I've always wondered how the assertion that a family eating takeaways is somehow cheaper than eating regular food, can be true? My Mum was a single parent on benefits and she could hardly ever afford fish and chips for us. It was boiled potatoes, frozen peas and fish-fingers, or boiled potatoes, frozen broad beans and sausages, or boiled potatoes, peas and mince & gravy (not a lot of variety, but then she wasn't really 'into' cooking).

Cultural habits I can certainly buy, because it doesn't take long for simple skills like cooking to be lost if you don't learn them at home. My Mum didn't teach me to cook anything because she preferred to get on with things herself (it was quicker) and I remember lots of textbooks in 'Home Economics', so I guess basic cooking skills could have bypassed me. I wonder if my Nan hadn't taught me to bake cakes as a kid, if I'd have been confident enough to teach myself to cook in my teens.