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?

Please lay off Bogeyface, she's just making a point that people have taken the wrong way (including me) lets just have a good debate eh?

Thanks Darren, but dont worry I can take it!

When I read the replies on this thread and look at ny own situation I find it hard to belive that the people in Governent have the gall to want a pay rise. Where are the people protesting in the streets against that.

Bogeyface You speak sense I do not see why you should be panned for saying so. If you do not have the knowledge to prepare food for your family without relying on pre prepped food or junk food you are at an disadyantage.

There are no two ways about it.

Totem - the other £130 is probably being spent on bills, mortgage or rent, travel, clothes when outgrown, children's shoes, whatever else ! It's not like that 130 is just disposable!

Haven't seen the program.

I really feel for people who need to get their food for such measly amount
Did a little exercise on Tesco website to see what could one buy for £14.
Shocking, below is the most basic but somewhat nutritional meal plan, sadly it doesn't contain any fruit and no drinks, water has to do.

Still better than ready-meals.

Total £ 14.49

Tesco Carrots Loose x5 £0.40
Allinson Dried Active Baking Yeast 125G £0.64
Tesco Everyday Value Eggs Minimum Weight Box Of 15 £1.34
Tesco Everyday Value Self Raising Flour 1.5Kg £0.65
Tesco Everyday Value Strawberry Jam 454G £0.29
Tesco Everyday Value Oats 1Kg £0.75
Glenryck Pilchards In Tomato Sauce 425G £0.98
Tesco Everyday Value Tomato Puree 200G £0.35
Tesco Everyday Value Onions 1Kg £0.63
Tesco Everyday Value Mixed Vegetables 1Kg £0.75
Tesco Pearl Barley 500G £0.59
Tesco Everyday Value Dark Red Kidney Beans 4x 400G £0.84
Tesco Everyday Value Pork Chops 800G £2.50
Tesco Everyday Value Mince 950G £3.00
Tesco Everyday Value Spaghetti 500Gx2 £0.38
Tesco Everyday Value Long Grain Rice 1Kg £0.40
-----

Breakfasts:

porridge with jam
pancakes
toast with jam (flour/yeast/salt/water=bread)
eggs ( scrambled, fried/poached/boiled) with toast

Suppers:

pork goulash with rice (200g pork thinly sliced, large onion, carrot, tomato paste)

bolognese with spaghetti (450g mince, 2 onions, tomato puree, 2 grated carrots, handful of pearl barley)

spaghetti with pichards (pilchards fried with onion and tomato puree)

vegetable soup (500 g mixed vegetables, fried onion, 2 handfuls of pearl barley, sgueeze of tomato puree) with french bread (flour/yeast/salt/water)

chili con carne with rice ( 450g mince, onion, 4 tins of kidney beans, tomato puree, handful of pearl barley)

omelette with leftover chili con carne folded in

fried pork strips with vegetables and rice ( 200g thinly sliced pork, 450g defrosted vegetables, 2 onions, grated carrot)

Lunches:

There should be leftovers from most meals that could be eaten with extra bread.

-------------------

Bogeyface, that's a large percentage to take for the arrears. I'm on JSA and have a debt. I've opted to have the payment taken at source. The debt is being repaid at a few pounds a week.

marzipanned the soup was a home made tomato soup, it's a tin of baked beans, tin of chopped tomatoes, tin of carrots, a couple of pickled onions and veg stock (just enough to cover the other ingredients), put it all in a pan add some sweetener (1tsp) and boil it up for about 10 minutes or so then blend it

We both work but our outgoings have risen quite dramatically, my wife works in the public sector and had to take a pay cut earlier this year too that and having our WTC revoked has crippled us

we are being charged £243 a month dd by our energy supplier for a 3 bed house. We have found that part of it is a discrepancy of 1000 units from the reading we were given by the letting agent and the energy suppliers reading. They will do NOTHING about it at all despite us complaining. I also want to know why we are using so much electric, but again, will they help? will the fuck. Oh and that's just electric, not gas as we do not have gas running to the house

If anyone has any tips on how to resolve this, i would be very grateful, after rent it is our highest bill

oh and we don't have electric heating either, that's oil!

