Great British Budget Menu-BBC

pricew1970

HappySad wrote: »

Thanks I have just started watch the Food program. I am not happy jn fact i am sick... Sick that people can't feed themselves when there is PLENTY of wealth in this country!!!! Forget about benefit scrounges think more about the wealthy including politicians who let working people focus our attention on ourselves struggling and the undeserving poor and instead think of the banks & political who caused the mess in the first place!!! I am so angry. Why are these people so food poor when we can afford a wealthy tax cut, banks can get free tax payout money to get them out of a hole they caused and most MPs can get a ridiculous wage increase. ... I don't think I can continue to watch this series as it makes me too upset 2 see how the nation is being swindled by the system!!!!

Agree on most parts, but never forget about benefit scroungers....its their attitude that will drag us all down !

sonastin

sugarpuss27 wrote: »

If you have never been shown or were taught these skills where do you get them from!

In short, youtube!

There are so many great videos on there to show you how to do anything from the most basic to the most complicated of tasks. OK so I realise a lot of people don't have a laptop they can take into the kitchen so they can watch and copy but you can go to the library and take notes while you're watching and have a go.

The bit that annoys me most is the lack of initiative and gumption. If those who were physically capable had the get up and go to figure out how to look after themselves there would be more to share amongst those who will never be able to look after themselves. AgirlcallJack did what it took to make the little she had stretch. I just wish more would put in the same effort and then perhaps the public perception of "benefit scroungers" would be more sympathetic.

gairlochgal

I watched with my 15 yr old. She's a victim of the terrible food tech curriculum we have at the moment but am doing my best to redress from home. She got very annoyed about the chicken/chicken fillet conversation too and started reeling off all the ways they could have made use of the leftovers from a whole chicken. That's my girl!

maman

I missed the first half of the programme so wasn't clear about the various circumstances/reasons for the low budgets.

What did strike me was that although the children in the big family thought it was great fun to have chickens as pets it was hardly mse. I can buy 24 large, free range eggs for cheaper than it's going to cost them to have the 20 quoted. And that's without costing my time for the work involved.

The chefs were especially clueless about shopping on a budget and although (James Martin?) was lucky to get some sausage meat reduced in Waitrose that's hardly the place for good value shopping.

The Morrisons guy typically skated over why Supermarkets are always putting junk on special offer.

I didn't agree with the idea of putting all the Sainsbury's basics in one aisle. We all know that the basics aren't always the best value and if you can't compare with other brands/ranges how do you know what's best value for money.

mandi

Initially I thought it was in a way it was a good idea to highlight how many people struggle to get by on a minimum budget,

However I found the rest of programme totally patronising especially when they only interviewed what ?.. two MPs and the man from Morrison's..

Then put a taste panel of three people who fine dine as a career to judge

Coopdivi

raphanius wrote: »

(truncated quote)

edit: i know its judgemental but the 'poor pensioner' had a packet of fag papers next to his loose change on the table.

You're not just being judgemental, you're also being pernickety. A packet of rollie papers cost 25p. Or are you picking on the pensioner for having the audacity to spend four quid on a pouch of baccy?

tori.k

I haven't yet watched the program, but noticed someone said they hadn't gone to Aldi/Lidl's this could be that their is just over 400 Aldi stores in the UK compared to just under 3000 Tesco stores so logistically more people will shop at Tesco's.

[Deleted User]

I watched this programme and as a pensioner living on a set income I found it very odd that the chap was having half a tin of soup for his dinner.

I live and eat fairly well on around £60.00 per month. True I have a Sunday dinner at my DDs every week, but the rest of the time I can feed myself without resorting to half a bowl of soup, or a slice of bread and an egg.I think a lot of last nights programme was a very edited edition of what really happened.
I buy a loaf of bread a week Burgen soya from Iceland at a pound a loaf and keep out 4 slices and freeze the rest.I probably eat two slices a day maybe as a sandwich for lunch, breakfast is cereal with a chopped banana on top.

Dinner depends on what I have either made or got from the freezer.I cook from scratch so what ever I make there is usually one for me, and two for the freezer.Last night I had a portion of chicken curry with rice .I had a packet of rice bought from the supermarket ages ago when on offer.It was one of those ones with mixed veg in it and I think it cost me around 40p I used half of it to go with my dinner and the other half I will make up and use tonight with my chilli (also HM from the freezer.My freezer meals are portions made in bulk and rarely cost me more than 40p a time ,often less .A packet of chicken wings reduced can cost around £1.20 and once cooked and stripped can be made into curry or pasta based meals and I usually get at least three out of a packet of wings, sometime four so cost about 30p per meal plus a couple of veg.I can make a whole chicken do a weeks worth of meals at least if not more and the bones/carcuss make excellent HM soup,if you want you can 'bulk' it out with some veg or rice or pasta and the soup then becomes very filling.

