George Osborne To Increase National Minimum Wage To £7-An-Hour, An Above-Inflation Increase

Right have to go have a good evening!

PhilDidge wrote:I found this for you Victor


http://www.listentotaxman.com/


Ciao

Interesting ....so I wasnt too far off with 950...

grumpy old git wrote:

PhilDidge wrote:I found this for you Victor


http://www.listentotaxman.com/


Ciao

Interesting ....so I wasnt too far off with 950...

Way off on a 37.5 hour average week of which I stated!

£1,008

Sassy wrote:

sphinx wrote:You think it needs £40 a week to provide a good diet for one person?  I would be ashamed if I could not do that for a family of 4 with that amount.

Well, that would mean that you could feed someone a good diet for £10 a week.   Please, write out the shopping list, I'm a good cook and living on £1.50 a day with a decent diet, I'd love to know that.   I'm off to bed now, but will look out for the shopping list and menu with bated breath tomorrow.

Firstly it is more expensive to feed one on their own than one as part of 4 but anyway

Asda smartprice chicken portions 1kg £1.69
Asda smartprice mince 454g £1.36
Asda smart price bread 800g x 3 £1.41
Asda smartprice pasta 500g 29p
Asda smartprice rice 1kg 40p
Asda smartprice porrige oats 1kg 75p
Asda milk 4 pints x 2 £ 3.00
Asda smartprice mixed veg 1kg 75p
Asda smartprice potatoes 2.5kg £1.18
Asda smartprice baked beans 400gr x 4 96p
Asda smartprice chopped tomatoes 400g 34p
Asda oliveoil spread 500g £1.00 (more than one weeks worth)

So there you are, and adequate healthy diet for one person for a week at a few pence over £12. That one is a bit boring its chicken and mince all week but I am not spending all night listing the different things it is possible to get.

Yes I know not everyone has an asda near them - however it is still possible to get an adequate diet for a single person at significantly less than £40 using small local retailers although I cannot give you a list for that because you never know what you are going to find shopping that way as offers are individual.

I was talking AFTER TAX...by that calculator...I said 950....the calculator says 971

grumpy old git wrote:

sphinx wrote:You think it needs £40 a week to provide a good diet for one person?  I would be ashamed if I could not do that for a family of 4 with that amount.

sphinx...dont be daft....

I am not being daft - this is what I live.

grumpy old git wrote:I was talking AFTER TAX...by that calculator...I said 950....the calculator says 971

You are saying £7 per hour doing 37.5 hours gets 971?

really?

It is as I said and just checked 1008

sphinx wrote:

Sassy wrote:

Well, that would mean that you could feed someone a good diet for £10 a week.   Please, write out the shopping list, I'm a good cook and living on £1.50 a day with a decent diet, I'd love to know that.   I'm off to bed now, but will look out for the shopping list and menu with bated breath tomorrow.

Firstly it is more expensive to feed one on their own than one as part of 4 but anyway

Asda smartprice chicken portions 1kg                  £1.69
Asda smartprice mince 454g                               £1.36
Asda smart price bread 800g x 3                         £1.41
Asda smartprice pasta 500g                                    29p
Asda smartprice rice 1kg                                         40p
Asda smartprice porrige oats 1kg                            75p
Asda milk 4 pints x 2                                         £ 3.00
Asda smartprice mixed veg 1kg                                75p
Asda smartprice potatoes 2.5kg                           £1.18
Asda smartprice baked beans 400gr x 4                     96p
Asda smartprice chopped tomatoes 400g                   34p
Asda oliveoil spread 500g                                       £1.00  (more than one weeks worth)

So there you are, and adequate healthy diet for one person for a week at a few pence over £12.  That one is a bit boring  its chicken  and mince all week but I am not spending all night listing the different things it is possible to get.  

