Jamie Olivers money saving meals

barbarawright

JReacher1 wrote: »

It would only be over £100 a week if all his meals were a comparable price. I believe the premise of his program is that it's cheaper to cook good quality family meals than it is to go to a takeaway and buy a meal for a family.

Yes, I doubt he's expecting people to cook like this every day. And really, people don't have mustard and foil in the house?

pmduk

I decided the best way to save money was to not buy the associated book at £25. (It's available cheaper elsewhere, but I'll still pass.)

Sharon87

The show's not for the people who are on a really low budget diet (like £15 per week, per person or less), it's made for the average person as a way to save money. Yes the joint is £14 but have you seen the size of it? It's massive and he used the cheapest cut you can get from a supermarket. If he used Silverside or Topside the joint would have been a lot more money.

nonnatus

I agree with Sharon - he doesn't claim to be targeting the ULTRA-MSE-ers, )those holy Forumites who eat roadkill andsave water by not flushing the loo...).

He's showing the average person how to stretch more expensive foods. He's saying, don't throw away the Roast leftovers, see what can be done with a bit of time and imagination?
Or, Instead of paying £20 for a Dominoes Pizza, make your own version for £5 (not appealing on ANY level to me I'm afraid!)

I enjoyed the programme and learned a few things

Fishingtime

olias wrote: »

Rice (uncle bens - probably the most expensive way to buy rice!) £2

Not if you are Jamie as he must get his rice for free.
You usually see a packet of Uncle bens somewhere in the programme

I thought that type of advertising was not allowed

aliama

Fishingtime wrote: »

Not if you are Jamie as he must get his rice for free.
You usually see a packet of Uncle bens somewhere in the programme

I thought that type of advertising was not allowed

A disclaimer is screened before the program, stating that it contains product placement. I think that's a fairly new law that's come in.

As for the OP, as others have stated your costings are way, WAY off. Take the olive oil for instance...

1 ltr of Sainsburys olive oil is £3.60. That's 36p for 100 ml. It looks like the roast brisket recipe uses aroune 2 tbsp of oil, which is, what, 30ml? So the actual costing for that should be about 11 pence, not £4.

Same goes for the mustard. The recipe only uses 2 tsp, not the entire jar. And the kitchen foil and greaseproof paper too... the recipe doesn't use the whole pack.

If you're assuming that people are starting with an empty storecupboard, then why not go further? Why not include the cost of the roasting tin in your costing? Knives, chopping boards, an oven?

Now there is some validity to that sort of argument, IF we're sitting around !!!!!ing about families always eating convenience food which costs more, when they could be cooking lovely fresh healthy food from scratch. Cooking food from scratch doesn't cost less if you don't have access to basic kitchen equipment, or if you have to work 2 jobs to make ends meet and so genuinely have no time to shop or cook.

But my point is that's not what Jamie is doing. Yes, he's assuming that people do have access to a working kitchen and to a well-stocked food cupboard -- so what? Really, I mean it. So what? If you're at all interested in cooking and want to cook from scratch, then you should have things like olive oil and mustard in the cupboard. If you're not interested in that, then why buy the book in the first place?

Something else which I don't think has been touched on yet though is that it's possible (or likely if you're canny with the servings) that there will be enough leftovers of the beef for more than the one meal, which throws your costing assumptions even further off.

But having said all that, you are, however, absolutely, completely and utterly RIGHT about the Uncle Ben's rice.

davehughes182

Product Placement is very much allowed these days. Even on certain quiz shows etc they have it.

PILES

olias wrote: »

Ok, I know he's a bit of a ****, but he does the odd good program, so I thought that I would try his 'money saving meals' tonight on 4OD. I didn't have high hopes that someone worth more than £100 million would have a clue, and I was right.

Beef joint £14
mustard £1
Onions £.50
Rosemary £1
Olive oil £4
Grease proof paper £2.50
Baking foil £2.50
Together with potatos, swede, carrots another £2-£3
Apparently enough for 6

Leftovers, mix with -
BBQ sauce £1.50
Chilli sauce £1.50
Rice (uncle bens - probably the most expensive way to buy rice!) £2
Mushrooms £1
Garlic £0.50
Chilli £0.50
Savoy cabbage £1
5 Eggs £2
Sesame seeds £1
Mint/Corriander £1

Thats £40 so far for only 2 meals for a family of 5/6. The guy is on another planet! And this is with a team of researchers and nutritionists etc helping him!

I can't tell you anymore, because I gave up at that point!

Anyone else have any comments?

Olias

Even if your quantities used are correct that still gives 12 meals for £40. Taking proper note of the reusables in your list above would reduce this down to 12 meals for £30 i.e. £2.50 per meal, not bad really. Of course you have to stock the kitchen with the reusables but that is what families do.

Ronaldo_Mconaldo

Is the OP taking up a campaign on someone else's behalf? Would you prefer Jamie to have a show on the best way to cook Aldi own brand super noodles?

Hermia

Sharon87 wrote: »

The show's not for the people who are on a really low budget diet (like £15 per week, per person or less), it's made for the average person as a way to save money.

Exactly! I don't think he has ever claimed that this is a book for people who are on very tight budgets. I've always assumed this is a book/programme aimed at his normal audience, but just acknowledges that many have had to tighten their belts. I don't see a problem with that. I imagine there are probably more people out there who are solvent, but needing to now be a bit more careful with money, than there are people who are on £10 shopping budgets.