Feeding the family on low wage or benefits ?

[Lady Gull]

It might be healthier (and actually taste better) but can you guarentee that the children will eat it, having been brainwashed previously by convenience food adverts on the tv. Also by the time you have priced all the ingredients a £1 pizza might even be cheaper (even though it tastes and has the nutrient value of cardboard).

They will eat it eventually if there is nothing else on offer believe me! Your children only eat what you give them - Both my kids never drink fizzy drinks - my son because I couldn't afford it - he only drank water or milk which we got milk tokens for!!! I used to get something like 7 pints of milk a week free or something - I remember having so much milk in my freezer we couldn't possibly drink it all - so we used to make cheese sauce, milkshakes and stuff.

 

[rool]

There are lots of healthy alternatives that work out the same or cheaper per kilo than processed foods but you have to be interested in researching and learning about them.
I found cookbooks aimed at students brilliant for this.
It takes a bit of planning and a will to do it but the result makes it so worth it.
The problem is that if depression does kick in even unwrapping a pizza and sticking it in an oven seems like an impossible task.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

They could swap the pizzas for Bags of Pasta and all the other rubbish they buy for veg. There are families in poverty across Europe too, but I bet they still manage to eat properly. Crappy pizzas full of fat. For a quid all your going to get is cheese on toast.

 

[Lady Gull]

I find that the people that don't feed their kids properly are normally wasting it on other things, I've seen some parents give their kids £5 to buy something for breakfast on the way to school and for lunch when they could have bought their kid breakfast all week for the same £5 if they got up early and stopped watching daytime tv.

The real heroes are the single parents who manage to work and still have time to prepare their kids healthy meals and provide a clean comfy home

This - as soon as I had wills at school full time I went straight back to work and the DHSS gave me a back to work payment that I didn't even know I could get! I rang them to tell them I had got a job and the guy on the phone said oh you can get a back to work payment - it was quite a substantial amount too!! Its bloody hard juggling school, work and doing everything though - but very rewarding when people say what a great kid you have or how polite and well mannered he was - as one of my biggest fears was being labelled a "single mum" who was dragging her kid up - I wasn't - I was just doing my best with very little - luckily I managed to turn my life around for me and him - glad I went through it now as I think it made me a much better person - I even learn't to decorate, tiled my bathroom, changed the syphon in my loo - things I would never have done before then.

 

[Wardy]

Been in the situation myself and it is very easy to fall in to the trap where you by the £1 pizza because it is quick and easy. I used to only buy stuff that was on offer and could be frozen. Then I would buy basic ingredients in order to make meals. When I cooked I would cook in bulk since it was cheaper to buy a 2 large packets of mince for example then it was to buy 1 one day then another 1 another day. Make a huge pot of bolognese and split it in to 3. Freeze 2 lots for another day. Comes down to education and though some parents are not interested I am sure that a lot would love to be shown how to make their money go further. Sainsburys did some things a little while back where you could feed a family of 4, 3 meals a day for a week on a £40 budget. In the end they withdrew them since people complained that you needed things like herbs, spices etc that were not included in the £40. It is possible but you need to live on benefits and live fairly healthy. Yes you may not be able to have the best cuts of meat and not always be able to eat what you want, but it can be done.

My favorite thing I used to make (just because the kids loved it and it was quick) was to take a french stick, slice it down the middle, tomato puree, grated cheese, few sliced mushrooms and cut up bits of value ham. Took 10 mins to make and cook, cost about a £1 to make and was great for a lunch with a little salad on the side.

 

[bn1&bn3 Albion]

They could swap the pizzas for Bags of Pasta and all the other rubbish they buy for veg. There are families in poverty across Europe too, but I bet they still eat properly. Sorry but I bet some of these parents don't have a clue about what is healthy. Crappy pizzas full of fat. For a quid all your going to get is cheese on toast.

Pasta and Rice, the two easiest and cheapest ingredients that you can buy bulk and make decent meals with.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

It might be healthier (and actually taste better) but can you guarentee that the children will eat it, having been brainwashed previously by convenience food adverts on the tv. Also by the time you have priced all the ingredients a £1 pizza might even be cheaper (even though it tastes and has the nutrient value of cardboard).

and here lies the problem,Jamie Oliver even with Hm Govt was slaughtered,just what/where do you go ?

 

[Noldi]

What gets me is a lot of these people can Smoke. What is it now £7 a packet you can get a lot of food for that.

 

[jevs]

I think the secret to it is to get people cooking (as mentioned about jamie Oliver) Im lucky that i tought myself to cook and i do most things from scratch, my wife would burn salad !!!!

