30 p meals ???

Spendless

euronorris said:

In the store I've seen them at, they were always after the tills, which I found so illogical.

That was the first place I looked because I've seen people say that's where they are before. Followed by at the front/side of the till, then all the way down each aisle. Nothing. 

Rosa_Damascena

I had a 30p meal for lunch yesterday by luck rather than judgement. I bought a YS pasta salad for 33p, and a YS bag of salad for 25p the other day (impulse buy at the petrol station). Half of each made a 30p meal but seriously, how are people expected to do this regularly and get a balanced diet?

JIL

Grumpelstiltskin said:

Lets not bring politics into this but that MP is not your typical Tory MP. He is an ex miner ho grew up in a mining area.

I agree the 30p is not doable in the long term but actually how many of the people frequenting food banks are actually short of cooking facilities etc and how many have all the basics needed to cook?

Crisps were mentioned earlier. In Tesco a 45gm. bag of Walkers Crisps ( other brands are available ) are 85p, a 2.5 kg. bag of potatoes are 99p how many would rather buy the bag of crisps? many of the younger people I would guess.

My son was at uni with someone whose father gave him a carefully worked out sum of money.
For lunch he would buy a multi pack of crisps for 30p or a savers packet of biscuits.
He then ate one hot meal a day.
When he left uni, he had saved enough of his dads money to put a deposit down on a house.
He can chose to eat like this, but would it be acceptable for growing children or the  elderly.
There is no way 30p makes a nutritional meal.  Not this decade anyway. 

This MP  is telling citizens they need to learn to cook. That also requires expensive fuel to do so.
And theres Jacob Rees Mogg admitting he has never cooked in his life. 
 And others employing chefs and eating in heavily subsidised canteens.

I really do feel when MPs make such statements, they should walk the talk. Televised of course.

London_1

I think that often things in the media are taken out of context. Not accounting for variables at all, which has been discussed already in previous posts.

 I was wondering as so many folk like to watch cookery programmes on TV, with often very expensive food stuff that the majority of ordinary folk can not afford anyway. I hate it when they bin food on them  

Entertaining no doubt, but in todays present problems, not terribly practical. With rocketing food prices and energy going up, possibly every three months !

I think it would be fairly helpful if there were maybe a series of cookery programmes just with basic cookery skills as although most of us on here are used to streetching food stuff out, there are many people who have never had the fortune to have either a Mum or other person in their life to show them how its done .

I remember back in the 1950s having 'Housecraft" at school and a  teacher who only seemed to want to show us children how to cook rock cakes ,or I remember one week being told how to wash a tea towel When I told my Mother she just looked at me as though I had gone daft and said "Who on earth washes a tea towel by hand"  

 My late Mum, bless her was excellent at extending food and meals, as having 14 years of rationing because of WW2 and food restrictions it was a case of having to make what you had streetch from week to week.

Simple things like adding a handful of oats or grated carrot to a pound of minced beef to help it go to an extra few meals. I have taught most of my grandchildren,(  5 boys and two girls) how to make what they eat and how to shop without resorting to 'instant meals'
I remember showing my eldest grandson how to cook a veggie curry with just a few ingrediants and then portion  up for freezing.  He was so pleased when he done it and said "That's brilliant Nanny" he took it into work the following week for his lunchtime meal, at 18, he had his 'lightbulb moment' He is now married, and 31 and lives in New York ,and actually cooks better than his wife .
When he facetimes me he is usually cooking something exotic, as he loves to chat to his colleagues wives and get some of their recipes as most of them are like him from all over the world . He travels quite a bit with his job and has been known to ask in restraunts for recipes of what he's eaten. He is in Norway at the moment so will be collecting a recipe of three to take back to NYC with him  

Not every one enjoys cooking, or are able through maybe arthritis to manage it.  Sometimes are just a bit scared when looking in cookery books at some of the terms used.

I have seen some folk on here ask often simple questions, and almost apologising for not knowing .  
As though everyone is born knowing Cooking is, like any skill, it is learned by trial and error.

There are things that even after 60 plus years of feeding first myself ,and then my family that I have never mastered (rice is one )  but I'll give anything a go  

No point showing how smashing up an avocardo on toast will taste deicious if you can't afford the avocardo in the first place

So I think a basic programme to show folk even basic cooking, especially for those who maybe haven't even got an extensive kitchen to cook in  (Think of young Mums in B&Bs with maybe only a kettle or a microwave to feed their children with)
They can't cook fancy meals if half their household kichen goods are in storage.

