I like to pretend I cook from scratch every day. So apart from an expensive M&S prepared salads habit that I refuse to give up (even if I do have to whip out the credit card), I generally don't spend extortionate amounts on food, and certainly not on processed rubbish.
Unlike the Colton family. I nearly choked on my dinner when it was revealed they were spending £330 a week on their grocery shopping that's more than £1,500 a month or £17k a year (Economy Gastronomy, 8pm, BBC2, 12 August). My sympathy was strained yet further when I saw their swanky house.
But all was not as it seemed. Husband Simon's business wasn't doing so well, so the household income had fallen 80% and they'd had to sell the car and put the house on the market. Worse, mum Isobel had a bizarre compulsion to dish up dull 'variations' on chicken and rice every night, forcing the family to self-medicate with 50 puddings a week. Whose heart wouldn't bleed?
Fortunately, top chefs Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merrett were at hand. After exposing the weekly bill, the pair set about slashing £120 off it by teaching them how to shop, cook and eat as a family again.
The two were fairly inept presenters (McEvedy was looking at the wrong camera while expounding on the merits of onions and Merrett spent the entire programme over-enunciating à la Johnny Vaughan). And some of the advice was pretty obvious (it helps to write a shopping list and then stick to it, don't you know). But the idea of preparing a bedrock meal that is then used to create different meals during the week was brilliant, there were lots of practical tips on, for instance, cheap cuts of meat, and the meals they helped the family whip up looked delish.
Had I been the programme maker I might have edited out the bit during the celebratory dinner party where Simon seemed to mispronounce gazpacho as gestapo, but that was a minor qualm. It made me feel all warm inside to watch Isobel fall back in love with her kitchen and her family fall in love with her cooking and better still, the family came in under budget, albeit by just 9p.
If only the book (£20) was as wallet-friendly as the advice.
Unlike the Colton family. I nearly choked on my dinner when it was revealed they were spending £330 a week on their grocery shopping that's more than £1,500 a month or £17k a year (Economy Gastronomy, 8pm, BBC2, 12 August). My sympathy was strained yet further when I saw their swanky house.
But all was not as it seemed. Husband Simon's business wasn't doing so well, so the household income had fallen 80% and they'd had to sell the car and put the house on the market. Worse, mum Isobel had a bizarre compulsion to dish up dull 'variations' on chicken and rice every night, forcing the family to self-medicate with 50 puddings a week. Whose heart wouldn't bleed?
Fortunately, top chefs Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merrett were at hand. After exposing the weekly bill, the pair set about slashing £120 off it by teaching them how to shop, cook and eat as a family again.
The two were fairly inept presenters (McEvedy was looking at the wrong camera while expounding on the merits of onions and Merrett spent the entire programme over-enunciating à la Johnny Vaughan). And some of the advice was pretty obvious (it helps to write a shopping list and then stick to it, don't you know). But the idea of preparing a bedrock meal that is then used to create different meals during the week was brilliant, there were lots of practical tips on, for instance, cheap cuts of meat, and the meals they helped the family whip up looked delish.
Had I been the programme maker I might have edited out the bit during the celebratory dinner party where Simon seemed to mispronounce gazpacho as gestapo, but that was a minor qualm. It made me feel all warm inside to watch Isobel fall back in love with her kitchen and her family fall in love with her cooking and better still, the family came in under budget, albeit by just 9p.
If only the book (£20) was as wallet-friendly as the advice.
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