I have to make sure that we have something different every day on the table....and it can't be expensive. pasta and rice with various sauces, cous-cous is good and cheap too. I love spag bols, cottage pies, casseroles...lots of one pot stuff and will happily make my own barbeque, curry and sweet and sour sauces.

Same with puddings...loads of blackberries for crumbles and pastry is so easy to make. jellies and angel delight are cheap too.

Just needs a bit of thinking

 

[rool]

There are families in poverty across Europe too, but I bet they still manage to eat properly.

As a nation we seem to have a poor attitude to food and family eating seems to have diminished when compared to our European counterparts.
I think it is changing a little but convenience seems to be what most of us are after rather than making it a family gathering over simple but healthy and delicious food.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Pasta and Rice, the two easiest and cheapest ingredients that you can buy bulk and make decent meals with.

Exactly. Having an Italian mother everything is Pasta, there are so many things you can do with it. Same with rice and also noodles.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

As a nation we seem to have a poor attitude to food and family eating seems to have diminished when compared to our European counterparts.
I think it is changing a little but convenience seems to be what most of us are after rather than making it a family gathering over simple but healthy and delicious food.

I completely agree.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

What gets me is a lot of these people can Smoke. What is it now £7 a packet you can get a lot of food for that.

Very much this. Although a lot of people buy their fags on the knock off. Shady deals in pub toilets or even work toilets. The good old booze cruise.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

I think the secret to it is to get people cooking (as mentioned about jamie Oliver) Im lucky that i tought myself to cook and i do most things from scratch, my wife would burn salad !!!!

I have to make sure that we have something different every day on the table....and it can't be expensive. pasta and rice with various sauces, cous-cous is good and cheap too. I love spag bols, cottage pies, casseroles...lots of one pot stuff and will happily make my own barbeque, curry and sweet and sour sauces.

Same with puddings...loads of blackberries for crumbles and pastry is so easy to make. jellies and angel delight are cheap too.

Just needs a bit of thinking

Wish I could cook properly. My wife is excellent at cooking as well as my mum. You can imagine the winding up I do between them lol. I'm slowly learning to cook. If you can cook yourself you can eat healthy.

 

[Camicus]

Go big or go home We used to buy half a pig + 1/4 of a cow with our neighbor worked out at about £20 each for a massive amount of pork and £30 for the beef. I know its a lot up front when you have no cash but it works out really well.

 

[looney]

Pasta and Rice, the two easiest and cheapest ingredients that you can buy bulk and make decent meals with.

Bag of flour?

 

[Leekbrookgull]

i think the secret to it is to get people cooking (as mentioned about jamie oliver) im lucky that i tought myself to cook and i do most things from scratch, my wife would burn salad !!!!

I have to make sure that we have something different every day on the table....and it can't be expensive. Pasta and rice with various sauces, cous-cous is good and cheap too. I love spag bols, cottage pies, casseroles...lots of one pot stuff and will happily make my own barbeque, curry and sweet and sour sauces.

Same with puddings...loads of blackberries for crumbles and pastry is so easy to make. Jellies and angel delight are cheap too.

Just needs a bit of thinking

when can we eat at your place ?

 

[Beach Hut]

Turkey Twizzlers - surely ?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I've always wondered why people bother with so called convenience foods. I have a wok in which I can knock up a fresh chicken or prawn stir fry in a few minutes and the wok doesn't even need a proper clean afterwards. Beat that with a microwave.

 

[Deleted member 18477]

What gets me is a lot of these people can Smoke. What is it now £7 a packet you can get a lot of food for that.

This. It's CRAZY money! £7.. for lunch I usually have about 3 slices of good quality taste the difference ham. 16 slices (2 packs) costs £4. Good quality protein and it's lean and low in kcals. Usually shove that in a new York bagel or bread. 5 bagels or 1 loaf of bread... £1 ish. that's 5 quid for pretty much 5 lunches. Throw in an apple a day and that's another quid... Throw in a satsuma a day and that's another quid.

So for 7 quid you can have a quality protein filled lunch (protein being the most expensive part of food) and 2 pieces of fruit.

Smoking is for weirdos!

Let's look at dinner: pasta? Cheap as hell! rice? Cheap as hell! You can always buy frozen veg as well for like a pound a bag or 2 for 1.50. Which is a lot better than eating junk if you can't afford fresh veg which isn't always cheap these days. 3 x packs of chicken breast fillets from sainsburys cost £10. Roughly 9-10 chicken breasts.

1 chicken breast with some pasta, rice, potato, veg. Maybe a yogurt for dessert. Activia one or something. They're usually on offer and healthy. Eating healthy and fairly cheaply isn't that hard. Especially if you don't dick your money on fags and crap!