Sainsburys and Jamie Olivers Feed your Family for £5 Chat Thread

Matt_S_3 · 28 March 2008 at 4:25PM

I think the idea is a good starting point, but agree that my first thought was £5? Thats a pricey bill when you add in other meals.

One comment I do have a lot of the recipes people have putting in have things like value spaghetti listed. We spend about £150 a month on food for 2 definitely not more than £200 BUT that is all local veg and meat from local shops none from supermarkets and all other products are higher quality ranges. The key is cook from scratch.....which is the aim of the campaign....which should help people avoid nasty cheap meat and veg both improving health and using less carbon

cupid_s · 28 March 2008 at 5:12PM

I think £35 for main meals isn't too much at all - yes it's a lot more than I spend but it's also a lot less than what some of my friends spend.

I'm sure most people here could educate the public better and suggest cheaper meals, but we don't have that opportunity. Supermarkets do and I think it's great that Sainsbury's is trying to do something to get more people cooking

HariboJunkie · 28 March 2008 at 5:22PM

Matt_S wrote: »

I think the idea is a good starting point, but agree that my first thought was £5? Thats a pricey bill when you add in other meals.

One comment I do have a lot of the recipes people have putting in have things like value spaghetti listed. We spend about £150 a month on food for 2 definitely not more than £200 BUT that is all local veg and meat from local shops none from supermarkets and all other products are higher quality ranges. The key is cook from scratch.....which is the aim of the campaign....which should help people avoid nasty cheap meat and veg both improving health and using less carbon

While I agree with you about cooking from scratch, I don't see the problem with using things like value spaghetti. Believe me I used to be very snobbish about value products but I have tried and tested alot of them and now know which I am happy with and which I am not. I included value bacon in my recipe as I really cannot tell the difference between that and my butcher's own.
You also have to remember that a number of people will not have access to local shops as so many are closing down. We no longer have a green grocer in our town. The bacon is the only cheap meat I buy and I wouldn't call it nasty. In order to afford meat from my butcher and to pay a bit extra for free range chicken I just cook less meat.

My recipe was trying to show that 3 courses could be done for £5 if I used those meals but I would say that most of my main courses come in under the £3 mark. This is an average though because I cook a chicken once a week and it usually does 1 roast meal, 1 rissotto/fried rice and makes stock for soup which we have with sandwiches in front of the telly on a Friday night.

It isn't main meals which take the bulk if my shopping budget every week but fruit for the children and fresh veg.

moo2moo · 28 March 2008 at 6:00PM

Whinging? Not quite what I had in mind with the initial post. I was expecting more of the "If I was blowing £5 on a meal I'd go for...." which for my daughters would be fresh mussels in white wine with loads of fresh crusty bread and in my husbands case would be very rare steak with onions.

The campaign is obviously intended to get the nation cooking but is the nation really going to be inspired by sphagetti and meatballs when the current range of Sainsburys mouthwatering Taste the Difference ready meals features dishes like "shin of beef and vivaldi potatoes".

I could be antiquated but surely people cook either because they want to or because they have to. Thats the bit that makes the choice of spaghetti and meatballs odd. That and the cost of the current Sainsburys own brand Sphagetti and meatballs ready meal on offer at 4 for the price of 3 which makes the instant equivalent £5.97.

moanymoany · 28 March 2008 at 6:25PM

When Jamie Oliver was 'discovered' he was working as a young chef in a restaurant that was the subject of a TV programme and the camera loved his enthusiasm.

Since then, I wonder if Jamie comes into the category of 'the harder I work. the more successful I become.' I have two 'self made' wealthy friends. They work constantly, on holiday they have their laptops and their mobiles, ever in use. I would like what they can afford - snag - I'm not prepared to work as hard and as long as they do.

Jamie is only paid this much as long as he is popular with the public. Sainsbury's clearly think he's worth the money.

