Is OS *REALLY* cheaper?

Dragonmist

Cooking from scratch would be my ideal. I used to when my daughters were young and still living here. However, when we moved here 40+ years ago, there were plenty of food shops in Windsor. Macfisheries, David Greigs,Tesco, 3 butchers, another fishmonger, 3 bakeries [the real thing], 2 greengrocers, and a superb deli. There was competition, so prices were good. I bought cheap cuts like breast of lamb, and belly pork, and boned, rolled and stuffed them. Good meals at low prices. These two cuts are certainly not cheap at supermarket prices.
Now, apart from the pavement cafes, tourist tat, fast food outlets and charity shops, Windsor is a dead loss.
There is a Waitrose, but owing to the fact the old supermarket has been demolished, and they have crammed a limited range of goods in a much smaller shop there isn't much choice. The quality is poor and the food is expensive. The alternative is the M&S Food Hall. Lovely for a special treat, and the quality is excellent, but I couldn't afford to buy from there too often. There is a small butchers right at the bottom of the main street, but limited in stock and high prices. Things like 1 duck breast for £8 !!! There is a fishmongers but it is a very long walk [about a quarter of a mile] to reach it. Again very expensive, and does a lot of "trendy" stuff like alligator meat. The Council priced the market stalls out of existence, pretty much the same way as they drove the small businesses out by OTT Business Rates.
Return fare to Windsor £3.60. No choice, it's the only place the bus goes to. Add to that £1.80 train fares to Slough to get a bit of choice. Well... not a lot actually. There is a large Tesco, and an Iceland... erm... and that's about it actually. Cooking from scratch just isn't worth the extra cost in fares.
I would love to buy fresh meat. There is a very good butchers and bakers in the local village. Unfortunately there is no bus and it takes me 2 hours to walk there and back. Not funny on a hot day having to lug heavy shopping bags home.
I grow as much of my own organic vegetables as possible, make my own bread [pizza bases etc. included.] and keep a few hens for free range eggs. Despite living in the heart of the countryside, living OS is virtually impossible unless you have a car, and can travel miles to get good ingredients, otherwise you are just wasting your time and energy.

Tindella_2

This is a great thread - gone from RM versus OS to battle of the sexes - and some good recipes as well!

When I was younger and the kids were small, I bought fish fingers as the only way to get fish down them but did a lot of normal family cooking, roast etc. Now I'm a retired granny I rarely buy RM (but confess to the "emergency" pizza in the freezer in case the family pops in and hasn't had lunch). I do shop in supermarkets for stuff, (got 2 organic chickens reduced at Tesco yesterday, and they're jointed and in the freezer!) but use a proper butcher and the greengrocers as well. I find making your own is rewarding and much cheaper, just like everyone else I use the slow cooker, batch bake and freeze etc. - but then, I do have the time!

Gender debate - there are some lousy female cooks and great male cooks as well as the stereotypes. Personally, my son, brother and brother-in-law wouldn't thank you for RM - and they all cook "properly", successfully. Two of them grow their own veg (for which I am grateful as they usually have plenty left over for me!). I only have a small area but I grow tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, lettuce, and all the herbs I need.

Thanks for the recipes - shall give the quiche a try!

Windsor person - so where do you get your basics - flour, milk, tea bags etc. from? It sounds like you have no shops at all!

lilmisskitkat

I found O/S expensive in the initial outlay of building a store cupboard and buying a slow cooker, tuppaware for freezing meals etc but it had definitely saved my £££'s in the long run

It means that i can got to Asda and buy whatever meat/fish is reduced and add ingredient from my storecupboard to make a meal. Or on lean weeks i can make a whole meal from the storecupboard.

I made the decision to be O/S before i moved into my own home so i had been saving money on an Asda xmas card each week for my first food shop, after that first shop i only had to replace things as and when so no one food shop was too expensive.

Hope this makes sense! Anyway, money aside, my life is better from my O/S ways and i really enjoy the whole thing

Kate xxx

SkyBlue_2

daysieblue wrote: »

Hi

Throwing a huge cat amongst the pigeons here, is it really cheaper to feed your family OS?

DH has this mind block that if you can buy a ready meal for 99p, how does it work out cheaper to buy all the ingredients, and then spend the time and energy cooking? If anyone has any comparisons, OS vs RM, I would be really grateful. This is starting to turn into a bit of a deadlock for us, and I would love to be able to prove him wrong!!!

thanks

db xx

Hmmm. I do think your DH has a point.

I suppose it depends on how much you'd value your time?

You can throw a ready meal into the microwave and eat within five minutes or so. To prepare a meal from scratch is going to take a half-hour or so..involves perhaps peeling and chopping veg, cutting meat, making a gravy or sauce and combining and cooking ingredients. Then you are tied as it cooks and using electricity or gas to cook and have pots and pans to wash up afterwards instead of a disposable microwave dish.

Your labour is worth at least fiove pounds and hour...you hav bought the ingredients, you are paying for heating fuel and hot water afterwards ...plus you are tied to the kitchen.

In those terms, home cokking is quite expensive.

However, I think we'd all agree that home cooking tastes so much nicer so the cost and efoort involved is worth it?

