Eat Well For Less Series 3

cbrown372

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.......

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 stock
Lied - just like this lady and then again on the key hand - my mum cou,d also be very extravagant and wasteful and Tnrowing away perfectly good food and buying only "the best" of everything. My mum would not buy mince. No idea why, but she would at shepherds pie if I made it.

Who knows what goes on in their heads when they havesuffered such deprivation in their earlier lives. I just know that this lady's behaviour resonated with me because I had see 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.

Due to the sugar shortage my Mum had a shelf full of bags of sugar when she died, her sister had a cocktail cabinet full of bags of sugar too. Favourite was the bottom of my Dad's wardrobe was full of bottles of whisky that he ordered in bulk, I think when VAT was due to come in!

lessonlearned

Catkins......you are clearly knowledgeable, organised, efficient and probably a very good cook, with no hang ups or issues about food.

This lady and my mum and probably countless others don't have your culinary gifts and organisational skills.

I only came to MSE ways in fairly recent history.....At least as far as cooking us concerned although I have been very frugal in other areas of my life. I have probably wasted a lot of money on food in the past.

Maybe these kinds of programmes aren't really meant for skilled OSERs like yourself. I like to watch them, yes they are entertaining but I guarantee I can learn something from each episode.

Maybe you know all there is to know about cooking and budgeting but I'm betting that people like you are in the minority. Sadly there are lots of us who are or have been clueless in the kitchen.....

Having a mother who was adorable but scatty and not much of a cook and never having had a cookery lesson in my life I had to learn the hard way. I have been guilty of waste and over reliance on easy solutions, of being seduced into thinking I had to buy "the best" for my family.

My nom de plume is "Lesson Learned" for a very good reason. :rotfl:

Before I had my lightbulb moment you would have probably judged me very harshly too.;)

suki1964

One thing which did amuse me cos it was never thought about in the program, she had a food processor, why didn't she whizz the cheese through that in one go, then store the grated cheese in a Tupperware in the fridge? That's an old dieters tip I thought everyone knew

lessonlearned

Suki.....you Gotta love mums. I wonder what our kids say about us....

Perhaps it's better we don't know.;)

I have a new DIL. One glass of wine and she's tipsy. Every time she has a drink she texts me to tell me she thinks I'm Ace or Amazing and how much she loves me.....bless her cotton socks. Why .....because I never criticise her inability to cook. Who cares, she loves my son and makes him happy. That's good enough for me.

She can't cook for toffee......my son does it all. I never say anything, I just let them get on with it. It's none of my business. Anyway she is very thrifty In other ways and is a very good money manager so it all balances out.

She is a high achiever, a brilliant engineer earns a good salary and who has a glittering career ahead of her. You can't have it all and you can't be good at everything, so in the grand scheme of things not being able to cook isn't the end of the world.

lessonlearned

suki1964 wrote: »

One thing which did amuse me cos it was never thought about in the program, she had a food processor, why didn't she whizz the cheese through that in one go, then store the grated cheese in a Tupperware in the fridge? That's an old dieters tip I thought everyone knew

I would be lost without my processor - arthritis. My son bought me a mandolin - tried it once, nearly lost a finger......:eek:

GwylimT

suki1964 wrote: »

One thing which did amuse me cos it was never thought about in the program, she had a food processor, why didn't she whizz the cheese through that in one go, then store the grated cheese in a Tupperware in the fridge? That's an old dieters tip I thought everyone knew

My wife is the only one who eats cheese in our house, per gram tesco mature grated cheese is cheaper than block cheese, the only one we found to be more expensive is a branded one.

GwylimT

I'm seeing a lot of people saying "why do they go shopping every week, thats how you spend money, I only do a big shop once a month and buy fresh things weekly" erm, so you go food shopping weekly as well.

I really dislike this show, on all of them they portray women as stupid and make them do the shopping and cooking, no matter who is usually in charge of feeding the family. The bill reductions are normally quite pathetic as well.

suki1964

lessonlearned wrote: »

Suki.....you Gotta love mums. I wonder what our kids say about us....

