Sainsburys and Jamie Olivers Feed your Family for £5 Chat Thread

laurajayne

I think it's a start - we have to obviously be aware that it's an advert, for Sainsburys, and therefore has some bias towards that. However how many people cook from scratch.

Yes, on OS, we know how cheap we can feed our families for, making a filling meal from scratch for pennies in some cases...but not everyone is aware of here.

Just a couple of years ago, my family ate mostly convience foods, and had a food bill that could top £500 a month for a family of four. We all worked, my mum did the cooking and she hated it...

I've taken over the cooking, and now we have a weekly shop of £50 -£60 for everything, including dog food/toiletrees/cleaning products. But that's because I invest the time in menu planning/recipie hunting, and I actually enjoy cooking. For some people, this may be the start that they need....they'll progress (we hope), and learn more, and save more.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Jamie - gimme James Martin any day

chelsea.housewife

I should have said I am the author of 'How to Feed Your Family for £5 a Day' (Bernadine Lawrence) and have just completed a follow up cook book full of tasty meals for under a fiver.

thriftlady_2

chelsea.housewife wrote: »

I should have said I am the author of 'How to Feed Your Family for £5 a Day' (Bernadine Lawrence) and have just completed a follow up cook book full of tasty meals for under a fiver.

Are you really? Gosh you have a few fans here Bernadine, I'm one I recognised your recipes immediately in your previous post and nearly posted a comment pointing out that they were from your book:rotfl: Then I remembered reading in the book that you lived in Chelsea and I thought...maybe it's her. When's the next book out ? I'll be first in the queue

chelsea.housewife

Thankyou so much thriftlady, I thought I'd be in good company here - lots of like-minded people.

I'm looking for a publisher for my book and am doing the publicity for it myself. Hoping to be on 'It Pays to Watch' on 7th May. We'll see.

I was a bit miffed when I heard of Jamie's campaign as I was the originator of the idea, but you know there are a lot of people out there at their wits end trying to manage on an ever-decreasing income and not eating properly. I'm glad Jamie's showing them how to eat well on a budget.

However, it's not as simple as a few recipes. Folk need to know the basics of healthy eating, they need to know how to shop, how to keep within budget, what to keep in their store cupboard, how to plan meals and how to use leftovers etc.

All of which is in my new, as yet, unpublished book. Maybe we should have a competition on its title.

It's a crime to throw food away. It's bad for everyone, bad for the planet and bad for the purse.

Bernadine Lawrence

thriftlady_2

chelsea.housewife wrote: »

I was a bit miffed when I heard of Jamie's campaign as I was the originator of the idea

And you show people how to feed a family three meals a day for £5 not just the main meal.

chelsea.housewife

Gosh that sounds a bit harsh on its own, out of context.
I'm really glad Jamie is tackling this subject because there's a whole generation who have never been taught how to cook and, hopefully, this campaign will encourage people back to the kitchen.
By the way, weren't the recipes great in the competition? I was well impressed by the variety and the different approaches to cooking, all lively and authentic. And they all kept within budget.

morwenna

chelsea.housewife wrote: »

All of which is in my new, as yet, unpublished book. Maybe we should have a competition on its title.

It's a crime to throw food away. It's bad for everyone, bad for the planet and bad for the purse.

Bernadine Lawrence

So should the title be: [STRIKE]How To Eat[/STRIKE] Oh, wait...:rotfl:

How To Avoid Being A Food Criminal!

And if you use it can I have a free copy??

lindab15

chelsea.housewife wrote: »

I should have said I am the author of 'How to Feed Your Family for £5 a Day' (Bernadine Lawrence) and have just completed a follow up cook book full of tasty meals for under a fiver.

Count me in as another of your fans, chelsea.housewife !

Remember reading an article in a woman's magazine (Prima ? or similar) years ago and being really impressed with your attitude and recipes - have kept them and your whole ethos has stuck in my memory ever since. Think your bread recipe was included in another of my favourite recipe books - the Bazaar Cookbook ?

Well done, good luck, and I'm another who'll be eagerly awaiting the publication of your new book. Keep us informed !:T

applemella

Afew weeks ago my DD has cookery and neede to take in some pasta and pasta sauce to cook.
I sent her in with some dried pasta and a bag of HM pasta sauce. The teacher was amazed that DD had HM sauce and asked her what was in it.DD told her and she was left to get on with the cooking.
Apparently others in the class had jars of ready made pasta sauce and some even had pasta ready meals to cook!
I was shocked that my DD was the only one with a HM sauce as it is second nature to me to cook this from scratch as it is soo easy and cheap to do.

salome

I'm a fan of How to Feed a Family for a Fiver. Have the book and love it, and look forward to next one.
I think it's a good idea to show people how to cook a good basic meal for a fiver, but It would have been better, I think to itemise the ingredients, because, if this promotion is aimed at those who rely on processed meals, would they know what to do with items left over from the initial ingredients bought. ie... If a bag of carrots was recomended to buy, but only three used, would the rest in the bag be used up, or eventually thrown away???? Which then of course, isn't really a saving. Haven't looked at the recipe Jamie uses, so I'm only using an example.
I had 10 children at home at one time, so I was cooking for 12, and managed to cook reasonably priced meals each night. I still have 6 at home, and most nights cook from scratch, occassionally I will have a night off if circumstances cause me not to be able to cook, but when I cook I can still manage to cook for eight of us for around a fiver, sometimes just over, but not by much.