I wouldn't say home cooking is necessarily healthier though. I am into high-fibre, low fat, low salt eating and some of the recipes given on this site , delicious though they sound, aren't particularly healthy and are high in calories per portion. (People sure do like their cakes!)

I hate the additives in ready meals, but must admit, with three ravenous young people in the house who graze continually, I'd be lost without some of those stand-bys in the freezer. I cannot afford to buy them so much these days so I insist that, if they need a quick fix they eat something (beans, eggs, tinned tomatoes) on toast or or have a bowl of cereal.

sluggy1967

My experience is that 1 ready meal is fine if you are not that hungry, but I would say that the portions certainly aren't big enough for me, let alone my husband, so it isn't usually a 99p meal, it would take at least 2 meals per adult!

liz545

While I take the point that making home-made food from scratch can work out more expensive than buying value ready meals, how useful is it to factor in the cost of your labour? After all, I make dinner from scratch as I'm at home in the evening. If I wasn't making dinner it's not like I could be at work for an extra couple of hours. As these are leisure hours, it's a matter of priorities - I'd prefer to spend time cooking a nutritious meal, but some people may prefer to spend those hours watching tv or something. Each to their own, I guess.

**purpleprincess**

OS to me is *finest* foods at Value prices!!! Something I've seen on here before!

And you can have your own ready meal, I make stuff in batches and freeze what's left over!! There you have it! A home made ready meal!!!

Deb_Williams

Ready meals v OS? No contest!

When OH and I went on holiday last year, I bought a load of ready meals and left them in the freezer for No1 Son. Two weeks later, he's eaten only four - said by the fifth day he was sick of them and had the runs!

SkyBlue_2

liz545 wrote: »

While I take the point that making home-made food from scratch can work out more expensive than buying value ready meals, how useful is it to factor in the cost of your labour? After all, I make dinner from scratch as I'm at home in the evening. If I wasn't making dinner it's not like I could be at work for an extra couple of hours. As these are leisure hours, it's a matter of priorities - I'd prefer to spend time cooking a nutritious meal, but some people may prefer to spend those hours watching tv or something. Each to their own, I guess.

Hehehe Liz. When I was working I was very conscious of the time it took to cook a good family meal. I didnt begrudge it, but sometimes Sundays seemed like nothing more than Mum's roast dinner day...which was labour intensive and seemed to use up every pot and pan in the house. The kitchen was a mess to clean up...and it was usually done, or supervised by me.

I'd much rather have been sitting in the garden with a G&T on the go whilst reading the Sunday papers. (I tried to combine both but was interupted to baste meat, par-boil parsnips, get veg on, strain them, make gravy, carve etc...etc) It's NOT a restful time for the cook....no matter how organised.

Forgive me...but...and I do hope someone will agree with me....sometimes this site takes me back to pre-women's liberation days. It's almost like one or two need to score Brownie points for being the most devoted wives, mothers, cooks, housekeepers.

I say sod it ladies.

Yes...cook by all means, (it gives many of us including me, lots of pleasure) but don't forget that convenience foods (although pretty ghastly) were called just that, and sell successfully not because all the women (and men) who buy them are lazy slobs, or spend-thrifts, but because they ARE convenient to have in the freezer.

I think in this day and age a woman's time is precious, especially if she works and raises a family (as I did, single handedly) and many want to make their lives a little easier and less challenging.

We have to educate regarding nutrition and healthy eating, but the supermarkets are catching on. Price-wise, a ready meal is expensive, but we DO have to factor in our labour. For me, a quick meal is beans on toast...I don't want to be in the kitchen for too long after an exhausting day...and much as I like OS, I do think one or two take the kitchen moral high-ground.

There are one or two on this site who seem to be clones of 1950s woman...which is fine if you enjoy subservience and domestic bliss...but some of us.....the 'nurturing feminists', well...we like to say 'crack open the wine, get a takeaway and we'll clean up the kitchen mess in the morning!' every now and then. I get the feeling one or two would have the vapours reading that and immediately cast me out.....

I don't mean to offend anyone......but I do believe we have come on a long way in terms of appreciating the load women have historically carried in being wives, mothers and home-makers. To dismiss the cost of our labour (because 'it's something we do anyway') is a dangerous road to go down I believe.

Many of us will have helpful partners but we still need to be conscious of the demands made on our precious leisure time. Let's not smugly write-off the odd convenience meal that may be lurking in the freezer. They ain't wonderful, but we are entitled to have 'em!

Come on sisters.....we ain't galley slaves.

tru

SkyBlue wrote: »

Come on sisters.....we ain't galley slaves.

Too right :T

I don't see anyone taking the kitchen moral high ground though :think: There's always a few posts that say "look what I did" but I don't see it as bragging, more as "look what I managed - at last". Then I steal their ideas :rotfl:

sometimes this site takes me back to pre-women's liberation days.

Women's lib is about living your life the way you want to, not doing what's expected of you. I love OS, it's saved me a fortune, made us healthier and it gives mr tru something to take the mickey out of :rotfl:

While I'm OSing, I also have a part-time job and run a small business. I'm definitely not chained up in the kitchen.