Of my £60.00 budget I suppose I spend around a third on fruit and veg all of which gets used in HM meals Last nights programme made me cross as I would never spend £11.00 on a chunk of salmon for just one meal .The last time I bought salmon fresh was probably just before Christmas and Sainsbobs had a whole salmon reduced in the afternoon to £12.00.The fishmonger there filleted it for me(I am not very good with very sharp knives anyway :)) and the head and tail I used to make a fish stock which went into the freezer, and I had 11 whopping great portions that were wrapped and frozen individually which lasted me until the begining of this month when I finally finished the last one off.Often its ingnorance of cooking techniques that is the reason for a poor diet but I was lucky enough to be brought up by my late Mum who could produce a meal out of almost anything(rationing was a very good way of learning to streeeetch things )
The lady that said it was cheaper to buy fillets wants her head looking at I have never bought chicken fillets as I think they are a very expensive way to cook a meal and a whole chicken (even if its an unhappy one ) will make so many different things. a lb of mince can be used also in a very versatile way for spag bol,cottage pie,lasagne,pasties,chilli etc and even a small bit left in the pan can be frozen and used as a filling for a jacket spud..Nothing at all is ever wasted in my house and my freezer is almost constantly full
I have never bought fish fingers as I think they too are a waste of money I bought a few weeks ago a reduced piece of River cobbler for 55p which I turned into a dozen fish cakes with a few spuds and a bit of time and effort.They too ended up in the freezer.I do have a good stock of herbs and spices which get used all the time to liven up stuff.I also cook my own cakes and biscuits .I can knock up 4 dozen biscuits in half an hour which soon stock up the biscuit tin for very little outlay.My local Tesco metro is having a 'facelift' and they are replacing the normal shelves with more and more shleves of 'instant food' needless to say they won't get a lot of my custom as I much prefer to cook 'properly' as taught by my old Mum.
James Martin shopping in Waitrose is hardly money saving
It was such a good opportunity to put on a decent programme but the BBC blew it by puting on what was really an upmarket version of Mrs Moneypenny and her absurd shows

[Deleted User]

I watched the Nick and Margaret programme and thought that Liam the graduate was far too lazy and needed a kick up the behind .So what he's got a degree it means Jack Sh*t while he sits around moaning because he hasn't got a job Go and get one you lazy tyke and stop wanting people to fund your lifestyle, or retrin to do something else.playing on your Xbox will not put food on the table OK so he volunteers but to do what pander to others like him who seem incapable of the basic idea that to work is to put something inot society I know that often there are few jobs around for many people but he just wasn't interested in even trying.Saying he owes 39K at his age isn't something to be proud of .Good job he's not part of my family he would go very hungry.One of my grandsons Ben has just finished his first year of A levels and shares a paper round with his pal, he earns £18.00 a fortnight as he works one week for 7 morning delivering papers and his pal works the other one .Not a lot for a young man of seventeen and a half but he saves and buys his own clothes and doesn't take a penny from his Mum and Dad they too bothe ork and support their other three little boys as well as Ben so money is tight in their house and Ben knows it.Last year he managed to get three months part-time in Iceland before Christmas after school and at weekends This he spent on clothes and presents for his family He kept his paper round on at the same time and managed to save up for his trip next month to Reading festival where he is going for five days with his pals he knows his parents can't afford to give him much but he also knows that to get off his butt and work is the only way he can fund his lifestyle.I am proud of him as he never bemoans tha fact of being broke and appreciates that only by working will he get anything.
The young man in the programme really does need a good boot up the behind as he just seems to be drifting along on his £70.00 per week and even his phone is paid for by a relative I don't know what he can spend his cash on -or perhaps its his attitude that
"I don't wear anything thats not got a name on it "
has a lot to do with it.Our Ben often wears his cousins cast offs as his cousin is working and earns good money and gets bored with his stuff so passes it onto to Ben.As for the chap who has made a living out of bringing up children well I'm sorry but its not a way of life for a bloke, or even a woman.if you can't support your family why go on to have even more.4 weeks work in 22 years isn't great to put down on a CV what will he do when the kkids are grown up I suppose he will then retire after his lifes 'work' is done

gallygirl

sugarpuss27 wrote: »

Overall I was left more angry that there are families and individuals out there that have been let down by a system where academic excellence has taken priority over basic life skills.

On the other hand...... my mother was a poor cook and I left home very badly prepared. I taught myself to cook using cookery books - bought by me and from the library. I'm sure the family would have the internet - google cooking on a budget and you could spend all day reading simple recipes. Martin Lewis gets enough coverage for people to know MSE exists, have they never looked on here? Don't they look at other people's shopping and wonder what they do with all those ingredients?

What I thought was interesting was that the chefs were genuinely shocked and humbled by how little some people had to live on and I hope they'll reflect on that. They are 3 of the more reasonable chefs - I'd have liked to see Heston try to knock something up for 80p in his industrial kitchen that was actually filling and nutritious rather than clever.

£1 for dinner is unrealistic, as was giving them all a folder of recipes, probably priced up at 2p for a pinch of something that costs £1 to buy. What would have been more useful/interesting would have been 3 1 hour programmes, 1 per chef, where they came up with a menu for 14 days for £14. Then we could have seen their creativity really put to the test.

I agree with comments about the family with the large garden - I know several people with chickens, they cost them money overall even if the sell they eggs. They're an enjoyable hobby which give fresh eggs, not a budgeting exercise. Ditch the chickens and grow some fruit & veg. Get cookery books out of the library or go on the internet and ditch the microwave.

However, I did enjoy the programme, and the one after it.