Perhaps it's better we don't know.;)

I have a new DIL. One glass of wine and she's tipsy. Every time she has a drink she texts me to tell me she thinks I'm Ace or Amazing and how much she loves me.....bless her cotton socks. Why .....because I never criticise her inability to cook. Who cares, she loves my son and makes him happy. That's good enough for me.

She can't cook for toffee......my son does it all. I never say anything, I just let them get on with it. It's none of my business. Anyway she is very thrifty In other ways and is a very good money manager so it all balances out.

She is a high achiever, a brilliant engineer earns a good salary and who has a glittering career ahead of her. You can't have it all and you can't be good at everything, so in the grand scheme of things not being able to cook isn't the end of the world.

Ahh lesson learned , I don't give off at her, I say nowt, just quietly hit my head against a wall and try to use the salmon and the soup up from the back of the stockpile so she still thinks there's plenty and doesn't land home with more

Ive always said this, it's her money, if she feels better for spending it that's her choice, I let her get on with it, and allow my frustration to burst forth on here at times

VfM4meplse

lessonlearned wrote: »

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

Plus I look really fit in them, think Katy Perry in her skintights. +15 years

lessonlearned wrote: »

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.......

This reminds me of mine, she has far too much stuff (including her own Mum's old clothes) and I'm always offering to hire a skip and get rid of it for her. I even go as far as telling her I'm going to have to resort to this when she dies, and if she were considerate she'd save me the trauma.

My parents were burgled a couple of years ago, the place was trashed and not one thing was left untouched. It showed us just how much they have - my Dad's stuff was dealt with within half a day, my Mum's took weeks. Whilst digging through the rubble we had some light hearted moments as we found the odd random ST / tampon in the mix. Mum has been post-menopausal for years, but she keeps ample supplies in for her daughters "just in case".

catkins

PasturesNew wrote: »

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.

That's why I shop in large supermarkets like Sainsburys - they rarely have sold out of anything I want. I can't get a full shop in Aldi or Lidl so I rarely visit either of them.

lessonlearned wrote: »

Catkins......you are clearly knowledgeable, organised, efficient and probably a very good cook, with no hang ups or issues about food.

This lady and my mum and probably countless others don't have your culinary gifts and organisational skills.

I only came to MSE ways in fairly recent history.....At least as far as cooking us concerned although I have been very frugal in other areas of my life. I have probably wasted a lot of money on food in the past.

Maybe these kinds of programmes aren't really meant for skilled OSERs like yourself. I like to watch them, yes they are entertaining but I guarantee I can learn something from each episode.

Maybe you know all there is to know about cooking and budgeting but I'm betting that people like you are in the minority. Sadly there are lots of us who are or have been clueless in the kitchen.....

Having a mother who was adorable but scatty and not much of a cook and never having had a cookery lesson in my life I had to learn the hard way. I have been guilty of waste and over reliance on easy solutions, of being seduced into thinking I had to buy "the best" for my family.

My nom de plume is "Lesson Learned" for a very good reason. :rotfl:

Before I had my lightbulb moment you would have probably judged me very harshly too.;)

I don't think I am a great cook but I can cook and I will try almost anything as I believe if you can read a recipe you can cook.

I don't think or expect that everyone is a great cook or has organisational skills but I do think people should have common sense. If you can afford to waste £300 a week on food, most of which you throw away, then fine. What I think about it doesn't matter does it? When you can't afford to pay that and you can't afford a holiday or something else then surely you look at your outgoings? It's not just food you would look at but gas, electric, tv, broadband etc.

Do these people not have friends or family they could ask about food spending? I know some of my friends and family spend more than I do on food but nothing like £300 a week, not even £200 a week or £100 a week.

My mum isn't that great a cook and she wastes food. The minute something reaches a sell by date it's in the bin unless I am there to rescue it.

I did learn some cookery at school but mainly I taught myself when I got married. We didn't have money to waste so me and OH learnt to budget and how to cut back on food costs and waste.

I watch mainly because I am astounded that people (and not youngsters on the whole) really cannot (a) see they are spending stupid silly money on food (b) not think of a solution to cut down on that money and waste