Why buy?

glitterycloud

ready to use pastry casings
smash - ?????? it even tastes awful
pizza - i only ever make my own and its better coz you can out on it what you like
pasta sauce - surely its cheaper to make your own
jar of white sauce
mircowave meals - although i am guilty of this occasionally

I was never taught how to cook i taught myself so i know how hard it can be to learn and how convenient it is to have these ready to go items, but i still try to cook from scratch every night.
My pasta sauces are so much nicer than any shop bought one

lilac_lady

Reading all the explanations, I won't think the jelly pot buyers are lazy now. Perhaps trolleys should have covers on them so that they're not judged by other shoppers.!!! (especially MSE-ers!)

Anwen_2

I occasionally buy the ready made jellies (usually when on offer) as DD sometimes will suddenly decide at 8pm that she is desperate for jelly and obviously there's no way I'm going to start making jelly at that time of night, what with it taking a couple of hours minimum to set. If we don't have any in the house, she's out of luck, but it's a darn sight easier if we do, as she tends to get a bee in her bonnet about wanting a particular thing.

As far as disabled people go - don't assume that the healthy looking young woman with a trolley full of prepared stuff isn't disabled, a lot of people have what are known as 'invisible disabilities' ie you really can't tell to look at us, and in fact we often look sickeningly healthy! Of course, there's a fairly high chance that people aren't disabled, but frankly if people want to spend their money on pre-prepared stuff that makes things a bit easier for them, and if it means they are eating actual food, then good luck to them.

MrsMW

I have stopped caring what people think of my shopping, I sometimes buy convenience foods because I can! I am 62 years old, have very severe Arthritis and other ailments and I have spent over 40 years scrimping and saving with food.
I never had the money to buy ready meals so everything, apart from the occasional fish shop meal, was made from scratch. We are by no means well off, but we usually keep a couple of supermarket meals in the freezer to use on really bad days, and my DH is a very fussy eater so I sometimes buy things which he won't eat.
I do have days when I make loads of batch meals to stash away, but I also buy pies from the farmshop and even their home made cakes.
I must confess, I love some of the overpriced ready made junk like the Co-op's sherry trifle, I know it's expensive but I can afford it now and again, so we have it. I think my liking of shop made food stems from my upbringing after the war when we were poor and Mum used to buy a sheep's head -complete with eyes- to see us through the week. Oh yuk!!
I can also be accused of being tight, if we go to our local shopping outlet village, we sit outside the coffee shop and buy a coffee but we take our own muffin or biscuit lol.

calleyw

avinabacca wrote: »

Get yerself a potato ricer, chick! Super-simple to use, and guaranteed to produce gorgeously fluffy mash every single time

I think Argos do one fairly cheap, Ikea too - in any case, you'd make back the cost in no time, using whole spuds for mash instead of frozen......

I have one recently given to me by my mother. I just have not trialled run it yet. As we have not had mash recently in a meal. But was thinking of doing fish pie tonight.

I do buy bags of potatoes but find they go over so quickly as we don't eat enough. And I have some left in the garden that I need to dig up as well.

I will admit that I a lazy mooo. But I might buy a big bag of potatoes and parboil for roasties and make a load of mash up in a marathon session. That way all I will need is a few for boiled spuds.

If my husband lived on his own it would have to frozen mash and pre-peeled veggies as has only one usable hand. Before he was disabled I would never have thought of buying frozen mash.


Yours


Calley

angelnikki

troll35 wrote: »

I always look at the people buying these things. Do they look like they may have a reason for buying ready prepared stuff? or do they look plain lazy

:rolleyes: How do people need to look for you to not assume that they're lazy? Lots of illnesses arent obvious from appearances. I have ME but I'm not sure if I would look like I have a reason to be buying ready prepared stuff. Maybe I should wear a sign to say I'm not lazy I'm ill.

This thread has made me sort of glad that I'm not able to do my shopping and have to get it delivered because no doubt you'd all think I'm a lazy moo for some of the things I get.

chika

This thread is a bit daft IMO, it reminds me of the stepford wives who live on my mother's street who have made their lives in a pointless display of oneupmanship. They revel in seeing what the other women purchase and cook and you risk social ostracision if you are seen buying Aunt Bessies yorkshire puds. Which incidenally, taste great and cook in a couple of minutes - so much easier than the faff of making batter, heating up tins and carefully backing only for the damned things not to rise.

Seriously what gives you the right to judge people buy what they buy in the supermarket. Its their cash and they can spend it as they please. I'm not ashamed to admit to buying the vast majority of the things held in contempt by the posters in this thread. Crisps, taste the difference stuff etc taste GOOD, and no matter what anyone says the value brands do not cut it. Eg sainsburys taste the difference, hand sliced ham compared to the packaged trash in the basics range = no contest!

I mainly buy them for convienence and taste, no matter what you all say being OS takes time and in my life thats a very limited comodity.

I don't want to discredit any of you - I think your achivements are amazing. I look on this board almost every day for the ideas that you all give. However just because you can make a gallon of soup for 50p doesn't make you better than anyone. I admit my soup tends to cost a few quid but if I factor in the time it would take to go to the shops, chop all veg and cook and blend the soup then I could have earned an hours wages or more importantly spent that hour on a dancefloor somewhere!

Anyway rant over!

Caterina

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

And in many cases the Finest/Taste the Difference stuff really is much better quality than Value, especially on things like meat. I often buy decent meat (Finest brand, free-range and/or organic) when yellow stickered, but wouldn't buy a lot of the Value meat at full price...

I think you are right when it comes to meat, some of the "value" stuff is really just not worth having!

I suppose I sneered at "Taste the Difference" stuff because we have an almost 100% non-meat household and I did not think of the only product that I buy in "premium" format.

My son is the only meat eater (and eats it only occasionally), and I try to always get him the best possible meat, but that is organic when available - that's different from "Taste the Difference" because it has a completely different ethos to it.

The regular Taste the Difference-type products, in my experience, are just jazzed-up versions of the regular stuff. Also I do resent to think that the supermarkets are selling stuff at enhanced prices "just because it is better quality". Really, what are they saying about the rest of their products, that they are charging us for rubbish/sub-standard goods?

In any case I try to use the supermarkets as little as possible, what with the veg box delivery and the milkman delivery that also does groceries etc. (cheaper organic eggs than supermarket!)! And when I go to a supermarket these days I try Lidl before Sainsbury's, unless I am after something specific.

Caterina

rosieben

I agree that its silly to feel superior when we look at how other's shop when we can never know their circumstances and health problems. If I saw anyone looking down their nose at me because of my trolley contents I'd certainly have something to say to them :rotfl:

I would really appreciate someone pointing out a better price/offer on a product though

rosieben

Cornishpixie wrote: »

.... I found myself thinking where's the protein she's going to have with that
....

at the butcher or maybe she has a freezer full of meat in her garage