Arbitarary : we buy everything from Asda as it generally is cheaper than cash and carry. Nothing is bought in bulk.....we cook for 100 DC a day and get 2 deliveries a week.

Owllady - have you been to the CAB for advice? I'm guessing that you need to start escalating this discrepancy and make a formal complaint to either the energy supplier or the letting agent or both - but probably both will try to wriggle out of it. I guess you keep making formal complaints to higher and higher authorities until somebody responds.

Three things

1. I work with local low income families and they do offer (in my area) Cook It free classes which teaches people about making basic, nutritious meals on a budget.

2. However, many people have limited literacy and numeracy skills and they find budgeting for a week unbelievably challenging so yes they can cook the food in the classes but when the course is over translating their new cooking skills into a household budget with planned meals for 7 days.

3. Also as others have pointed out many people have no access to big supermarkets, no car, poor literacy / ICT skills which really deter them from shopping online (never mind that the £4 delivery charge wold blow your £14 a week food budget) and if you have to shop in corner shops the selection is v limited and the price is high.

I agree that it is much better for people to try and cook simple food from scratch than relying on heavily processed stuff filled with salt. But when you weigh up all the challenges facing people, alongside the grim prospect of a baked potato that takes an hour after a long shift in work and would probably be eaten with no oil, butter, salt, cheese, coleslaw etc I am not surprised microwave burgers are so popular.

I haven't been to CAB, that is a really good idea

TotemPole

These people are working, they are paying mortgages, traveling to work so paying bus fares, needing work clothes, O you might not need many but laddering a pair of tights can be a disaster.

EDF - yes I've seen someone on TV claim they don't charge more. They do however charge a premium for 'emergency electric' - for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know if you run out of electricity you can press a button and get some more power, but when you top up it is taken off your key at a higher rate.

They also offer discounts id you pay be direct debit.

BTW, sorry, I know my spelling is far from perfect but it's programme. Sorry, I need to get back to work and correct the student's spelling.

Darren

You, and the other people, came across really well. And some people (maybe me) would pay good money for that cook book.

Owllady - are you able to switch suppliers?? Or threaten them with it. If you could you could ask for a final bill and then at least you would know where you are with the discrepancy and then take this to cab.

The discrepancy is now £780 apparently and we just cannot afford that in one go.

sashh I'll let you into a secret, they took the book off us after filming because the recipes hadn't been tested. They said they would send it to us but nothing as yet!

Owllady - if the CAB can't help, I'd really start trying to take this as high up the food chain as you can. Try everything they suggest (apparently companies do sometimes fold immediately when they're told it's the CAB specialist on the line), and then go and see your MP.

This consistent race to the bottom has to be the most depressing trend I've seen in society in my life.

Squabbling over the scraps the super rich deign to throw at us. Do you realise that Nick Clegg claimed £143k worth of expenses last year? And that they are now inline for an 11% pay rise with only their fucking taxi allowance and late-night meals getting cut because, due to their contracts, their gold-plated pensions and golden goodbyes are guaranteed?

And you lot are fixated on pointing out how you got a fucking pressure cooker for 20p and went vegetarian for years and how you survive off the broth from a 3 for a tenner chicken?

WTAF?

Totally agree expat.
Divide and conquer, eh?
The politicos must rub their hands with glee when they see threads like this :(

Thank you grendelsmum, I will sort out our paperwork and make an appointment. I really do appreciate that.

This is why Home Economics should have a massive revival and be compulsory. If kids don't understand why cooking from scratch is cheaper and better for you, they are unlikely to take the time to bother.

This is obviously no good for someone struggling on only £14 a week, but a great book for basic frugal meals is The Dinner Lady (remember the Jamie Oliver programme?) and you can get used copies for £2.81 on Amazon. I'd also recommend the Girl Called Jack blog which has been mentioned.

expat, what do you suggest? A Revolution? Off with their heads?

Unless the really poor children get fed a half-decent and somewhat nutritionally sound food and not only processed crap, they will never have a chance of getting out from the bottom of the pile.

Of course, there are so many other factors: loving parent/s, decent sleep, clean and warm'ish home, education and interest and help with learning at home etc. Decent food is still one of the most important things for growing children.

I believe people on this thread are trying to help, clumsily perhaps, but help nevertheless.

However, as said so many times above, nobody should live in such powerty in this country