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M&S 'posh cheesy beans on toast' - waste of money or worth a try?
MSE_Laura_F
Community Admin 1.2K Posts
The MSE Social team spotted that M&S is selling 'posh cheesy beans on toast' for £5.75 as part of its new party food range.
Given you can buy a loaf of bread, tin of baked beans and block of cheese for less than £5.75, the Social team isn't convinced. When they posted about it on Facebook, many people agreed, while some pointed out that you're paying for the extra effort. Others pointed out that they'd still be hungry even if they ate the lot themselves.
What do you think? Worth it for a treat, or pointless when you could recreate it for less?
Given you can buy a loaf of bread, tin of baked beans and block of cheese for less than £5.75, the Social team isn't convinced. When they posted about it on Facebook, many people agreed, while some pointed out that you're paying for the extra effort. Others pointed out that they'd still be hungry even if they ate the lot themselves.
What do you think? Worth it for a treat, or pointless when you could recreate it for less?
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Prepared finger food is never going to be "value for money" and whilst I personally probably wouldnt buy them they are at least amusing as an idea for canapes and great press bait.
One minor thing in their favour is that each brioche slice has crusts on all four sides which firstly help with the look but would imagine helps with the structural integrity given they are too big for down in one. Having "cut edges" on 2-4 edges of a home made equiv wouldnt look as good but we only partially eat with our eyes.
May be I'm under estimating how good they are but in principle it feels like they could have done a bit more with a cheese blend or such.
If you want to take it the whole way though, why are you comparing it to buying a loaf of brioche bread? It's cheaper to make your own bread
I'm personally hoping this becomes a massive trend, purely for the inevitable headlines saying that Zoomers can't buy homes because they spend too much on mini cheesy beans on toast. The eldest ones are early 20's, it's only a matter of time.
But no, I wouldn't pay £5.75 for a pack. If it works out a lot cheaper in the party food deal I might buy it. Or if I see it reduced to half price or cheaper in M&S I'd definitely get it.
So much to read, so little time.
Most recipes I've seen suggest 4 eggs + 1 yoke for a bread to be made in a 900g loaf tin. I'd certainly concede the loaf wont be 900g when baked but without doubt will be more than 400g given it typically has 450g-500g of flour plus the fat and other wet ingredients.
Clearly there are budget loafs out there but they arent as enriched etc and so you should equally make a poorer quality loaf using less of the more expensive ingredients and cut your price too.
I'm certainly not suggesting there is a vast saving to make but it was more to illustrate a point that its slightly odd to say its expensive to buy something ready made when you can make it yourself from other ready made components when most of those components can be made cheaper themselves... I am assuming we are attempting to make something of comparable quality to the item we are criticising the price of.
I've found there's a fair few 'anomalies' where making it at home just isn't cheaper - quiches, pastry itself, baked beans... And was just pointing out that it's a common misconception that making 'it' at home always saves money.
In the case of this entire product in this size? Yes, cheaper to make it at home - but you'd better have a use for most of a block of posh cheese, half a tin of beans and most of a brioche loaf. Same for using 1.5 eggs, 2/3rds of a bag of flour, 50g of butter etc if you're baking! Either way you're spending a fiver (or more for baking) on ingredients, and while a Warburton-own brand cheese and beans version could be had for less making THIS product for drastically less at home once again isn't really possible - unless you're counting two slices of brioche as your costs, even though you don't really want or need the rest of the loaf. I'm all about food waste being minimal and half an egg costs the same as an egg if you throw the white down the sink after it's sat in your fridge for two days.
Personally, making at home tends to be more aimed at "value" than "price", sure if I go to the cash & carry and bulk buy I can make most things for at least a comparable costs of all but the most budget offerings by using some of the same corner cutting they do to lower cost/quality.
Problem is that people often don't compare like for like, so they compare the cost of making at home a 100% "meat" sausage thats from prime cuts -v- a budget supermarket offering thats less than 50% "meat" and what meat there is certainly isnt prime cut. Or a pie full of steak with one with 10% of offcuts of steak
I tend not to aim at that level of output though and if your aiming at "finest" (or equiv) then its much easier to undercut prices without bulk buying. That said, unless I'm doing a special pastry then little point in trying to make your own filo etc but from an effort rather than price perspective.
PS. 1/2 eggs (aka whites or yokes) never go to waste in our home, meringues or mayonnaise are rarely not appreciated depending on which you have spare and plenty other options too
There's a reason I did Maths and not English