Eat Well For Less Series 3

SailorSam

I only saw the last 10 minutes last night. I thought it was funny, but the womans reaction to the tea was a bit over-the-top.
I don't know where they get their prices from, i don't pay what they say things cost.

catkins

Pollycat wrote: »

A few days before we go on holiday I boil, mash & freeze any potatoes that I'm not going to use.
I've even been known to buy reduced bags of potatoes in the run-up to our holiday to freeze them.

Never say 'no' to a bargain, me.

Yes I buy reduced potatoes and other veg and then cook and freeze them. A couple of weeks ago I bought 6 large packs of potatoes because they were reduced to something like 10p each. I never let a bargain go by.

lessonlearned wrote: »

One thing Greg and not Greg talked about yesterday was how to store fruit and veg.

Apparently they suggest potatoes and root veg are best not stored
In the fridge. And I think it was last week when they said its best to remove all veg from plastic packaging so it doesn't sweat and go mouldy.

Love the unintended purchase alert......still 50 per cent off is a bargain......

I store potatoes and onions in a little cupboard with drawers in my kitchen. I store all veg in the fridge but always take it, and fruit, out of any packing it comes in. I find that most of it lasts quite a while although I try to use it as quickly as I can because I know it loses some goodness.

If any of it starts going soft, bendy etc I usually make it into a soup or stew or blanch and freeze it

lessonlearned

My mum was Belgian and lived through the German Occupation. She became a hoarder as a result. I can remember her cupboards groaning with food, with overflow cupboards dotted round the house, even her wardrobe. I guess it was onLy natural. When you have been close to starvation you never want to be at risk again.

It wasn't just food either, it was cleaning materials and toiletries too. Apparently you couldnt get toilet soap for love nor money.

This lady's childhood probably wasn't as hard as my mothers war time experiences but it had clearly affected her so you can only feel the utmost sympathy.

At least she could bake, her cakes looked fabulous. I can't bake for toffee, neither could my mum bless her.

catkins

I meal plan using an A4 notebook. I write down the days of the week and then write next to each day what I plan to have. I may just put say "eggs" and then decide on the day whether to have an omelette or egg and chips etc.

I think meal planning for me is easier because me and OH are vegetarian and always have things like lentils, chickpeas, different beans, pasta, rice etc in the cupboard.

I buy lots of fresh veg and always have frozen peas, sweetcorn, spinach, green beans in the freezer. If I make things like stew, vegetable curry, vegetable chilli, shepherds pie etc I will use whatever veg I have.

I don't meal plan breakfasts or lunches. We always have bread in the house and a couple of cereals and porridge oats. So we usually have cereal or toast in the summer and porridge in the winter. Sometimes at weekends we might have a boiled egg and soldiers or poached egg on toast. Lunches are usually soup or a sandwich.

PasturesNew

I don't meal plan. Even when I've a list of 4-5 items I am in the shops for, I often find they've only 2-3 of them. You can't just walk into a shop and walk out with stuff that was on your list if the shelves are empty.

I work on "what I fancy"

I don't know what I fancy from moment to moment. I tend to wait until I'm absolutely starving and almost having to crawl to the kitchen, then I cook the nearest/easiest/quickest thing that'll make the hunger go away.



It works for me.

In between times .... I eat sweeties.

I spend about £10/week (max) on "just food items", which covers meals, condiments, sweeties and anything that's "eaten" as a meal or an ingredient, or just to scoff.
Drinks cost more as I've a little fizzy pop habit, so £2-3/week on fizzy pop, squash and coffee, depending on the season. Peak summer's lots of pop ... mid-winter's not a lot of it.

suki1964

lessonlearned wrote: »

My mum was Belgian and lived through the German Occupation. She became a hoarder as a result. I can remember her cupboards groaning with food, with overflow cupboards dotted round the house, even her wardrobe. I guess it was onLy natural. When you have been close to starvation you never want to be at risk again.

It wasn't just food either, it was cleaning materials and toiletries too. Apparently you couldnt get toilet soap for love nor money.

This lady's childhood probably wasn't as hard as my mothers war time experiences but it had clearly affected her so you can only feel the utmost sympathy.

At least she could bake, her cakes looked fabulous. I can't bake for toffee, neither could my mum bless her.

Looking at her I imagine she was a late 60's child and it was hinted at that her mother wasn't the best.

The 70's were very lean years for many people. My mum had !!!!!!ed off come the mid 70's and dad like so many was on short weeks if he had work at all. I remember sugar sandwiches, brown sauce sandwiches, dinners of just potatoes. Not easy times, esp if mum wasn't supportive or a positive role model


Things must have been terrible for your mum LL.


