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?

Wow, that is good. Water on my bathroom floor is wasted. What did you grow?

Growing vegetables is an expensive pastime. Fine if you want to play at being a gentleman farmer but as a way of keeping growing children fed, it's a no go.

'I had neither of those or any time as a single mum struggling to complete a degree. I was in a 3rd floor flat and grew them in old marj tubs on the bathroom floor. Sometimes it just takes a bit of thinking outside the box and a non defeatist attitude smile'

Of course. So defeatist! Why didn't I think of that, with 3 kids in a flat?

And what if your crop fails? Hate it when it does that. I grow my own herbs in a window box and still lost several of them to pests.

But let's all sing Kumbaya, I mean, if one person can do it, everyone can.

Marj tubs in the bathroom? Did you grow very tiny veg?

I've completely given up on growing veg in my duvet-sized garden. They get flies, blight, slugs, mould, and last year everything rotted in the ground as it was so wet. I grow salad, and some herbs, in pots but even those are unreliable. Dried herbs are a damn sight more economical but, when I do get a crop (have got sage & thyme atm,) it makes me feel I have at least one posh ingredient in my tedious rice 'n' chickpea concoctions!

Growing your own food is an extremely hit-and-miss affair in the average British back yard.

I have an allotment (I appreciate I am v lucky, was on waiting list for about a decade) and it's bloody hard work growing enough food to be genuinely useful. What on earth could you grow in marge tubs that would actually save you money? Herbs are good and pretty easy, I agree. But nothing else bar maybe salad onions or radishes would work very well in something as small as a marge tub. Maybe rocket - that grows like a weed.

My tiny bathroom doesn't get much sun. It's a constant battle to keep mould away as it is.

Make Do and Mend is a book full of leaflets that were sent out during WWII. The recipes are very interesting, not least because it suggests that one meal a week could be meat-free, which at the time was a new concept. What I find quite upsetting is that many of the tips about making food/clothes/fuel last could be very useful today, post war, in one of the richest nations in the world.

I should add for the sake of comedy that the recipe for "Roast Shoulder of Lamb" was....paraphrased..."No British woman needs teaching how to roast meat"! :o

I used to have a bit of a soft spot for Jamie Oliver despite his budget meals needing saffron and taking just fifteen minutes provided you employed a sous chef to prepare, bless him. But when he started wanking on about growing things and walked through his greenhouse which was bigger than Heathrow Airport I lost all patience with him.

Bogeyface

florencebabyjo, how did you get the compost into your flat and where did you store it - did you actually have a bag of compost sitting in your bathroom? Surely that would attract pests? I don't have a garden or a car and while I do grow some things myself (not in the bathroom; far too small) it's a hassle getting to somewhere where I can buy a bag of compost and then getting it back home again. Then there is the hassle of getting rid of it at the end of the growing season. Also surely veg needs to be outdoors?

I mean, you need big pots and lots of sunlight for most veg - and I know because like I say, I grow things in containers.

You're just not trying hard enough, Audrina. Mould can be very nutritious, and tasty when added to braised lentil stew. Poor people just don't have any initiative, no wonder they're poor.

I think florencebabyjo was talking florencebabybollocks, Wallinson.

Just had a thought. Do you think getting a few people together to bulk buy, then produce freezer meals could work? Was talking to a lady who goes to a day centre. The people who go have varying levels of disability, but they club together and do a big cook-in. It's for the lunch that day, but I'm wondering if that could work for a small group once a month, or maybe larger scale.

Lino mushrooms - a rare delicacy

Luis!

Our bath leaked. I was fucking MORTIFIED when they sprouted up.

I was hesitating to say that but I agree with you, garlicsmutty. I just don't see how one could do it. In fact, I've largely given up on growing veg now just because of the sheer amount of work/compost involved in having anything more than a few plants - it's actually quite wasteful. Container gardening is good for some shrubs and small trees if you prune them right and you can also get away with the flowers that come up every year as long as you take care of them and don't lose them to frost. Herbs are fine too. Anything else, not so much, because you have to start all over again every year.

@ lino mushrooms!

Well there's an idea, garlicsmutty. All this time I was gagging and scraping mould away and it could have been added to an omelette for flavour in the way that truffles are.

marriedinwhite would you refuse to see a doctor again in case he turns out to be a mass serial killer like Harold Shipman No?

well why assume that all people on tiny budgets or benefit claimants are all the same then? Why assume they would all do that just because it happened once with your stepfather.
The Shipman analogy proves there is classism and snobbery going on here.

i haven't seen the programme, but if i had to live on a tight budget first thing to go would be meat. I may have a bit for the kids once a week. Other than that staple foods that go a long way and are filling would be used , potatoes, lentils, chick peas, rice, pasta, porridge oats.

Someone mentioned spices being expensive, if you're after any Asian spices or even black pepper way cheaper in indian or Chinese grocers. Those tesco spice jars are a joke, i suspect you pay more for the jar than contents. In an Asian store you would get so much more for less. Just no Fancy storage, worse case scenario rubber band to seal.

Question do people here still make home made chips or do the majority of folks use frozen? Isn't frozen more expensive. Just i don't see major supermarkets selling large sacks of potatoes, although they're easy to get in a Asian store. When I was growing up in the 80s i can vaguely recall people buying potatoe sacks is this a bygone era?

To me the equivalent would be a sack of rice, i could never use rice sachets instead of rice from a sack, the expense and taste can't be compared.

Wallison you don't need to replace compost every year just the nutrients lost. So adding manure chicken pellets or fertilisers depending on what plant you are growing will help, or making your own. If any deficiencies are shown the correct fertiliser can be added later too. I don't change mine every year. But yes I agree its hard work and labour intensive. It's not guaranteed either so not a good way to feed kids. But I always find I have too much of the stuff i grow i share it with friends and family.

But sharing an allotment and the cost of using it would be a good thing for people on budgets. You all work together then Share the yield. There are some councils where this is happening I'm pretty sure.

Justanuther, your points have been made before, as have the following:
We can't afford sacks of rice and spuds.
If we could afford them, we can't carry them home.
Those of us living in flats can't store them.
We do not all live in places with ethnic grocers.
We don't all live near budget supermarkets.
Eating slushy, beige food loses its appeal after a while.
Many of us have health issues, with associated dietary needs.
Those of us with health issues often can't cook every day.
Not all of us have freezers.

... and the big one: this is the sixth richest country in the world! Why do we even need to have this conversation?