NOT BUYING IT! 2015 - A consumer holiday

Slowdown

I think the 'Eat well for less' programme will work in its current format actually. I understand that they could have gone a lot further at reducing costs and some programmes have probably tried that sort of thing but it has to think of its target audience.

Trying to get a family like the one featured to start stripping chickens to the core, boiling for stock, etc etc is a step too far. The amount of cutting back they did was realistic for that particular family and many others just like them. On here we are all pretty good at cutting back, being frugal, getting the most out of every morsel but there are many, many people out there who haven't got a clue how much they are spending, what's in their cupboards or what to do with it.

I think, for the people it was trying to reach it succeeded. As for Greg? I know he is a tv chef but I rarely wander into these programmes so wouldn't be able to comment on him personally. He was at their level and wasn't patronising or condescending. Good enough I would say.

As for the juice, I buy a carton a week for the boys. Rarely drink it myself but found it interesting to see what the public perception was.

Only bought what was on my shopping list today:)

Kind regards
Slowdown:)

edwink

I do agree that fruit juices are full of sugar but eating fresh fruit is full of sugar too!! Although both contain fruit sugars it is still sugar!!


Also a lot of fresh fruit is quite heavy in calories too!! If you eat 3 pieces of fruit for lunch because you are dieting your body gets a huge boost of fruit sugars and then a drop some time later. But, if you ate a healthy wholemeal salad sandwich it would possibly contain the same amount of calories as the 3 pieces of fruit or slightly more but only a bit. But because the sandwich is wholemeal you would not get the big rise in sugars because wholemeal releases energy slower than sugars do making you less hungry for longer. Plus the sandwich itself would be more filling!!


Fruit juice is a healthy option but as with everything is best in moderation in my honest opinion. It is so easy to pour out a glass of fruit juice but if you actually measured the amount you could find that you are having 3 or 4 portions of it and that is where the fruit sugars and calories mount up.


I am not sure exactly but I think a litre carton of fruit juice is 10 portions. I do not have any in the fridge to check this. Maybe someone could clarify this!!


Water is great to drink too but quite honestly I do not think it tastes like it once did!!


Have a good no spend day everyone!!


Edwink x

CEW

Hi Edwink,

200ml of juice is generally classed as one portion so a one litre carton would normally be classed as 5 portions.

I'm getting very good as judging my portions now and stick to one glass a day max. It does help me to reach my 5 a day

Chez x

GreyQueen

Morning all.

I've read that the difference between eating the whole fruit and drinking the juice of the fruit is that when you eat the fruit, you get the roughage and also your metabolism doesn't react in the same way as it does to fruit juice. Basically, the fruit juice causes your blood sugar to spike and then fall back dramatically. Not only is this not terribly good for you, it tends to cause fatigue and hunger, which causes you to eat more. Also, if you think about it, a glass of juice probably represents a lot more than the output of a single fruit, and how many pieces of fruit is a person liable to eat in one day?

I don't have any truck with fruit juices, although I'd drink an OJ over a cola if I was somewhere socially and that was all they had by way of soft drinks. When I visit my folks, they have OJ with their evening meal and I have a glass of water.

Been out on some errands. Three specifically; first to get 2 faux pearl necklaces restrung. They are multi-stranded and too small, so this was to turn them into single strands I could actually wear. The jeweller will do the one with same size pearls for £2 but not the one with graduated size 'pearls' as it would take forever. These are costume necklaces belonging to my late Grandma, too small for either Mum or I to wear. Not that we're particularly fat in the neck department but we're much bigger built and Grandma was very thin. I shall have to have a think about the other necklace.

So, one half-sucessful errand, entirely successful errand to the bank. I got a mini-statement and was concerned that the balance was bigher than I expected and did that mean that the washing-machine which I bought earlier this month hadn't come off the total? Printed a proper statement off the machine and it has.

