Monday 16 February 2015

Eat Well For Less final programme

Firstly, for those of you who may have been having difficulty getting to my Menu 2014 page from Menu 2015, I have now sorted out the link so it should take you straight there! I have also updated 2015 with the menu and meat costs from last weeks meals.

This final family were not much better than the one in the second programme, spending just over £17,000 a year on food. I'm presuming here that it is just food as there wasn't any sign of toiletries in the shop that was filmed.

They are described as spontaneous shoppers, shopping up to 5 times a week and spending between £250 and £300 per week in those shops. That is almost more in one month of food shopping than we spend in a year! We only pay another £300 per annum on top of their usual monthly food bill to include all our toiletries etc. They throw away loads of food, including stuff from the freezer that has been in there less than one month "because it doesn't look very nice".

Goodness, give me strength.

Yes, it was sad that their daughter has been ill with leukaemia but to put it bluntly, is that the real reason they shop so badly? Or do they just not know how to shop and that is compounded by her illness and wanting to tempt her. I was astounded to see her put things she fancied in the shopping trolley and they just let it go because ...

It is alright for you I can hear you saying, you are not in the same boat. Our son was seriously ill when he was 3 and ended up in intensive care and yes, we did think he would die. Did it alter our shopping, no it didn't. He was and is still, a well loved chap, we simply loved him more without stuffing him full of whatever he fancied. His eating was off for a few weeks once he recovered and he did have a few food things he liked as treats as he had lost so much weight, but only for a while. After that, it was back to normal healthy eating.

The diet of their children seemed very restricted and we both thought the star chart for trying new food was a good idea but shouldn't they have been eating a bigger variety of food by then. They seemed to live on chips, chicken nuggets and pizza for their main meals.

This week the suggestion of a menu plan didn't appear to materialize. They were encouraged to sit and write a shopping list. How will that help if you don't menu plan or check what you have in the house before you go shopping?

Again, this family were big brand buyers. We do occasionally buy H---z baked beans, but for the most part, now buy supermarkets own brand. I did like the way the nutritionist made two different types of chicken nuggets, one with breadcrumbs and one with crushed cornflakes. Shall be giving that a go!

The presenters thought by making a few changes, they might be able to get their annual food shopping down to £12,000!!!

19 comments:

  1. These programmes made me mad, most people can only afford a few hundred pounds a month tops, the familys they chose all had nice houses, and good jobs. Every month I say I am going to keep a track of what is spent on food but never do, but we are sensible anyway, but I still want to save more money so will look into saving more, thankyou for sharing your menus, I love all your soups.

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    1. Yes, they could have done so much more. Glad you like the menu and soups. We have soup almost every day for lunch in the colder months.

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  2. I haven't watched this program but it sounds like one of those that I would be shouting at the TV lol. We had to feed five of us on £50 including toiletries so anything more than that is a luxury x

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    1. Well done on that but you also have dogs don't you so that must bump up your bills?

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  3. I use the cornflake recipe. When my family was growing up they liked it. I am in Canada so our money is worth about half what yours is. So in my household their yearly spend is about half my yearly income. I cannot fathom ever spending that much. I am alone so my goal is to spend $50 Canadian per month on groceries. Enjoy your blog

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  4. Just converted 50 CAD to UK sterling and it equals £26. If you can do your monthly shop on that, well done you.

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  5. I would love to have such a well paid job that I could spend that much on food and then throw it away!

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  6. I love watching these type of programmes to see what makes people tick! so to speak and are people as I imagine, pretty much! I would imagine the lady who was an accounts assistant or something like that, was only maybe earning as much as £17,000 never mind spending that much on food. In this type of situation you just have to take control yourself if they knew they needed to make changes, make them (unless they were after their little moment of fame) but just bunging anything in the trolley is fine if you are super rich but they seemed like a relatively normal young family somewhere you just have to rein it in or a spiral of debt follows. I think also they should have given her a chart with food dates for freezer food to educate her more there, but if this programme educated people who are struggling then that is all for the good. By the way myself and hubby when our two were young had a very steep learning curve when he became ill, our ways of shopping and if I am honest were not too different to this young couple but we had to change or our cupboards were bare. Lets just say our freezer is a godsend and I make most things from scratch apart from the odd pizza here and there if I am not feeling to good and we buy own brands shopping at Aldi/farmfoods and Approved Foods and I keep a little stockpile to avoid going to the supermarket if I have to go more than once/twice a week I have a panic attack, there is more to life than shopping that's for sure.

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    1. Very true but fir some, it seems to feed a need/want.

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  7. Food shopping on a Sunday seems to be a national past time now, and it's not just food that folk buy on a regular basis, I see all sorts being thrown into trolleys willy nilly.

    These programmes are only good if someone somewhere picks up a couple of tips from them, for the majority of us that actually have our heads screwed on the right way it a least gives us a chance to marvel at how bad we would be if we hadn't gone through life picking up tips and learning from our own mistakes.

    They should make a follow on series showing people who DO shop well, and use what they purchase in a sensible and healthy way, that would offer far more tips and be much more educational.

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    1. So right but guess it wouldn't make good tv in the producers eyes.

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  8. I haven't seen this episode yet. But looking at what's been discussed it's shocking. The couples in the first two weren't exactly living on champagne and caviar but their bills were extortionate.

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  9. Decided not to torture myself by watching any more after I just caught the second of the three progammes. I wonder how many people really do live like the people that they filmed?! As someone said when I blogged about this, it is more entertainment than anything else - which is a huge shame as with the nation struggling, they have missed a real opportunity to help people to make their money go further.

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  10. All three programmes were staggering, what I didn't understand was, if the 'shop' they did at the start of the programme was representative of their normal shopping habits why were they so clueless as to what the likely cost of it was to be, I wondered how much of what we saw was manipulation by the programme makers. To be really harsh I wondered how people who were so stupid in terms of budgeting were capable of earning enough money to be so careless? As one of the comments above said, a programme made showing people who do know how to budget, shop and cook frugally and make tasty, healthy meals for not much money would be a much better way for the BBC to spend public money.

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    1. I suspect there are thousands like them and I know of some who just look at us akin to pity as we are 'missing out so much'. On what we wonder in amazement at such statement.

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