Super Scrimpers

Justamum

JackieO wrote: »

A simple basic cookery t.v. programme could help so many people streeetch their pennies a bit more .

I think the rot set in when school cookery classes were changed to 'food tech'. Now when something they make needs, say, pastry, the instructions are to bring in ready-made! We were taught the basics of how to make pastry, bread (I remember mine at school was a disaster, but I make all my own now!), sauce, scones, cake, etc.

Justamum

Vampiric_Addiction wrote: »

JackieO, can you recall the name of the programme you mention? Only as that sounds interesting and I'd like to see if it's available anywhere to watch. Thanks

I knew there was something I had marked to watch last night! I'll have to catch up later. If I remember correctly it was on at 8pm on ITV. It's a three part series.

The other week the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 was talking about food banks. A few people at them were interviewed. One woman was asked why she didn't use things like lentils to bulk food out as they were cheap and she said "I don't like them". Another woman couldn't feed her family because she and her husband both had a heavy smoking habit, probably costing a couple of hundred pounds a week between them, and said she couldn't give up smoking so was at a food bank looking for handouts.

Nobody in Britain should need food banks if people learned how to budget and differentiate a need from a want. Too many people think a 'want' is a 'need' and a right for them to have, so how many people wanting to be given food also have the latest 'must have' gadgets and smoke like chimneys?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

You may be being a little unfair, Justamum. Food banks are needed because people are slipping through the net society has agreed to provide. Yes, some will have addictions. Many won't. And the reason I refuse to use lentils to bulk out good isn't that I don't like them, it's that they don't like me - despite cooking them properly, I would be doubled up in pain for at least 24 hours afterwards. But I wouldn't want to share that in an interview if I were desperate enough to need the help of a food bank.


I wish I lived near you, JackieO. Not because you'd come knocking on my door with onions, but because the sainsburys round here never knock more than about 10p off their produce. They would rather throw it away.

thriftwizard

As someone who has from time to time written for magazines about saving money (that's where my online "name" comes from) I know why there aren't any good programmes on basic cookery & making cheap ingredients go further; the advertisers wouldn't like it. About 75-80% of articles I was commissioned to write, and did get paid for, were "spiked" at the last minute because the various advertisers didn't want readers being told how to do without buying things! So only the BBC would be able to make such a programme, and I bet they think "the poor" don't watch the BBC anyway...

becca-2012

Vampiric_Addiction wrote: »

JackieO, can you recall the name of the programme you mention? Only as that sounds interesting and I'd like to see if it's available anywhere to watch. Thanks

It is on the itv player thingy and was called "tonight-the hunger shame", worth a watch.

Mrs_Optimist

I watched the Tonight programme. Although I did feel sympathy (particiularly for the young mum who wasn't able to afford to feed herself) I did wonder at the brand named products on the windowsill (fairy liquid, Dettol spray) and also the character based clothes the girls were wearing - which wouldn't have been cheap, and the shelves crammed with DVD's. When I was growing up, when we had no money for food, we literally had no money for ANYTHING else either. I remember wearing espadrills to school in the rain in the Winter because mum couldn't afford water resisitant ones at the time. I had soaking ffeet all day. I also remember being so hungry on a Thursday and having to wait until my dad got back from work that night with his wages so mum could afford to buy some food in. We also couldn't afford any pets (I notice the young mum had a cat and a scratching post - again not cheap). I am only in my thirties so it wasn't that long ago. I agree that economics should be taught in schools, and perhaps how to budget and handle a budget better so money isnt wasted on branded products when you are going through a tough patch, and you can learn to make your money stretch further.

Perhaps I have lurked on here too much and can see unecessary waste and so am not as forgiving (or perhaps I am just hardnosed!).

I regularly contribute to food banks and am pleased to see human faces at the receiving end as we did in tonight's programme.

