Economy Gastronomy

[HeyWayne]

Has anyone seen it?

What a load of rubbish.

I thought it would be teaching people who needed to stretch their budget - not fools who spend over £400 a week on shopping how to cut down.

These fools were wasting over 1/3 of their food too.

Ok, so they had 5 children, but £420 a week! A week! That's over £10 per person, per day.

Anyway - I'm no economic gastronome, but I thought the programme really was teaching people how to suck eggs. Actually, maybe that would have been a good way for them to save money...

£22,000 per year on food.

Madness.

[SarzWix]

More money than sense by the sound of it! Were they all eating microwave meals every time?
There's five of us, and I don't spend that much a month, never mind per week!

[HeyWayne]

More money than sense by the sound of it! Were they all eating microwave meals every time?
There's five of us, and I don't spend that much a month, never mind per week!

No, they were eating well, but throwing so much away because it had "gone out of date" or they'd cooked too much. They had a waste disposal unit (I didn't realise people still had them!?), and were throwing sinkfulls of stuff away.

They were complaining to a certain extent that they were having to do so much cooking, but prior to them being on the show they were cooking three sets of meals per evening. One set for their 4 children, then another for their vegetarian child, then after they'd all gone to bed they then cooked another meal for the two of them!

Clazy bonk!

[shirlthegirl43]

Ditto Sarah but Madmax and I have friends (family of 5) who spend £150 a week on shopping. Stupid stuff like Uncle Ben's microwave rice instead of a bag of basmati. Then she turns round while eating a takeaway kebab and tells me she is skint and it was cheaper to go out and buy the kebab than to cook for the family?

[Hazel at the Hill]

Reality programs do not show 'normal' people, obviously - they are there for the freak value where we can all point and say 'look at those terrible people, at least we're not like that!'

I mean where is the televisual appeal in -

'Here is Hazel at the Hill - we're going to show her how to cut down her grocery bill from £30 to £25 per week by changing her cats' favourite brand of premium cat food to a budget variety'

The family were well off, ate well, didn't scoff loads of junk, just were not very organised and could afford to cook three different dinners every night (with associated waste).

The meals the experts put forward might have been inexpensive - and delicious, actually - but they sure weren't a low sugar/fat option!

[nelliegemini]

Last night's did get me a bit narked (all that waaaste!).

The previous two programmes have been a lot more sensible, teaching someone who didn't have time to cook, how to cook, and teaching how to plan what you buy.

But last night? grrrrrrr