How will you make savings to pay for energy bills.

Lorna Cooper herself has said that the original idea was to feed the family for a short while on that budget.
It includes going to 5 or 6 supermarkets a week.
Great idea! Spend £20 you could have spent on food on travel.

Does a mother of five really have time to go to 5 or 6 supermarkets? Lidl has been shown to be the cheapest. Anyway, that is not the only book on budget eating, there are others.

JenniferEccles

There is no excuse whatsoever for parents to send a child to school without having had breakfast. None whatsoever.

The parents of such children are likely the product of a poor chaotic household themselves, e.g. have never been taught how to cook or budget, been in care and moved from pillar to post, have addictions, in abusive relationship - who knows.

There are feckless and selfish parents but I think they're few and far between compared to the vast majority of poorer people who are trying to do their best.

I'm a foodie and love to cook, spend a lot on the very best quality produce and that's how I brought up my children... because I could afford to, but I grew up very poor and remember the misery of my mother robbing Peter to pay Paul, and when there was no one to rob, we didn't eat.

Looking back, and my sister and I do reflect sometimes, our mother could have handled things differently and we wouldn't have done without so much, but she didn't/couldn't and just dealt in her own way with the hand that life had dealt her.

Chestnut

Still finding excuses? This lady didn't make excuses, she went and wrote a book.

Quote:
Lorna Cooper is passionate that a limited budget shouldn't be a barrier to good food. A mother of three and a step-mother of two, she knows how difficult it is to provide a healthy, balanced diet for the whole family without breaking the bank. But when Lorna didn't qualify for sick pay after a medical emergency, she found herself with a budget of only £20 a week to feed the whole family - and her blog was born. Now Fyf20quid.co.uk is one of the UK's most popular destinations for low-cost, family friendly recipes and savvy shopping ideas. Over half a million people have learnt how to meal plan, budget and cook for their families for just £20 a week

Do-able if it's temporary, and if one is lucky, but what would have happened to the £20 budget if one of the kids shoes suddenly disintegrate, or the microwave/cooker breaks down, or any of the other countless things that can and do happen without any warning? Budget gone!

Jack Monroe has written a number of cookbooks on how to get the most from your money and there are some fantastic recipes on her website (cookingonabootstrap) and she knows what she's talking about, having scraped to survive as a single mum. It's easy for people to be judgemental when they're not the ones having to do it in this day and age - a mobile phone is not a luxury now, for instance - it's an essential. How can you apply for jobs when most are done online now, for instance? And even if you know how to cook cheap, nutritious meals, how are you supposed to do so if you're living in a bedsit without access to proper cooking facilities or equipment?

Chestnut

Still finding excuses? This lady didn't make excuses, she went and wrote a book.

Quote:
Lorna Cooper is passionate that a limited budget shouldn't be a barrier to good food. A mother of three and a step-mother of two, she knows how difficult it is to provide a healthy, balanced diet for the whole family without breaking the bank. But when Lorna didn't qualify for sick pay after a medical emergency, she found herself with a budget of only £20 a week to feed the whole family - and her blog was born. Now Fyf20quid.co.uk is one of the UK's most popular destinations for low-cost, family friendly recipes and savvy shopping ideas. Over half a million people have learnt how to meal plan, budget and cook for their families for just £20 a week

I've never heard of Lorna but do remember Jack Monro's budget cooking column in The Guardian some years' back.

They were tiny portions for her and her one young son, but they weren't much use to families with say three strapping teenagers.

I'm off to investigate Lorna - see what she came up with for £20 per week and how many she actually fed.

Cabbie21

I cant get DH to cut back. He leaves lights on everywhere, says as we use LED bulbs they cost next to nothing. We have lots of things on standby too. The heating is on much later than I would have it as he stays up late watching TV. I know he feels the cold more than I do but I think he is being unreasonable. We are not on the breadline but the increased bills will be huge. Apart from energy and other essentials we don’t spend much else though.

Tell him that using electricity also has consequences on climate change affecting maybe not him but his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

There are many people who buy fast food because they believe it's cheaper than home cooking. McDonald's makes a fortune out of these people. I wouldn't mind betting some of them are amongst those who can't afford porridge

Despite what many have said, you just don't get it, do you? Pencil sharpened all ready to tick that Tory box when the opportunity rises?

