Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

MrsE_2

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

It's a choice, and for many, they choose food as their luxury rather than foreign holidays, clothes, cars or pets :T

Penny. x

Amen to that.

We do spend quite a bit on food, about £110 pw (for 3 of us), not much extra is spent during the week.
But we don't smoke, don't go out drinking, 90% of the wine consumed in our house is in food:p, its oue "entertainment".

Others may be happy to spend on fags & booze, or whatever luxury/vice floats their boat we choose food.

MrsE_2

rosieben wrote: »

I used to have a waste disposal years ago but was put off by stories of how the nicely mixed up waste was fattening up rats down in the sewers :eek:

We had one years & years ago too, thats why I though people didn't bother with them anymore, I though they had fallen out of "fashion".

Reverbe

MrsE wrote: »

Never trust a skinny chef;)

I am slim but enjoy cooking and am not bad according to others. I dont tend to eat much so I dont bother cooking just for me but just cos I dont eat all I cook doesnt make me a bad cook.I'm just someone to whom food is fuel. I eat to live not live to eat.:rolleyes:

cw18

MrsE wrote: »

So you've still got the waste problem if you go to fortnightly collections

Yes, in that you have to accumulate it for 2 weeks

But, as I said in an earlier post, I did fortnightly (by choice) a couple of years ago and didn't have any problems with doing so


** EDIT ** It appears the green cone system is different, but I'd have to be convinced the system was totally safe and secure before considering one. I have two dogs, and I'm very concerned that the larger one would try digging it up if he got a scent of the food - it took the best part of 12 months of on-off attempts before he gave up trying to get into my black plastic compost bin (he loves raw fruit and veg, so the smell from that is serious temptation to him)

MrsE_2

Reverbe wrote: »

I am slim but enjoy cooking and am not bad according to others. I dont tend to eat much so I dont bother cooking just for me but just cos I dont eat all I cook doesnt make me a bad cook.I'm just someone to whom food is fuel. I eat to live not live to eat.:rolleyes:

It was a bit of light humour:rolleyes:

Reverbe

HariboJunkie wrote: »

I don't think you can tell from an hour long programme which focused on the shopping budget of a family, how worried they are about supporting their children . Many women don't work outside the home when they have school age children. There may be a variety of reasons why they do this but perhaps childcare for 5 children would negate any wage she could earn and perhaps she simply chooses to do so because she wants to and is able to. I don't think the programme implied that they were really struggling, just spending too much and why not cut back on the spending instead of going to work if staying at home is an important lifestyle choice to you.

If you have school age children then there really is little need for childcare. After all they are out most of the day.

cw18

Reverbe wrote: »

If you have school age children then there really is little need for childcare. After all they are out most of the day.

You'd be surprised what it costs for child-care around school - and don't forget the holidays!!!


Around us a child-minder charges £125 per child for a full week (pre-school or school age in holidays).

If you need odd hours it's £3/hour per child - so my daughter would be looking at 2 hours every morning and 2 hours every evening, making it 20 hours a week during school time, which comes to £60 a week. As she has two children (now both school age) that's £120 a week.

If she had 5 - all of an age that needed child care - it could be as much as £300 a WEEK during term times!!! And then up to 13 weeks school holiday at £725 each week !!!!


(Just done a quick calc, and for 39 weeks of term and 13 weeks of holiday you don't get much change from £4k per child per year)

Gigervamp

Reverbe wrote: »

If you have school age children then there really is little need for childcare. After all they are out most of the day.

Of course there is a need. What about school holidays? Or time's when they're sick? And if you're working full time, there is the time before and after school.

I've been a SAHM, a childminder looking after children whose parents worked full time, and also worked part time myself and needed childcare.

I hated working outside the home because childcare was a nightmare.

juliettet

Reverbe wrote: »

I am slim but enjoy cooking and am not bad according to others. I dont tend to eat much so I dont bother cooking just for me but just cos I dont eat all I cook doesnt make me a bad cook.I'm just someone to whom food is fuel. I eat to live not live to eat.:rolleyes:

I am slim too thanks to lucky genes but I always cook for myself as good food is my 'entertainment too. Perhaps I am greedy

chickaroonee

MrsE wrote: »

No I'm not:o

I can't see myself tramping 115 foot down the bottom of the garden with our dinner scrapings on a dark winters evening:eek:

No you just need a compost crock - this is the one we have (a bit pricey but I'm a lakeland devotee): http://www.lakeland.co.uk/apple-compost-crock/F/keyword/crock/product/21418

I love our composter, we throw so little away now, particularly as we have recycling bins that are collected fortnightly. I too wish we would go to fortnightly main bin collections, it is disgraceful how much waste people have. Our neighbours have now got 3 huge wheelie bins that they have collected every week, yet never use their recycling bins which are also collected.

Only problem is we have found some people try and sneak rubbish into our bins, or steal them (!), rather than use their recycling bins...

Madness!