Yes I know not everyone has an asda near them - however it is still possible to get an adequate diet for a single person at significantly less than £40 using small local retailers although I cannot give you a list for that because you never know what you are going to find shopping that way as offers are individual.  

so...

no fruit
no "nice" things in it
nothing to make lunch with....as in a pack up, I mean mince on bread aint gonna work.....

who the f**k eats porridge every day for breakfast?? I mean..I know fiber is GOOD for you, but porridge and BEANS on the same day??? jeepers...that would make you popular....parrrrrp.

seriously However, clever, but I wouldnt recon it good

smart price stuff is IMO poor quality
the chicken is stuffed with water
the mince is VERY high fat and cooks away to almost nothing
the pasta is gooy when cooked
the rice is .....so...so
the bread is compressed cotton wool (well thats what it tastes like)
the oats....well....ok if you are feeding a horse....
the milk is ok
the mixed veg is not nice
spuds are ok
those baked beans are an offense....
the chopped toms are more juice than tomato
never tried the spread so cant comment fairly on that specifically, but in general I find these so called spreads pretty yeuky....for a start they make your toast all soggy because the have so much water in them..and most of them taste like.....well...erm....nothing much really

I see where you are coming from Sphinx but I would call that a "barely adequate" diet not a "good diet"

and if you look closely i did also include household sundries in it too....washing powder, wash up liquid toiletries etc...basically your weeks shopping....

PhilDidge wrote:

grumpy old git wrote:I was talking AFTER TAX...by that calculator...I said 950....the calculator says 971

You are saying £7 per hour doing 37.5 hours gets 971?

really?

It is as I said and just checked 1008

I was using the 13,000 figure quoted up above??

Ahh ok so I was using someone elses "ball park

that "eases things a bit, BUT still its very very tight

grumpy old git wrote:

sphinx wrote:

Firstly it is more expensive to feed one on their own than one as part of 4 but anyway

Asda smartprice chicken portions 1kg                  £1.69
Asda smartprice mince 454g                               £1.36
Asda smart price bread 800g x 3                         £1.41
Asda smartprice pasta 500g                                    29p
Asda smartprice rice 1kg                                         40p
Asda smartprice porrige oats 1kg                            75p
Asda milk 4 pints x 2                                         £ 3.00
Asda smartprice mixed veg 1kg                                75p
Asda smartprice potatoes 2.5kg                           £1.18
Asda smartprice baked beans 400gr x 4                     96p
Asda smartprice chopped tomatoes 400g                   34p
Asda oliveoil spread 500g                                       £1.00  (more than one weeks worth)

So there you are, and adequate healthy diet for one person for a week at a few pence over £12.  That one is a bit boring  its chicken  and mince all week but I am not spending all night listing the different things it is possible to get.  

Yes I know not everyone has an asda near them - however it is still possible to get an adequate diet for a single person at significantly less than £40 using small local retailers although I cannot give you a list for that because you never know what you are going to find shopping that way as offers are individual.  

so...

no fruit
no "nice" things in it
nothing to make lunch with....as in a pack up, I mean mince on bread aint gonna work.....

who the f**k eats porridge every day for breakfast?? I mean..I know fiber is GOOD for you, but porridge and BEANS on the same day??? jeepers...that would make you popular....parrrrrp.

seriously However, clever, but I wouldnt recon it good

smart price stuff is IMO poor quality
the chicken is stuffed with water
the mince is VERY high fat and cooks away to almost nothing
the pasta is gooy when cooked
the rice is .....so...so
the bread is compressed cotton wool (well thats what it tastes like)
the oats....well....ok if you are feeding a horse....
the milk is ok
the mixed veg is not nice
spuds are ok
those baked beans are an offense....
the chopped toms are more juice than tomato
never tried the spread so cant comment fairly on that specifically, but in general I find these so called spreads pretty yeuky....for a start they make your toast all soggy because the have so much water in them..and most of them taste like.....well...erm....nothing much really

I see where you are coming from Sphinx but I would call that a "barely adequate" diet not a "good diet"

and if you look closely i did also include household sundries in it too....washing powder, wash up liquid toiletries etc...basically your weeks shopping....

LOL - if you think that is bad you have no idea what many poor people really eat.

