Strictly Cheese Sandwiches

PS. I don't eat bread and would never make it in a month of Sundays.

Norah

growstuff

Do you make your own cheese Norah?

We don't eat cheese. Thus I said it was a mystery item.

I do make all our bread. I do know that is easy and cheap.

So what do you put in your sandwiches which costs less than 30p and provides protein and fat?

How much do you mean by not expensive Primrose? How much does the fuel cost?

The fact is that food has increased in price! If you're already eating cheaply and healthily, what do you do to cut back?

I'd be really interested to know. I spend £25 on food and can't eat high carb items - so no porridge, bread, potatoes or pasta - all practical and sensible suggestions welcome!

growstuff

Do you make your own cheese Norah?

We don't eat cheese. Thus I said it was a mystery item.

I do make all our bread. I do know that is easy and cheap.

Do you make your own cheese Norah?

I don't think there was any particular reason, except that there had been details just before the interview about the increase in prices of some basic foodstuffs. including bread, milk, cheese, etc.

I believe it was costed at 40p (and that's been confirmed by others). I guess a fish paste or jam sandwich would be cheaper, but wouldn't be so nutritious. A cheese sandwich is hardly a luxury item! It was a metaphor for a cheap, basic item, which has increased in price by about 30% in a few months. It's not just about bread or cheese, but all the items which are low income family is likely to buy.

Until last autumn, I was spending £20 a week on food for myself. I was strict about it and hardly ever spent more (except at Christmas). I only ever buy basics and I have noticed the increase in prices. My budget is now £25 a week and I can only keep to that because I get free fresh food every week.

As a point of interest I wondered why she selected a cheese sandwich for her example? Cheese is the mystery ingredient, imo.

I worked out the cost of bread I was baking, less than £1 - the costs of flour, salt, sugar, oil, yeast for a single loaf. Enough for 10-12 sandwiches. Bake whilst already baking for another meal.

Sandwiches truly are reasonable in cost.

Governments don't have much influence over 'getting inflation down', it comes down by itself if there are no further supply side shocks to increase prices. But getting it down will make no difference to the people already struggling because the prices which are causing them to struggle will not come down. All the prices will do is rise less fast. Inflation is measured by comparing prices at a point with prices at the same point some time later, be it a month, 6 months or a year. If they haven't risen, or have risen by much less, then the inflation figure will be down.

What is needed to escape the current cost of living crisis is for wages and benefits to rise in line with inflation. This will not be inflationary because current inflation isn't being caused by excessive demand, it's supply side driven. And profiteering by the supermarkets and energy companies...

The Bank of England repeatedly raising interest rates as contributing, too. Goodness knows why it's doing this because it should be obvious that making credit (loans and mortgages) more expensive makes people poorer and less able to spend. But the BoE seems to be unable to see outside its straight jacket belief that the only way to reduce inflation is to stop people spending.

The present government won't stop them because high interest rates benefit the wealthy whose investments are now worth more. And because they are economically illiterate... they don't understand that inflation has more than one cause and they can't even see that high interest rates are shrinking their tax base.

I can't imagine Widdecombe limbo dancing! Low inflation isn't a right of course but any sensible government would want to get it down. Mrs T inherited about 18% inflation and got it down. What are the present Tories waiting for?

LovelyLady

If we can’t afford something we don’t have it. We do need nourishment to survive tho’
Cheese is expensive but there are alternatives.
What I really don’t get!
If we can’t afford to live in London, then we move somewhere we can afford where housing and living is cheaper. I’d love to live in London or Edinburgh but had to move to another part of the country. Only because it was cheaper.
I think the government will stop paying housing benefits in expensive areas encouraging folk to live in affordable areas that they can live according to their means.

What about work? Some of the people using food banks are nurses who are needed to work in the London hospitals. Plus all the people that are required to keep the city going - public transport, refuse collectors, shop workers.

One gets a job and then tries to live a reasonable distance from the place of employment.

I believe that housing in Lincolnshire is quite cheap but where are the jobs for all those skilled people who would like to move somewhere cheaper?

JaneJudge

Quite HPQ, she really isn't a very nice person.

I find the everyone buys their sandwiches rather than making them now, a bit weird too. As an observation I would say those people are in the minority. None of us would have time at my work to leave during our breaks to go and fetch a sandwich. All people take a packed lunch or ready cooked meal to reheat.

Times have changed! When I worked in London 60s - 80s there were several sandwich bars I frequented because the choice was amazing; honey cream cheese and walnuts, beautiful cold beef, pastrami etc etc and a wide choice of bread or rolls.

