AIBU a generation that can’t be bothered.

Whereas she could have shopped intelligently and turned the article into one on how to feed your family healthy and nourishing food on a limited budget - something of use to people with little idea of how to do that. I suspect she had another agenda though.

M0nica

Rereading the OP, surely someone on a tight budget would have sat and carefully planned what food they could afford to buy and what meals they would serve and drawn up a shopping list before they went out.

It sounded as though the reporter sent out was totally clueless and bought random, foods within their limited understanding of cooking, the range of food in the shops and how much it cost.

I completely agree. It seems to me that the article was written with the intention that we would think negatively of the hypothetical shopper.

Rereading the OP, surely someone on a tight budget would have sat and carefully planned what food they could afford to buy and what meals they would serve and drawn up a shopping list before they went out.

It sounded as though the reporter sent out was totally clueless and bought random, foods within their limited understanding of cooking, the range of food in the shops and how much it cost.

I confess I often use the pre prepared vegetables to save time/hassle. I mix these with my own chopped onion and potatoe and what ever meat. Tonight we have slow cooked lamb with the above with a sliced potatoe topping. I can and do cook from scratch but use ready prepared fresh vegetables for convenience.

The fact that inspiration for this thread has come from a ‘dreadful local paper’, makes me think that the article has achieved its aim. It’s got people talking, far beyond it’s usual ‘reach’.
Had the woman in the article filled her trolley with fruit, vegetables, and pulses and left with change in her pocket, we wouldn’t be talking about it. By including ready meals, preprepared vegetables etc, the author has encouraged us to criticise a completely hypothetical situation. The author doesn’t appear to be an actual mother, surviving on a £60. She’s done a one off shop to see what she can get. But here we are, debating what was written in a little local rag, and in some cases, judging an entire generation based on it.

I am not ashamed to admit to having a tin of Smash in my cupboard when I was a working mum. Why condemn a whole generation because of one journalist's ( age unknown) idea of a shopping basket? That would be illogical, would it not?

I spent years cooking from scratch for the family, making sure that they got a few nutrients, whether they liked it or not, but I’ve never enjoyed it. DH discovered his inner chef when we retired, thank goodness, and dishes up way better food than I ever did. If I have a day on my own, I’m happy with something on toast, cheese and crackers, or soup and rice pudding from a tin. Sometimes I don’t bother heating it up. Sometimes I eat it out of the tin. I dread to think what my personal shopping trolley would look like to the casual observer, so I wouldn’t judge anyone else’s.

It’s certainly not a generational thing here, as my mother was a great cook, as are at least two of my children.

How did we manage before the days of ready meals (microwaves even) and pre-prepared veg? We prepared casseroles and the like the night before and put them in the oven on a timer before we left for work. If potatoes or other veg were to accompany the casserole they were prepared the night before and left in water in a lidded saucepan. What bliss when I acquired a slow cooker in 1976 and could add steak and kidney pud to the repertoire!

That's exactly what most people do.
One journalist isn't representative of a whole generation, any more than the big spenders in the older generation are.

I wouldn't buy ready made mashed potato, rice pouches, grated cheese etc. but perhaps people buy them to save precious time, depending on what hours they work?
I enjoyed cooking and always made meals from scratch; I was a single parent, therefore no help; I chose to economise on housework.
The local paper would have found plenty to exclaim about if they had done an expose on my house rather than my food bills.
Not very kind.

Anyone in an inner city should be within a mile or two of a street market. When I lived and worked in London, there were a number of them. DD, as a student used to visit Lewisham market after 3.00 on a Saturday and by sacks of veg for £1 or s and share them between her friends.

I do appreciate that not every one will be able to do that, but poor people are just as intelligent as other people and should be able to work these things out.

We are often told that they trail from supermarket to supermarket trying to buy food at its cheapest, and I know from my own experience that that is very time consuming. And people now have very variable working hours, so many are available mid day, mid week.

For those really on the breadline, dependent on Food Banks, and with very limited cooking facilities in inadequate living accommodation, then yes, life is indeed very very difficult and they have very few options, but the vast majority of people are not, thankfully, in that category. There income is above that level, although not necessarily by much

Most, of us on GN will remember the vertigenous inflation rates of the 1970s and early 80s, which almost exactly covers the period when I was either not working because I had young children or in poorly paid part time posts and one learnt, quickly how to plan and contrive to produce decent meals on a small and constantly squeezed budget.

There's only 250g of cooked rice in that 36 pence pack which is two very small portions - how much would it have cost to cook such a small amount? If rice doesn't feature much in your menus I see no problem with buying a microwave pack.

£60 per week is not a lot to feed a family of four - about £2 per person per day.