It is healthy, it is adequate (and the sandwiches would be made with cold chicken not mince - or beans on toast which could also be had for breakfast)

Sundries dont cost that much either.

The problem is people get used to a certain standard of living and start believing that "acceptable" is only slightly less even when it is miles less. I only gave an example list - trust me you can vary it a huge amount, bring in fruit etc. Also in the real world you dont generally shop for isolated weeks - I put down that the olive spread was more than a weeks but that is just one thing - the rice and pasta will last more than a week too - and there are other things like cereals veg etc that you will buy one week and use over several so you might buy cornflakes one week porridge one week etc. I mean 20 years ago I was shopping for 5 (3 adults 2 children) on a tenner and managing it but that was heavily relying on the reduced sections of various shops which I have not put in the above list at all. You might not like the idea of what I have put but the fact is there is nothing wrong with it.

sphinx wrote:

grumpy old git wrote:

so...

no fruit
no "nice" things in it
nothing to make lunch with....as in a pack up, I mean mince on bread aint gonna work.....

who the f**k eats porridge every day for breakfast?? I mean..I know fiber is GOOD for you, but porridge and BEANS on the same day??? jeepers...that would make you popular....parrrrrp.

seriously However, clever, but I wouldnt recon it good

smart price stuff is IMO poor quality
the chicken is stuffed with water
the mince is VERY high fat and cooks away to almost nothing
the pasta is gooy when cooked
the rice is .....so...so
the bread is compressed cotton wool (well thats what it tastes like)
the oats....well....ok if you are feeding a horse....
the milk is ok
the mixed veg is not nice
spuds are ok
those baked beans are an offense....
the chopped toms are more juice than tomato
never tried the spread so cant comment fairly on that specifically, but in general I find these so called spreads pretty yeuky....for a start they make your toast all soggy because the have so much water in them..and most of them taste like.....well...erm....nothing much really

I see where you are coming from Sphinx but I would call that a "barely adequate" diet not a "good diet"

and if you look closely i did also include household sundries in it too....washing powder, wash up liquid toiletries etc...basically your weeks shopping....

LOL - if you think that is bad you have no idea what many poor people really eat.

It is healthy, it is adequate (and the sandwiches would be made with cold chicken not mince - or beans on toast which could also be had for breakfast)

Sundries dont cost that much either.

The problem is people get used to a certain standard of living and start believing that "acceptable" is only slightly less even when it is miles less.  I only gave an example list - trust me you can vary it a huge amount, bring in fruit etc.  Also in the real world you dont generally shop for isolated weeks - I put down that the olive spread was more than a weeks but that is just one thing - the rice and pasta will last more than a week too - and there are other things like cereals veg etc that you will buy one week and use over several so you might buy cornflakes one week porridge one week etc.  I mean 20 years ago I was shopping for 5 (3 adults 2 children) on a tenner and managing it but that was heavily relying on the reduced sections of various shops which I have not put in the above list at all.  You might not like the idea of what I have put but the fact is there is nothing wrong with it.

apart from the mince...which is a heart attack on a plate ....it ought to be illegal that stuff...seriously...I wouldnt feed my dogs on that

grumpy old git wrote:

sphinx wrote:

LOL - if you think that is bad you have no idea what many poor people really eat.

It is healthy, it is adequate (and the sandwiches would be made with cold chicken not mince - or beans on toast which could also be had for breakfast)

Sundries dont cost that much either.

The problem is people get used to a certain standard of living and start believing that "acceptable" is only slightly less even when it is miles less.  I only gave an example list - trust me you can vary it a huge amount, bring in fruit etc.  Also in the real world you dont generally shop for isolated weeks - I put down that the olive spread was more than a weeks but that is just one thing - the rice and pasta will last more than a week too - and there are other things like cereals veg etc that you will buy one week and use over several so you might buy cornflakes one week porridge one week etc.  I mean 20 years ago I was shopping for 5 (3 adults 2 children) on a tenner and managing it but that was heavily relying on the reduced sections of various shops which I have not put in the above list at all.  You might not like the idea of what I have put but the fact is there is nothing wrong with it.

apart from the mince...which is a heart attack on a plate ....it ought to be illegal that stuff...seriously...I wouldnt feed my dogs on that

Mince is a matter of cooking - use no oil or other extra fat, fry it, pour the fat that comes out away. I mean you can also get ordinary beef and mince it yourself or stick to veg both can be done cheaply especially if you look at shopping over 2 weeks or 4 weeks instead of 1. Doing it for 4 people is fairly simple by comparison.

