Great British Budget Menu-BBC

cyclingyorkie

I've just been scrolling through the recipes - the one from Angela Harnett contains green raisins - I don't think I've ever seen one!

Trow

I've never seen one either so I googled them - they look really unnatural. I think Id bung in normal ones!

dender

Ok. I took myself out of lurker status and got an account just to write about this programme. It was awwwwfulll, they totally missed the mark on this one.

1. The chefs have/had no idea about budget cooking, anyone on a budget knows that Tesco/Asda/Waitrose are not the place to go

2. They barely talked about buying bulk, making huge portions and utilising the fridge/the freezer even though thats the most significant way to reduce the food budget

3. Just had to mention again what the hell were they doing in Tesco/Asda/Waitrose. What about utilising your local market, butcher etc etc

4.The chickens, meh, I dunno, I reckon they would have been better off turning their garden into a vegetable garden

5.They didn't really go into the whole supermarkets pushing bad crap food on the public thing in enough detail which is also super significant

6. Has to be mentioned three times, I wouldn't even consider myself that much of a savy saver and I never shop in the big supermarkets except for specific products that I can't get anywhere else.

7. Don't even get me started on the Salmon thing, the chefs clearly have no clue

7. A huge money saving tip from me, ahem my mum - do any of you have Asian supermarkets near you? stuff like oil, fancy rices, spices, cracked black pepper etc is super super cheap there and you can buy in bulk

8. I think people underestimate kids and what they will eat. The whole chips, robinsons fruit juice, hot dogs thing is just a scam by advertisers to get us to buy more products, generally if you give kids a varied diet right from young they will keep eating it all the way up. Funnily enough there is a division in my family from the time we changed nannies. My younger brother grew up with a nanny who fed him alot of this "kid" food and now, his diet, oi oi oi.

Rasberry

I watched the programme and felt that maybe they should be shopping properly not buying ready meals,you get more value and usage from a whole chicken which would have been within the budget for the family,I have been in this situation ,but because of my upbringing was able to cook proper meals that were nutritious.
Buying chickens for the family may look good but you can be sure the children will soon tire of looking after them and that leave the already stretched Mum:A...

Emm-in-a-pickle

I caught up with the Great British Budget programme on I-player last night. VERY disappointed. Reading the posts on this thread I think we`re all agreed on many points. It was a good idea, COULD have been a good prog but was just a wasted opportunity to really be of help.
Of the celebrity chefs, the only one who seemed to have any common sense was Angela Hartnett - I felt that if the beeb had let her do a whole programme with just the one family they might have got some more good use of air time.

As for inviting the great & famous, supermarket bosses, and politicians - these are the very people who would not have it in their interests for folks to cook from scratch! It`s about politics and profit!!! Those invitees are the very ones who would lose if everyone could shop & cook frugally!
Too many people are clueless or have become de-skilled by the ever-increasing range of processed foods - and those, even the lower price range ones, are the ones with the biggest profit margins.
None of the chefs used liver or mince - ok, they might be in the recipe file, but the salmon!(!!!!!!???!) None of them talked to their `client` about cheap cuts of meat and slow-cooking. WHY?
Other posters have mentioned the fuel costs to be factored in.
Electric Slow Cookers weren`t mentioned. A new one can be found for around a tenner, but most boot sales & some charity shops are good places to find 2nd hand ones for a couple of quid. And they are simple to use.

janejustjane

I agree with other posters that the programme was interesting but not very good.

According to a 1976 article in Which you could live healthily on a diet of liver, cheese, raw cabbage, wholemeal bread and water. Not that anyone would want to. But they do suggest replacing some of your diet with foods which contain several nutrients and are cheap, such as eggs, lentils, soya beans. peanuts, canned pilchards and mackerel.

culpepper

I saw it on iplayer yesterday.
I was a bit disappointed that the family's chef completely ignored the budget and bought them salmon etc presumably out of pity.
Also he bought them some chickens and the stuff to keep them, which seemed a bit odd. I cant help thinking those chickens might end up as dinner rather than their eggs.

That family could really do with batch cooking and once a month shopping as the two parents both work because I think a lot of their poor food choices are due to having no time to either shop around or cook from scratch.

The single pensioner was buying quite a lot of branded goods from poundland but not everything from there is a bargain ,especially food.
When you look at what is in a packet or tin of soup,you could easily make a huge batch from scratch and not have to ration it to a small bowl a day. He had yorkshire tea too in bags which is much more expensive than loose Yorkshire tea and lots and lots more expensive than own brand teas.

The single mum was simply doing without so that her daughter could have all the good things. I assume she also gets free school dinners .
Nice to have a bacon sandwich for breakfast but not while mum has nothing,much better to both have porridge.
The tea with 3 sugars was probably actually costing a fair bit if she gets through a bag of sugar and presumably a couple of packets of tea bags plus milk for all those cups.
I think she could have used the money from those things to give herself some lunches and drink water .
At least 2 litres of milk would be £1 minimum .2 packs of Tea bags are probably about 80p cheapest .All those boiled kettles to make the tea in the first place.Sugar is I think around 80p a bag.
Thats £2.60 ,Enough for a loaf (about 15 slices)and something to go in or on it for the week.

Cocobay71

Did you see the chef supposed to make budget meals and choose to make poached salmon in some sauce,as if people on a budget can afford salmon?
Apart from using him which was a big mistake, the rest of the programme was good, meal planning day to day is the only way to budget meals we have found. We have a budget of £30 a week for two of us and we eat fairly good.

ladylouise62

I was also surprised at how badly they did on the money. The old chap had £2.60 per day if I remember correctly, yet would have an egg for breakfast, and half a packet soup for lunch, with a piece of bread if he was feeling generous. I'm not sure what he was doing for the evening meal, but that left a lot of money for it.
I'm hoping that along with the store cupboard starter kit they gave them good info about bulk buying/prep as well.

evie451

I saw it on iPlayer too, the challenge itself was a bit artificial the rules to shop for one meal so only a couple of quid odd for James martin and a few more for the others was a bit daft in reality we don't shop by meal we buy a bag of potatoes and make a few potato based dinners etc.....they also ignored the deep discounters like aldi when shopping but it was all to make a point I suppose....
Last time when we had bad food inflation the 70's there were few choices for folk other than rubber roast, bulking out dinners with veg...now we have cheap processed food as an alternative and if no one showed you the basics of cooking maybe that's what you would go for.....:(
I felt really sorry for the old boy......the single mum looked so ill and the family well 4 kids to feed and neither parent confident in the kitchen...sigh