Is OS *REALLY* cheaper?

Dragonmist

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

There is a small Post Office/General Store in the Estate Village. It doesn't stock much at all apart from tins and packets. That's a 50 minute round trip on foot - so virtually there are no shops close by. I am taken to a supermarket quite a distance away by my eldest daughter when I need to stock up on basics. A mobile fishmonger comes to the outside village once a week, and my neighbour picks up fresh fish for me. Reasonable prices and very good quality.
I have always made fish fingers for my children in the past, and now for my grand children. I detest those minced horrors made out of heaven's knows what fish. My tribe prefer a light batter to breadcrumbs, so I just cut the fish into goujons and lightly flour them, then make a light batter of seasoned flour and carbonated water. [You can use a little beer instead of carbonated water for the adults.]
My late husband was the driver in the family. I never learned, and couldn't run the car on my pension anyway.

moanymoany

Interesting thread!

When I bought for my old mum and stepdad I had to get ready meals because the homecarers micro'd them. I bought good quality chilled meals that looked and tasted nice. They kept their health on these, but at a cost of about £2.50 each a day. When mum's dementia got so she had to go into a home stepdad started on the 5 for £4 additive filled stuff as I was accused of spending FAR too much on food.:mad: His health has gone downhill. Lots of us, including the doctor, have tried to persuade him to buy better quality, but no, he would rather watch his bank balance grow, although I ask him what he's saving up for! Says it all about the quality of cheap RM's.

Not to say that it is not ok from time to time. but to feed children, or anyone continually on them is very bad for their health.

Like anything, OS takes practice, after a while you learn quick and cheap meals. I certainly use frozen veg, onions can be a godsend when time is short. If I really can't be bothered to cook we have scrambled eggs and tinned value tomatoes on toast. I buy washed spuds and often cut them (unpeeled) into chips or wedges, shake them on a couple of spoons of oil and cook them in a hot oven for 20 mins. Put with them whatever you like.

Nothing takes no time or effort. I'm getting on a bit now and I have decided that life is a balance of what you want to get out against what you want to put in, but you have to find your own way through its maze.;)

sixtyplus

Since I retired recently I have begun cooking from scratch again, including baking! The difference in taste and flavour is amazing. Also, I do not get indigestion with home made food.

I bake cakes using organic eggs and proper butter, all done by hand as I have no mixer. I use fresh lemons in my lemon drizzle cake and it is delicious - tons better than shop bought.

SkyBlue_2

"There are many things that conflict with this - time being the major factor. Time I spend cooking is time I'm not spending playing with the children, doing something else I like to do or spending time with DH, or other friends. I don't know if it's a symptom of our age - there always seems to be soooo much to do. Probably more so than the 1950's counterparts O/S'ers get compared to. I think that the problem today is that there is this inherent sexism in society that yes, women can work, but they have to remember that first and foremost they are mothers/wives/housekeepers."



Well said DaysieBlue - and this was the point I was trying to make about OS versus the (usually horrible) ready meal.

Sorry if I offended you Queenie, but I feel it's imperative that our families (especially our husbands and sons) DO appreciate the TIME women spend ensuring they have good home-cooked meals.

This is in no way intended to be a sexist comment, nor is it a put down to women preparing delicious and healthy meals for their families. No way! My point is that we must remember that our time is valuable and that we weren't put on this earth just to make life easier and more comfortable for our families.

Cooking OS does involve time and effort....chucking a ready meal into the microwave doesn't. I suspect many enjoy cooking - I do - so we just get on with it, forgetting we are in the kitchen whilst others are doing...well...usually...what they want to do.

I am humbled when I read about the efforts of many women here who do all I described before. They might go out to work, run a home, raise children, remain loyal wives and see to the welfare of elderly parents. I did all that too (as a single, divorced mother) until my lovely old Mum died six years ago, and in recent years my children became a little more independent.

Being a wife and mother is a constant juggling act. All I am saying is, yes, let's make these lovely meals, but let's not forget that our time and efforts are important too.

I think one of the most useful contributions we can make is to teach our children well (cue Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song...) and ensure our sons especially (although this includes our daughters too) appreciate our efforts, and know by the time they leave home how to cook (old style) sew, iron and understand household finances.

Many here get satisfaction from serving up good food, but they don't always get the privilege of sitting down afterwards and letting others take care of the house and all the household chores...or someone taking over when the next meal is due.