Back then we did take our lunch hours. Italian cafes for lasagne or cannelloni, or a vegetarian restaurant near St Pauls.

When first started work we got 3 shillings luncheon vouchers (15p in decimal). This would buy me a main course, dessert and coffee. Hard to imagine now.

People could at least try instead of relying on fast foods and ready meals.

You have absolutely no way of knowing that, Primrose53.

I was in our village shop recently and a young Mum with 3 kids came in and bought pre packed sandwiches for all 4 of them and they cost her £14!!

So what?

Do you know her personal circumstances? Exactly what her income is?

Unless you happen to know that she has very little income you are making a massive assumption here and using it to demonise people who are so poor that they regularly miss meals (see the Resolution Foundation graphic I posted earlier).

and though I could afford to do that now, I just wouldn’t because it is a dreadful waste of money.

That's your choice, fair enough. But there is nothing in the slightest bit virtuous about being thrifty when you're not forced into it by poverty. In fact, thinking of my late in-laws, they went for the cheapest, often quite nasty, foodstuffs although they were quite well off and left very substantial amounts of money when they died... I think it was habitual after impoverished 1930s upbringings, but it wasn't very nice...

Nellietheelephant

Anyone ever had condensed milk sandwiches? Absolutely delish, and fed to me as a treat in the staff kitchen when my mother visited some rather posh people. Days, eh?

Aren't they called connie onnies? A friend who came from Morecambe I think said that was what they were called.

M0nica

Family Allowance started in 1945, and was not paid for the eldest child, only the second child onwards.

The latest ONS figures www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2022/households-below-average-income-an-analysis-of-the-uk-income-distribution-fye-1995-to-fye-2022#long-term-trends-data-prior-to-fye-1995-are-not-national-statistics show that the bottom 10% of families with 2 children have incomes from all sources, including benfits of under £20,450. That is under £20,450, not of £20,450. So some will have incomes well below that amount.

In 2022 average rents for a family house, from government staitics was around £800, far more in London, www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/privaterentalmarketsummarystatisticsinengland/april2021tomarch2022. However the rapid rise in private rents over the last year suggest that this figure has risen and thatt average UK rents are now over £1,000 a month, in London, over £2,500, www.theguardian.com/money/2023/apr/28/average-monthly-rents-hit-2500-in-london-and-1190-for-rest-of-uk, average energy bills for a 4-5 person household are around £3,500 a year - and poorer families live in the worst housing with poorest insulation standards.www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/guides/average-bill.html.

This means that for the average family in a rental property, and low income families are invariably in rental property, it will cost them £15,500 just for rent and energy.

If they are on the maximum income of the bottom 10%, £20,450, After rent and energy bills, (£12,000 + £3.500) they will have £5,000 a year, less than £100 a week to cover everything else, including food for a family of 4, not to mention clothing, working costs (travel and clothing), Council tax, even if on CTB, you pays some council tax.

For those households on incomes below £20, 450, the situation will be even more dire.

Perhaps, Primrose or others with her view can suggest a secure food budget and menu plan for a household trying to feed 4 people on, say, £50 a week, while assuming that the cooking skills, dietary tastes and time available for food shopping are the average for all households in the UK.

I have carefully given sources for all my figures, so that there can be no query about soundness of my sources.

Never have there been so many books, videos and TV programmes about making healthy food on a budget. I have picked loads up in charity shops ….. last night I did a recipe from Jack Monroe’s book. Macaroni cheese with bacon and spinach. Tasty, filling and not expensive.

I have a couple by Greg Wallace and somebody else from TV and they look nice too.

People could at least try instead of relying on fast foods and ready meals. I was in our village shop recently and a young Mum with 3 kids came in and bought pre packed sandwiches for all 4 of them and they cost her £14!! I could never have afforded to do that when mine were young and though I could afford to do that now, I just wouldn’t because it is a dreadful waste of money.

growstuff

Primrose53 Do tell about these generous child benefits and top ups. Go on!

Incidentally, when did you last buy an egg? Or cook it? There is no way an egg can be bought for pence ... and most people don't eat raw eggs. In case the news hasn't reached your bubble yet, gas and electricity prices have increased.

Child Benefit doesn't go very far, when parents have to feed and clothe their children. Do you actually have any idea how much it is?

Tesco free range eggs work out at 30p each. I often buy them cheaper than that because we have several smallholders around the village. A boiled egg takes 4 mins to cook so hardly a big dent in electricity costs, compared to TVs, tumble dryers, phone chargers etc.

A boiled egg and a couple of slices of toast is a great start to the day for a child. Or scrambled, or poached or fried come to that!

