Originally Posted by Binky Winky:
“You could easily do his/her jalfrezi suace for under a quid. Probably less than 50p. The spices probably total 6p if that. And I'm going on that no one in their right mind would buy spice from a supermarket as they are ridiculously expensive
I've just bought a 5kg bag of onions for £1.30 and tomatoes around 60p for 6 at the moment”
But these things only work out that cheap because you're going to use them.

I know I don't have tumeric or cumin in, I don't have lemon juice either. Someone who's trying something for the first time ever or who hasn't cooked for a long time probably hasn't got all of them so may well not ever use them again or may only use them a few times, meaning the rest would be wasted. That especially applies if the person is just cooking for one person, which these "meals for one" particularly appeal to - unless you're going to cook a lot or love onions, 5kg of onions isn't going to get used up any time soon. You can go into a shop or market & buy smaller quantities like one onion or two tomatoes, but I'd like to be there to see you ask anyone to sell you 1 teaspoon of cumin or coriander seeds.
Given the choice between home cooking & the shop-bought stuff, I'd far prefer to try cooking the jalfrezi myself. Although I haven't got some of the seasonings needed, I'd buy them because I love to cook & my OH loves to eat.

But I'd be feeding both of us, plus we have a big fridge-freezer so we've got enough room for freezing left-overs if we were having it with meat. I can well believe that the person who doesn't do much cooking normally, only has a small fridge or is only cooking for themselves wouldn't bother because the initial outlay isn't going to be 50p or even £1, it's going to be quite a bit more. The £1.30 for onions wouldn't be an issue for me because I'd find a way to use them up, but that's already 30p more than the Asda ready dish (a complete dish) without the cost of anything else added on - you're not likely to have the onions on their own.