Mokryna, the problem with these so called experts and their feed a family for £20 a week is that it is, for them, a temporary thing. I could feed my family for £20 a week because I have a good larder, plenty of spices and stuff to make dull meals more interesting, but the thought of having to shop for yellow label foods and be imaginative with tinned tomatoes and pasta ad infinitum is depressing in the extreme. I really admire Jack Monroe, she has no illusions about how dull it is, how awful to be so hard up that little treats that many of us take for granted, like stopping for a coffee with your Mum or a friend, even in a supermarket cafe, is just not within the budget. She was on the Food programme a week or so ago, and was very damning about the endless food programmes on TV, chefs with kitchens the size of an aircraft hanger, with every possible appliance, standing their stroking a huge piece of grass fed beef. Jack said that anyone can be a good or a great cook given those opportunities, and therefore it is all part of the demonisation of those who don't. Somehow you are inadequate if you don't feed your family wholesome food, 'cooked from scratch'. All well and good when you are faced with a bag of budget pasta, a tin of tomatoes and a white sliced loaf to last you three days. It is not about managing for now, for many, it just will not get better, and I can only imagine how some people feel as they face this struggle day after day

Chestnut

Does a mother of five really have time to go to 5 or 6 supermarkets? Lidl has been shown to be the cheapest. Anyway, that is not the only book on budget eating, there are others.

Jack Monroe also supplies some good advice.

Sorry Riverwalk. See you've already mentioned her.

I think to be frank that until we know a families budget both incomings and outgoings and their day to day we are really not in a position to judge.

I was listening to Rory Stuart the other day and he is at the moment working for a charity - I forget the name - that makes the rational assumption that no one knows better than poor families how to spend their income. So on that assumption the families are given a lump sum of money to spend entirely as they wish. It works very well indeed, and is proving much more successful than the charity deciding how the family should be given help.

MissAdventure

Lorna Cooper herself has said that the original idea was to feed the family for a short while on that budget.
It includes going to 5 or 6 supermarkets a week.
Great idea! Spend £20 you could have spent on food on travel.

Also, quite a lot of these type of articles/blogs in the media rely on having a number of stock items such as sauces, spices or flour. If they have to be bought as well, costs soon rise.

I think it would be an interesting exercise for those who poo poo these people struggling to sort out a budget that a poor family has to live on and do so for just a year.

Whitewavemark2

I think it would be an interesting exercise for those who poo poo these people struggling to sort out a budget that a poor family has to live on and do so for just a year.

Exactly my point! It is all very well for people like Ian Duncan Smith to say that he managed perfectly well on benefits, but he didn't have to contend with a child needing new school shoes, the washing machine needing repair or replacement.

I think urmstogran is referring to the fact that to have acrylic nails done at a nail salon is expensice.
Its hardly the same as buying a 3 quid nail varnish from Syoerdruf, which is what I do.
£30 could buy some food

Superdrug

Acrylic nails, £1.50 from Shein. Nail file included.

www.shein.co.uk/24pcs-Rhinestone-Decor-Fake-Nail-1sheet-Tape-1pc-Nail-File-p-3388792-cat-1869.html?scici=productDetail~~RecommendList~~RS_own

Bargain!

They'd be handy to wear whilst cooking from scratch.

LOL!!

Whitewavemark2

I think it would be an interesting exercise for those who poo poo these people struggling to sort out a budget that a poor family has to live on and do so for just a year.

It would indeed. F&M for food would be out for sure.

Thank you for the link!
I've just ordered some (my nails are shocking)

My nails look like I've been foraging for worms in the garden. Always have.

After my divorce, I had to survive on a very low income, probably about the amount I would have been on if I'd been on benefits. We lived a very frugal existence. Budget food. Little heating. My car (needed for work) was one step away from being scrapped.

At that time, I had a friend on a higher income than me. She was always making comments about people not being able to manage their budgets, the way 3 or 4 posters on here do. I knew she was wrong. I was one step away from being homeless (literally, there was a 6 - 12 month period where myself and my child were on the homeless register) and she was judgemental.

20 years later, and she has remarried someone with money, has never worked much more than part time. She is comfortable now. In the same period of time, I've worked my backside off, got an education, become very experienced in my field, lifted myself out of poverty and own property. By the standards of many on here, I've still got a fairly basic existence. By my old standards, I'm very comfortable. But I did it with slog. By working 3 jobs while I studied, one of which was shelf stacking in a supermarket at night. All while being a single parent. Later, by working overseas for prolonged periods, never seeing my family.

Surprise, surprise. Now I have an adequate income, I'm excellent with money. I do a lot more with what I have than most people who eat out, go to the theatre, buy clothing that is a step (at least) above budget brands and have lots of additional little luxuries (not judging this, btw, just commenting).

If you have not lived below the poverty line, you do not have the understanding to judge those that do. Walk a few miles in their plastic, splitting shoes and you'll see a very different picture from the one you imagine.