Persuading my parents to be OS

Bunnie1982

At the moment I feel like shaking my parents for not being OS enough.

At the moment they are living above their means, my dad has been off work sick since April and has just been finished at his job after 26 weeks and my mom works 30 hours a week and gets paid minimum wage.

They spent £80 a week on their grocery bill for 2 of them and that doesn't include cleaning products and toiletries as they get them from Wilkinsons.

I cannot see where they spend £80 on shopping as this is their meal list for the week:

Sunday: Roast beef, potatoes and vegetables and gravy
Monday: Leftover roast beef, potatoes, vegetables and gravy
Tuesday: HM Scotch eggs, chips and mushy peas
Wednesday: Gammon rounds, pineapple, potatoes and beans
Thursday: Beef stew
Friday: Chicken salad
Saturday: Hot dogs

They usually have toast for lunches and buy bananas as a snack.

They shop at Morrisons, we also shop at Morrisons but our weekly shop comes to no more than £25 a week. They are not stocking up for Christmas as they buy 2 Morrisons vouchers a week on a savings card.

What can I say to them to persuade them not to spend so much?

I would usually keep my nose out but it is me that they moan to

lynzpower

Obviously they already menu plan- so thats not the isuse.

Whats the extra stuff they buy used for?

For example, the scotch eggs, do they have 2 each- if so theres 2 spare eggs out of a 6 box, what do they do with them?

Are your parents worried about money? OR do they just think everything will be OK

when they moan what do they saY?

LydiaSophia

I don't see how they can be spending £80 a week for that!

Are they buying very expensive cuts of meat?

if they are buying oven chips they could make their own - far nicer and so much cheaper!

Hot dogs???? Why not buy some sausages - you can buy bags of frozen ones that are very cheap and cheap as they are I'm sure they have more nutritional value than hot dogs.

Frozen veg is also cheaper and doesn't go bad so you could suggest that if they are buying fresh!

Bogof_Babe

Do they partake of the fruits of the vine, or the hop yard? Soon mounts up if they do that regularly. (Speaking as one who knows about these things ).

Bunnie1982

lynzpower wrote:

Obviously they already menu plan- so thats not the isuse.

Whats the extra stuff they buy used for?

For example, the scotch eggs, do they have 2 each- if so theres 2 spare eggs out of a 6 box, what do they do with them?

Are your parents worried about money? OR do they just think everything will be OK

when they moan what do they saY?

The rest of the eggs tend to just get thrown away

When they moan they say things like "we have had to go into our overdraft to do our shopping....we might not be able to afford to eat" things like that

My parents are very anti-debt so I would say they are worried about money but won't do anything about it

margaretclare

We usually spend about £50 a week at TescoOnline but we also buy fresh bread, fruit and veg from the little shops locally. I also feed the foxes - not very MS I know, but I love to see them.

DH has a cousin who spends approx twice what we do on groceries.

About your parents - it doesn't sound like a very healthy diet. There's no fruit included, apart from the pineapple? Oh and you said a banana?

Margaret

Bunnie1982

Bogof_Babe wrote:

Do they partake of the fruits of the vine, or the hop yard? Soon mounts up if they do that regularly. (Speaking as one who knows about these things ).

Nope, they are both teetotal

Bunnie1982

margaretclare wrote:

About your parents - it doesn't sound like a very healthy diet. There's no fruit included, apart from the pineapple? Oh and you said a banana?

Margaret

I know it's not a very healthy diet at all, I had to endure it for 21 years until I moved out.

I don't understand why they don't eat more healthier because my dad has been diagnosed with having high cholestorol and is under the hospital for expected angina

Bogof_Babe

Well if they really want your help, can you get hold of a typical till roll receipt and tell us the rough breakdown of stuff on it? Morrisons sell quite a lot of homeware stuff, so perhaps they are buying too many impulsive things that they don't really need?

Have they any pets to feed?

Bunnie1982

No pets to feed, I will try and get hold of their till roll tomorrow when I pop down to see them

lynzpower

if he has high cholestrol - i know as my OH has it too)

A few things
hot dogs & any sausages are out. We have only the very best organic/finest once a month maybe twice a month at most.
Scotch eggs I presume using sausagemeat- ditto
is the gravy they are using the lowest fat one they can find- ie NOT made from the meat juices?
He should be having 7 portions of F&V per day. this isnt easy, but you have to try, we manage about 5 but sometimes more.