To think that £17,000 a year on food is obscene

[ChillySundays]

Watching 'Eat well for less' on i player. The family are spending £17,000 a year on food. I'd quite like to earn that. The bloke is saying about saving them £100 a week - my food bill is that a week (4 adults) never mind saving it.

What is really getting my goat is the mother laughing about how little fruit and veg the family eat. Surely most people would be embarrassed whatever the reason was.

Am I being incredibly judgey?

What I don't understand is the family this week were giving it "oh I wish we could afford to take the kids abroad"....... How can you not click on that you're spending £325 a week on food?!!

Fucking christ. I feed 9 on 60 to 80 quid a week.

I'm cooking for 6 on Sunday and that's got to be £200+

jesus, i cook for 6+ every sunday and would consider myself incredibly profligate if i spent £25 on a two course sunday meal including wine. what on earth are you providing for £200 ? i could take 6 people to our local 5* hotel for a 4 course sunday lunch for that.

Chilly just buy a rice cooker you will soon save the money not using pouches

or just learn how to boil rice, it's not exactly rocket science

What got me is that they were looking at cheaper versions of eg prosciutto and not cheaper meals. They didn't do planning either.

I'm stealing some of their recipes, though, but they are a mare to get off the facebook page. It's the first time I wish one of these programmes would do a book.

The microwave risotto was the first time I'd made risotto at home and it came out okay. The men would eat it again.

Love this show! I know it's all a set up, but we all love a good judgy TV show

The butter vs margarine/spread thing annoyed me. Why is the "fat is bad" agenda still being pushed? Everything in moderation, and life is really too short to not enjoy butter on your bread!

Also the woman who shows them how to cook cheap meals is irritating and then Greg and the other chap exclaim over it like no one ever made pasta bake before the worst was the microwave risotto that was rice, onions and passata. I don't recall her putting meat or veg in, but I could be wrong... How is that eating well?! Certainly falls under the "for less" part of the title though.

I actually thing it's a good premise for a show, but should be from the angle of bulk cooking, and what's cheap but nutritionally good for you and filling, etc etc. Help those who need to save, save some money and still eat as well as they can. Not "oh you like oven food? Here's cheaper oven food".

It does indeed confirm though that Greg Wallace may be the most irritating man on the planet.

trufflehunterthebadger
Fish chowder, it has quite a lot of lobster so I'm not exactly trying to be frugal.

Crossed posts re the risotto I have no issue with the microwave part, just the nutritionally empty part

I was, when it first started, expecting something more like the one with the 'how to make a chicken last all week'? Any remember what that was called?

Ok, this is an extreme example but there is definitely a competitive "how little I spend on food" on here.

The mythical 5 day chicken show was Jamie's money saving meals.

The yukky white stuff oozing out of bacon is the water that they have injected to make up the weight.

You only need a max of 2 lobsters for chowder for 6, at approx £20 each that still leaves £160 for lunch for 6.

We have a nearly 6 figure household income but i can't begin to imagine being so wasteful

I actually am not shocked. We spend about £200 on main shop each week plus £12 to milk man and 2 or 3 top up shops of maybe £20-£25.School dinners are £45 per week.This is for me, DP 10yo and 3 teenagers. If you DC who are basically men, this increases your food costs massively

I dont think it was jamie (though of course he probably did it too), there was a woman in it. One of the other 'make it last a week' meats was a whole salmon, if that helps?

I'm using 6, 1 each.

Lol I know I'm the oddity 're pizza :o but I still don't understand how anyone can eat that much bread in one sitting! I don't think any of us like pizza enough in reality

trufflehunter you see I cannot imagine being able to feed 6 people a sunday lunch including wine for £25?

Surely the chicken alone would be a good £10 of the budget? I always buy free range I admit. Then a half decent bottle of wine would be £8, that doesn't leave a whole heap of money for all the veggies and a pudding?

£200 is a lot but I would be thinking of around £80 I guess.

Pizza for 5 people made me a bit too!

Got it - economy gastronomy!
www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b00m1c34

Still not exactly budget cooking, but more what i was expecting than an advert for marg and value brands!

and why is it wasteful if everything gets eaten?

We spend around £300 a week, if I include wine, beer, dog food and lunches.

Even I'm failing to see how you can bulk out one pizza for five people with garlic bread and coleslaw.

We can buy a 5 (?10) kg bag of rice for £10.

how much do you all eat? A large pizza, 2 garlic bread, a large tub of coleslaw and salad is plenty tbh. I do sometimes do it with a pack of chicken wings I suppose
I buy though pouches of rice but I'm reluctant to tell you how much we use between 5 :o two and they are 50p in sainsburys. I bought three of the veetee ones yesterday in waitrose though and I think it was £3.50
I'd like to tell you I'm really slim but I'm not! The children are slim though

I was thinking about posting a couple of receipts on here today but it would be a fucking bloodbath.