Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

avinabacca

Flipped27 wrote: »

Me and DH sat down to watch this last night thinking "Oh good, this will help us cut our food bills down and make good food for less.."

Ahem, nope. Don't think so. £330 this family of 5 were spending A WEEK on food?!

Clever them managed to get it down to "only" £210.

GAH!!! We are spending £85 but reguarly going over - what hope do we have?!

It was a complete joke....

Don't know about that - after all, they managed to cut their weekly food bill by nearly 40%, and that's some saving!

After all, I'm sure you'd be chuffed to get your weekly bill down to, say, something under £60, right? Same proportion, so what's the issue?

Really can't see why the programme's getting all this stick......

spendaholic

freyasmum wrote: »

I can't actually think of anything when I do add nuts? I might top things with nuts (e.g. carrot cake) but not put them into the mixture. That's not a budget thing, btw - it's just because I'm a daft moo who usually forgets to add them:rotfl::rotfl:

Try adding ground almonds to your sweet pastry. I love it. You can also sprinkle them on the base of a cherry or mince pie before adding the cherries or the mince. Really brings out the flavour.

spendaholic

avinabacca wrote: »

Really can't see why the programme's getting all this stick......

It's because "we" have been doing "this" for years, and this programme isn't actually aimed at us but the people we were before we became the people we are, only some of us are forgetting that. It's like when we get agitated with learner drivers - we forget we were there once too.

I admit I was sceptical at first too, I thought it would be more ... sophisticated and posh, but I was willing to give it a go and I'm glad I did. I just ordered the book.

I'm really enjoying the show.

ginvzt

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Did anyone notice the thing about the rice? I always rinse mine in cold water first to get rid of most of the starch. They didn't they just bunged it in and were instructed not to stir because of the starch in the rice.

Back home we used to rinse the rice to get rid of loose starch, so it is not sticky at all when cooked. However, since I came to UK and met my OH, we never rinsed the rice and always got perfect results. Also, my mum used to rinse the rice with cold water as soon as it is boiled to keep the grains separate.

lola34

I watched it for the first time last night and although it was good- the bakewell tart looked gorgeous- going to have a go at it today, the amount theyspent on food was unbelieveable - I don't even spend that much on my Christmas food shop

kayjay1809

I watched it last night and enjoyed it. Yes the family spent way too much on food, and still managed to buy wine etc on their 'reduced' food budget, but the principles were good and the receipes look yummy. In fact I've just bought the book on amazon for £9, I think it'll help in my ongoing battle to spend less on food.

cuddlymarm

Hi

I'm quite enjoying the series even though my food bill comes nowhere near theirs. I might try the chicken recipe sometime and the mac cheese from last week looked really scrummy. I like the fact that they encourage families to eat together and none of this kids food and adult food stuff. I'm a firm believer in introducing little darlings to proper food as soon as possible. Also the cook a big pan of something and then convert it seems a good idea.

Personally I think they've had a sneaky look at this site and then used some of the ideas in their show.

Better go
Cuddles:rotfl:

MrsTinks

skiTTish wrote: »

Did anyone spot the use of ready roll pastry ?!?!?!!?:eek:

Shhhhh I always use ready made puff pastry...

My life is just too short for some things

weezl74

I gat really angry with last night's show...

At the start, they implied that the family were having to sell their house because of money troubles and had already sold a car.:eek:

In the light of that, I felt that the chefs didn't go nearly far enough in making savings.

You don't need macadamia nuts in your brownies if your house is on the line!

I also think that there are a lot of people who have a naive faith in television, and who will have thought that these are budget recipes because that's what it said on the TV. They then go out and buy a shopping trolley's worth of stem ginger in syrup, red wine vinegar, wine and steak to make their boeuf en daube....

Unethical programme making in my opinion :mad:

LilacPixie

I do 'like' the program as I feel the basic concepts are sound but \i don't feel thay go far enough. as Weezl74 said they implied financial problems meant their house was on the line, a car has already been sold, the kids clubs were history so surely the food budget should of been sliced drastically. A budget of 60-80 a week for a family of 4 and showing them how they can still have nice meals and their treats without spending a fortune.

One thing I wondered in my grocery budget also includes toiletries, household items. Do these families just include food spends??