A cheese sandwich is nutritious and fairly basic. It contains carbs, fat and protein.

Widdecombe's comment was on "Politics Live". The topic being discussed was the huge rise in basic foodstuffs, such as bread margarine/butter and cheese.

Being able to make a cheese sandwich doesn't have anything to do with cooking skills. It has everything to do with being able to afford basic ingredients.

The episode isn't on iPlayer yet, so I can't check, but I don't remember take-aways being discussed. If that was Widecombe's point, why didn't she suggest people make their own sandwiches rather than buying them from take aways?

One of my favourite desserts as a child was what we called 'pink pudding' - essentially a bowl of hot raspberry flavoured blancmange. We weren't poor, it was just something quick to make. My mum told me though that she knew a poor family when she was young for whom the biggest treat was 'hot ice cream' - a bowl of plain sweetened white sauce made with just cornflour, milk and sugar!
My mum trained as a cookery teacher in the years immediately after the war when there was still rationing. I'm glad she taught me the art of cooking on a budget and making good nutritious simple meals. Sadly many of those skills have been lost as schools teach students to 'design products' to meet a brief, rather than teaching basic cooking skills.

When AW was on Strictly Come Dancing, I admired her feisty rebuttals of the Judge's harsh words, however in this context, in the current food poverty situation, I agree with LadyHD's 'harsh' words. As a woman who publicly claims to be Christian, maybe AW should ponder the words 'Feed my lambs, feed my sheep'?
Enjoying the feeble attempts at 'mitigation' of her comment. (Had forgotten about the decision to handcuff pregnant prisoners in labour.)

missdeke

Although I think the remark is inappropriate to say the least, but I must admit I thought she was referring to the modern habit of always buying sandwiches instead of making your own.

No evidence of that whatsoever of this in what she said.

As said above 'Ann Widdecombe is an embittered, passed over politician who doesn't know what she is talking about' - vile.

Thank you MOnica.

Family Allowance started in 1945, and was not paid for the eldest child, only the second child onwards.

The latest ONS figures www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2022/households-below-average-income-an-analysis-of-the-uk-income-distribution-fye-1995-to-fye-2022#long-term-trends-data-prior-to-fye-1995-are-not-national-statistics show that the bottom 10% of families with 2 children have incomes from all sources, including benfits of under £20,450. That is under £20,450, not of £20,450. So some will have incomes well below that amount.

In 2022 average rents for a family house, from government staitics was around £800, far more in London, www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/privaterentalmarketsummarystatisticsinengland/april2021tomarch2022. However the rapid rise in private rents over the last year suggest that this figure has risen and thatt average UK rents are now over £1,000 a month, in London, over £2,500, www.theguardian.com/money/2023/apr/28/average-monthly-rents-hit-2500-in-london-and-1190-for-rest-of-uk, average energy bills for a 4-5 person household are around £3,500 a year - and poorer families live in the worst housing with poorest insulation standards.www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/guides/average-bill.html.

This means that for the average family in a rental property, and low income families are invariably in rental property, it will cost them £15,500 just for rent and energy.

If they are on the maximum income of the bottom 10%, £20,450, After rent and energy bills, (£12,000 + £3.500) they will have £5,000 a year, less than £100 a week to cover everything else, including food for a family of 4, not to mention clothing, working costs (travel and clothing), Council tax, even if on CTB, you pays some council tax.

For those households on incomes below £20, 450, the situation will be even more dire.

Perhaps, Primrose or others with her view can suggest a secure food budget and menu plan for a household trying to feed 4 people on, say, £50 a week, while assuming that the cooking skills, dietary tastes and time available for food shopping are the average for all households in the UK.

I have carefully given sources for all my figures, so that there can be no query about soundness of my sources.

By the way, you've contradicted yourself in the same post. You've claimed that there were no benefits in those days, but then mention child allowance. You also forgot to mention the child tax allowance.

Primrose53 Do tell about these generous child benefits and top ups. Go on!

Incidentally, when did you last buy an egg? Or cook it? There is no way an egg can be bought for pence ... and most people don't eat raw eggs. In case the news hasn't reached your bubble yet, gas and electricity prices have increased.

Child Benefit doesn't go very far, when parents have to feed and clothe their children. Do you actually have any idea how much it is?

Chocolatelovinggran

Does Ms Widdecombe have any helpful ideas as to what people might eat instead?

I wish someone on that panel had asked her that question

She is an awful woman with horrible opinions. Remember her as Home Secretary saying pregnant prisoners were to be shackled while giving birth.
A comedy act on Strictly has given her vileness a new lease of life. Do wish she wasn’t given air time.