Eating on a budget

[JamesAndTheGiantHead]

My flat mate and I used to live on tea, milk, sugar, Malted Milks and cigarettes.

We lasted about 8 months before the scurvy took hold in earnest.

 

[Zebedee]

This is it, they still have a hefty mortgage and whatever else they are paying for that they used to be able to comfortably afford. The car was explained to be her dads that she borrowed to do the weekly shop, so she didn't have to use a taxi.

If they have a hefty mortgage they should count themselves lucky not to be paying interest rates at 15% as some of us had to for a good few years. Mortgage rates are ridiculously low nowadays and the only losers are people who have saved up all their lives and are looking for a reasonable income on their money - which is impossible to get without taking undue risk.

 

[Zebedee]

Families don't know how easy they've got it. It's so easy to buy stuff in a supermarket in bulk without spending much money. Why are there no programmes about how expensive it is to feed a single man?

Or a single woman, bien sur.

 

[MissGull]

The pensioner was case in hand for that. Buying fresh produce cheaply for one is difficult if you don't live near a market. Supermarkets tend to sell cheaply in bulk, because they make profit out of volumes.

 

[MissGull]

Stupid comment - you obviously did not watch the food programme of these two under discussion. - a pensioner who had nothing and for whom a meal was half a tin of chicken soup, a working single mum managing a charity shop for whom two meals a day were a cup of tea so that her daughter could eat. A family with both parents working (I think) which was having to resort to a food bank. I was at a meeting yesterday where members of the local clergy (in Southampton) were highlighting the fact that increasingly people in work are having to resort to food banks, AND IT IS NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE BUYING FLAT SCREEN TV'S AND PLAY-STATIONS.

Well said.

 

[Zebedee]

The pensioner was case in hand for that. Buying fresh produce cheaply for one is difficult if you don't live near a market. Supermarkets tend to sell cheaply in bulk, because they make profit out of volumes.

I agree the pensioner's case did look genuine; and he was clearly in a lot of hardship, which did not appear to be self-inflicted.

 

[MissGull]

He was living in a bedsit, with absolutely no luxuries. He seemed pretty gracious and humble however about splitting a cuppa soup over two days for his main meal. Doesn't seem right does it, in modern Britain for a guy who's been working and paying taxes all his life. Yet the families in the second programme were living off modest benefit incomes and hadn't done a days work. No justice there. Something very wrong.

 

[British Bulldog]

Families don't know how easy they've got it. It's so easy to buy stuff in a supermarket in bulk without spending much money. Why are there no programmes about how expensive it is to feed a single man?

Probably because it's not expensive to feed a single man ( or woman ) unless you choose it to be.

 

[strings]

Didn't watch the 'we all pay your benefits' programme, but I did watch the food show and found it very interesting. Clearly they had found people that were genuinely struggling, I especially felt sorry for the pensioner.

There were some excellent tips, though. As the chefs discovered, the only real solution is to buy in bulk and make up lots of meals to freeze, or put the raw ingredients in the freezer. I love the 'chicken' solution - however my other half is scared of chickens, so I doubt I could feed my egg addiction by purchasing live chickens.

 

[BadFish]

No, because it is self-evident.

I'm not blaming the people who find themselves in a 'food crisis'. Not at all. I am blaming the cultural mindset that's always ringing "buy this now/ buy everything". Generation after generation are being brought up with little knowledge of personal finance, family planning and good old logical/mindful thinking. Everywhere I look I see people being shit with their money. I was once crap with money, now I am not. Guess what? I have some decent savings!

Care to share some of your money saving tips?

 

[BadFish]

My flat mate and I used to live on tea, milk, sugar, Malted Milks and cigarettes.

We lasted about 8 months before the scurvy took hold in earnest.

You should market this as a new fad diet. Mix in some amphetamine and all night dancing and you have a fitness program as well.

 

[Return of the Rev]

anyone watching this show on bbc1 right now. Normal full time working families, not lavished with benefits that only have a quid a day per head to feed their families. Very interesting. Families more and more heavily relying on the food banks.

