A girl called Jack, budget recipes!

[serin]

This blog was linked to by (?Moondog) on another thread and has really inspirational budget recipes.

The woman who writes it manages to eat fairly well on £10 a week for her and a toddler.

[noisytoys]

I know her. She is completely genuine, so inspirational and flippin brilliant. And does do it for £10 a week.

[Thatsinteresting]

I wouldn't call a jam sandwich with an apple for lunch eating well. But I am amazed that she can stretch her tiny budget so far and her falafel recipe looks worth trying. She is a very good writer and cleary doing the very best she can. While articles like these can be inspirational, I always find it sad that anyone has to feed themselves and a child on such a budget.

[serin]

Totally agree that no one should have to live this way but the sad fact is that many do.

Our local foodbank has queues every time it opens.

[qazxc]

i have tried the apricot curry today and it was delish. Apparently she has a book deal now. good for her! will definetely try more recipes from her website in future.

[chocolatespiders]

The hunger hurts post on her blog is heartbreaking.

Child poverty makes me so sad and times like summer holidays when children don't even get their free school meal so hardly eat anything- I wish this was addressed.

[Fluffycloudland77]

My dh would think he'd died and gone to heaven if I sent him off with jam sandwiches everyday.

He has diabetes so it wouldn't take long .

She has inspired me to try harder too, we need all the cash we can get at the moment.

[AdoraBell]

Fluffy that's awfull, you're almost as bad as me terrible

I'm just glad she now has a book deal and will be able to eat better. Not that the recipes are bad but eating like that long term can be unhealthy if you don't get enough calories. As Chocolatespiders said, this needs to be addressed. In the 80's someone I know was feeding 2 adults and a toddler on £15 per week.

[Amilliondifferentpeople]

Amazing woman.

[chocolatespiders]

I wonder how food prices compare now to the 80's and whether cheaper shops like Aldi and Lidl have helped budget cooking.

I am a working single parent with 2 children and it is bloody tough. I have the same homemade soup every day for lunch at work with a value pitta bread (22p for 6) and I batch cook something vege that I can then have every night (I am not vege but meat is to expensive) I do this so I can feed my children slightly better. I know I am lucky as it could be a whole lot worse

[pofacedlemonsucker]

I made the sunshine buns yesterday. Pretty good, and two out of three dcs ate them this morning.

[AdoraBell]

I don't know Chocolate, I'm fairly sure Asda wasn't around then and the European supermarkets certainly hadn't arrived, at least not in London.

[Fluffycloudland77]

It was Carrefour back then and kwik save in the 1980's for cheaper food.

[ArtemisatBrauron]

made the carrot, kidney bean and cumin burgers today and had them with some spuds from the veg box, an avocado that was about to become overripe and left over tomato sauce from pasta.
really delicious and there are 2 left for lunch tomorrow.

21p kidney beans, pinch cumin, salt, one onion and one carrot, plus a tablespoon of flour. genius.

[chocolatespiders]

Yummy - i am going to try them at the weekend

I was jut in Sainsburys and in the world food aisle chick peas were 37p a tin, round the corner Sainsburys own were 76p a tin

[ArtemisatBrauron]

I know! I got ours in Lidl for 21p and then looked in supermarket - 79p...

[AdoraBell]

Yes, I'd forgotten about kwick save, don't remember Carrefour though. I'm having trouble finding the recipes on that link, probably just being a numpty about it. I'll look again when I'm not tired.

[qazxc]

adora agirlcalledjack.com/category/below-the-line-budget-recipes/Here. I hope it works, i'm a bit crap at posting links.

[qazxc]

agirlcalledjack.com/category/below-the-line-budget-recipes/

[pinkbraces]

What an amazing woman.

[Fairylea]

She is amazing and her blog is very important in demonstrating the poverty that is alive and well in the UK right now.

However I find it sad that the media don't seem horrified that a mother and child are managing on ten pounds a week for food.Maybe if we were all more outraged and horrified rather than trying to copy her receipes (which I'm sure are lovely) then perhaps media attitudes to benefits and poverty might start to shift.

[pofacedlemonsucker]

Fairy, that's why she's been accused of being a Tory plant.

[UniqueAndAmazing]

you can buy chickpeas dried in packet (like rice and lentils) and rehydrate them by soaking them overnight/a couple of hours.

you need to prepare in advance, but if you're cooking to a menu, you'll know it's coming up.

much more chickpeas for your money.

[AdoraBell]

Thanks for the link qazxc.

[Fairylea]

Pofaced :)

Well I do wonder.. but then a lot of people verify that she's genuine and not etc.

However, on reading her blog it doesn't seem like she's actually managing on £10 a week... she talks a lot about missing meals and drinking ginger tea before bed as she's so hungry, and her son asking "where's mummys breakfast?" (As she hasn't got enough to eat for them both again).

It really isn't anything to aspire to ...It should make us ashamed as a county that there are people living like this everyday.

[ArtemisatBrauron]

Fairy I think you're being unnecessarily critical - it's not about aspiring to her lifestyle, I don't think anyone could read a post like "hunger hurts" and think that they wanted a bit of that themselves!
What is inspirational about Jack is that she made such an effort to keep cooking healthy food with veggies etc in it even though she didn't have a lot of money. So many people claim that healthy food is too expensive etc.
Also, even though I am not living on £10 a week I really, really need to economize, pay off debts and start saving for my future, so yes, I will copy her cheap and healthy recipes and I see nothing wrong with that.

Rather than stand around lamenting the state of things in this country and criticizing others I prefer to get on with life and start solving the issues I face, using whatever resources I can find to do so.