Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

Reverbe

It's funny I could have sworn I saw the father in the ad say he didnt like that and thrown something down the waste disposal..... seem to have cut that out..

MrsE_2

thriftlady wrote: »

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.

No I'm not saying the basics range is for poor folks.

Its for thrifty shoppers & they are anything but thrifty shoppers, thats the point I'm making.

Their food bill is well in excess of double mine.

hex2

MrsE wrote: »

I'm on slimming world, I would have to syn flour:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Can't do them in breadcrumbs either:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Thats why its difficult:o

Hi Mrs E.

What about using a small quantity of smash to thicken it? Our consultant suggested using it 'unmixed' for thickening soups etc so it should draw out some of the liquid.

MrsE_2

misskool wrote: »

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.

& I would like to make mine, but I don't want a BM to end up cluttering up space unused.
Also SW is NOT bread friendly & we need to "step away from the bread":o

I would consider their 2 adult 5 child family about double my 3 adult family & the only week I spend £200 is Xmas week. I don't shop to a budget I buy premium stuff (good food is our entertainment & weakness & our little luxury) & I just couldn't imagine spending £200 a week, every week.

ETA I'm puzzled, I looked up your bakeries, one is in London, one is based around the south coast. Do you go 60 miles for your bread or run two homes?

MrsE_2

hex2 wrote: »

Hi Mrs E.

What about using a small quantity of smash to thicken it? Our consultant suggested using it 'unmixed' for thickening soups etc so it should draw out some of the liquid.

;);););)

Great idea:beer:

debtmuncher

Reverbe wrote: »

It's funny I could have sworn I saw the father in the ad say he didnt like that and thrown something down the waste disposal..... seem to have cut that out..

yip thats why i was so desperate to see it last night but there was nothing to show that part where he threw food down the disposal unit. need to go back to iplayer and watch the end of programme two again lol

and as someone else mentioned there was something weird about the part at the end where they are asked if they had been good or whatever ..they said yes then looked at each other and giggled as if to say "yeah right we were totally bad"!!!

blueberrypie

Rossy2692 wrote: »

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,

Yep, definitely the amount they were wasting was a major factor in their food bill.

I was just thinking that they all seemed well off to start with,

They wouldn't have been able to spend such amounts of money on groceries if they *hadn't* been fairly well-off to start with.

That's the thing, though: most people spend what they can afford to spend. Remember the first time you got a pay-rise? And how you thought you'd have so much extra money? And then how, somehow, you didn't? As our incomes increase, most of us adjust our spending to take account of it.

When you've been used to the lifestyle that a certain income level provides, it's hard to adjust downwards. If you've always had an income of, say, £14k, it doesn't seem such a big deal to live on that. But if you've become used to an income of £60k, and then your income falls to £14k - that's a big adjustment to make, not just in terms of practical things like having one car instead of two and not having weekends away and turning down the heating and not going out to restaurants and spending less on groceries - but in psychological terms too. I think that's why some people have so much resistance to stopping buying ready-meals/throwing leftovers away instead of using them up/whatever other wasteful thing they're doing.

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??!!??

I quite agree that it's precious, but I do understand that it can be quite hard work to achieve! We only have one evening each week (Sunday) when there isn't *someone* either just arriving in or getting ready to leave for an activity (ju-jitsu, scouts, whatever) - if you have someone getting home at 5.45 and someone else who needs to leave by 6.10, it doesn't make for a pleasant, unhurried family meal! We compromise - everyone who is here eats together, but sometimes someone else needs to grab a snack and eat later when they come home again. I can see how easy it would be to fall into the way of preparing meals for different people at different times, and for that to become a habit, so that even when everybody *was* around, you still wouldn't have a "family dinner".

debtmuncher

Reverbe wrote: »

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..

not tried clotted cream! will have to buy some today to see if its like you say it is!! will get my ma to treat me lol:p

debtmuncher

MrsE wrote: »

I'm just puzzled at how you can spend £400 pw & be shopping from the basics range

did you not notice the part where they had about six jars of mustard in the cupboard and about the same again in fish sauce i think it was!!

they werent doing a shopping list, just a case of going to the shop and bunging it into the trolley. they wasted heck of a lot of food that they had to throw out due to the use by dates. so cos they were chucking food out they would then go back out for a top up shop probably doing the same routine again. "buy throw, buy throw, buy throw" and they just never seemed to "click" that what they were doing was daft

blueberrypie

MrsE wrote: »

No I'm not saying the basics range is for poor folks.

Its for thrifty shoppers & they are anything but thrifty shoppers, thats the point I'm making.

It's not just for thrifty shoppers - it's for whoever wants it. If someone spends £300 a week on food for a couple but happens to like Tesco's Value Chocolate Pudding or whatever, they can buy it. Maybe the people in the programme happened to like that particular kind of bread, or maybe one of their kids likes it, or maybe it's the kind of bread Granny likes for her toast in the mornings when she comes to stay, or maybe...

It sounds like you're just surprised that someone who spends a lot would *also* have something from the low-cost ranges - but people buy all sorts of interesting (and maybe odd) combinations of things. I've a friend whose weekly (well, more than weekly really) grocery-shop is about 50% organic, free-range everything, and about 50% chocolate biscuits and junk-food. It doesn't make sense to me, but Tesco certainly isn't refusing to let her buy both at the same time ;-)