"Eat Well For Less?" - thoughts?

lessonlearned

My son has friends who are dentists.....both highly skilled and very well paid, pulling in over£200k

The wife in particular is right at the top of her game, making £120k.

She is a hopeless cook but a brilliant dental surgeon. The husband is a bit better in the kitchen but they are both pushed for time so they don't cook from scratch very often. They spend a small fortune on food, but do eat good healthy food, they tend to buy good quality ingredients and part pre-prepared food which they then "assemble".

In their case it makes perfect sense - they get to focus on their children and their careers whilst still managing to eat well.

andygb

ash28 wrote: »

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.

I have just had a look at the menus which I keep handy for two of our best taeaways down in Kent.

http://www.takeaway.com/masums

That is the more expensive of the two, but we generally have a chicken biryani, chicken dhansak, naan. We don't need more rice, because we share the biryani rice. Their prices have gone up but it comes to £16, and sometimes we have a side dish for £2.50. They also do a reward card system - or they did a couple of years ago.

This is a bit further away for us, but the food is good and they do deliver free.

http://www.seethroughmedia.co.uk/dhaka_tandoori/dhaka_web_2009.pdf

catkins

lessonlearned wrote: »

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.

I agree she lacked knife skills and didn't seem confident to cook but some of the things she said, for instance the moaning about how long it took to cut a carrot, made me feel she was lazy. She was quick to stress the fact that she has 4 children and a comment or two about time.


I appreciate that she is busy with that many children but I think they were all school age except maybe 1 plus it didn't seem like she worked. She must have some time during the day to prepare a meal or batch cook. I now plenty of mothers who work full time and still manage to cook from scratch.

lessonlearned wrote: »

My son has friends who are dentists.....both highly skilled and very well paid, pulling in over£200k

The wife in particular is right at the top of her game, making £120k.

She is a hopeless cook but a brilliant dental surgeon. The husband is a bit better in the kitchen but they are both pushed for time so they don't cook from scratch very often. They spend a small fortune on food, but do eat good healthy food, they tend to buy good quality ingredients and part pre-prepared food which they then "assemble".

In their case it makes perfect sense - they get to focus on their children and their careers whilst still managing to eat well.

I can see if a couple are both working long hours and can afford to buy all their meals it makes sense BUT that didn't seem to apply to either of the families shown on this programme. I can't remember if the first woman worked or not but, even if she did, I am sure it was not a "high flying" job where she was putting in really long days.


The woman this week I didn't think even worked and again, if she did, I don't think it was some hard job with long hours.


Also, as you say, the family you talk about are eating good healthy food. Neither family in the programme were doing so.

ash28

andygb wrote: »

I have just had a look at the menus which I keep handy for two of our best taeaways down in Kent.

http://www.takeaway.com/masums

That is the more expensive of the two, but we generally have a chicken biryani, chicken dhansak, naan. We don't need more rice, because we share the biryani rice. Their prices have gone up but it comes to £16, and sometimes we have a side dish for £2.50. They also do a reward card system - or they did a couple of years ago.

This is a bit further away for us, but the food is good and they do deliver free.

http://www.seethroughmedia.co.uk/dhaka_tandoori/dhaka_web_2009.pdf

That is quite cheap compared to here, but then we would normally buy 2 curries, 2 portions of rice and 2 naans. And in the programme they had a couple of sides too. So here it would have cost them around £30 as bhajis are around £3.

An indian takeawy is not a cheap option for us and we rarely indulge, a chinese is cheaper here, much cheaper and if we are going to have a takeaway it is usually a chinese.

lessonlearned

Catkins - I appreciate what you are saying - that you know plenty of people who work, have children and still manage to cook from scratch.

I guess I'm a bit like the lady in week 2. I just was absolutely hopeless trying to juggle all three and I only had 2 children, not 4. I could cook, I could look after my children and I could hold down a high powered job. I just couldn't manage all 3 at the same time. Oddly enough neither could my mum. She was even worse than me. Bless her heart the food mum cooked was disgusting. Mine was at least edible - well most of the time:rotfl:

As I said I am in awe of people who can juggle a career, kids and still run a perfect house and kitchen. I take my hat off to you.