One of my favorites is rice pudding - pudding rice, milk, sugar, dab of marg, sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg and a couple of hours in the slow cooker. It fills you up like you would not believe, tastes fantastic, and can be served cold the next day - I can do enough for 4 people for about 50 - 60p in ingredients I guess.

Amen to that Sphinx, mince is a matter of cooking and better with Horse meat, so much less fat and far more protein

Love rice pudding, stable diet growing up, hence why some here have not experienced real hardship. I remember my mum's home baked apple pies they were the best or Lemon Meringue pies loved then, you did not need much money to appreciate lovely food and it never even cost much either.

Great posts sphinx, bang on the money on this, I think we are dealing with too many silver spoon fed lefty toffs

Great, now I want homemade rice pudding   

Seriously impressed with your shopping skills Sphinx, there are two of us and our shopping bill is about £60 a week. Admittedly we both work full time so we're not really working on a budget as such but doesn't include meat apart from mince.  Meat, well Hubby is a skilled worked and we work on a barter basis. I think more people should do it, it's cost effective to both parties

Personally, I would never buy the smartprice food or similar. The majority is puk! I would never touch the stuff.

However, you can still eat healthily and cheaply. I myself buy what is on offer that week in the butcher department, and other departments usually half price offers ( I have a nice joint of lamb in the fridge for tomorrow, bought half price). Plus, I don't shop in the one place, I shop in several stores where the offers are.

On the subject of mince, I pick out a nice bit of rump steak and ask the butcher to mince it for me. No fat in it at all.

Costa wrote:Personally, I would never buy the smartprice food or similar. The majority is puk! I would never touch the stuff.

However, you can still eat healthily and cheaply. I myself buy what is on offer that week in the butcher department, and other departments usually half price offers ( I have a nice joint of lamb in the fridge for tomorrow, bought half price). Plus, I don't shop in the one place, I shop in several stores where the offers are.

On the subject of mince, I pick out a nice bit of rump steak and ask the butcher to mince it for me. No fat in it at all.

Now you are making me hungry Costa   

It is true what you say and if you go later in the day many items become reduced also, so it may be a pain to go daily but you would get many bargains.
Our butcher closed down recently   But we do have a farmer come into town on Saturdays with some lovely choices of meat

PhilDidge wrote:

Costa wrote:Personally, I would never buy the smartprice food or similar. The majority is puk! I would never touch the stuff.

However, you can still eat healthily and cheaply. I myself buy what is on offer that week in the butcher department, and other departments usually half price offers ( I have a nice joint of lamb in the fridge for tomorrow, bought half price). Plus, I don't shop in the one place, I shop in several stores where the offers are.

On the subject of mince, I pick out a nice bit of rump steak and ask the butcher to mince it for me. No fat in it at all.

Now you are making me hungry Costa    

It is true what you say and if you go later in the day many items become reduced also, so it may be a pain to go daily but you would get many bargains.
Our butcher closed down recently   But we do have a farmer come into town on Saturdays with some lovely choices of meat

Oh I love a piece of lamb, it's my favourite meat, but I only buy when it is on offer as its that expensive.

Yeah you're right, I've went to the supermarket half hour before closing and got a whole cooked chicken for 50p

Costa wrote:

PhilDidge wrote:


Now you are making me hungry Costa    

It is true what you say and if you go later in the day many items become reduced also, so it may be a pain to go daily but you would get many bargains.
Our butcher closed down recently   But we do have a farmer come into town on Saturdays with some lovely choices of meat

Oh I love a piece of lamb, it's my favourite meat, but I only buy when it is on offer as its that expensive.

