Who buys this stuff?

lil_me

I think it means my l key is too close to the k.

I now notice what others buy more, that they are even more 'convenience' than I was. Walked past a lady last week and ever meal was a ready meal, the only exception being bread and cheese. One that shocked me in her trolley the most - sausage, chips and beans! Even I wasn't that bad.

Biggest difference I have noticed not buying these products is money, second biggest loosing half a stone! Feel healthier too, but of course not getting excess salt etc they use, in fact I have become over sensitive to salt as has DP.

I agree however there are some people who these products make a huge difference for, but some just use it because it's more convenient to them.

Churchmouse

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

This is a very good point.

I shop at M&S for a housebound elderly lady, not only is she housebound but she's pretty much confined to her living room and she uses oxygen from time to time through the day too.
She is adamant that she's not ready to go into a home and has home carers coming in 3 times a day to make her meals, they have to 'service' quite a few clients each mealtime and they can't wait for an oven to heat up for 10 or 15 minutes so all her meals are M&S microwave ready meals or quick cook things like fishcakes. Without these easy meals her choices would be greatly limited, having said that I still feel a little sheepish at the till with a trolley load of single portion ready meals!

And this is exactly why we should try to restrain from making judgements on other's baskets!!:rotfl: :rotfl:

I just think it would be very sad if the defining "quality" of OS was to be a smug superiority over others. We all know made from scratch with fresh ingredients is "best", but life, family and circumstances can make this unobtainable occasionally/ always (delete as appropriate):D
I speak as one who has deformed fingers from arthritis, and has been reduced to tears of pain when preparing all the fresh veggies for my old peoples Lunchclub.

Iona_Penny

I have posted before about seeing all the Christmas lunch items in M&S and suddenly realising I could do it for myself, and have done ever since. I cook my veg the night before, put them in foil dishes..voila! and no washing up after lunch! I always do extra roast pots, cook until nearly done and leave in a foil dish for a few days later, better than Aunt Bessies.
Seriously though I saw frozen omlettes:eek: but it gave me an ides; but I now make them for my lunch at work, leave sl undercooked and microwave the next day (usually put cooke mushrooms and cheese in) Yummy!
Many of the ready meals you can do for yourself at a fraction of the cost and they can be used as 'fast -food' meals for busy days.

gerretl

Queenie wrote:

Why should the tax payers pay to have grated cheese put on the NHS?????

Yes, there will always be people who are capable and choose not to - and that counts for far more than grating cheese!!!

*My* point was grated cheese may well have been put on the shelves to serve those who couldn't do it easily themselves and they shouldn't automatically be labelled with sweeping statements such as "laziest most stupid ... "

Not quite sure what "fukky" means, but it doesn't sound particularly er ... pleasant

fukky is when you miss the 'l' key twice, and press the one next to it. I have corrected it and apologise to those offended. As you may see, my take on life is less than serious.

kscour

Hows about this then - I was in Tescos one evening (pre no supermarket shopping days!) when I bumped into my friend who actually lived about 3 mins walk away from the store. So we got onto the fact she'd just popped in because she fancied a sandwich, I said "don't tell me you've run out of bread" and she looked at me like I was really stupid and said "no I've come to buy a sandwich" so not knowing when to keep my mouth shut I said "well why don't you buy a loaf of bread and some ham/cheese/whatever?" and she said ...........
"yeah but I fancy a sausage roll as well"
So she spent goodness knows how much on a sandwich and a sausage roll and then drove home (yep she'd come in the car!)
As nice a person a she is she's the one they've made the jacket potatoes for:D

*zippy*

The stupidest thing I bought this week was those individual packets of microwave breakfast oats 99p I opened it to find there were only 5 packets in there with a few oats in each packet. I suddenly realised there was only oats in there nothing special and I have packets of 25p lidls oats in the cuboard as I make porridge for the chickens as a treat :doh:

Flimber

I'm sure I recall Farmfoods selling frozen cheese sandwiches....

Davidboy

We love M&S food, but as a treat. Their food is the best and perhaps once every 2 months or so we have something from M&S just bung it in the oven and eat....lovely.

Don't care if aint money saving.....

D

SnowyOwl_2

I too work in a supermarket, and know that a lot of these convenience foods are shifted every day. While for some people they are a necessity, I should imagine that the majority of consumers buy these products simply because it means they don't have to cook. That's fair enough, who am I to judge? However what really bugs me is the amount of packaging and waste that is produced. Eg, one portion of cooked mashed potato at 99p comes in its own little plastic sealed tray which will likely be immediately chucked in the bin and then on to landfill. The 99p covers the production of the packaging too. However it doesn't cover the cost of its disposal nor the fact that it will be languishing in landfill for the next 100 years or so. That to me is the saddest part of all these pre-packed, half ready convenience meals - the amount of rubbish they produce is phenomenal and most of it could so easily be avoided if only for a bit of effort in the consumer's home.

mrs_mix

Queenie wrote:

Please don't forget that there are a number of people with arthritis and other disabilities which would make the task of something seemingly 'simple' as grating cheese a near impossible task :silenced:

I have arthritis in my hands it's worse in my right hand than my left I find peeling veg and things like grating and tin openers very hard but I have a gadget for the ring pull cans and kids and a dh for the others the kids peel the veg I never buy pre- prepared
and for the cheese I either use the food processor or ds1 or dh does it
I always try and find a way to do things yes I get frustrated when I can't but I would never buy food just because it's easier when it's already done
pam xx