It is a Sunday mid-morning and at two supermarkets along the upper section of Red Hills Road are doing very close to a roaring trade. But while the usual high demand supermarket items, from bread to cereal and juices to spices are moving briskly, at both places there is a clump of persons close to the entrance, and it is not at the cashiers.

It is where plastic wrap covers brown, warm, cooked chicken, which are going like the proverbial hot bread.

Easy on the finances

And there is a reason. Not just a 'take it easy on a Sunday morning' reason, but a financial one.

"It is cheaper than to buy a chicken and cook it," states Sharna, one lady with whom STARCENTS spoke to. "A whole rotisserie chicken is under $500. Even if you are going to buy two halves, because you want two different flavours, it is about $520. Look around there at the raw chicken. A decent sized one is at least $480 and you don't know how much ice is in it. Plus there is the seasoning, plus there is gas or electricity to cook it, plus there is the time that you use."

"Give me the chicken every time. It is a pity they can't have fish too," she laughed.

It is not only with chicken that the store bought beats out the food prepared at home where cost is concerned. Dwight, who is on a low-sugar intake diet, still prefers to buy a jug of juice at the supermarket rather than head to the market, buy dozens of oranges and squeeze them himself.

"A gallon of orange juice, which you can get sugar free, of course, is around $400, depending on where you buy it. A dozen oranges at Coronation is from $50 to $70, depending on the size. To make a gallon of juice you are going to need at least eight-dozen oranges, depending on the size. Some people say six, but believe me, I have tried. Do the math and you will see what happens," Dwight said.

Then there is the matter of going to the market for the oranges and the sheer physical labour required to do the squeezing.

"It is not an easy thing to do" Dwight said. "I have tried it and believe me when I say it isn't. I believe in eating healthy, but I also believe in being practical and when convenience and price come together, you can't beat it."

... but ingredients make the cost difference

While there are those who will go for the store bought food items, rather then make their own from nearly scratch, there are still those who are willing to stand the cost difference and do the hard work at home.

For Mark, who is one such, at least, most of the time, it comes down to a simple word. Ingredients.

"If you look at it practically, you can buy broad beans in the market and prepare them yourself. You can make ice cream at home. You can even make bread at home," he said. "We are not going to do most of these things, because there is the matter of time and all that, so we just go the buying route."

"But is not everytime the convenience is worth it in the long run," he said. "When you cook you know what is in there."

He is also a healthy sceptic, so the 'sugar free' labels on some juices do not impress Mark. He also finds MSG a headache, literally.

"You have a thing called MSG, when I eat food with that powder on it is instant headache," he said. "Plus a lot of the prepared food comes with too much salt."

"Some things I will go with, but not even the broad beans in the tin I will work with. Too much sodium is in the can. The pressure cooker will do the work for me," Mark said.