Jan 23 2009
My week in food
At home I have continued to try to economise by using what I have in the fridge and freezer and buying as little as possible other than basics like bread and milk. I’ve done quite well at that, and have used up quite a lot. I will need to tidy and pack any spare space with something like bags of polystyrene packing chips or blocks. This will make sure I use as little energy as possible.
To top up, I am looking for cheap seasonal and tasty. Winter is a good time to eat pork and I have bought some pork belly which is an inexpensive cut and can be cooked in many different tasty ways. A Chinese cookbook might be a good place to start, but I’ll think about that later. The quantity I bought will make two meals for about £2.50 a meal including veg. I have plenty of root veg in stock and I bought a savoy cabbage for fresh greenery. You would be hard put to find a good ready-meal at that price and you would not get much for your money.
Channel 4 TV featured two families who were trying to economise. One family looked to supermarket value ranges, the other family shopped around, went to local butchers and markets. They both saved money, but there is no doubt in my mind who had the healthiest diet.
The Riverford fruit and veg box still has some treats in store, one being a fresh pineapple. I’ll really enjoy that just as it is, but might chunk and caramelise a few pieces to go with a dessert of rice cooked in coconut milk, another storecupboard gift.
I have plenty of pasta, so tomorrow night’s supper might be based on that and I have all the ingredients for a full Sunday breakfast partly thanks to Waitrose generosity. The assistant on the checkout opened the box of eggs I was buying and found two cracked. The store didn’t have any more that size which were on special offer, so gave me half a dozen of extra-large at the same price. They are usually regarded as being at the top end of the price ladder for supermarkets, but they are trying hard, they have special offers on food and household items to match Tesco and Sainsbury and are SO much more friendly.
They are also helping the community. When you pay, however little you may have bought, you are given a small green disk. That goes into one of 3 bins at the front of the store and at the end of each month, a charity contribution is assigned to 3 different local causes proportionate to the number of disks in each bin. Customers can also suggest local charities to benefit and I am hoping to see RYA Sailability feature sometime soon - we have a group at our sailing club with specially adapted boats and trimarans. The boats include a landing craft type that can take wheelchairs, and Challenger trimarans that can be controlled by hand and foot pedals and can’t capsize.
Sorry, diverted a bit from the food topic there, but it is good to see a big supermarket chain wanting to get involved like this.
I’m not sure what to do about my growing plans. I know I’ll be putting the house on the market, but don’t want too many big and heavy containers to move if I am out before the summer. I know I want to try to take a cutting from the bay tree to take to a new abode. I will be checking my River Cottage diary later to see what I should be planting in February. It may still be winter, but there are signs of spring in the garden, even now and jobs I am hoping for a respite from rain and stormy winds to get on with.
Did your Channel 4 say how much the different families actually spent and how many days worth for how many people? One of our local stations did it and it was a week’s worth of meals for one for $10-$15 depending on the shoppers strategy. (I don’t know what the conversion of that to pounds would be.)
Another couple managed to eat for a dollar a day each, but they were eating nothing but bulk oatmeal, and polenta cakes. I think the only nutrition they got in the day was from the PB sandwich they got daily…dry…no jelly.
I think I like your approach better.
Jen
Jen - it is really difficult to compare costs in the USA and costs here in the UK. My perception was that food was very much cheaper when I visited, but that was in 2005. Certainly eating out is cheaper. Also the exchange rate is very different to 2005.
$15 now would be about £10 and it would be incredibly hard to get by on that at this time of year for one person.
It might be interesting for the two of us - bloggers from either side of the Atlantic to agree on a few basic items that anyone might buy, say 1 ltr milk, 1kg potato, 500g pack of rice, 6 oranges, bag of salad leaves, 500g tomatoes, 500g pack spaghetti etc and compare notes. Let me know what you think should be on that list.
Both families were two adults and two children. Both made significant savings and came out under budget. The family that used supermarket value lines saved a lot more, but I would seriously question whether what they ate was a sensible balanced diet for growing children.
The families were NOT asked how much they spent in fuel doing their shopping or how far they travelled - BIG omission - and the food miles of what they bought was not examined.
Read about it here. I have to admit not seeing the whole progamme, but this tv station has a ‘catch-up’ and I might watch again later this evening. I can give you this link anyway to the CH4 website.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-true-cost-of-cheap-food-family-shopping-bills
The family that shopped in the supermarket were shown buying quite a lot of ready-prepared food like pizza. Now I know it is hard with kids when they insist on what they like and are used to, but I grew up to eat what I was given or go without. It doesn’t seem to be that way now.
When we lived in the UK we found food prices to be slightly more than the US. I also noticed that you do not use coupons quite as much (though that might have changed since we were there). As the economy in the US has tumbled, we have definitely found ourselves working on ways to cut down food budgets. It sounds like you are finding some good ways to cut back while still making nourishing meals!