Great British Budget Menu-BBC

joedenise

Shoey1610 wrote: »

On the program afterwards about benefits, there was a smug lady lecturing the lady on benefits about not buying a whole chicken 'which is half bones' and that her money would go further if she bought some nice chicken fillets and cut them into chunks instead. :eek:

I couldn't believe that either. No idea how she reckons it's cheaper! Mind you it looked as though the woman was only going to do a dinner for 5, she didn't say anything about getting more than one meal out of it.

Denise

thriftwizard

A quick squawk of protest here; I've brought up a biggish family & kept chickens whilst doing so, and by my reckoning they have saved us money, and lots of it. That was only partly the rationale behind having them, though. I've always done things the old-fashioned way, as I grew up with them, so mine live in an adapted shed, not a posh plastic palace, the run panels etc. were secondhand, I buy sacks of feed three or four times a year (i.e. about £60 yearly for both corn and mash or pellets) & their diet is heavily supplemented with scraps, weeds, cooked-up peelings etc., cooked in the bottom of the oven when it's already on. We go through about 30-40 eggs a week, so by my reckoning they do save us money, especially as I rarely trouble the vet with them. And that's not counting the "help" in the garden (pest control & free compost) or the odd non-female that (sadly) ends up in the pot when they get noisy.

But agreeing mightily with everyone about the chicken breast fillets... oh dear!

joedenise

gallygirl wrote: »

£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 - this would have been much more useful, both to the people involved and to the programme viewers.

Denise

cyclingyorkie

I think it highlights how easy it is to 'get in a rut' when cooking - ie sticking to the same things again and again.

They had a go about not discounting the 'healthy, fresh stuff 'but nobody mentioned Aldi and their policy of having some fruit and veg available for 69p every week.

CH27

Shoey1610 wrote: »

On the program afterwards about benefits, there was a smug lady lecturing the lady on benefits about not buying a whole chicken 'which is half bones' and that her money would go further if she bought some nice chicken fillets and cut them into chunks instead. :eek:

I was gobsmacked when she said that :eek:

alfiesmum

CH27 wrote: »

I was gobsmacked when she said that :eek:

Didn't you get the sense that that woman had an absolute hatred for the lady & family that she was shadowing?!!

pickle54

alfiesmum wrote: »

Didn't you get the sense that that woman had an absolute hatred for the lady & family that she was shadowing?!!

The way she was ripping in to her for feeding her a kids a hot meal after they'd had a (free) school dinner.....I've seen those portions and my skinny kids would definitely need something fairly substantial In the evening too if they had those or the biscuit tin would be empty! The woman had a fair bit of food I wouldn't say was healthy...but the lady following her wanted her to remove the chicken and not the processed stuff??!

gallygirl

CH27 wrote: »

I was gobsmacked when she said that :eek:

I was picturing all the jaws dropping on MSE :rotfl:.

maman

alfiesmum wrote: »

Didn't you get the sense that that woman had an absolute hatred for the lady & family that she was shadowing?!!

Not exactly hatred but obviously nothing happened there to even put a dent in her entrenched views on 'benefit scroungers'. I thought the 'scrounger' (apologies as I don't remember her name), after an initial wobble in the supermarket, just decided to say yes to everything and carry on in her own sweet way. I thought it quite a clever tactic, you can't argue with someone who keeps on agreeing with you!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

its ok for us to moan and groan about this programme, BUT there are thousands and thousands of familes, who just don't know how to shop.

they are of a generation who's parents were shopping when there at the birth of the 'convienence ' food culture. So cooking from scratch was 'old school'

I did like the parts where they were going to local shops and markets and trying to get a little bit of discount or a better deal.