The Superscrimpers series is unrealistic - totally agee with JackieO.

lillibet_dripping

Mrs_Optimist wrote: »

I watched the Tonight programme. Although I did feel sympathy (particiularly for the young mum who wasn't able to afford to feed herself) I did wonder at the brand named products on the windowsill (fairy liquid, Dettol spray) and also the character based clothes the girls were wearing - which wouldn't have been cheap, and the shelves crammed with DVD's. When I was growing up, when we had no money for food, we literally had no money for ANYTHING else either. I remember wearing espadrills to school in the rain in the Winter because mum couldn't afford water resisitant ones at the time. I had soaking ffeet all day. I also remember being so hungry on a Thursday and having to wait until my dad got back from work that night with his wages so mum could afford to buy some food in. We also couldn't afford any pets (I notice the young mum had a cat and a scratching post - again not cheap). I am only in my thirties so it wasn't that long ago. I agree that economics should be taught in schools, and perhaps how to budget and handle a budget better so money isnt wasted on branded products when you are going through a tough patch, and you can learn to make your money stretch further.

Perhaps I have lurked on here too much and can see unecessary waste and so am not as forgiving (or perhaps I am just hardnosed!).

I regularly contribute to food banks and am pleased to see human faces at the receiving end as we did in tonight's programme.

The Superscrimpers series is unrealistic - totally agee with JackieO.

I have just read back over the past few pages to see if anyone had noticed this! If that lady could be introduced to MSE and do the 'drop a brand' challenge plus all the other wonderful nuggets of advice, she would find her budget goes a lot further.
Also, there was a young man who couldl not afford food because he had spent his food budget on 'a train trip to visit his young daughter'. But did you see his body language........!

iris

I also commented to my DH re the shelves full of DVDs.

We can afford to buy DVDs, but don't because we think they are a waste of money. We have a TV recorder and we tape anything we think looks interesting and then watch it at our leisure;)

sophlowe45

thriftwizard wrote: »

As someone who has from time to time written for magazines about saving money (that's where my online "name" comes from) I know why there aren't any good programmes on basic cookery & making cheap ingredients go further; the advertisers wouldn't like it. About 75-80% of articles I was commissioned to write, and did get paid for, were "spiked" at the last minute because the various advertisers didn't want readers being told how to do without buying things! So only the BBC would be able to make such a programme, and I bet they think "the poor" don't watch the BBC anyway...

I've only started reading old style moneysaving 3 days ago, what you said about advertisers is what i wanted to say on a different thread too, same applies with newspapers, if you run stories the advertisers dislike, they threaten to stop advertising with you. And since the paper runs on advertising money they cant stay afloat without it.

Way forward seems to be sharing things mainsteam media won't cover via online platforms.

maman

Justamum wrote: »

I think the rot set in when school cookery classes were changed to 'food tech'. Now when something they make needs, say, pastry, the instructions are to bring in ready-made! We were taught the basics of how to make pastry, bread (I remember mine at school was a disaster, but I make all my own now!), sauce, scones, cake, etc.

I think there was a 'golden age' of cookery lessons. My DDs did it at school in the 80s and I still use many of the excellent recipes today. Back in the day of Domestic Science, we seemed to spend as much time scrubbing down the wooden table tops as we did cooking. Food Technology was invented to try and squeeze it into the timetable alongside Textiles (remember Needlework?) and Resistant Materials (aka Metalwork or Woodwork) which had been separate subjects in their own right. It's a bit off topic but it's like Cameron's amazing announcement today about school sport. Aside from the cost/facilities issues what's he planning to drop from the timetable to fit it in?

thriftwizard wrote: »

As someone who has from time to time written for magazines about saving money (that's where my online "name" comes from) I know why there aren't any good programmes on basic cookery & making cheap ingredients go further; the advertisers wouldn't like it. About 75-80% of articles I was commissioned to write, and did get paid for, were "spiked" at the last minute because the various advertisers didn't want readers being told how to do without buying things! So only the BBC would be able to make such a programme, and I bet they think "the poor" don't watch the BBC anyway...

Strangley enough when there was an episode in the last series about using shin of beef, the prices rose so that in Asda it was cheaper to buy a joint of beef (£6 per kg) than shin at £7 per kg. I bought some joints and portioned them up myself.

Just noticed that for £4.99 per kg you can buy a 2.5kg joint in Sainsbury's. If you can afford the initial outlay that's excellent value and so easy to cut up yourself into smaller joints, casserole pieces etc.