To think this lady lives a depressing existance

[ImWithHer]

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-3710734/UK-s-thriftiest-great-grandmother-reveals-make-dinner-scratch-just-47-PENCE-s-healthy-too.html

I Know its a Failonline like but please read.

The food can't be healthy and looks like vomit. Why would one want to live like this. I understand that people are on budgets but I think I would rather starve.

I honestly don't get this frugal lifestyle you only live one life if you have the money spend it on living comfortable you could be dead tomorrow.

carrie sadly a lack of understanding about true poverty is a thing on MN. But there are more than a few of us who have, at one time or another, gone hungry so that our children can eat, and I understand your anger.

Thanks Bogeyface x.

I can't understand the snobbery of some people looking down on people for trying to make cheap, healthy meals. I'm a single mum living on just maternity pay plus tax credits so every penny counts for me. I frequently batch cook huge portions of lentil curry or chilli bulked out with lots of veg and beans and it works out at pennies per portion. Pop plenty of it in the freezer and rotate with other lentil or veg dishes. I do enjoy meat when I can afford it but I always appreciate blogs and ideas for new cheap recipes like this. Oh how I would love to be in a position where I could be choosy about what food I ate but like many people I can't so I appreciate what I have and learn to make the most of cheap.ingredients. sorry OP but I think you need to get over yourself.

The food looks very nice, and it's good that this lady is providing a service with her site - a lot of people aren't sure how to save money and eat well.

I am veggie and this looks healthy and appetising. I would not use the cream though.

Few lardons on that and it would be amazing. Eaten 'as is' I think would be mainly for really skint days. But with lardons or a chop or veggie burgers would be lovely anytime.

the fact is cheaper meat and veg is not as good

That fact actually is that this is all some of us can afford.

What a pointless horrible post OP.

on the plus side, whilst i despise the daily fail I do now have done new recipe ideas.

God help you if you ever have to manage on a budget

Imwith, you are wrong about the EU....remember the horse meat scandal. All EU meat.
And the pesticide ban is only in parts of Europe and is only for neonicitinoids. They regularly feed antibiotics to hens...yes even outdoor reared hens. But butternut squash has a hard outer covering so it will be protected.
My partner is an independent butcher ( I am veggie) and he tells a lot of stories about so called organic meat. A lot of it is hype.
Still, if you want to waste your money feel free, but stop being so bloody judgemental.

If you've never been poor and in a situation where you can only eat to live, where food is an essential to get through the day and can only be basic, it can be difficult to understand why a person who has had to do this, doesn't stop doing it when they are back in there feet. There's always this fear that something could happen and you'll end up back there and you can feel safe in continuing to live cheaply, because you know if you end up in the shit again, then you can be ok again. You can feel guilty for buying luxury food, and to many on low incomes, meat from the butchers is a luxury, your ideal of reasonably priced could be more than what others could afford.

If she's skint, then she's doing what she can to manage.
If she's been skint and now ok, then she may well have security in continuing to eat cheaply. I haven't read the link, but she could feel safer saving her money to pay bills in case she ends up poor again.
If she's never been skint, and has millions in the bank, it's up to her what food she chooses to buy and put in her own body.

I find it very interesting that many people say that advertising etc doesnt affect their buying choices and yet wont buy value veg etc because it isnt as "good" as standard veg. Its the same veg, grown in the same field, it just has the odd spot or isnt the right size!

I am not a fan of TV but Eat Well For Less should be required viewing as it shows just how we are so easily influenced over what we buy and why.

we have a smallish budget. feed us on about £2 each per day. not noticed missing out on stuff. eg strawberries in winter cost quite a lot but gave up buying as they did not taste as nice. I would not change what I buy much anyway, even if I had more as a lot of the stuff is unhealthy (stuff I want anyway). being mainly veggie helps.

cream lasts ages. even after the use by date. you can tell if it is off or not from smell/taste. lasts a lot longer than the 48 hours or so someone mentioned.

Bogey I agree and I'd extrapolate that to most people in the UK have no idea what life was like 3, 4 or 5 generations ago either. This idea of obsessing about food and quality and 'style' is an incredibly recent thing.
Veg and a little protein bulked up with carbs has been the norm. Suet pudding as a starter on Sunday and saving the meat for the most active.
If you're broke it is easy to subsist on crap, bulked up, pleasure centre 'food'. We should be cooking seasonal local veg. And eating less meat.

What's wrong with Aldi OP?!

Why would one want to live like this. I understand that people are on budgets but I think I would rather starve

You'd rather starve? Yeah, right. That comment alone makes it look like you know Jack Shit about actually having not much money if you can afford to feed the expensive stuff all the time.
I actually clicked on the link, and read the article. Nothing in there sounds terrible, and it sounds like she's making a great job of making good nutritious meals out of not much money.
Granted, there could be more protein in there, but all in all there's a healthy menu and they all eat well.
If I was on a budget I'd far rather our family ate this lady's menu than bland beige cheap freezer food in the form of chicken nuggets and chips.

I'm so glad I've seen this thread :) Thanks OP. I am skint & I need to cook more cheap veggie meals that look lovely.

I've had a look at Lesley's website & now have loads of ideas that I think even my fussy DD2 would eat.

I'm wondering if this is not the reaction OP was looking for? Personally I've already surveyed the kitchen cupboards for dried lentils not I have some new recipes.

I think it looks good! All of you who have a problem with people eating like this lady should come to Africa, just see how people live here. You westerners have no bloody idea how the poor, desperately poor have to live, NOT A FUCKING CLUE!!!! I am so angry that westerners can be so sneering about food, some of you make me sick, i hope none of you have to starve, really starve to appreciate how others have to live without choices!

Not all Westerners - I'm ashamed at the mindset of some when it comes to food and how much is spent, or thrown away!
Some just don't know how lucky they really have it.

Fair enough but some people take it too far. Its ok to treat yourself now and again. I think the problem here is that she has at one point in her life been to a place she never wants to be again ie nearly homeless and hungry that it is her way of controlling a budget and feeling safe. Extreme perhaps but it happens that way sometimes. Either that it has become a buzz to save in the way she does each time she does it. Again a hard habit to kick once you start craving that buzz of excitement.

If I was on a budget I'd far rather our family ate this lady's menu than bland beige cheap freezer food in the form of chicken nuggets and chips.

Exactly, ItsABanana

She may be a mumsnetter....... referring to her grandchild as DGD in her blog....

Getting confused between Tropicana and Agent Orange.

But cream would.
No, it doesn't. Cream lasts for up to a week if promptly refrigerated.
And cooked veg.
No, it doesn't. Even if it did, it could be used in something else, or frozen.

I cook this sort of thing all the tine. It's a style of cooking I have perfected known as lobitin. If it looks fresh, lobitin. If I make a curry it's never the same twice due to my experimental, lobitin cookery style.

My DC used to love bottom of the fridge soup.
lobitin is the way to go.

I am still intrigued by what people eat if they don't eat things like this

Op you're obsessed with meat and sausages. Vegetables are food too :o