Regrettably it's just beyond me.......I can do what I can do and I have my limits.

I guess I can just empathise with the women on this programme, women who, like me, lack the domestic goddess gene.

PasturesNew

andygb wrote: »

I have just had a look at the menus which I keep handy for two of our best taeaways down in Kent.

http://www.takeaway.com/masums

That is the more expensive of the two, but we generally have a chicken biryani, chicken dhansak, naan. We don't need more rice, because we share the biryani rice.

That's a bit cheaper than where I live. For me I'd choose the vegetable biryani. For me it's quite an MSE meal because you usually get a HUGE flavoured rice portion - and it's veggie and not chicken as you pay extra for a few bits of chicken (so not worth it, especially in those places where the chicken's a bit dodgy/fatty looking). So it's a huge rice portion and a regular sized vegetable curry portion - and on your menu that's £6.50 (compared to £7.95 for the chicken version).

If I wanted naan I'd usually just get a cheap pack from a supermarket (e.g. Lidl vacuum packed at 2 for 59p I think, making my naan bread 30p).

So, for £6.50 + 50p I can have rice/curry and a naan for two nights in a row.

I find supermarket indian takeaway meals taste nothing like the real thing - and they don't do a biryani and it soon comes out more expensive than a proper indian takeaway.

flea72

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.

At my local, Onion bhajis starter are £4. Most main currys are £8+, if you want tandoori, its £12. Sag aloo/bombay spuds are £4ea. Rice/naan £3ea, poppadums 75p ea. Chutneys £1ea

So 2 poppadums/chutney, a bhaji to share, 2 currys, 1 rice, 1 naan and 2 sides is £30

On a monday, they have a special of a starter, main, side, rice for £10

However, eat in prices are same as takeaway

mummyroysof3

I've only watched the first episode so far. We spent £620 in January but that includes all febs pet food nappies and wipes too. I want to do better but with fussy hubby and children I struggle so deffo need advice but tbh didn't learn anything so far

DundeeDoll

i managed the first 10 minutes of the first episode, got really cross, felt superior no doubt and switched it off. Then this morning i watched the 2nd episode while i had a bath (that detail i realise unnecessary, but still can't get over the luxury of watching tele in the bath lol) and it struck me that yes it's a bit over the top for entertainment, but there are tips all of us can glean. i can't wait to try out the pasta sauce recipe.
Another thought that struck me was the clever job the supermarkets have done on making sure this mum of four (and many others) have minimal confidence. others have commented on her lack of confidence, and i really think advertising is working on this which of course we pay for at the till. i will now watch episode 1 with renewed interest.

ash28

PasturesNew wrote: »

That's a bit cheaper than where I live. For me I'd choose the vegetable biryani. For me it's quite an MSE meal because you usually get a HUGE flavoured rice portion - and it's veggie and not chicken as you pay extra for a few bits of chicken (so not worth it, especially in those places where the chicken's a bit dodgy/fatty looking). So it's a huge rice portion and a regular sized vegetable curry portion - and on your menu that's £6.50 (compared to £7.95 for the chicken version).

If I wanted naan I'd usually just get a cheap pack from a supermarket (e.g. Lidl vacuum packed at 2 for 59p I think, making my naan bread 30p).

So, for £6.50 + 50p I can have rice/curry and a naan for two nights in a row.

I find supermarket indian takeaway meals taste nothing like the real thing - and they don't do a biryani and it soon comes out more expensive than a proper indian takeaway.

Unfortunately for me supermarket naans are just a doughy splodge....the only one that comes remotely close to a naan is Waitrose.



They are normally about £1.79 for 2....if you like naans they are about the best outside an Indian restaurant/takeaway - that's just my opinion though.