These are good for when you do not have enough time to make your own home-made icing. For me, I don't find them all that cheap nowadays as they have gotten a little bit more expensive. However, I am a fan of these for when I can't be bothered to whip up a batch of icing from scratch. The icing is pretty easy to work with, and you can microwave it for a few seconds if you would like a looser icing. On the plus side, you can find this icing in pretty much any grocery store.