These are the things that are forgotten about at times. I remember St Delia having a book called 'How to boil an Egg' which sounds daft, until you walk around a supermarket and see  omelettes in the freezers.

If you have access to a computer then life is a lot easier as YouTube have some amazing videos for those who struggle, but instead of all these tv programmes telling folk  about cakes, or stuff I wouldn't feed to a cat how to cook it

Instead of telling people you can feed a family on buttons, how about showing them how to do it . Basically putting their money where their mouth is No point saying you can eat on 30p a day and then cooking 150 meals. Folk need proper help to get through the next year or so.

JackieO xx 

 

Rosa_Damascena

JIL said:

Grumpelstiltskin said:

Lets not bring politics into this but that MP is not your typical Tory MP. He is an ex miner ho grew up in a mining area.

I agree the 30p is not doable in the long term but actually how many of the people frequenting food banks are actually short of cooking facilities etc and how many have all the basics needed to cook?

Crisps were mentioned earlier. In Tesco a 45gm. bag of Walkers Crisps ( other brands are available ) are 85p, a 2.5 kg. bag of potatoes are 99p how many would rather buy the bag of crisps? many of the younger people I would guess.

My son was at uni with someone whose father gave him a carefully worked out sum of money.
For lunch he would buy a multi pack of crisps for 30p or a savers packet of biscuits.
He then ate one hot meal a day.
When he left uni, he had saved enough of his dads money to put a deposit down on a house.
He can chose to eat like this, but would it be acceptable for growing children or the  elderly.
There is no way 30p makes a nutritional meal.  Not this decade anyway. 

That brings back memories! As a student 30 years ago, I would not eat at lunchtime (in fact limited my consumption at all times) to save money. I do remember feeling quite hungry in the first week.

I'd made a careful log of expenditure in every area and I remember my dad being surprised that I rarely spent as much as £2 a day on food. But plenty in the bar.

EssexHebridean

I believe I'm correct in saying that one of the points the 30p meals Minister made was in fact about his local food bank encouraging people to learn to cook as well - it was rather missed in his oversimplification of the costs aspect, however! 

Farway

JIL said:

I really do feel when MPs make such statements, they should walk the talk. Televised of course.

Wasn't there a TV programme a few years back now where Michael Portillo, then an MP, went to live on basic dole and feed a family. Of course he ran out of money within a few days but it did open his eyes

Bit like when the the "Sword of Truth" treasury minister Aitken was sent down for 18 months for perjury, he said aftward he always regretted not spending enough money on prisons when he had the chance

basketcase

Farway said:

JIL said:

I really do feel when MPs make such statements, they should walk the talk. Televised of course.

Wasn't there a TV programme a few years back now where Michael Portillo, then an MP, went to live on basic dole and feed a family. Of course he ran out of money within a few days but it did open his eyes

Bit like when the the "Sword of Truth" treasury minister Aitken was sent down for 18 months for perjury, he said aftward he always regretted not spending enough money on prisons when he had the chance

Waaaay back Granada TV challenged a politician to live off benefits (which he'd opined were sufficient) for a week.  He exceeded the amount by a few pence.  But it was pointed out that:

1. Pennies per week when nothing else was coming in mounted up.
2. He'd only had to find food.  No rent, rates, transport - not even toiletries or cleaning products.

He said he still thought there was no need to increase benefits...

Brambling

when they televise these 'experiments' they tend not to allow for those unexpected surprises like the oven dying or a child losing / ripping a item of school uniform, new school shoes  etc etc etc 

SadieO

Brambling said:

when they televise these 'experiments' they tend not to allow for those unexpected surprises like the oven dying or a child losing / ripping a item of school uniform, new school shoes  etc etc etc 

So true. I also think what these experiments simply could never capture is the relentless despondency from feeling there is no way out. I'm sure many on here are familiar with Jack Monroe who has written very eloquently on issues around the despair and stress of constant money worries and everything that goes with that - a lack of security, fear of the next bill dropping on the doormat etc. These politicians (or whoever) would treat it as a game. It might even be a fun challenge for them to play at being poor and see how far they can stretch the pennies for a week or two. When they know it's not real, they're not actually at risk of starving or being made homeless if the fail the challenge, and they can count down the days till they're back to their nice houses and full fridges. And then they'll smugly say "look, I managed it!"