A lot of research would have gone into the recipes chosen to represent the campaign. Sainsbury's, through loyalty cards and market research will know exactly how much to pitch the campaign at. If it encourages more people to cook and eat family meals it will be worth while.

all_hours · 28 March 2008 at 6:49PM

Cleosmum wrote: »

I have just started shopping in sainsbury, I had some vouchers through the post and decided to price them up on mysupermarket.com and they came out cheapest for what I buy and I got £5 off on top. If you had asked me a month ago to shop in sainsburys I would have refused, as far as I was concerned they were the most expensive out there.

i prefer sainsburys because the nearest tesco doesnt have much choice - no value products + mainly branded and tesco finest.

which sausages did you use for the casserole - they sell bags of frozen ones - 20 for 1.28. theyre smaller than the fresh ones - i use 3 per person instead of 2.

moanymoany · 28 March 2008 at 7:45PM

Had melissaB's beany mix tonight. Have to say I was a bit unsure of mixing baked beans and tomatoes, but I needn't have worried. I didn't use hot dog sausages as we don't like them, I snipped some grilled bacon into it.

I had my own home made bread with it which is not that much more expensive than value bread.

It was really lovely, I certainly will be doing it again. It cost less than £1 for 2 - triff value.

9/10

minibudgetgal · 28 March 2008 at 9:56PM

went into sainsbury just for a nose at the recipe cards, picked up a handful on the way out and a groovy little folder.....................stopped by securiy and told the folders cost 49p! haha didnt see that, so gave it back to him, mumbled somethnhg about "didnt realise" (i didnt lol!), and walked out with a red face. First time EVER! all your fault lol:D. recipes arent bad, but i agree you could do it better with cheaper ingredients. These work quite well though as it is mainly stuff i already have in the freezer/store cupboard.
xx

Andy_Hamilton · 29 March 2008 at 2:52AM

Sainsburys were on BBC breakfast a couple of months ago saying that they were making more money. As money gets tight, people still want high quality food which they can make at home easily. The MD also said the "taste the difference" range was making most of the sales.

The adverts are just a shopping list for there store and if people want to spend £5 instead of £30+ for a family of 5 in resturant that has to help sainsbury's profits. This campain is not aimed at MSE people.

My aim is £1 per main meal as a single bloke using fresh ingredients. For my last larger dinner party with 18 people it only costed £12 and everyone loved the food..

squirtie · 29 March 2008 at 1:12PM

I totally agree with what Jamie Oliver is aiming at, getting a nation to eat properly is some mountainous task. There are several hundred ways or more to cut costs. Managing our waste is one of them.
I witnessed my sister throw a chicken carcass in the bin without even analysing it to see if there was anything to be salvaged, I was horrified. I do actually boil the last remnants of a carcass to get stock & other meaty bits off the bones, I sieve it & any lumps (not bones) go to making a meal for our elderly dog & the rest is frozen for future uses. How many people throw away such valuable sources of food at the end of a joint or that last portion of bolognese that nobody could manage - use it to start the next batch of sauce off! This way the bin tends to smell better too as there is no rotting food in it. Composting egg shells, peelings & teabags goes a long way to helping save money too, I have a balcony composter - a large black bucket with a home made lid.
Vegetables can be expensive at certain times of the year, I grow the ones I use most of, the garden is tiny so I use pots & baskets I salvaged from the local tip. Carrots, potatoes, peas & tomatoes are very easy to grow & taste remarkable compared to supermarket varieties. It takes very little time out of a day to tend a pot garden. We would probably spend more time choosing the veg in the supermarket.
There is so much food waste in society that we must go back to the war time mentality of seeing if we can re-use anything before it becomes waste. If we were ever forced into that situation again there would be so many people who would not be able to survive because they never knew how to.
Purely reducing what we waste can save us money.
I can feed a family of four three courses for a fiver, I wouldn't try it though as two courses would become said waste, one healthy balanced meal is enough for most people. Is that £1.67?:rotfl:

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Sainsburys and Jamie Olivers Feed your Family for £5 Chat Thread

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