"Eat Well For Less?" - thoughts?

PasturesNew

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!

They had a curry each, pilau rice, poppadoms, naan bread and a pile of onion bhajis. But they won't have had the cheapest ones in the shop.

When I have an indian takeaway from a shop (say 2x a year because I like them), it's £7. I have one veggie biryani. And that's enough for me for two meals.

merzal

When we have an Indian takeaway me and the OH share a set meal / banquet for one. Includes starter, main, side, rice, naan and a poppadom which costs between £14-17 depending on where we order (some include a drink) and there's usually leftovers.
I only buy the ready made curries etc when they are heavily reduced so don't really take notice of the prices. For a treat I'd rather be paying £16.50 for a modest takeaway than the same amount on the supermarket version!

I cooked my own curry tonight: lamb korma with mushrooms, samosas, Bombay potatoes, rice and naans - mostly YS items, did us a huge meal tonight and cost under £1!

candygirl

It's about £15 for two of us, for takeaway indian starters, naans, rices and two main courses, and i'm oop Norf:D

Pollycat

natlie wrote: »

I think the programme should be called 'eat the same for less' but it does kind of do what it says on the tin - this is just about people who can't cook and don't budget - and her last night she just couldn't be bothered to make the effort.

I don't think we can diss the programme as they are achieving what they set out to do - reduce their food bill.

I'm not sure I agree with you that the programme does what it says on the tin.

It may be pushing the 'For Less' buttons but I can't see the 'Eat Well' being promoted so much.

Especially in the first programme where they were eating copious amounts of processed food - in particular sausages.
They just seem to suggest cheaper alternatives instead of challenging the actual food.

Prinzessilein wrote: »

my first thought was 'why didn't they suggest a slowcooker for the over-stressed low-cooking-skilled Mum?'....The family seemed to enjoy meals like curry and chilli...which are just so easy to prepare and cook in the slowcooker, and before long she could get the prep done in about 10 minutes, switch on the cooker and then do nothing until it is time to cook some rice or potatoes just before dinner!

Yes, why didn't they?

Prinzessilein wrote: »

Then I would have liked to give her a simple cook book...plenty to choose from at the library until she decides on which would be best for her to buy....for her family I would suggest the Economy Gastronomy book...and maybe a good general book Good Housekeeping perhaps or Readers Digest Cookery Year....She seemed bright enough and willing to learn - why has she not considered teaching herself before?

Another good suggestion.

Most of you will already have seen this thread as it's on this board, but I thought what a fab idea for somebody who's not got much clue about cooking:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5166277

andygb

Pollycat wrote: »

I'm not sure I agree with you that the programme does what it says on the tin.

It may be pushing the 'For Less' buttons but I can't see the 'Eat Well' being promoted so much.
Especially in the first programme where they were eating copious amounts of processed food - in particular sausages.
They just seem to suggest cheaper alternatives instead of challenging the actual food.
Yes, why didn't they?
Another good suggestion.

Most of you will already have seen this thread as it's on this board, but I thought what a fab idea for somebody who's not got much clue about cooking:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5166277

Excellent post:beer:
I was horrified to see in the first programme, that the Dad was giving FOUR sausages each (including the young children) on a plate along with other stuff. We have sausages (good, butcher ones) as a treat once a month, and we have two each.

We are just about to do our main shop for the week's fruit, veg, milk and some meat (we will buy more fresh meat later in the week), from a local farm shop. The bill (for two people) usually comes to around £20. In last week's shop we bought 1 dozen ginormous free range eggs (£2.80), four £1 bags (mixed veg, tomatoes, peppers (5 big ones), apples), five large red potatoes, six large red onions, eight white onions, 4 garlic cloves, 1 kilo carrots, green beans, 200g green chillis, 300g Mull Vintage Cheddar, 1.5 K organic bread flour, 1 litre semi skimmed milk.
Yesterday we managed to buy a medium chicken (roast in the bag) from the local co-op for £3.50, and that will do us for around six portions - at least.
It was evident that some of the foods which the last family liked, were very high in sugar and salt - pasta sauces, granola, buiscuits, yoghurt, and that can be addictive, which is a very dangerous thing to do when there are children involved.
We hardly ever buy more than a couple of items from supermarkets, because we find that local farm shops and "International" stores have cheaper produce and better quality, and you are not tempted to get sidetracked by special offers - BOGOF's and the like.
This programme would have been so much better, if it had changed people's whole concept about where to shop, sadly it hasn't even tried.:(

ash28

andygb wrote: »

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.