Yeah you're right, I've went to the supermarket half hour before closing and got a whole cooked chicken for 50p

Now you have me thinking of mince sauce, stop it  :D 

I reckon you can cook up a storm costa, did you pick up any good recipes whilst living in Spain?

PhilDidge wrote:

Costa wrote:

Oh I love a piece of lamb, it's my favourite meat, but I only buy when it is on offer as its that expensive.

Yeah you're right, I've went to the supermarket half hour before closing and got a whole cooked chicken for 50p

Now you have me thinking of mince sauce, stop it  :D 

I reckon you can cook up a storm costa, did you pick up any good recipes whilst living in Spain?

Not really, I tended to stick to mainly Scottish dishes. But I never really did a lot of home cooking over there, I worked a lot of hours, 6 days a week, 9 - 8pm (my choice as I was devoted to my job) .....so I tended to eat out a lot, mainly in Spanish restaurants straight after work.

sphinx wrote:

Sassy wrote:

Well, that would mean that you could feed someone a good diet for £10 a week.   Please, write out the shopping list, I'm a good cook and living on £1.50 a day with a decent diet, I'd love to know that.   I'm off to bed now, but will look out for the shopping list and menu with bated breath tomorrow.

Firstly it is more expensive to feed one on their own than one as part of 4 but anyway

Asda smartprice chicken portions 1kg                  £1.69
Asda smartprice mince 454g                               £1.36
Asda smart price bread 800g x 3                         £1.41
Asda smartprice pasta 500g                                    29p
Asda smartprice rice 1kg                                         40p
Asda smartprice porrige oats 1kg                            75p
Asda milk 4 pints x 2                                         £ 3.00
Asda smartprice mixed veg 1kg                                75p
Asda smartprice potatoes 2.5kg                           £1.18
Asda smartprice baked beans 400gr x 4                     96p
Asda smartprice chopped tomatoes 400g                   34p
Asda oliveoil spread 500g                                       £1.00  (more than one weeks worth)

So there you are, and adequate healthy diet for one person for a week at a few pence over £12.  That one is a bit boring  its chicken  and mince all week but I am not spending all night listing the different things it is possible to get.  

Yes I know not everyone has an asda near them - however it is still possible to get an adequate diet for a single person at significantly less than £40 using small local retailers although I cannot give you a list for that because you never know what you are going to find shopping that way as offers are individual.  

Jeez Sphinx, you have got to be joking if you think that is an adequate diet. If you fed that to a child they would end up with rickets. 2lb of chicken (including the bones and injected water) 1lb of mince, which probably equates to 2/3rds lb is you are lucky by the time you have fried off the fat, nowhere near enough protein for a week. Smartprice bread is full of additives, you'd do better to buy the flour and make your own, no green veg, no fruit, heart doctors loathe cheap spread. If you lived on that for any length of time you would be suffering from vitamin and mineral deficiency. That is subsistence level and not adequate at all, especially for a child. That doesn't cover any stock so you make soups etc, no pulses which are a good cheap source of protein, no cheese or dairy apart from milk to make sure you get the calcium you require, very, very important for women especially so you don't get osteoporosis when you are older.

I'd buy 1 very large chicken, use the meat for meals, use the bones for stock, loads of veg at the market, including lots of green veg that are cheap, lentils and other dried pulses to make soups, flour and yeast to make bread, butter because it is much better for you (verified by heart surgeons) provided you make sure it is soft and spread it thin, marmite to get vitamin B12, peanut butter as it is a very good source of protein, and fruit, cheese and rapeseed oil to use a drop to soften onions and veg to make the soups. I could do that for about £15 a head and do, but I add stuff to it to vary the diet, because a varied diet is very important as well.

OK guys I was challenged to produce a shopping list for a SINGLE adult - which I did off the top of my head producing a very very fast simple list as an example.