I was very pleased; rent, council tax, telecoms, washer have come off and I'm still looking good. Lot to be said for Not Buying It, eh?

purpleshoes_2

A 150ml glass counts as one portion, but that's it apparently, if you drank the whole carton you'd still only count the one. Its the same school of thought that if you eat your five a day or whatever a day from the same fruit or veg, it only counts as one portion (although personally, I tend to eat a lot of the same stuff). Thats because its recommended that you get variety and obviously drinking a litre of fruit juice a day won't give you the same benefits as having a variety of fruit and veg.

There are calls to ban fruit juice from counting for a variety of reasons and I've read articles where people wouldn't count fruit juice. Simply because of the different types of juice, someone might buy one thinking it counted when it didn't.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29986012

I drink sparkling water, Im in Scotland and our tap water is very drinkable, but I don't like still water very much at all.

Sugar is added to so many foods, it's impossible to avoid it totally, I also stay away from stuff like stevia, truvia, agave nectar, that's just sugar by any other name.

grunnie

GreyQueen you can restring the pearls yourself. John Lewis sell a string which is a bit stretchy plastic with a clasp for this. You just thread on the pearls. It is solid like stretchy plastic and easy to thread on the pearls. Or use dental floss and the same clasp. I used corrugated paper and put a few inches of the beads on each row as I cut the string. If I can do it so can you as it is very easy. I made 1 long string and 2 bracelets from my mum's pearls.

GreyQueen

grunnie wrote: »

GreyQueen you can restring the pearls yourself. John Lewis sell a string which is a bit stretchy plastic with a clasp for this. You just thread on the pearls. It is solid like stretchy plastic and easy to thread on the pearls. Or use dental floss and the same clasp. I used corrugated paper and put a few inches of the beads on each row as I cut the string. If I can do it so can you as it is very easy. I made 1 long string and 2 bracelets from my mum's pearls.

Thank you for that info, I was wondering if I would need a 'beading needle' but I could try the dental floss. Not keen on the elastic thread idea as elastic gives way eventually. I won't re-use the same clasp as it has 3 anchor points on each side (the necklace I shall re-string myself being a 3-strander being made into a single strand).

Something to do one quiet evening.

joedenise

Haven't watched the Eating well for less yet but planning on watching it on i-player later. Greg Wallace isn't actually a chef! He was originally a greengrocer. Not quite sure how he came to get into the cookery programmes but the first I remember seeing him was on Masterchef years ago when John Torrode was the chef presenting it.

Denise

[Deleted User]

I just received an electrical item from amazon.de ie germany. Exactly the same model as sold in the uk, in uk it comes with a flimsy 2 pin adaptor. I bought a rugged adapter from maplins, one in which the 2 pin is held into a 3 pin uk plug, by a screw. Delivery was very quick, even quicker than uk and I saved a good 25% in total as euro is so low

Trouble is now I am thinking `what else can I get from germany?` I already have lovely melton wool and silk on the way. It would be pretty bloomin ideal if I was after a good sewing machine or somesuch but I need nothing

I did half a kitchen re-vamp this morning after getting up early because of the wind. My bm is now on its side in a cupboard as I am totally into hand made artisan sourdough and my mixer can help with that if need be. So an out of sight period for a while and maybe, just maybe, it will eventually be going to a dd. Second shopping trolley is almost full for the cs. I started by going around all my ikea hooks, I mean I had 4 cheese graters of various size grates, I kept 2, a can opener has gone, whisks, little metal pudding bowls with lids and so on. I think I am getting a better mentality re catering for 2, except for one-offs and things have been placed so they are more accessible, as befits someone of my age. Feet up time now, I am cream crackered

117pauline

I have just rather sneakily watered down the milk so I can get by without going shopping!

So I reckon that could be my challenge for the day. I was trying to work out what else I could "improve" in a similar way so that will keep my mind occupied for the rest of the day at least.

And I have just realised I am supposed to be counting down from 100 so this is number 97.

I still have loads in the freezer to use up although the cupboards are looking a little more bare. I have just moved my last four pack baked beans to the main cupboard. Next task is to do the menu plan for February using as much as I can up.

Enjoy the weekend shipmates and stay warm