The only place I have ever seen an Indian takeaway of 2 main courses, rice and naan for anything near £5 each is in Bradford....I have a sister in law who lives in the Greengates area and some of the takeaways do a tray with curry, rice, chapattis and chips for £5 each for the cheapest option - it all comes in one tray. And you can get a larger tray for £6.50.

My sister lives on the north east coast in Whitley Bay and she can get a meal for one for £11, in addition to the rice and naan you get a bhaji and a poppadom. Otherwise it would cost you £10.50 each to buy the cheapest chicken curry, pilau rice and a naan.

We lived near Reading for many years and have children still there, we used to and sometimes still do use a place where the cheapest chicken curry, pilau rice and a naan would cost £11.65 each. Onion bhajis for instance are £2.95.

We currently live in the rural east midlands and here the cheapest chicken curry, pilau rice and a plain naan would be £10.35 each.

So in most of the places I have been (all be it not that many) spending £30 on a takeaway for 2 would not be beyond the realms of possibility.

catkins

I don't know if it is set up for the cameras but both weeks the couples when told how much they spend a week/year on food do the shock horror look. Do they really not have any idea?


If they really do not realise how much they are spending then they obviously are pretty well off but also not very bright. Of course if they can afford to pay £300 a week for food that's up to them but I just don't see how even buying top brands. They surely should be buying steak and champagne for that sort of money?


The man the first week and the woman this week both annoyed me. Both so sure that an item was "not there normal one" - the guy and the jam and the woman and the chicken. Both wrong though. I also thought the woman this week was incredibly lazy. Ok she has 4 children but they are not all babies are they and it didn't look like she worked. How long does it honestly take to make a sauce from scratch or peel a couple of carrot. They should have taught her to make a large amount of sauce and then freeze some in batches

debbym

The amount of fuss she made over peeling and chopping two carrots was hilarious. Don't know if anyone noticed but most of the supermarket brands seemed to come from Waitrose this week, that and brand heavy; not a big surprise they are way over the national average budget really...

debbym

meritaten wrote: »

OMG - £350 a week? where do they shop?

Waitrose to judge by the swapped products at the end. The chicken was Waitrose and she was told it was from her usual top end supermarket;)

lessonlearned

I don't think this weeks woman was lazy, I just think she lacked knife skills and was, in general lacking confidence in her abilities, once she was shown how to do a couple of things she did actually seem quit enthusiastic about having a go.

None of us are born with cooking skills, we all have to learn. I consider myself to be a Passable cook, but I still make mistakes and muck things up. Not all of my offerings Are edible and I do occasionally resort to easy bung in the oven stuff. I've learned to keep something easy on stand by for when I'm having a particularly disastrous day in the kitchen.

I can chop veg - on a good day.:rotfl: I'm not disabled - just Cackhanded. My clumsiness in the kitchen is a running joke in our household.

I cut myself, burn and scald myself, drop stuff, break glassware and crockery on a regular basis. I'm a bit of a liability really but I do actually enjoy cooking - on a good day. I give it my best shot and my family don't starve but I have to Admit there are days when I really do feel like iit's a case of "can't cook, don't even want to try today"

TBH I am often quite in awe of some of the posters on the Old style boards, Your cooking and budgeting skills are truly both amazing and inspiring.

Please be patient with the people on these programmes (and walking disasters like me:rotfl:). We can't all be Nigella.......;)

Re - the guy is a self employed IT consultant. They can earn SERIOUS amounts of money.

I take my hat off to these people for being brave enough (or stupid enough depending on your viewpoint) for trying to improve their efforts.

At least they are trying. God knows what you lot would make of me if you saw me in the kitchen.......:rotfl: but then again I would not submit myself to such public humilAtion. My family know thAt I do my best and accept my less successful efforts with grace and humour.

My family know that my clumsiness is made worse when I'm tired or hormonal so they just accept that meal quality can vary.

When a meal does go utterley pear shaped - like last Monday nights dinner, well there's always the chippy .........