AIBU a generation that can’t be bothered.

At the start of lockdown I helped in a foodbank. I was amazed at one woman who came in and gave me back potatoes because she didn't "know how to cook them".
There was also one mother who had never tasted mango - but when we gave her one, her son and her both loved it and always asked if we had any. Quite a few people cooked from scratch though.
There were a few who had never seen a coconut too. It was the perfect time for people to try things like that. However, I was amazed at the things people 'wanted' - tinned meat, tinned meatballs, spam, ready made dinners.
In the end we commissioned a hotel (who were struggling) to prepare fully cooked dinners so people were other only a microwave could have something fresh. Once they had been it was a scramble for everyone else!
The people with only a microwave were the homeless in temporary accommodation.

Basically shopping and cooking on top of a busy life working is a nightmare for a modern mother trying to make ends meet. Slow cookers and microwaves help with time allocation but sometimes prepared food may be necessary to get food to the table on time.

I agree with comments on domestic science. My mother was a GP and put all her dishes in the Rayburn cooker - today I use the slow cooker. And she had domestic help.

I learned to light the gas at my grammar school in domestic science and apalled the domestic scince teacher by putting one tablespoon of raising powder in the buns to be cooked because being dyslexic I had read this instead of teaspoon - tps. I failed the domestic science exam because I did not know what you put in the stew!!

My son's wife is an excellent cook and so are my grand children. As someone said food technology, which replaces domestic science is useless for practical every day cookery.

Look... this woman is on a budget but she buys ready-made lasagna and chips: www.mirror.co.uk/money/savings-banks/thrifty-mum-shares-how-feeds-26126721?int_source=mantis_rec&int_medium=web&int_campaign=more_like_this

Whether we cook from scratch or not, choose to fill our trolleys with bottles of gin, or crochet our grandchildren’s lunchboxes, this remains a highly judgmental thread.
I can remember hearing criticism of people in council house with “big” cars, inevitably we are tempted to criticise what we regard as profligate spending, but twas ever thus.
Convenience food, junk food, takeaways, expensive Pret sandwiches - who are we to accuse a “generation” of being lazy because of the contents of one shopping trolley.
Like the “dreadful” newspaper in question, this thread is based on a value judgement which we have no right to make.
I know of more than one superb cook who has ordered their entire Christmas from Cook! or Côte at home. Good luck to them - wish I’d thought of it.

oh PS yes YABU.

I was given 12 percent in my cooking score on my report card as I often didn'thave the full amount of ingredients despite bringing all I could and had to stand aside and watch the class cook from the door in disgrace. I didn't need the school to teach me to cook as I loved it then and love it still and I listened and watched intently from the door just waiting for the day I could do it myself. The odd thing my cupboards are pretty empty, I cant bring myself to have a lot of ingredients for some inexplicable reason I find I cook better with less choice.

I was about to say that.
Some of the most inventive cooks I know are people without much money or ingredients.
It makes for more incentive dishes.

MayBeMaw you took the words right out of my mouth! What a load of judgemental and condescending people there are on this thread!
I consider myself a good cook, and baker, but I live on my own and there are days when I can't be bothered to make a meal for one.
I regularly use boil in the bag rice (saves on the washing-up!) and will occasionally treat myself to a takeaway or ready meal (I can recommend Charlie Bingham if you can afford them).

Only got microwave? I do my fresh veg in microwave steamer ,rice too .it's time for domestic science to be reintroduced to national curriculum!!! They know NOTHING about bacteria, cleanliness, the science of cooking, how to prep cheap nutritional meals on a budget. How to create dishes from very little ingredients.or how to keep home cleans safe by using simple methods of wiping and using salt/vinegar/lemon juice in the last resort if they don't want to "kill" the planet but also don't want a sh*TTY loo/greasy blocked drains/ filthy windows/ stale smelly sweat stained clothes? My experience is that younger gens can incredibly dirty and lazy!!! My younger DS and partner being the dirtiest pair I know! NOT how he was brought up but she rules the roost, he hates filth but she's boss! Heartbreaking

Maggiemaybe

Somebody upthread mentioned making stock from bones. I’d need persuading that this is a good thing. I’m eternally grateful that DH cooks for me from scratch but I’m so glad I persuaded him to throw the chicken carcasses away, no matter what the TV chefs say. A stock cube’s tastier, a lot more economical and easier on the nerves than hours of gas and streams of condensation running down the kitchen walls.

Maybe it's just me, but I much prefer to make my own stock, especially for soup, and I can guarantee it will taste much better than if made from a stock cube. 'Real' stock just seems to give more body to it. I do keep a stash of the stock pots in various flavours for emergencies, but my whole family loves my soup and can definitely tell when it's not been made from 'proper' stock.

Alioop

My friend's daughter is always asking them for money before the end of the month when her & her husband's wages go in the bank, from their well paid jobs, as they are down to their last pennies. This is a young woman who feeds her kids McDs, Subways, Kentucky's, etc for dinner and sometimes they need two meals each to fill them. The kids now kick up a stink if they don't get their takeaways after school. Now that money would be better spent filling a trolley to me, she works from home so could easily stick a chicken and potatoes in her oven. Ready made veg, rice, etc would be far healthier than a McDonald's.