Curries, casseroles, stews etc., take time, effort, planning and a reasonable interest in cooking. That's dinner sorted but what about breakfasts, packed lunches and treats?

Glad I was never in this position - would have found it demoralising, even though I'm a good cook and have an interest in food.

MerylStreep

Kali2

But of course, this is not what we are talking about here, are we?

I don’t know. What are we really talking about.

Sometimes I really have no idea on GN ?

I think we're talking about how much better our families are than other peoples

We wouldn't dream of buying Teddy Faces - only handcut organic crisps made with organic sunflower oil and sprinkled with Cornish sea salt allowed in this house.

Jack Monroe has frequently hit out at these kind of articles and the false impression they give. It is very much, as another poster commented earlier, just another form of 'poverty porn'.

M0nica I agree that a family of four could have a varied and tasty diet if someone had time to shop in markets, and if they lived near to one in the first place. A working single mum on a council estate is unlikely to be able to access such a market, as they are usually open during working hours and not in the middle of housing estates.

A friend of mine found herself in such a position years ago when her husband left her with small children to look after. They each got half the equity in the house, but he was able to put his down as a deposit on his next house, whilst she was unable to find work as a single parent, so had to spend all of hers to qualify for means-tested help, so had no spare money at all. She ended up on a council estate which was a 30 minute bus ride to the town she'd left behind - the town where her husband and new woman lived. She couldn't manage two children and a baby as well as a week's shopping on the bus, and a taxi cost far more than she could afford, so she did a lot of her shopping at the local shop, which was expensive, and had a small selection of fresh food. Often there was just a few wrinkled apples and sweaty bags of carrots. The thought of a £1 bowl of fruit would have filled her with delight, but there was no such option.

My friend was (and still is) a good cook, and could make a meal from very little; but that's still only possible if you have the ingredients to hand.

I think we're talking about how much better our families are than other peoples.

Kali2

But of course, this is not what we are talking about here, are we?

I don’t know. What are we really talking about.

She thought that was the type of shop people buy.
'Thought thought he had a car, but all he had was the horn".

Was the woman in the article a real mum of two, or a journalist on a 'dreadful local paper'? If the latter, her trolley is indicative of nothing
?

Our dreadful local paper sent one of its journalists to Aldi to see if as a mother of two children with a husband she could do a weekly shop for £60.

Sago said it was the journalist who shopped so the journalist was assuming that this would be a typical shop for a young family of four.
The reality might be quite different.

Doodledog A family of four could have a varied and tasty diet on £60 a week. It would be low on meat and cheese, but you can do many different things with vegetables than make vegetable stew. There are risottos, curries, casseroles. You can quite cheaply add a variety of beans and lentils, not to mention small quantities of meat. But many vegans live quite contendtly on such a diet.

Personally i would always shop in a street market for fruit and veg, they are excellent value and often have £1 bowls of fruit and veg getting towards the end of their life, but I have found that much hard fruit; apples, oranges and the like will last a week or more, as do root vegetables, some cabbages and even aubergines and peppers. two good-sized peppers for a £1 can be stuffed and served with gravy and veg for a very cheap meal.

Doodledog

Was the woman in the article a real mum of two, or a journalist on a 'dreadful local paper'? If the latter, her trolley is indicative of nothing - in fact a randomly chosen mother of two doesn't say anything about the whole generation to which she belongs, either. Of course a family of four could be fed on £60 if they ate nothing but beans on toast every day, or vegetable soup, whether made from prepared vegetables or ones they prepared themselves. It wouldn't be a varied diet, though, and

People commenting on here about other people's trollies have no idea whether they are shopping for themselves or others - a young shopper may have been filling her trolley with ready meals and gin for her parents, or an older couple shopping for 'sensible' basic ingredients may have been helping out an adult child who cooks from scratch before popping to the pub for their own lunch, or going home to microwave something from Wiltshire Farm Foods.

As someone said upthread, there is no moral dimension to this, and there is no generational divide. Why £60 a week, incidentally? Was the journalist suggesting that it is too much to allow people on benefits, or that people need more? In either case, one shop is no indicator - they would need to live for several months, until they have bought all the incidentals that you don't need every week - herbs and spices, condiments and so on. There were no household or personal hygiene items on that list either - shampoo, washing powder, toothpaste or tampons. They also make up a significant part of a weekly shopping budget.

... best post today so far!

Should we be talking at all about the contents of other peoples trollies?
Does it really matter?
It was a bit of journalism.

I suppose I could follow some pensioners on a cruise, and then say older people have no right to say they're poor.

It's just rubbish.

There is some serious virtue signalling on this thread. More than a whiff of Us and Them, some smug self - back patting , and perhaps a very sketchy understanding of young families today.

But of course, this is not what we are talking about here, are we?