Famous Rich and Hungry

Principia_2

roddydogs wrote: »

Its all the wicked Governments fault, they should pay these people more benefits, courtesy of us taxpayers.

Or a law could be passed that all debts are frozen and nothing is payable while a person is on benefits. The Government could probably even reduce benefits then.

thorsoak

pawsies wrote: »

Don't understand why they went shopping in 'expensive' places like Spar, corner shops etc.

Why not reduced sections of supermarket?! Some of them definitely had supermarkets as they were featured on the programme!

Also £7 on stew??!! You could get frozen veg (which is actually healthier) or reduced, chopped tomatoes, a worse cut of meat (i.e. not the most popular) or reduced and spices which they probably already have. That would come to maybe £4.

Some of the people should go to their local library and use the internet for free to access this site for ideas

Don't forget - some of these people are eating and might not live within walking distance of a supermarket (for over 30 years my nearest supermarket was at least 3 miles away) - and if they are eating less than they ought, they might not have the energy to walk to a supermarket and back with a couple of large bags of shopping. Spar shops are generally local - and they often have offers which are on an equal footing to those of supermarkets.

Not everybody lives around the corner to Tescos!

elinasara

I watched in the early morning too. Really i feel bad.

claire16c

I don't think they picked the best examples for this programme. It ended up mainly being about people who had large debts and therefore their benefits were going on that.

I thought it was going to be showing families living on benefits & how the benefits weren't enough & they still needed food banks.

paulineb_2

thorsoak wrote: »

Don't forget - some of these people are eating and might not live within walking distance of a supermarket (for over 30 years my nearest supermarket was at least 3 miles away) - and if they are eating less than they ought, they might not have the energy to walk to a supermarket and back with a couple of large bags of shopping. Spar shops are generally local - and they often have offers which are on an equal footing to those of supermarkets.

Not everybody lives around the corner to Tescos!

I manage to walk a mile each way to Tescos and did so when I was on JSA if I didnt have bus fare, I dont drive and lots of people around here dont either, but some people use the local shop even though its probably costing them a fortune.

It actually amazes me how many people where I live (the specific area of town I live in has very high unemployment) use the local NISA shop and yes they have offers, but the items that arent on offer are total rip off.

3 times the price that you'd pay in the supermarket.

I live in a medium sized town and there are no farmers markets or anything like that here, but there are numerous supermarkets, I actually agree that if someone is on a low income, even if they need to walk, using supermarkets such as aldi, shops like home bargains and the like is much better than using the corner shop.

My local spar is extortionate, I can't afford to shop there, the prices arent competitive at all.

balletshoes

claire16c wrote: »

I don't think they picked the best examples for this programme. It ended up mainly being about people who had large debts and therefore their benefits were going on that.

if the only lesson viewers learned from the programmes is to not get into debt, then i think it was worthwhile - it put the fear of god into me, the possibility that i might not be able to feed my family if i lost my job and had debts.

I thought it was going to be showing families living on benefits & how the benefits weren't enough & they still needed food banks.

the lady with Cheryl last night had no debts, was living on benefits - and managing fine with her spreadsheet and bargain-hunting for her food shopping etc. Then a £200 rent bill came out of her bank earlier than she anticipated, and you could see her starting to go into a flatspin. It would only take a couple of missing/late payments and the bank charges those accumulate, for someone on a fixed low income to get into financial difficulty.

missprice

Principia wrote: »

Or a law could be passed that all debts are frozen and nothing is payable while a person is on benefits. The Government could probably even reduce benefits then.

This is a great idea and I thought of it myself when pondering in the arms about benefits and the like. Even minimum payments would be a big help. But I can see a lot of people may well run up the debt and then get onto benefits just to avoid the debt for a long time.

thorsoak wrote: »

Don't forget - some of these people are eating and might not live within walking distance of a supermarket (for over 30 years my nearest supermarket was at least 3 miles away) - and if they are eating less than they ought, they might not have the energy to walk to a supermarket and back with a couple of large bags of shopping. Spar shops are generally local - and they often have offers which are on an equal footing to those of supermarkets.

Not everybody lives around the corner to Tescos!

Have to agree with this too and its a point I have made before.
I used to walk to Morrison's ( about a mile away) and then walk back with the shopping. I actually did it daily because I went for the cheap but still in date stuff. However much more than a mile each way or less than every day I.e weekly and it becomes a big problem , even worse if your diet is bad.
Plus although I currently live near Morrison's and at a push sainsburys ( being a little bit further away and uphill ) I used to live in a place that was 7 miles away from any supermarkets.
Its not even reasonable to demand people walk, in all weather 7 miles each way just to do shopping. And plenty of people still live in that place, lots don't drive or cant afford a car and last time I looked there was a 4 hour bus service ( as in one bus every 4 hours, was hourly when I lived there)

Not to even mention the weight of a weeks worth of shopping would be too much to carry in one trip.

esmerelda98

claire16c wrote: »

I don't think they picked the best examples for this programme. It ended up mainly being about people who had large debts and therefore their benefits were going on that.

I thought it was going to be showing families living on benefits & how the benefits weren't enough & they still needed food banks.

I suspect that in the absence of debts most people who are careful should be able to just about manage on benefits like JSA, certainly income support and disability benefits, bearing in mind that most have their housing costs covered. This was demonstrated by the lady with fibromyalgia. I'm not stating this as fact, it is my opinion. It is when there are unexpected bills like the boiler breaking down that can mess up people's careful budgeting.

Edit: I see someone has made the same point while I was writing my post.

Oakie

I have only seem the first episode.I wondered if parts of it were staged?
The part when one of the celebs Cheryl Ferguson [?] went down the supermarket bins. I thought it was degrading offering her host out of date bread.
For me I feel its the likes of Wonga and Doorstep lenders that play a big part in keeping folk in poverty. Its easy to say to say don't take out a loan,but there are times when there is no other option. Wish the govt would cap their interest rates and outlaw their sharp practises like their continous repayment clause.
And while the govt are about it they should outlaw zero hours contracts.Allowing people to enjoy a regular income.

paulineb_2

missprice wrote: »

This is a great idea and I thought of it myself when pondering in the arms about benefits and the like. Even minimum payments would be a big help. But I can see a lot of people may well run up the debt and then get onto benefits just to avoid the debt for a long time.



Have to agree with this too and its a point I have made before.
I used to walk to Morrison's ( about a mile away) and then walk back with the shopping. I actually did it daily because I went for the cheap but still in date stuff. However much more than a mile each way or less than every day I.e weekly and it becomes a big problem , even worse if your diet is bad.
Plus although I currently live near Morrison's and at a push sainsburys ( being a little bit further away and uphill ) I used to live in a place that was 7 miles away from any supermarkets.
Its not even reasonable to demand people walk, in all weather 7 miles each way just to do shopping. And plenty of people still live in that place, lots don't drive or cant afford a car and last time I looked there was a 4 hour bus service ( as in one bus every 4 hours, was hourly when I lived there)

Not to even mention the weight of a weeks worth of shopping would be too much to carry in one trip.

People would be cheaper buying their food from a supermarket online in those circumstances and paying a few quid for delivery than using corner shops.

The prices in my local corner shop are eyewatering. £2 for a can of tuna compared to 49p in aldi or 40p in B and M for example

Or companies such as approved foods where people can stock up on basics, even with delivery, still much cheaper than using corner shops. I got 5kgs of pasta from approved foods for £5 last year and Im still working my way through it.

I used to buy a bus ticket when I could afford it when I was on JSA, if I couldnt, I walked and even if I had to do a shop every two days as opposed to once a week, still saved me more money than shopping in my local corner shop.