They've put professional chefs in each house that are trying to cook fresh and nutritious meals on these budgets, but not finding it easy by any means.

They are saying we are in a food crisis and people are getting a lot less for their money these days. Do you agree? Or is the advent of discounter shops making the food bill cheaper?

food expenditure is now a smaller percentage of our budgets/income than it was 40 years ago and in most cases people have a poorer diet

 

[KingstonSeagull]

As a former student I have experienced eating on a budget and I honestly think it is very hard to eat well cheaply.

I find that I save a lot of money by purchasing my meat in bulk online and freezing it...

 

[L2MidgetGem B.H.A Seagull]

I have a feeling this site Is full of brainwashed Tories Who are convinced that people on benefits are dirty scroungers who buy Apple products, Sky, Take aways every night and Holidays. Reality check people. it don't work like that. When I was out of work last year I couldn't afford stuff like what the government put out on TV. I don't Smoke or anything like that but by the time bills and that was paid I was virtually left with nothing. Living on benefits was hard. But people Inside the Tory bubblebox wouldn't see that. I'm not saying It don't happen but not everyone Is.

 

[Return of the Rev]

I have a feeling this site Is full of brainwashed Tories Who are convinced that people on benefits are dirty scroungers who buy Apple products, Sky, Take aways every night and Holidays. Reality check people. it don't work like that. When I was out of work last year I couldn't afford stuff like what the government put out on TV. I don't Smoke or anything like that but by the time bills and that was paid I was virtually left with nothing. Living on benefits was hard. But people Inside the Tory bubblebox wouldn't see that. I'm not saying It don't happen but not everyone Is.

Scroungers are there at both ends of the scale

 

[L2MidgetGem B.H.A Seagull]

Scroungers are there at both ends of the scale

True but to assume all benefit claimants are scroungers, that's just weak minded and shallow.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Families don't know how easy they've got it. It's so easy to buy stuff in a supermarket in bulk without spending much money. Why are there no programmes about how expensive it is to feed a single man?

You do know you're allowed to buy it in a bulk when you're single? They don't stop you.

If you can be bothered (that's not meant to be read as a dig at you) to buy in bulk, cook bulk meals and freeze them away then you can live on hardly anything money wise and eat large, nutritious portions. Also, buy sensible. Want a roast? buy a chicken, roast it, eat the meal, save the rest of the meat for other meals, cook down the bones to create a stock for soup or risotto. Food can go a long long way if you are happy to cook.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Is it true that supermarkets have a secret location where they chuck food away that's out of date but probably still edible?

I used to work on the fruit and veg department of a big supermarket in Hove and yes, they throw out TONS of perfectly good food every single day. We never used to give any to homeless shelters back then (2001 ish), not sure if they do now. Some did other places did.

Christmas was the worst. One year we were left with about 10 crates of Brocolli on Christmas Eve that had come in with a best before date of boxing day (when the store was closed)- I was asked to chuck the lot in the crusher.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

I used to work on the fruit and veg department of a big supermarket in Hove and yes, they throw out TONS of perfectly good food every single day. We never used to give any to homeless shelters back then (2001 ish), not sure if they do now. Some did other places did.

Christmas was the worst. One year we were left with about 10 crates of Brocolli on Christmas Eve that had come in with a best before date of boxing day (when the store was closed)- I was asked to chuck the lot in the crusher.

Crazy, isn't it. Can I ask, would you have been allowed to take some home if you'd asked, or did they leagally/contractually have to dispose of it?

 

[Stainsey]

A friend of mine once helped out at a homeless charity in East London. Not sure whether it still happens, but in those days Marks & Spencer (without publicising it) used to give them out of date food each day. Of course, the charity never knew in advance what they would get, and although it sounds odd, the charity used to dread receiving products like kingsize prawns or smoked scottish salmon, as the diets that the homeless people had were not suited to that type of food.