. I then cook again for the weekend on Friday afternoons and start again on Monday.

I appreciate people may only batch cook for one meal a day but that’s still 30 meals for the whole month. How do you do that in a single day? How many different meals are you having in a month?