Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

thriftlady_2

MrsE wrote: »

I can't spend £400 pw in the supermarket & I buy mostly the premium stuff anyway. How can you spend £400 & be dipping in the basics range thats my point.

Because they want to. You are surely not saying that the basics range is for 'poor folks' only?

I didn't see all of the programme but weren't they quite a big family? Their food bill is always going to be higher than that of a family of 3.

tori.k

All the famillies so far have had a major finacial downshift Rossy, week 2's family were having to sell there house, i still find it hard to imagine how anyone could manage to spend over £400 a week in shopping, ive 5 in the house and even if i had that kind of budget for food its weird but dont think i'd have the imagination to be able to spend it all on just food, when £65 ( with help from here) at the moment meets our needs well enough.

L.L_2

ahrimaniac wrote: »

Why not shop at ASDA rather than Sainsburys to save money right from the off? Ghastly.

I shop at sainsburys rather than asda and don't think I'm loathsome?!

Thought it was quite good last night, althrough think next week will be proper economy!

cw18

I have a feeling next weeks will have less recipes I'm likely to want to try out (judging by what my older son - 20, and in the Army - likes), but am looking forward to seeing how a house full of burly blokes adapts to this

misskool

MrsE wrote: »

I can't spend £400 pw in the supermarket & I buy mostly the premium stuff anyway. How can you spend £400 & be dipping in the basics range thats my point.

Not that people shouldn't buy it, but how can they be buying it.

I'm a bread gourmet (gourmand:o:o:o:o) & I rate Waitrose & Cuisine De France's bread;)

I buy it :rotfl: what are you implying about it? We make our own bread (to our preference) although at the moment with no kitchen it's mostlyLe Pain Quotidien or East West bakery

It's easy to spend £400 on a family of 7 if you don't downshift or can't cook. Add to that if everyone in the family is fussy about what they eat. A Waitrose ready meal costs £4 a pop. 7 ready meals for that family = £28 for one night. £28*7 = £198 a week just for dinners.

Add lunches, drinks, wine, snacks, etc and you can see how easy it'll go there.

Rossy2692

Thats the bit that shocked me, these people know they have problems and still continue, IMO, to spend LUDICROUS amounts on food! That blooming garbage disposal thing played a big part in the waste IMO, I was just thinking that they all seemed well off to start with, I personally think that the loss of the family focus has a lot to do with these particular famillies problems with budgets, they all seem to cater for different tastes at different times, busy lives we all have but surly the time spent eating together at evening meal is such a precious thing??!!??

cw18

What confused me last night was how they figure that cooking 2 (or 3, if 4 of the children are on meat) different meals costs them an extra £50 a week

I don't like cooking different meals as it takes more fuel to do so, but really can't see why it would cost more in ingredients? Only thing I can think of is not bulk buying to the same extent, but when we have different (DS likes curry which I don't, and I like stews and liver which he doesn't) I cook several portions of each meal, then freeze enough to do the same combo over the next month or two.... So I make 4 portions of curry and 4 portions of stew, then use one of each for 4 meals over 4 weeks. No different in cost of ingredients to making up 4 of each and alternating 2 curries and 2 stews for 4 weeks.........

Penelope_Penguin

MrsE wrote: »

I can't spend £400 pw in the supermarket & I buy mostly the premium stuff anyway. How can you spend £400 & be dipping in the basics range thats my point.

Possibly because there's 7 of them and only 3 of you Also, at the start they threw away 30% of what they bought, so hadn't yet learnt the Old Style Frugal ways that you have

Remind me how much you spend per week?

Reverbe

richardw wrote: »

Clotted cream isn't economy!

I was thinking that tart looked lovely til he ruined it by the clotted cream. Then he says I dont know anyone who could resist it. I was like ME!

Clotted cream is vile - it's like putting a big lump of butter on things..

Reverbe

thifty wrote: »

were these people for real? First time I have watched the show and could not believe how much money they were spending a week, big family but surely no-one with a big family in the real world spends that much money?

ONce again loads of bought puddings. Surely should have been better to tell them to by big tubs of yoghurt and make your own choc pud..