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?

LaurieFairyCake, great post. You would indeed be a cock

What I love about Mumsnet (other than that nobody sneered at me for thinking mace was a self-defence spray earlier ) is that most people here really get it and do understand the challenges that people on a limited budget face.

They know that they are able to keep costs down because they are not living day to day.

I worked it out while I was watching - our lowest point was £1.25per person per day.

Luckily we had a decent stash of stuff in the cupboard, I'm a good cook, I asked on here for ideas... and it was only for 2 months.

It was still grim sometimes and I felt like shit telling ky child that no they couldn't have any fruit because there wasn't any left for the week now.

In the year before that we didn't have much more, but I did it the fucking stupid middle class buy lots of lentils way. The whole family lost weight (we were already very slim!) It is very easy to do a vegetarian diet badly.

That's a very sweet blog, Hoover, but it's also bloody daft.

I've learned to shop at Aldi and Lidl for my main shops, with top ups at the local shop for bread and milk. This week, for example, my shopping bill was £35.76 which will, pretty much, feed me and my 7 year old son, plus the dog, for a week.

She says she has £200 a month 'disposable' income, which is £80 a week - and she says that's after 'bills'. She's got a very healthy £44 a week left over for transport, clothing, medicines, household stuff and so forth but people on benefits would be paying their gas, electricity, phone and internet out of that.

And she seems to have both an Aldi and a Lidl nearby. She must live in the only place that does

Lentils can be great, but you need more fat in dishes to keep the calories up (unless like me, that's the point of the lentil dishes).

Plus even buying frozen if you can (have big freezer) you need fresh veg and a variety thereof to get a decent diet.

Of course plenty well off people don't have a decent diet, but then they have the choice to bit be arsed, or supplement with vitamins and kid on its the same. Not much choice in £14 a week and precious little space to get distracted and let the spuds boil dry.

I reckon even for those who are prepared, superb cooks, veggie and organised it would still be a difficult lifestyle.

Garlic - where I live (quite posh ir

DH and I stupidly overspent and ended up with very little to feed everyone for about 3 weeks a while ago. I managed to do 3 shops for between £20 and £30 in Aldi to feed us (but I had to go to sainsbos to get tinned chickpeas as Aldi don't seem to sell them). I could make decent, healthy, tasty meals out of that BUT only because (1) I have a well stocked food cupboard, herbs in the garden and spare ingredients in the freezer, (2) we had petrol in the car and could afford to travel across the city to Aldi and then go to sainsbos, (3) we have plenty of equipment etc in the kitchen, (4) the fuel bills aren't a problem as it was a temporary cash flow issue caused by DH's idiocy, and (5) I usually work at home so I can put food on and let it cook for hours and hours. If we were living in poverty it would not have been possible. Even with those 5 huge advantages, I couldn't have done it for £14 a week.

Nonetheless it was not fun at all and I don't want to repeat it. We were also heartily sick of bloody lentils by the time pay day came. And we discovered that, contrary to MN wisdom, lentil bolognaise is not nice.

Don't tell me you've got two German budget supermarkets in your posh area, Posy!

Erk, damn phone. Where I live (quite posh in parts oddly) we have an Aldi and a Ludke next door to each other a mile away,

My parents (totally different area) have similar?

Not sure why it's odd to havd both ?

in the town I live there is a lidl and 2 aldis! although lidl is the only one I can get to (no car) as it is walking distance.

Yeah I have an Aldi and Lidl on my bus route in both directions so didn't realise it was an abnormality to have this! And I live in a little village with only a local shop so not exactly central!

In our town we have waitrose, Tesco, then tiny co-op, Tesco local, budgens... none of them are cheap.

It's £6 on a 40min bus ride to the nearest market, you'd have to get a 2nd bus for any other supermarkets.

Yes, we have a food bank.

How is £200 a month £80 a week?? It works out at £46 a week, so after approximate £36 for food, that leaves £10 for "luxuries"!

You're absolutely right! I need to go to bed

Ime, Aldi tend to situate themselves in areas where the rent is cheap ie not central and not where all buses go. So, fine if you have a car, but if you're poor you don't have a car, so you can't get to Aldi. I think that outside of London, people's shopping choices are limited.

The other thing about cooking from scratch is the risk of it going wrong - especially true if you're poor and missing a few ingredients. A fish finger tastes like a fish finger but my curry sometimes tastes of burnt garlic , sometimes too sweet (99p shop coconut paste) or too spicy.

I also agree that scatch cooking is hard when poor. Even pastry costs a bag of flour 50p and a cheap butter 98p. That's £1.50 gone before you've put anything in it.