Isn't it weird that we both have hoarder mothers, yet we don't?

lessonlearned

catkins wrote: »

I absolutely hate food waste. well any waste really. If I buy something I make sure I use it or freeze it for future use. I had some carrots that were going bendy in the fridge along with a tiny bit of cabbage left over which was on its last legs. I made a shepherds pie with lentils, peas, sweetcorn, the carrots, the cabbage, onion and mushrooms. I topped it with ordinary mash potato and sweet potato mash. The sweet potatoes I had forgotten about and had probably had for at least 2 months - so much for them saying they last about a week!





I love to see and hear people laughing - my OH laughs all the time and makes me laugh but she did cackle and I found it annoying. Even my dog looked at the tv. I just found the whole thing about the tea bags ridiculous and over the top. She had supposedly been buying that brand for 20 years and yet didn't like them if she couldn't see the box they came in!!!

I never said they were bad people but they certainly are fools. How can you spend £300 a week on food and not realise? Why would you think throwing perfectly good food in the bin is ok? If you are not the sort to make soup or freeze things then don't buy so much - simple.

If people want to spend ridiculous amounts on their weekly shop fine but then don't moan that you can't afford a holiday or whatever and resort to asking a tv programme to help. Common sense would tell you to cut back on anything that is costing a lot every month.

Also why do all the people in the programme shop every week or even more than once a week? We do a biggish shop once every 4 to 6 weeks and just buy things like fruit and veg weekly, bread (unless we make it) and have our milk delivered. Shopping more makes most people spend more.

I cook from scratch almost every day but my meals are not always perfect. I sometimes burn things, sometimes my Yorkshire puddings rise so much they touch the top of the oven, sometimes they are like biscuits. You don't have to be a perfect cook but at least try.

As for buying grated cheese well I always wondered just who bought it - now I know

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Well I guess you could always try another channel......might be better for your blood pressure.

lessonlearned

suki1964 wrote: »

Looking at her I imagine she was a late 60's child and it was hinted at that her mother wasn't the best.

The 70's were very lean years for many people. My mum had !!!!!!ed off come the mid 70's and dad like so many was on short weeks if he had work at all. I remember sugar sandwiches, brown sauce sandwiches, dinners of just potatoes. Not easy times, esp if mum wasn't supportive or a positive role model


Things must have been terrible for your mum LL.


Isn't it weird that we both have hoarder mothers, yet we don't?

I used to be a bit of a hoarder but I have discovered "simple living" and try to practise a much more zen like approach. I have been steadily decluttering and downsizing.

Dealing with my mothers possessions after her death was no joke. Bless her heart I uderstood her need for "stuff" but it was a nightmare. I counted 8 tins of hairspray.......

Back to the lady in the programme.

No they didn't go into detail but I think it sounds like her mum wasn't maybe the best parent, for whatever reasons.. Maybe her mum was ill, it didn't say. She did let something slip about only having the liquid from a jar of pickles in the house......poor woman.

I would imagine you don't get over that easily.

I'm no psychiatrist and I have to say that at times my mums behaviour baffled me. On the one hand she stockpiled - just like this lady and then again on the other hand - my mum could also be very extravagant and wasteful throwing away perfectly good food and buying only "the best" of everything. My mum would not buy mince. No idea why, but she would eat shepherds pie if I made it.

Who knows what goes on in their heads when they have suffered such deprivation in their earlier lives. I just know that this lady's behaviour resonated with me because I had seen it with my mum.

Whenever I tried to help or advise my mum she would either laugh at me or get angry so in the end I just left her to it. Her food demons were too complex for me to deal with so I just accepted her quirks and loved her just the same.

PasturesNew

My dad was under occupation in the War. He came out of the War with malnutrition.

His attitude to food was "eat it as fast as you can" - what you've eaten, nobody else can take from you. So no hoarding tendencies. You can lose a hoard, have it taken, redistributed .... they can't do that if you've already eaten it

suki1964

lessonlearned wrote: »

I used to be a bit of a hoarder but I have discovered "simple living" and try to practise a much more zen like approach. I have been steadily decluttering and downsizing.

Dealing with my mothers possessions after her death was no joke. Bless her heart I uderstood her need for "stuff" but it was a nightmare. I counted 8 tins of hairspray.......

Mums like that as well. 3 flipping printers she has now. Just bought herself a tablet, when she has the kindle fire , she's two lap tops. I wouldn't mind but she doesn't know how you work any of them which is why she's away buying the newest latest.

You have all heard about the tin salmon, well I fell upon her tinned soup collection - 24 cans, and she says she doesn't like soup !!!

I'll stop now, my blood pressure can't take it lololol