AIBU a generation that can’t be bothered.

Maybe not lazy just uninformed. Have you considered that so many just don't know how to cook from scratch. You could always volunteer to show people how to cook cheap nutritious meals.

I remember a programme about food and budgeting that was on tv, years ago. There was a woman who was complaining about not having enough to live on. They had set out on a table her typical weekly shop, which mainly consisted of white bread, biscuits, crisps, fish fingers, frozen chips etc. No veg, and little fruit. After discussing her budget they showed another table. This had lots of tasty, healthy and easy to prepare meals, easily cooked from scratch and costing the same amount. The woman looked at the offerings disdainfully and remarked, "My kids wouldn't eat that muck." I don't think that it had been 'staged.' Sadly, many children are growing up without learning how to cook and enjoy a healthy meal. As for working mothers not having the time...... many of them seem to have lots of time to stare at their phones and watch tv. I'm not being judgemental. Just speaking from experience of people I know.
I brought up 5 children on one fairly low wage, and often wondered how I could eke out my budget until next payday. My favourite memory is of asking the fish man for some free scraps 'for the cat.' We didn't have a cat, but they made delicious, and almost free fish cakes ?
If people are willing to learn there are lots of quick, easy and cheap recipes available, especially if you have a slow cooker.

I would add that my Mother had little interest in cooking, she
worked full time and thank goodness we had school lunches
as 'tea time ' the choice was normally Beans on toast or Boiled Egg and toast.
My sister and I both taught ourselves when we had a family to provide for

Amalegra, well said!

It is easy to be critical but sometimes people haven't the knowledge or means to cook from scratch. It is easy for my generation to criticize but I had the benefit of a mother who showed me how to cook vegetables of different kinds, the timings, how to peel, how much water. I even put carrots and peas in the boiling potato water to save fuel and time. Preparing and cooking for days at a time, a meal always seem to taste better the next day. I think the gransnetter who said maybe they haven't the means, (appropriate sized saucepans, cooking hobs, etc.,) hit the nail on the head. Also the Netter who said the story as reported had a "better" spin. Look at all the comments it has generated here.

There are a number of reasons why ready prepared might be chosen:
both parents at work, little time for preparation
lack of cooking facilities
lack of cooking utensils
In an ideal world we'd all like to be superwomen (and supermen) and cook everything from scratch, producing nutritious appetising meals, even after a day's work, but life isn't like that.

Sometimes I just can't believe what some people write. Obviously it depends on your circumstances, but it is totally obvious that it is cheaper to make your own if you are feeding a big family. Single older people may well find a ready meal cheaper and more convenient. But totally agree that those on low incomes should be more sensible and buy cheaper alternatives rather than turning to food banks. Also a great point that is is the younger ones who need to take more care of the environment, but most only pay lip service to that concept. Very few willing to actually do without cars, disposable nappies, or to reduce plastic waste etc.

Whenever there are subjects like this up for discussions the extreme examples seem to take over from the middle ground.
Alot of time, in the middle ground , is given over to leisure
pleasure now, more I feel than when I was in my middle years.
I too worked and brought up 4 children and cooked every day.
What I didn't have was a smart phone or social media. As I
commented before, they take up many a half hour scrolling
and I know , I have 4 adult children who moan at me for
moaning at them about their telephones.
It is possible to teach yourself to cook so stop the blaming of the upbringing.

The key here is surely in the words ‘our dreadful local paper’! Why do people believe a word these hack journalists say or agree with the point they are trying to make? I doubt that this is a typical shop for everybody, young or old! Are they trying to prove that families are feckless and do not deserve help from our (very feckless!) government? What is the agenda here! There are various Facebook forums that I read that are full of tips (heartbreaking some of them) from young families on the edge and sharing sensible tips for economising, cooking cheaply from scratch etc. Some, I’ve never heard of and I myself was brought up poor. I suggest these silly and rather iniquitous articles are taken with a very large pinch of salt so as to completely fail in their shameful purpose which is to stir up division and self righteous self congratulation among the haves versus the have nots. The ‘deserving poor’ is a Victorian concept and should be consigned to the past. We would all do well to reflect on our privileges and lend a helping hand where needed instead of giving any credence to this irresponsible and frankly unprofessional journalism. We get enough of that in the tabloids, surely!

Coastpath

This was only one woman shopping on one day. Also she was sent to the shops by a paper who obviously wanted to spin some sort of story.

A headline saying "Lady goes to shops, buys ecologically sound products to make healthy, balanced meals and comes in under budget" isn't going to sell many papers.

I normally buy healthy food and cook from scratch, but sometimes, when I'm busy and tired I buy a basket of food that consists of a ready meal, a bagged salad, two pre-made puddings, a bottle of wine and a bar of chocolate. On that day the headline would be "Pensioner's don't need triple lock pension as they binge on booze and junk food".

Absolutely agree. Sago makes fair points in principle but let us not be too judgemental of others. I’m sure it was not Sago’s intention but these sort of judgements can easily slip into suggesting that if people are struggling on little money it is their own fault.

When I shop in one of the cheaper supermarkets - I'm appalled at the contents of most people's baskets .

Sometimes their children look really pale and unhealthy .
And they seem to be exasperated and irritable with them .

But I don't know how they live at home .
Things might be very rough .

As for my own shopping - there are lots of healthy items like salad, fruit and vegetables and a lot of very unhealthy items :
crisps , chocolate,cakes and biscuits and ready meals .

