The great british menu - food poverty... AIBU?

[Bogeyface]

I hate myself for thinking this but, AIBU to think that Lady Whatsername who said in the 90's that the reason poor people couldnt manage on benefits was because they lacked the ability to cook good simple nutritious meals, may have had a point? The way she said it was totally U and she was very sneery, but I cant help thinking that there might be a grain of truth in it.

Of the three families I have just seen in this program I saw what 2 of them ate in a day. one was a mother and daughter who's only meal of the day was a microwave burger each costing £1 each, and the other was a family where the children had fish fingers or nuggets and oven chips, while the parents had tinned veg.

£14 per week that the first family spent is enough for a bag of baking potatoes, some basics pasta, baked beans, passatta, a pack of frozen sausages, a bag of porridge oats, some cheese, some sandwich meat such as Haslet from the deli counter (35p per 100g in my tesco) and milk. The DD would be getting free school meals if I heard correctly about her age and their income. Far healthier, more filling and more than one meal a day!

The second family, again, for the price of nuggets, fish fingers and oven chips they could make a spag bol using basics ingredients that would feed them all well.

RAther than focussing on the cost of food, which is only going to rise, surely it would be better to focus on educating people who eat badly because the food they choose is more expensive than cheaper, healthier alternatives that require a bit of cooking knowledge?

No! It was a bit useless, really. Turning up with a storecupboard box just means "i can't do it, you need the extra money to buy this every month!"

Not 'setup' in a bad way Kevin but obviously things we made to be worse than they were, the empty fridge was empty because they said not to do a shop etc and at times we were maneuvered into saying certain things in certain ways but that's TV I guess. Not saying we're aren't struggling because we are and the food bank was an option at one point (I remember getting the text from my wife saying we may have to look at using one) but the fridge wouldn't normally be that empty.

I hope things will get better for you (and all of us) soon.

Personally my solution would be wages going up, but i don't think that's very likely under this government.

TeWiSavesTheDay wages going up would be brilliant but what I think needs to happen is that gap between wages and the cost of living needs to be shortened significantly. Wages going up will just drive up costs and you've still got the same problem because the gap is still there. Supermarkets need to take some responsibility for this as does the government. Fuel prices I think are the main problem for everything going up so rapidly everything has to be delivered, the delivery companies pass on that cost to the supermarkets who in turn pass it on to the consumer.

wow twitter can be really bitchy can't it lol!

I thought you came across very well myself. I am on a low income and sometimes feed my kids oven food if I have had a bad day and lots to do. If you are well off you can take your kids out for dinner and have a rest. If you are struggling you are obviously not allowed a day off but have to be some kind of martyr cooking from scratch with next to nothing without fail every day.
I did feel the programme totally failed to come up with any kind of solution and agree with what you say about fuel prices being part of the problem. Perhaps we need a minister for food again to try and find a sustainable way of addressing this problem.

Wallison, what drivel. Eggs come in packs of 6. Six large free range eggs cost £1 at Aldi. Herbes de Provence, which you can use in most sauces etc 67p at Asda. You can make soup almost for free by saving and freezing oddments of raw veg as you prepare other meals. I've never put Worcestershire sauce in spag bol. I make a pasta bake with lentils, tomato, onion and pasta which is quite delicious.

Higgle: you do realise that your cheap meal involves trips to two supermarkets (which may involve several hours on different buses and paying multiple bus fares because different companies don't accept each others' tickets), and that many people cannot save odds and ends in a freezer because they don't have a freezer and couldn't afford to run one even if they did, don't you?

Darren please don't feel you have to justify yourself to anyone on here or in real life. It was clear you were doing the best you could in the situation and all the kids seemed happy.

Take comfort in the fact that the majority of people on this thread completely understand what a difficult situation it is trying to feed a family on a very small budget.

And also that even those of us on quite high incomes (even if they don't seem to be high enough for MPs) sometimes feed our children fish fingers and oven chips for tea. Indeed, my children would much rather see some fish fingers, chips and beans on their plate than another lentil bolognaise! I'd be inclined to agree with them.

My ds1 loves oven chips, peas and fish fingers. It's his fave meal.
And there is nothing wrong with it.
Carbs - tick
Protein - tick
Veg - tick
My dc will not eat lentils and neither will I
Some if the self righteousness on this thread is eye opening!
Please take in board what some of us are saying...nit all of us live near aldi/lidl. Not all of us have a car or even decent transport links. Some of us can't physically push a trolley or load a car up. Not all of us have a butcher/farmers market/grocers etc.
Btw....bit of a bugbear of mine. I went to a farmers market a few months ago. They do get mentioned a lot on MN so thought I would try. Someone tried to charge me £6 for a jar of pickle.