So, in the debate concerning OS food versus the ready meal, I'd say overall OS is time consuming, but the effort is worth it...and we should not blithely discount the time it takes to buy good foods (at bargain prices if we can) prepare it, cook it, freeze some of it, and dish it up, because that is "what mums and wives do...."

Well done all of us....(and the many men who shoulder the kitchen burden too) We are wonderful....:A

I for one don't want my cooking efforts to be seen merely as 'women's work.'

Our time is valuable too. :money:

competitionscafe

Dragonmist wrote: »

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 was a shop local feature on Windsor where Rose Prince suggests a few places, although she does say that "In terms of food shopping, Windsor is virtually dead. There are a few decent shops in the town centre, but otherwise it appears to have fallen victim to the same disease as other market towns in the south-east, where local residents have glibly abandoned their high street for the superstore."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml?xml=/wine/2007/03/03/edshoplocal103.xml

joan_brennan

just to add my penny worth here. i always make sure i have three meals planned.e.g. when mince meat is reduced in price i buy about a pound (in weight) I make bolognaise (with spag) for the first meal and store the left over bol in a container in the fridge. 2nd meal i make boiled gammon joint and serve it with leeks and ( i make loads of) cheese sauce and store the leftover sauce in a container in the fridge. Voila day 3 is lasagne made from the two leftover dishes.

moanymoany

I agree with what you say Skyblue. My DH has never liked cooking - tho he does it if he has to - so we have a trade, he did the ironing. The rest of the housework was shared. The effort of putting three meals a day on the table for a family was a burden for me and I always went for the quick dish option. We had ready meals or takeaways as a treat from time to time, but for four of us it was an expensive treat.

We know that the woman either has the burden, or feels the burden, of the house and family on her. However, it doesn't change the fact that to buy decent RM's costs a fortune and the cheap ones have little food value and are full of chemicals.

gerretl

Heres an idea.
On the tins/ jars/ packets of sauce in the supermarket you see the ingredients. If you knock out the stabiliasers, emulisfiers, and all that nonsense, you willl have the ingredients of the basic sauce. Try making a sauce from just the top five items on the ingredients list, and it is healthier, cheaper, and probably quicker too.

sluggy1967

Had to laugh at something my neighbour said to me yesterday - I said we'd had fish fingers for lunch & she pulled an absolutely disgusted face as if I had just said "I fed my 4 yr old rat poison for lunch", she went on & on about cooking from scratch & said with a shudder "I wouldn't feed MY CHILD fish fingers". The said child was standing there with a packet of sweets with God knows what in them in terms of E numbers!!!! I just smiled. Everything in moderation.

SkyBlue_2

Sluggy - that made me smile!

What is wrong with the good old fish finger? I always buy the cod fillet ones, on special offer if possible or BOGOF.....and my teenage sons often have them grilled between two slices of wholemeal bread as a late night snack.

The were a staple for me when the children were young - served with mashed potato and beans or peas....Although they ate other foods, they did not like fish...I tried fish pies, homemade fish cakes....but they preferred fish fingers.

One thing my children did not have was sweets. To me, they were just sugar, colourings and chemicals! I still look aghast when I see mothers handing toddlers in buggies packets of Haribo! :eek:

That's tantamount to neglect in my book!


My sons were baby diabetics....so sweets were out, but their older sister hadn't had them any way (She was OK with apple slices, orange segments, raisins and a cereal bar occasionally.) Oh now as young adults they do have sweet teeth....but they do like good wholesome food too....and they can make the distinction between good food and rubbish! They eat junk outside home....my son loves Subway sandwiches, and now he earns his own money he'll buy McDonalds, but when they get the late-night munchies (as all young people seem to do!) they aren't likely to whip up a nourishing home-cooked gourmet meal - so the fish-fingers come in handy! :rolleyes:

I wonder what your sweet-pushing mother had fed her little one for dinner?

I was definitely old-style when mine were young...as far as in between meals snacks were concerned. Mine would eat mashed banana sandwiches (I used wholemeal bread from the outset so they never wanted white) toast and peanut butter, carrot sticks, dried fruit and cheese sticks, as well as sliced fruit and grapes.

It would have been much quicker to have handed them a packet of crisps or sweets, but I didn't. I couldn't....I just couldn't, and not only because my toddlers were diabetic, but because of all the E numbers and chemical-sounding ingredients on the packet. Ugh! :eek: