Eat well for less......

[ssd]

anyone watch this?

this couple spend £150 to entertain a few friends for dinner!!!

are they really a representation of typical families?

[crochetsavesmysanity]

I knew someone would have started a thread on this
Dh and I were agog....how expensive was the granola?!
Not typical representation imo.

[crochetsavesmysanity]

....oh, but the kitchen was gorgeous!

[DeliciousMonster]

But the kitchen was hardly used!

17 trips to the supermarket each week.

Watching her try to cut up carrots was incredibly painful.

[BreconBeBuggered]

I wonder what the hell was going through their minds when they went for the pitch. 'We'll show viewers how they can save £££ on their food shopping. Long as they spend over £300 a week on it in the first place.' Is it supposed to make the rest of us feel superior about our budgeting skills?

[confusedandemployed]

Thus could have been a really interesting show, showing properly penny-watching families how to save a few more quid. Instead they chose the lowest common denominators and settled for saving them a fraction of what could actually be achieved. I am disappointed.
but yes the kitchen was absolutely stunning. Just a shame no one used it

[ssd]

it was a new kitchen!

they just seemed well off, much like the posters on here who write "I'm going to Aldi, what should I buy?" like its a big social experiment going to where the poor people shop, as a one off, before going back to waitrose.

[crochetsavesmysanity]

True- it looked like a showroom didn't it? Agree about the carrots- she was really upset about having to chop them wasn't she?

I liked the Scrabble placemats

[Andcake]

She was so annoying. Also her snobbery about brands - I didn't think people still existed like that! I actually though food snobs went to farmers markets rather than buy expensive yogurts.

[chocolateorsalad]

Watching it now and checked to see what the MN jury thought about it!

Last week's was pretty good but this week is crap! It's annoying me but I'm still watching. 17 shopping trips in a week?! How can they act surprised by the receipts? Surely they would have been told by the programme makers to save them up.

The MOST EXPENSIVE GRAAAANOLA as Greg kept saying seemed like an impulsive buy when they were shopping, not their normal brand. And surely if you're a brand snob you wouldn't buy Dolmio buy Seeds of Change instead daaahling

This programme seems to be aimed at people who spend a shit ton of money on convenience food and not for those of us who cook from scratch but want some money-saving tips. They swapped their usual chilli sauce jars for a different one, rather than giving the family the ingredients to make one from scratch, which would be much cheaper!

[lightgreenglass]

I was going to start a thread about these people. They'd save a few bob if they actually cooked. The attitude of that woman really got on my nerves - such a brand snob.

[Rivercam]

At one point, they mentioned the couple usually shop at Waitrose, but they were filmed in Tesco. I did feel that shop was a little unfair, as I would grab bargains in the non-usual shop. However, they did spend a lot of money. I would have liked an update to see if they continued it.

The feature about pasta sauce was interesting. ,I didn't realise there was that much sugar, and the cheaper brand had a lot less sugar in it.

[confusedandemployed]

chocolateorsalad, nailed on. It's thinly disguised voyeuristic TV.

[FreeButtonBee]

I did notice that the own brand sauce with less sugar had a label that stated it had sweetener in it. Would rather have honest sugar than aspartame type guff. Funny they didn't mention that... I do agree that plain pasta sauce is dead easy to make (I use a massive stock pot and make 3 big has of passata worth at a time and freeze).

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

I wasn't impressed. It was 'how to cut your shopping down' for the middle class. There's far better ways to do this, what about actually making a pizza or pasta sauce rather then using a cheaper product? It seemed silly to me. So much potential, wasted.

[Lilybensmum1]

I turned it off, someone who buys carrots and carrot batons, then spends £150 on entertaining friends needs no help. I have no problems with the jars of cooking sauce but people who think their shopping is only going to be £85 but does not bad an eyelid when it's actually £182!!!!!

I hoped for some tips, it's a pointless series and nothing like the title suggests.

[Henbur1702]

£350 per week and they were eating an 80% processed shit diet . I get she might not like cooking but surely chopping a few fruit/veg to go with all the processed crap is not such a big deal so I feel sure a lot of it was constructed for tv purposes. Surely if they were to start eating home cooked nutritious foods for most of the week they would be spending a lot less than the £200 plus that they are down to by brand swapping processed foods totally misses point

[SisterNancySinatra]

Their children seem very well behaved and very non-fussy eaters especially as they were originally eating a lot of branded and sugary food .