It never ceases to amaze me how this sort of thread has posters who claim to be so skint they can't feed themselves, yet they can afford an internet connection and computer/mobile phone?
Surely food comes first - and don't tell me they are all in the local library using their machines.
Processed food is more expensive than scratch, even cheap processed stuff is more expensive than a big pan of fresh vegetable soup. The problem is that a lot of people just refuse to eat real food because they are so used to the artificially enhanced flavours in the processed stuff and they just can't be arsed to cook.

How do you apply for jobs if you have no internet connection?

I agree with much of the above. DP lost his job last year, and by cutting back lots, having DP at home to simmer the beans and make the bread we made ends, more or less meet, with my income and the benefits.

However, the problems came when he got a job (for which he had to register self-employed) and his employers didn't pay him for two months. That was TOUGH. But, with fairly well stocked store cupboards and a largish freezer plus our ability to cook, we managed to eat, just.

But don't kid yourselves that was sustainable. As soon as DP got paid, we went out and restocked the cupboards. Not with extravagent stuff mind you. Pasta, rice, stock cubes, tinned veg, frozen veg, butter, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, cleaning products, loo roll. And do you know how much our food/grocery cost over the next month?

About twice the usual as we had to replace everything we had used up.

So don't pretend it is all about being a bit frugal and being able to cook. That is important, but it is no guarantee of not falling off the edge and needing food kitchens/help.

Actually, processed food is often cheaper than 'nutritious' food. In our local overpriced small supermarket, I can get 4 pies for a quid. That costs less than a bag of frozen sweetcorn. It costs the same as a bunch of broccoli (neither of which would by themselves feed four people). If I were to buy the ingredients to make four pies myself, it would come to a lot more than that. And yes, I would have some ingredients left over but that doesn't help me when I only have a limited amount to spend every day. There are plenty of other anomalies - for eg a massive tub of shitty ice-cream costs 80p, whereas a small pot of naice yoghurt costs £1.30 or so. Similarly, a punnet of grapes costs £2.50 but a pack of cheapo sponge cakes costs £1. If you're looking for a pudding for your kids, which would you choose?

Don't forget Fresh that aside from the point about job seeking (Internet connection is very important, as is mobile if you plan to be away for more than a day) many people enter into contracts for mobile, TV, gym or whatever that have a specified duration and are then hit by redundancy.

We are bloody lucky in that while I earn more, we can constrain our monthly outgoings to the essentials fitting in DP's salary although it wouldn't be fun (and we still wouldn't be poor). If one partner earns a lot less or stays home to do child care, what do they then do regarding e.g. 12 month mobile phone contract? There's always a risk.

@wallison agreed. I remember a badly off friend who could cook, and did know about food nutrition getting very excited when ASDA did an all ready meals for £1 a few years ago, as she could afford to feed herslef for the next couple of weeks. Fresh food was a luxury in her, quite well informed, opinion.

But having an Internet connection these days is not a luxury . Not any more. Quite apart from the fact that sometimes it comes free with other things , like your landline , it also gives you access to other money saving channels. Cheapest energy tariffs for example , are as a rule , available online only . And it's ok saying well use the library one , IF YOU HAVE A LOCAL LIBRARY AND ITS STILL OPEN . Ours starting shutting earlier and earlier two years ago , and the mobile library has been cut altogether . And that's assuming you can walk to it , instead of using the precious fuel in the car if you have one , to get there .

I use online shopping, because even with the delivery charge, it's still cheaper than using the fuel to drive to my local (20 miles away) Aldi , and stops any impulse ( ha!) buying .

Its not as simple as not being arsed . Everything costs more and more these days . Disposable income is getting less and less , if at all . It's called weighing up which is more economic . Driving to the nearest local market , using expensive fuel , because there is no bus service and the market's 8 miles away , to get cheap veg , or walking to the village petrol station to get a microwave dinner .

How do you expect someone who has been out of work for several years (my DH) to get a job if they can't apply online. How can he book his operation he needs, all done online now. How can he sort his access to higher education course, all has to be done online now. Plus, we have a 1 year old DD & as I work how is he supposed to get hold of me if there is an emergency? I can't take personal calls at work. FWIW, my phone only costs me £5 per month. We eat almost all homemade, I made all DD's baby food myself as well, we missed quite a few meals so she could eat properly.

If I didn't have a computer and internet I would be sanctioned every bloody month by the job centre for not applying for enough jobs. I have to record all my job hunting online, paper proof is not acceptable. Internet is not a luxury for me. But I don't have sky, don't drink, smoke or go out, unless I am taking the dcs out somewhere.
I cook a lot from scratch but we do have processed food sometimes, mainly when I am knackered and can't face cooking and washing up and I always keep a frozen pizza in the freezer as my ds has sen and if he is having a bad day I will be too busy coping with him to cook anything other than pizza and salad.
I would also like to point out that cooking a new dish you are not sure your dcs would like is very risky when you haven't much food. If the dcs don't like it and demand something else you have then lost a large percentage of your food budget.