"Eat Well For Less?" - thoughts?

Austin_Allegro

Last night's episode was about a family of six who spent on average 355 pounds a week. They claimed to have no idea what they were spending and were obsessive brand snobs. They seemed a decent enough family though.

What puzzled me was how did they have so much money!? They'd bought a big house in Stratford on Avon, the husband only worked occasionally. The wife presumably worked but they didn't say what as. Of course they'll get some state benefits, and may have a private income, but I couldn't help thinking they were up to their eyes in debt.

I suppose it's none of our business really but if a family's going to expose themselves in this way they must expect such questions...

Goldiegirl

jack_pott wrote: »

My point is that your stomach thinks in terms of calories. If you eat something low in salt, but low in calories too, you will end up feeling correspondingly hungrier, and by the time you've eaten more to satisfy the hunger you've also eaten more salt.

It's quite easy to check, when you look at the label it will say something like "a portion contains 19% of your daily calorie requirement". If it says that same portion contains more than 19% of your salt requirement, then it's high salt. Quick and simple: just compare the two percentages and see which is the higher, no mental arithmetic required even.

My point is that it doesn't matter what my stomach thinks.

I have something called Menieres Disease, which is an inner ear problem. If I consume too much sodium, it can trigger severe vertigo attacks, which are unpleasant enough, but each attack can damage my hearing, and destroy my balance system. So I could end up deaf, and unable to walk in a straight line.

Therefore it's essential that I keep to my low sodium diet.

It's very easy - if it's green on the pack for salt, I know it's ok for me - as I said earlier, I can't slavishly count the value of everything that passes my lips, that's no way to live at all.

Therefore, I eat more foods I know to be lower in salt. Things like whole grain cereals, porridge, unprocessed meats, fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, yoghurt, eggs. I can treat myself if I want, as most desserts are lower in salt. I avoid cakes, as they tend to have more salt in them than biscuits, as cakes need a raising agent (usually sodium based). Things I know to be high in salt like cheese, sausages, bacon, pizza - I don't eat.

All this keeps my ear happy - that is my priority.

But, my stomach is also happy, as I eat a lot of the things I can eat, which tend to be fairly healthy things, I rarely need to snack between meals, and maintain a weight that is appropriate for my height.

It works for me.

Edited to add - also your point about a portion containing 19% of my daily salt requirement. That would be the average adults daily salt requirement. As I aim consume less than half of the average adults requirement, that'd be 38% of MY daily requirement!

Austin_Allegro

Good point about making one's own yoghurt (or kefir).
I guess the point of the series is to get 'normal' (ie, profligate) British families to spend less while maintaining a relatively similar lifestyle, not to turn them into extreme oldstylers like us lot here! That might be a bit of a shock for the families on the programme (and the viewers at home).

Kantankrus_Mare

Whilst I would never in a million years buy pre cut carrots or grated cheese,, I have to confess I use frozen chopped mixed peppers for homemade curries, casseroles etc. as fresh peppers just work out so kuch more expensive .

I will buy fresh for salads though for the crunch.

redmel1621

merzal wrote: »

Aside from the obvious shocks I couldnt believe the price of the shop bought Indian. They said they usual spend £22 on a takeaway and the shop bought one was £5.50 cheaper...making it £16.50-is that correct?! Thats only on one meal and they didnt seem to have that much!

I thought the indian meal cost £5.50... Maybe I mis-heard?

flea72

redmel1621 wrote: »

I thought the indian meal cost £5.50... Maybe I mis-heard?

No, it cost £5.50 less than they pay for a takeaway. If you buy a couple of curries , rice poppadums, naan nread, bhajis, sag aloo etc. at the supermarket, it can soon mount up to £16

Tbh £22 for an indian takeawy, is fairly reasonable. Its nearer £30 where i live

andygb

merzal wrote: »

Aside from the obvious shocks I couldnt believe the price of the shop bought Indian. They said they usual spend £22 on a takeaway and the shop bought one was £5.50 cheaper...making it £16.50-is that correct?! Thats only on one meal and they didnt seem to have that much!

I totally agree Merzal, we have not had an Indian takeaway for months, but when we did, it came to around £15 for the two of us (they only ordered for two in the programme). However, last year we had a couple of ready meals (Indian) from Asda, and I think that each time they only came to around £8 - £9 all in - 2 main courses, onion bhajis, rice.
I noticed that the family in the programme were wasting/throwing away food at every meal.

andygb

flea72 wrote: »

No, it cost £5.50 less than they pay for a takeaway. If you buy a couple of curries , rice poppadums, naan nread, bhajis, sag aloo etc. at the supermarket, it can soon mount up to £16

Tbh £22 for an indian takeawy, is fairly reasonable. Its nearer £30 where i live

What on earth do you have for £30, and which area do you live in?
Ours come to around £15 maximum (we live in Kent), and we have two main courses, rice and naan.
When we visited our relations up North it used to cost around a tenner.

andygb

redmel1621 wrote: »

I thought the indian meal cost £5.50... Maybe I mis-heard?

No, it really was only £5.50 cheaper, which I found hard to believe, bearing in mind that you can get 3 x Asda main dishes for £7.50 - their "scorching hot vindaloo" is as good as most takeaway vindaloos.

rubytuesday

Pollycat wrote: »

I thought the kids were nice, but not the parents.

I thought the parents were totally nauseating!

I'm finding this programme a complete waste of time stating nothing but the bleedin' obvious and with people who obviously have more money than sense and rather smug with it too if you ask me!