Help! My OH's a food snob!

yorkshirepudding_4

I think you just need to get him told!!! By swapping boxes or hiding what you are doing you are just condoning his irrational attitude and making a rod for your own back. If you don't assert yourself you are sending out the message that it's ok to make these judgements about value brands based on absolutely nothing. While I'm doing the shopping, cooking, cleaning, he gets what he is given and that's that. If he complains, I'll stop. I don't complain to him for the job he does, or say that he should have a more prestigious job/better salary. I do the best with what i've got and am very pleased with what I manage to cook up. I would rather spend £25 a week on shooping and have £25 left to spend on other things or put towards paying of the mortgage, than £50 a week and barely notice the diffence. PLus, it depends what you do with the food. I cook everything from scratch, so he can't turn his nose up at that. Tinned toms are tinned toms and there's no difference (these probably make up the 50% of my meals, chilli, curries, spag bol, lasagne) As for other thing, sure some thing arent as nice as name brands, but if you dont compare them they are fine. i get value cereals, they don't taste anything like the real thing but if you take them on their own merits as a different item they are perfectly fine. my philosophy is start on the bottom shelf and if you dont like it, move up a shelf. no point buying top shelf stuff for 3 or sometimes 4 times the price when you might actually find you prefer the value! plus, i always find that even if the value brand taste 99% of the named brand, it always tastes sweeter to me knowing all the money I've saved!

pdoff

if OH doesn't like what i buy he is told to do his own. i still do it all! he used to only eat proper chips but now has cheap oven chips as i am lazy! i add barbecue sauce to cheap baked beans to make them taste better.

Pauls

Beanz Meanz Heinz, I'm with your OH on this one!!

audiowiz

Hi

I'm a bloke, and a food snob too - but I go on the food itself. Don't buy pre packaged, buy fresh, loose, and cut - it tastes better. Tesco's finest..... for example cheese, often better buying from a butchers where they cut it from the block. You also then don't get crusty edges from the salt drying out that most people will trim.

Cook from scratch - it's cheaper and it is amazing what you can throw together from the contents of a fridge. Amazing sauces for a song. Minimal waste.

Some things are unbeatable -
Tinned Toms - Tesco Value are great - work really well in anything
Mix with fresh toms, & passata - great base for anything tom sauce based.

Own brand rice is generally really good. Flour - well you can sift it yourself.
Veg - a farm shop is a good bet.

Sausage Rolls - sausage meat from a good butcher, season well, hard to beat.

Decent Beer - Use Majestic - good range, and by the case generally much cheaper than Tesco by the bottle.

Sorry - I love food, but avoid pre-processed stuff like the plague - always cooking fun stuff (generally using https://www.foodtv.com for inspiration) - USA food network or the Canadian version (.ca).

Food for thought
:beer:

Audiowiz

us,thecat&thedebt

lol :rotfl:

reminds me of my oh...

def go with the replacing logos thing...

my oh says it has to be pg tips but now i buy own brand and mix them with pg tips and his never noticed...
and many others which i sharnt list in case he reads this lol!!!!!!!!!

savvy

weaver wrote:

This brings back memories - my OH would only drink Perrier water, so I used to buy sparkling tesco water and pour it into the perrier bottles. was ok till he caught me out - pointed out price difference and he was amazed - he hadnt noticed difference and was so impressed with saving that hes now actually worse than me. He will not go shopping unless he was coupons and always checks reduced item shelving.

People chance their minds once the difference is pointed out - and if you point out what the saving could mean over a few months or a year its amazing what it adds up to - holiday money, sky sports etc

LOL that's what I've done to Godders apparently He now checks reduced items shelves and reads food labels

I once did a taste test with my BIG son on cows milk v goats milk, he turned his nose up at the cows milk and picked the goats milk, he was totally stunned when I told which was which, he's not so disgusted at the idea of me drinking goats milk now!!

Bob63

If you are on a tight budget then I can understand why you might want to save money buying value brands. Otherwise, there should be pleasure in eating and if one of you doesn't like cheap food and you can afford to spend a bit more then do just that. The French have a saying: The difference between the French and the English is that the English eat to live and the French live to eat.

IMHO buying what gives you pleasure should always take precedence over buying what is cheapest if money is not an issue.

And, yes, I am a food snob and proud of it. And, yes, I can definitely tell the difference in a lot of cheaper foods.

Mike

yorkshirepudding_4

cheesy.mike wrote:

If you are on a tight budget then I can understand why you might want to save money buying value brands. Otherwise, there should be pleasure in eating and if one of you doesn't like cheap food and you can afford to spend a bit more then do just that. The French have a saying: The difference between the French and the English is that the English eat to live and the French live to eat.

IMHO buying what gives you pleasure should always take precedence over buying what is cheapest if money is not an issue.

And, yes, I am a food snob and proud of it. And, yes, I can definitely tell the difference in a lot of cheaper foods.

Mike

i don't think anybody is saying that you shouldnt enjoy your food, or eat something disgusting because it's cheap. the point is that you should be willing to give the cheaper brands a go and then make an informed choice. What we are objecting to is people assuming that just because something is 4 times the price it is 4 times the quality, not so. And what I'm sure annoys other people as much as it annoys me is the attitude of food snobs who think that if people eat value brands they must have lost all dignity, self respect and tastebuds. You also seem to imply a lack of intellect on our parts! As if we would suffer dire food just because it's cheap!

libitina_2

I'm a bit of a food snob too, can't beat Kellogs Crunchy nuts. However, I have recently discovered Asda's own brand Kellogs Special K red berries (or whatever it's called). Asdas own is right next to them on the shelf and is called Viitailty or some such (box is downstairs )

Bob63

yorkshirepudding wrote:

i don't think anybody is saying that you shouldnt enjoy your food, or eat something disgusting because it's cheap. the point is that you should be willing to give the cheaper brands a go and then make an informed choice. What we are objecting to is people assuming that just because something is 4 times the price it is 4 times the quality, not so. And what I'm sure annoys other people as much as it annoys me is the attitude of food snobs who think that if people eat value brands they must have lost all dignity, self respect and tastebuds. You also seem to imply a lack of intellect on our parts! As if we would suffer dire food just because it's cheap!

Credit me with a little more sense than that.

I read this forum, I know that some cheap foods are identical to branded equivaltent. Personally I love the challenge of buying Sainsbury's (or other supermarkets) branded single malt scotch to find out that it is actually something like Glenmorangie or equivalent. But I also know crap food when I taste it - a great example is cheap bacon that tastes smells and tastes of fish because of what the pigs were fed.

I think you miss my point entirely. I like good food. I didn't say I like expensive food. There is a huge difference.

My point is that people who buy the cheapest version of everything are as stupid as people who buy the most expensive. Buy the best!

Mike