Eat well for less......

[ssd]

anyone watch this?

this couple spend £150 to entertain a few friends for dinner!!!

are they really a representation of typical families?

I wonder if they will do an episode at the end going back to see if the family's kept it up

I'm actually quite enjoying the show, not because I find it useful but I quite like seeing how the other half live and feeling smug that yes I'm poor in comparison but damn I am good at cutting carrots

I've never bought a jar of pasta sauce in my life. It's never occurred to me to do so.

disneymum no they do a whole 'new' series where they show the old show with a new 5 min catchup clip.

I also watched it with a sense of pride that I am actually more on the ball than I sometimes think.
I meal plan
Shop weekly
cook from scratch (except for curry paste)
eat seasonal produce
buy meat from the butcher (although that is MUCH more expensive than tesco)
Utilize my freezer.

It is like the house of tiny tearaways was 10 years ago, an extreme to show how some can help themselves.

thedonkey I thought that about the beer. DP often has becks blue and it's bloody expensive. Much cheaper to get stella4% for about £1 a can and beck blue is about £6 per 6 small bottles

I am a snob over some things. Love Heinz beans ketchup and salad cream

Not fussy over most other stuff tho things like economy chopped toms as lots of runny watery toms. Compared to say normal own brand

I do cook from scratch at work (I'm a nanny) but maybe 50% at home as tbh after working all day and cooking - I can't be arsed to cook again and do have ready meals at time but with veg which may be pre packed and 6mins in microwave

Disclaimer - anything that makes me life easier is worth it

But yes would be nice to see how the average family say spending £60/80 could save money

It was a wasted opportunity, the woman felt so pleased to chop up some ready made pastry and grate a bit of parmesan on it, that was weird, didn't their parents cook?

Didn't they know what freshly cooked from scratch food actually tastes like??

DH and I watched the repeat on Sunday because we were hungover and couldn't get off the sofa.

These shows are never ambitious enough. They get people with an extreme version of a problem and help them to be not quite so extreme. It's not useful to the vast majority of us, but they obviously think viewers want to watch extreme behaviour rather than ordinary, average people with lives just like ours. It shows what they think of their viewers' intellect.

There was nothing in Sunday's show that would have been in the slightest bit useful to us, unlike Economy Gastronomy, also on the BBC about 5 years ago. We've always cooked from scratch, meal planned, written shopping lists etc but I took their advice to buy large joints of meat and use them in more than one meal over a week (like the Mumsnet Chicken I suppose). I often do it now and find it the most economical way to eat meat. I also find that stir fries, curries and hotpots often taste nicer made with roasted meat than raw.

We really liked those Scrabble placemats though, gutted to see they're seven quid each .

I'm enjoying the programme but does anybody remember a few years back called Economy Gastronomy? Same principle in that people were over spending on food they basically put in the bin. The focus here though was planning the menu for the week ad cooking something you could adapt into several different meals. So you would make a huge vat of a mince based recipe which you could then use to make bolognese or chilli. Or you rotted a beef joint and then made a casserole or Thai salad out of leftovers. It was a better premise because it focused on planning and cooking from scratch rather than just brand swapping.

Well i worked with a young mid thirties banker fairly low down the food chain at a v large investment bank and he claimed to spend 800 a month for his family of him , wife and new baby! So dunno. Suffice to say me and other PA's decided they had more money than sense and congratulated ourselves on, on average spending a tenth of that and having more disposable income and quality of life as a result while earning a tenth of what he earned.

Since i have been skint and unemployed i have discovered rice and Tesco value sauces big time: and my food bill has gone done by half and i still havent given up cake. Cake will always be a feature as my cake shelf will agree. Thank God for weekly offers on Mr Kipling is all i can say, its keeping me sane while juggling job search madness off recruitment agencies and my nutjob landlord who claims damp is not damp despite photos. I can always diet succesfully when i am working and earning but at the moment, feck that, jobs and new flats are draining my will power

PS. my body is in shock , i just caught up on email, found i had a job interview so ditched the cake and had a banana! Frantically routing out spanx for interview on Fri.

If anyone has budget healthy recipes for lazy woman who gets bored after more than 5 ingredients or 15mins prep let me know... please.....

Good luck with your interview Sazzle41.

Sazzle Hugh F.W.'s Veg. Everyday is a great book with some good ideas for easy veg. cooking and eating, it's got to be cheaper than meat eating and definitely healthier.

Watching the latest episode. God these people have nice kitchens don't they? Hardly needing to save much money.

This programme is similar to what is on the other side at the moment, Location location location, where it is normal to just have 500k+ to spend on a house, when you are a young family. This lot on here are hardly struggling with a £300 shopping bill, sadly it doesn't really reflect the average young family.

i like this family. they are lovely.

Agree what a sweet family. I really liked the mother .

Glad to see Branston beans came above Heinz on the taste test. I bang on about how much better they are if anyone mentions Heinz on threads. After Branston, Heinz always taste full of sweeteners.

The show said they were more expensive but that's the full price they quoted. They're pretty much always on offer in tesco or sainsbos and failing that 3 large tins for a pound in the pound shop.

Nice family. Ava's face when eating the bread she didn't like reminded of my DD when she's not happy with something she's eating.

They will still be spending 1k a month on food!!!

I think they would have been better using families which spent a bit more then average on food and not these people who just spent stupid amounts a week.

They would be hard pushed to make these massive savings on normal family shopping.

Still over 200 a week on food!!!! I spend £50!!

I know, I felt a bit let down by the big reveal! £200 a week is huge for us over double our spend for the same sized family (and same aged ish kids) , I just can't imagine chucking that money away (before the chucking the food away issue)

I was aghast at it, on all the food threads on here even the biggest spenders don't spend that much and the family didn't even have hungry teens.

I only spend £80/£100 per week on a family of 5. I can't see how I could save more by using own brands that would make a difference.

I only caught the last few minutes.

The discovery that the bread they "didn't like" was their regular (expensive) bread is telly gold.

I buy that bread though

I don't know how anyone can physically spend over £300 on food a week!!

Crazy. Where do they shop? Selfridges food hall?