Darren, I thought you & your family came over as such lovely people & you've made a great job of raising your children, they were so nice.

I hope things get better for you asap.

And yes to a chips & beans meal now & again - not so different to a MacDonalds.

It's cool I flew off the handle a bit at Bogeyface and she explained her point to me and we cool! quite a good debate going though isn't it. It's got a lot of people talking which can only be a good thing :)

(It was probably artisan pickle, mind)
That's another thing!
Artisan this, artisan that!
Gah!
Just call what it is....knobbly! :)

Thanks everyone for your lovely and kind comments :)

I couldn't feed myself for £14 a week!

I probably could live on baked beans and potatoes for a week or so, but to do so long term and stay sane and healthy - no.

Badvoc I wasn't a fan of lentils but they're quite nice actually!

....I'm starting to rant now, aren't I?....

You will never convince me darren :)

All I've been doing today is rant and counter rant, I really should get on with some work lol

Sorry, only read to page 8 when I decided to do a menu plan for the 5 of us based on only having £35 for the week & nothing in whatsoever. The reason I did £35 was based on the woman who had £14 per week for herself & her daughter.

It was a bloody struggle.

Used my supermarket & asda is the cheapest.

It isn't a healthy option & have just realised can't do the egg & home made oven chips as I've not accounted for oil.

At the moment my bill stands at £34.92 & that's without the oil. And only 1 packet of apples (cheaper than loose), some bananas, carrots, cabbage, onions, mushrooms & potatoes as the fruit & veg. Certainly wouldn't be getting 5 a day.

Menu is
Chicken, mash, value Yorkshire puds, carrots , cabbage & gravy.
Bubble & speak with rest of meat & using the left over veg.
Cottage pie, but with tinned lentils as couldn't stretch to mince.
Pasta bolognaise
Egg, hm chips & beans
Tuna pasta bake
Veg curry (LO veg, value sauce & tinned chick peas)

Breakfasts are value porridge or toast & jam

Lunch is sandwiches (value ham or cheese) or beans on toast.

I also added 24 value fairy cakes & some apples & bananas for snacks for the kids.

I also put in salt, pepper, tea bags, milk, sugar, value squash, value mixed herbs.

Bill is now £36.22 as have added a bottle of veg oil.

When I originally did a shopping list, I was going to bake the cakes & the Yorkshire puds, but that would mean more basics, plain& sr flour. Also a patty tin.

Most of the food is value.

Week in, week out, this would be exhausting.

For next weeks shop, I have left over, some sugar, tea bags, veg oil, salt, pepper, herbs & gravy granules.

I removed from my basket, peas & sultanas. Porridge will be flavoured with sugar instead. Beans with fake cottage pie instead of the peas.

The above is a mock up. But bloody hell, awful.

I budget, but no where near to that extent. And there are no treats other than one cake a day for the kids.

I think lentils can be quite nice (dhal is often lovely, and I do like a good lentil soup), but lentil bolognaise is a textural monstrosity.

I am a preschool kitchen manager and my food buget works out to around 85p per child per day and that provideds cereal or toast for breakfast, fruit snack am, a 2 course hot lunch, savory pm snack (homemade breadsticks or cheesestraws/scones or wedges, dips, vegetables) and a 2 course cold tea (full sized portion, not a snack like in some nurseries). The ability to cook is vital but also so it planning, bugetting and good shopping and our schools havent taught this for over 25 years!!!!! what hope is there?!

I will say this once more and once more only!

At no point did I say that £14 was an acceptable amount to live on per week. I dont know why she had that amount, but as she did only have that amount I was merely trying to say that there are other ways of using the £14 that would give them decent meals, albeit boring and yes, heavy on carbs, that are filling and nutritionally far better than a microwave burger. I was trying to say that, the rights and wrongs of that amount to one side, helping those on very low incomes to make what little they have go further can surely only be a good thing?

I am lucky, I learned to cook as a child so I know all the tricks of stretching food, but many people dont and that was the issue I was discussing, not whether the amount of money they had was ok, because clearly it isnt. I would also add (again) my credentials as a single mother living on benefits, so yes, I do know what its like to look at a very small amount of money knowing I need to perform miracles with it.

I have PM'd Darren and as he said .... we cool!