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

It should be showing how to meal plan, how to make your food go further, how to use leftovers, how to keep your food budget low but still making healthy and tasty food. I don't consider frozen pizza, jars and 'granola' to be eating well to be honest. It's all convenience rubbish and I don't think the BBC should consider this as eating well.

[anya79]

I found the snobbery annoying. I admit I'm a snob with certain items particularly good cereal, and certain toiletry items, but that's as far as it goes, over the years I have realised such thoughts are not affordable with a growing family in tow.

I spend £100-120 pounds a week on shopping, it's on the higher end when I buy detergents.

the weekly meat shop is £15.00 with just chicken, I buy whole chickens. The last week of the month I buy asian fish, and lamb (not from supermarket) as well as the chicken for the week and it's £50 in total. But the fish supply is enough for the month. The lamb is expensive £10 a kg but it's our treat lamb chop curry once a month mm I love it lol.

So my weekly shop with meat added is £135 for 3 weeks on chicken and £170 the last week of the month. This is for 4 kids, and 4 adults.

I don't know if that's bad budgeting I thought it was good, any suggestions?

I cook everything from scratch, not because I love to, but that's how I've always eaten and my mum taught me to cook. I have dabbled in ready made meals at uni and it lasted one week before I started cooking and my housemates thought I was crazy, I mean students aren't supposed to cook are they?

I felt sorry for the lady in this episode, maybe she was not fortunate enough to be given cookery skills. But I don't think she has the patience nor enthusiasm to Cook either, I felt embarrassed watching her cut the carrots. She was berating herself a bit too? I wonder if these are childhood issues. I know my mum used to force me to cook, so much so I hate cooking my ethnic food, but love cooking other cuisines, maybe to spite her?

But I think either she or her husband need to step up and start cooking some things from scratch to teach their kids how to eat healthily, because opening boxes and popping them in the oven or microwave isn't sustainable long term on the heart or the pocket.

I felt bad seeing her kids eat ready made pizza not because it's bad food, it's fine as a treat, I just see it as a side dish served With a bit of salad.i dunno I'm prob a snob for cooking everything. Pizza day would be takeaway day in my house, unless I made the pizza and served it with home made chips and salad?

She has the patience to make multiple supermarket shops I give her that I cannot manage One shop without pulling my hair out. The kids tick me off I just do it online and actually you save money doing it online not spending hours perusing the aisles and special offers in store. Downside some items need hand picking I.e pineapple supermarket delivered last week not ripe even after a week of sitting in a warm room still a bit tangy. Enough of my sad life.

[SaucyMare]

i think it should have been called "how to eat ok for less"

i was expecting more nutritional concern. rather than just one comment about sugar in pasta sauce.
They admitted the lloyd grossman stuff tasted the best, and the stuff they were selling to the family tasted "fine" oh wow wee such a selling point it tastes "fine".

And what is wrong with telly showing middle class people how they could save £6000 a year without really upsetting their lives? Oh sorry you aren't living on £70 a week who cares about saving you a few thousand quid a year.

[Fairylea]

I'm really enjoying this programme but it does annoy me they've picked such rich families. Cutting down from £350 a week to an average budget isn't that much of a challenge. I'd love to see them tackle a family like mine who is trying to manage on £60-80 a week for 4 people.

I felt a bit sorry for the woman this week actually. She clearly didn't have a clue about food and cooking in general. I think it's a product of our society that we use so many ready meals and processed foods that everyone has forgotten how to cook.

I have to admit though I love a pizza express pizza and when I saw they swapped them for average pizza I was giggling to myself there's no way that's half as nice... I'd rather just not have the pizza.

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/media_nonmember_requests/2059810-IS-THE-COST-OF-YOUR-WEEKLY-FOOD-SHOP-DRIVING-YOU-MAD-BBC-1-ARE-LOOKING-FOR-FAMILIES-WHO-WANT-TO-EAT-WELL-FOR-LESS Have you seen where they found the families??

[ssd]

that explains it all!!!!
I posted this earlier

"they just seemed well off, much like the posters on here who write "I'm going to Aldi, what should I buy?" like its a big social experiment going to where the poor people shop, as a one off, before going back to waitrose."

I was probably spot on!

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

Looks that way Looks like they seriously miss-sold the programme too.

"In a brand new 3-part series, Masterchef’s Gregg Wallace, and award winning Greengrocer Chris Bavin are on a mission to prove that if you shop cleverly you could save a packet, and still create incredible meals!"

Incredible meals... from a jar and out of the freezer isle in Waitrose!