"Eat Well For Less?" - thoughts?

Caterina

Just back from a quick W8rose trip, just to exemplify what I was saying and others have confirmed.

Bread stash reduction, sadly it was already depleted but I managed two lovely ciabatta rolls at 10p each and a fav Gail's organic veg and tomato focaccia for 29p, packets of 4 rolls for 10p, wholemeal sliced bread (large pack, thick cut) 10p.

Very annoyed that a couple of Chinese ladies in front of me got all the double YSd organic watercress at 19p per bag, ah well, some you win some you lose.

Then I discovered that their basic line butter (Essential?) is cheaper than L1dl's if you buy the 500g packet at £1.80 (works out a few pence cheaper per Kg, but it all helps!) and their mixed weight free range egg 6 per box, at £1 each are second to none for freshness and taste, I have stopped buying organic eggs since I discovered these as they are almost as good.

Total just under £7 for loads of bread, 1Kg butter and a dozen eggs.

Could have got some really fancy smoked salmon quiche from their deli, reduced to 49p/100g, would have made a nice dinner, but we did not fancy it as we were just back from DH's birthday lunch out and we were stuffed. Shame, because of the fish we would not trust to keep it in the fridge one more day, or we would have got it for dinner.

Of course it is really only feasible if you have a W8rose nearby, I go there all the time as DH works very near one and we occasionally meet at lunchtime for a free coffee (now we will have to buy a biscuit each too - DOH), but the YS bonanza can get really quite spectacular if you get lucky!

Effyb4

I think they choose families that spend well over the average family shop because it would be much harder to show savings for a lower income family. I think they would struggle to save me money on my weekly shop for 4 adults and 1 teenage boy. I already shop at Ald!s, cook everything from scratch and meal plan.

Caterina

Effyb4 wrote: »

I think they choose families that spend well over the average family shop because it would be much harder to show savings for a lower income family. I think they would struggle to save me money on my weekly shop for 4 adults and 1 teenage boy. I already shop at Ald!s, cook everything from scratch and meal plan.

I thought just that, Effyb4, as I was watching, why don't they try and teach us something we don't know? I know that personally I could go much lower if I put my mind to it, but there are some real experts on this board who could give Greg and co. a run for their money, literally! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

purpleshoes_2

missflirtuk wrote: »

My guess is that Mrs Warner only has a kitchen because it came with the house.

My brother got my mum a plaque saying exactly that a few years ago.

purpleshoes_2

Theres no waitrose near me. I find tesco too expensive most of the time. Im on the cutting down thread as are lots of people. Its only me in my house to feed (plus moggies), I go to one supermarket that always does reductions at a certain time of night, only need to go once a week, last week I got 24 items for £3.76 and one of them was washing up liquid at a quid. Im still using them up.

I cant ever ever recall even when I was better off even spending £100 a week on food. At one point I was spending around £50, but Ive cut that down to about £15 now, sometimes £10.

People don't need to be fabulous cooks to get a few recipes under their belt and then work from there. My brother learned to cook at 17 when he went to uni, was a case of cook, or exist on pot noodles.

I dont have a tv so havent seen the programme, but I can imagine what its like.

Horace

Cooking isn't really difficult. I did a bit of cookery at middle school but didn't really do any after that because when I was married my OH cooked. When I moved into a place of my own one of my work colleagues who was married and had 4 kids wrote down some key recipes for me because she cooked for her husband and kids every day. I still use those recipes eg. cheese & potato pie, potato & onion pie, quiche, stuffed chicken thighs, risotto and now I have added some things of my own including recipes that I make up. It isn't difficult and I would love to have a large kitchen like Mrs Warner but I have a small kitchen but it suits me because there is only me here.

surfsister

Caterina wrote: »

Just back from a quick W8rose trip, just to exemplify what I was saying and others have confirmed.

Bread stash reduction, sadly it was already depleted but I managed two lovely ciabatta rolls at 10p each and a fav Gail's organic veg and tomato focaccia for 29p, packets of 4 rolls for 10p, wholemeal sliced bread (large pack, thick cut) 10p.

Very annoyed that a couple of Chinese ladies in front of me got all the double YSd organic watercress at 19p per bag, ah well, some you win some you lose.

Then I discovered that their basic line butter (Essential?) is cheaper than L1dl's if you buy the 500g packet at £1.80 (works out a few pence cheaper per Kg, but it all helps!) and their mixed weight free range egg 6 per box, at £1 each are second to none for freshness and taste, I have stopped buying organic eggs since I discovered these as they are almost as good.

Total just under £7 for loads of bread, 1Kg butter and a dozen eggs.

Could have got some really fancy smoked salmon quiche from their deli, reduced to 49p/100g, would have made a nice dinner, but we did not fancy it as we were just back from DH's birthday lunch out and we were stuffed. Shame, because of the fish we would not trust to keep it in the fridge one more day, or we would have got it for dinner.

Of course it is really only feasible if you have a W8rose nearby, I go there all the time as DH works very near one and we occasionally meet at lunchtime for a free coffee (now we will have to buy a biscuit each too - DOH), but the YS bonanza can get really quite spectacular if you get lucky!

don't forget your free newspaper if you spend over a fiver in the week!!

aurorahelios

Sadly on my Mums side of the family most of the family are a bit like these families can't cook, won't cook or lack the confidence to cook. My Mum taught herself to cook through a recipe book she found in my Dads house when she married him. In turn I learned from both my Mum and my Dads Mum who was a professional cook. This program isn't aimed at people who can cook it's aimed at those like most of my family, the never taught don't know where to start and lack confidence to give it a go people.

If this program raises awareness about food and gets them thinking about what they are eating for these kind of people then it is a success.

Sometimes it is about challenging perceptions, many people are completely ignorant about food. A few years ago I used to use tvp mince to bulk up my mince dishes. I was caught doing it once by somebody in the family who was horrified and told me it was disgusting and they wouldn't eat it. I pointed out to them they ate it every time they had one of their ready meal lasagnes, a look at the ingredients and they had to concede that they had been blissfully unaware of eating the stuff for years:rotfl:

Ken68

The programme doesn't really address the issues of poor national health. In fact it encourages shoppers to drink and eat rubbish by saying "this is cheaper in so and so supermarket".
Time to slap a high tax on unhealthy foods, starting with pizzas.lol
Go down the road as with cigarettes. Plain packaging with horrible pictures of the consequences.

greenbee

Pizza isn't unhealthy if it is made properly and eaten in sensible portions.

In Italy they tend to sell pizza by the slice as a takeaway. They don't expect to sit down and eat a whole pizza.