This isn't a "poor" family you are talking about, this is a well off family both in work with good jobs who have let their children think junk food is the norm.
Some people cannot afford a large bag of an ingredient that would save them money they would have to go without something else for a few weeks until they could afford it.'
Their mother is also breaking their confidence by telling you what the parents do'.
I had to have help from my parents when first married, we had no car so my shopping was what I could carry or both if together from the local shops that were a lot more expensive. I could not budget until we had a car and I could drive then I bought larger quantities at the supermarket.

I don't remember learning any of those things in domestic science.
The whole lesson was taken up by making a Victoria sponge or bread.

Yes you are being unreasonable. Stick to your own trolley and stop nosing into others.

The problem is multi-dimensional. Education doesn't allow for children to be taught to cook in schools. This should be part of the primary school curriculum so that they grow up learning the value of cooking for themselves in tandem with a full domestic science/home economics approach that includes nutrition and budgeting. Teenagers should be able to take proper care of their health when they leave home to go to university if they do that. The next dimension is what we allow to go on shelves in the shops. Capitalism unfortunately will produce whatever it thinks will sell and as long as we allow rubbish to appear in supermarkets, it will be bought. I don't buy into the argument that people working full-time and looking after children might not have time to cook, or that families might not possess the basic food prep utensils. Families that are so poor are not frequenting supermarkets but instead visit foodbanks and very much of what's available in foodbanks requires pans and an energy source to heat/cook. It's time we had a re-think about the school curriculum to focus on healthy living and worthwhile qualifications instead of some of the more recent introductions - I'm sure I'll see a university degree in designing video games before long and a push down into schools to do more IT which only gives children ideas that they will get jobs that don't exist. If they are taught to cook properly, our children will be more creative and realistic in their aspirations and frozen mash will disappear off the supermarket shelves.

Frozen mash is far more economical for me.
That is literally all it contains, mash which is frozen.
Better than throwing away a big bag of spoilt potatoes.

I cook most of my meals from scratch but I’m not ashamed to admit to using rice pouches. To those saying rice is easy to cook, in 50 years I have never managed to master it so I use the pouches to go with my home cooked curries. I also buy prepared garden and Mediterranean salad cartons - cheaper in the long run as I am on my own and buying the separate ingredients means much of it goes off before I can eat it.

Nothing seems to have changed. My friend and I used to share car transport to the 'new 'supermarket in an old cotton mill in the next town We queued up behind a woman who complained about hardly being able to afford her 1/2 full shopping trolley. It consisted of convenience food like fish fingers, packets of crisps and biscuits . Our full trolleys came to the same amount for non convenience foods as we both cooked from scratch. We were both studying full time.

I cook from scratch always have done. But do find it difficult when I’m working late and trying to get in and cook something edible for hubby and myself. Luckily pasta spag Bol and lasagne are always on the menu and I can knock them up quickly. Do sympathise with hard working mums with families though. Time the hardest thing of all.

vegansrock

I bet some of you in the 70s/ 80s ate Findus crispy pancakes, Vesta curries, Birds Eye pies, Angel Delight etc It wasn’t all cooking from scratch in the past

Our 50 year old foodie son grew up on Findus crispy pancakes. It was soooo embarrassing having to buy them. He tried one recently and couldn't believe what he ate back then.

MissA we once spent a double DS lesson learning how to wash and iron a handkerchief. At least you had something you could eat at the end of yours.

Well, I wouldn't say it was edible.
We had a sort of flat with an ironing board and washer in it.
Only the good people were allowed into it, though.

You bet we ate Findus Crispy pancakes, but only the cheese ones. Vesta curries featured as a student cooking supper on one gas ring when I was too late for formal dining, no to Birds Eye pies, but yes to Angel Delight - and Instant whip.

I used to like fish fingers, but we were away over this previous weekend and having to do a lot of meals out and for lunch on one day I decided to try a fish finger sandwich. Lovely looking fish fingers, nice roll, but, overall, I found it tasteless and boring, as I have fish fingers bought and eaten at home. Have they changed in any way over the last few decades?

I volunteered for a charity that supported families with a child under 5, for 10 years and boy did I learn a lot. What might seem obvious to some can be turned on its head when you walk in someone else's shoes for awhile. Paying over the odds for electricity on a meter, the fact that Iceland can sell a family sized lasagne for less than the ingredients cost and you're trying to fill growing kids. The charity did run very popular cooking & nutrition courses. Food banks now are helping a lot too. It's hard but worth trying not to judge

We had similar. A sort of pretend mini kitchen. I once switched the Mixer on to clear off the cake mix and it surprised me by spraying everywhere. Took ages to clean off the walls. Oh the fun we had. Hmm!
I wasn’t much of a cook or needlewoman then, and nothing has changed.

Sago

*OP Here* I am coming under a lot of criticism, being told to volunteer in food banks etc.
The post is not about how people spend their money or cook.
The point I am making is that a journalist tried to shop and cater for a family of 4 for £60.

I’m sure if we were set that challenge we would have the common sense not to buy things such as ready grated cheese, prepared and cooked veg etc.

The till receipt was in my opinion an insult to families that are struggling.

You're back-pedalling now following criticism.

The thread title is AIBU a generation that can’t be bothered and then went on to say

This till receipt showed she had purchased, ready mashed potato and carrot and swede there was also grated cheese, microwave rice pouches

Too lazy to peel, grate and mash.

The thread premise wasn't about budgeting or struggling families - you were taking aim at those who for whatever reason take short cuts when cooking.