My father will demand his food immediately and throw the most appalling tempers if he doesn't get his snacks .

I tried very hard to cook every meal from scratch and kept to healthy options .
He did not eat them .
Once he became angry - it was almost impossible to deal with him .
I'm tired of well meaning health professionals lecturing me of how to feed him .
One nurse ,who made me wait over four hours for the Royal (!) visit clicked and wagged her finger at me about his consumption of grapes .
I thought ,you try it mate !

So baked potatoes might be better option than instant but maybe she was trying to feed a toddler quickly and cheaply .

My Waitrose days are over unless we have a party otherwise it's the best that I can do.

We used to call mangetout mangituts in our family and I heard a Boden clad four wheel drive owner (saw her car ) yummy mummy say ,
Fancy allowing common people like that in here !

And later had a go at me for buying more plastic bags .
I told her ,I use them to wrap my father's nappies in as he is incontinent of urine and sometimes faeces .
Judging by her vehicle her carbon footprint looked greater than mine !

Don't be judgemental .
You really don't know just how difficult it can be for other people .

I just had to salvage what was left of a big bag of potatoes yesterday, and throw the rest, as they were green and sprouting, so that wasn't as much of a bargain as I thought it would be.

My niece, in her 40s with 4dc, makes everything from scratch. She made bone broth last week, stage by stage, boiling and baking. It must have taken half a day. And my daughter in law is the same. I often use ready meals but they dont

I think we should be careful about 'cook shaming'. Circumstances vary a lot from house to house - some are money poor, some are time poor, tastes vary, not everyone is focused on food, and so on. And 'let the poor eat potatoes' isn't necessarily good advice.

I think the pre-cooked, microwaveable rice is brilliant and it compares very well price-wise to uncooked rice. It's really hard to know what others are going through, and we shouldn't be to quick to judge.

Sago I suggest that you go and spend sometime volunteering in a food bank. It never crossed my mind that someone wouldn't have a cooker and a microwave leave alone neither of them. Now of course even if they have one the cost of fuel would be prohibitive for some people. I've also met people who were never shown how to cook by their parents. I always come away humbled that people are even managing to survive. I consider myself extremely fortunate not to have to worry about such things. The saying "Walk a mile in someone's shoes" before you judge them, comes to mind.

I am sure that there are some people who as you say can't be bothered but there are plenty of people out there struggling to make ends meet. I was appalled when I discovered that areas of deprivation existed in a SE town which would be deemed to be rich.

When you are struggling to look after with someone with Dementia, juggling jobs and children, or just find preparing food painful, it seems to me that these purchases are reasonable adjustments.
Young people are nearly always given harsh judgement by older people who assume that they did everything better. It strikes me as very arrogant to consider a whole generation as being idle based on one shopping list.
Incidentally, grated cheese is often the same price in Tesco's if you compare the price per kilogram. I don't buy it because it has an additive to keep the strands separated but I certainly wouldn't judge anybody for their choice!

I personally can’t understand why anyone would consider buying pre-prepared foods. How easy is it to cook and mash potatoes, and carrots and swede are so cheap. I’d like to see a comparison between the price of these processed foods and doing it yourself, I bet it’s staggering. I’m a cook from scratch person and it’s so much more satisfying let alone cheaper and probably healthier too. I worked full time as a single (windowed) mum and still cooked everything myself. I couldn’t afford to buy convenience foods even if I’d wanted to. I remember my step son asking me one why I was taking the rice pudding out of the oven, I explained how I cooked rice pudding and he said ‘ oh I only thought it came in a tin ‘!!! I couldn’t stop laughing.

I used to use the rice pouches until I read something on Gransnet years ago which put me off!

I taught both my sons to cook and clean because I didn’t want them to expect wife’s etc to do everything just a shame my daughter inlaws parents didn’t bother. Lol, but they also buy frozen for simply fact all at work and have long travels not all sit at home every day. I also buy ready made vegetables etc for the simple fact I’m disabled. And I used to be a chef. Frozen are mostly cheaper than fresh and that’s what you get in most cafés restaurants nowadays. So don’t knock ppl until you have walked in there shoes

I often use rice pouches unless I’m making risotto. The original cost of the rice is greater but, 1 pack does 2 of us and takes 2 minutes in the microwave. If I cook from scratch, the cost of the gas I use to heat the water and cook the rice is greater. I do buy fresh veg but cook them in the microwave. Again it’s 3-4 minutes in the microwave steamer, with no gas wasted on boiling water and waiting for the veg to cook. I’m even more conscious of saving money on gas at the moment, but I’ve steamed veg in the microwave for ages.

There is,pretty good evidence that frozen veg has more nutritional value than stuff that's been on a supermarket shelf, and that canned may be even better, since freshly harvested veg is cooked within the can.
So, cheaper and better, often to buy canned.
I don't have a lot of storage, or a big freezer.

SueDonim- good post !

Being able to cook and wanting to cook are two completely different things though. People who want to cook but can’t now have access to any number of online tutorials, from boiling an egg to making a croque en bouche.
It’s too easy to criticise the younger generations, but I guess it’s what grans have done since time immemorial.

Until a couple of years ago I had always cooked everything from scratch but being in great pain when standing I do rely on frozen ready chopped onion, mashed potato and stew pack and vegetables etc. Actually the vitamins are retained in stead of the ‘fresh’ which have been lying on the supermarket shelves. If I buy a head of broccoli for instance half is wasted because I cannot eat it all.
I did try a ready meal once but never again.