The list included meat veg (look again sassy it is there) starches - most of the criticism seems to be about where it came from. About the only item on that list that is questionable health wise is the white bread - all the other smart price stuff is ordinary basic ingredients no different from branded stuff so long as you drain the fat from the mince. I mean what exactly is the difference in constitution between a smart price drum stick and a chosen by you drum stick? What is the difference between a smart price potato and a chosen by you potato.

Also there is one thing I did not go cheap on although everyone thinks I did and that is the olive oil spread - that is not the smart price stuff, it is not nasty margarine (that comes in 2kg tubs for about the same price as the 500g I used) it is Asdas own version of Bertolli with all the good stuff about olives.

My point is that it does not take £40 to provide food for a single person. Others on here have already started including their tips and like I have already said in real life people dont shop for weeks in isolation - they will spend on one thing one week that lasts several weeks and something different the next - cooking your own bread etc is cheaper week on week than buying bread but getting all the ingredients in one week is expensive because they last longer than a week.

Now lets see whats for tea

Ahhh 2 Pheasant slow cooked with bacon in a grape and orange sauce (some will go in freezer)

cost

umm..... 34p (17p per cartridge) and a 2 hour walk...

tomorrow

rabbit and pigeon pie...

cost...the same

YUM

grumpy old git wrote:Now lets see whats for tea

Ahhh 2 Pheasant slow cooked with bacon in a grape and orange sauce (some will go in freezer)

cost

umm..... 34p (17p per cartridge) and a 2 hour walk...

tomorrow

rabbit and pigeon pie...

cost...the same

YUM

LOL - I am a great fan of fresh mackerel - cost nothing just pick up some abandoned fishing line from a bin and tie a feather on the end or walk along the shore when they are driving bait fish against line - you can pick them out of the water with bare hands. I know of a fishing match cancelled because people without gear were walking along picking them out of the surf.

sphinx wrote:OK guys I was challenged to produce a shopping list for a SINGLE adult - which I did off the top of my head producing a very very fast simple list as an example.

The list included meat veg (look again sassy it is there) starches - most of the criticism seems to be about where it came from.  About the only item on that list that is questionable health wise is the white bread - all the other smart price stuff is ordinary basic ingredients no different from branded stuff so long as you drain the fat from the mince.  I mean what exactly is the difference in constitution between a smart price drum stick and a chosen by you drum stick?  What is the difference between a smart price potato and a chosen by you potato.

Also there is one thing I did not go cheap on although everyone thinks I did and that is the olive oil spread - that is not the smart price stuff,  it is not nasty margarine (that comes in 2kg tubs for about the same price as the 500g I used)  it is Asdas own version of  Bertolli with all the good stuff about olives.

My point is that it does not take £40 to provide food for a single person.  Others on here have already started including their tips and like I have already said in real life people dont shop for weeks in isolation - they will spend on one thing one week that lasts several weeks and something different the next - cooking your own bread etc is cheaper week on week  than buying bread but getting all the ingredients in one week is expensive because they last longer than a week.

Your veg was a kilo bag of mixed veg, which I presume is onion, carrot, parsnip, and nowhere near enough veg to give you the right vitamins and minerals and essentially misses out the ones that you really need, green veg. Buying the ingredients to make bread is not more expensive, its cheaper. Dried yeast is just over £1 and bread flour is about £1.50, if you buy the smartprice, it will be even cheaper and that will give you two big loaves and still have enough yeast to do about 8 others, then all you need is water and salt. All margarine is nasty, look at the latest research, margarine is full of chemicals. Sorry Sphinx, but your list has far to many carbohydrates, no where near enough fruit and veg and dairy. A dietician would be horrified.

Rice pudding...sounds yummy, sphinx.

Becky is away a lot, and so I often cook for one. But the recipes are usually for 6, so the fridge ends up being an accumulation of yuk. You can buy the pre-packaged stuff from Trader Joe's, but that's expensive and too pre-fab for me.

The one thing you can cut back on are vegetables. So, I'll just cook rice and...say, peas or brussels sprouts. Enough for two dishes. And, just throw a small steak on.

Lamb? Wow...so expensive. Besides, around here the people will shame you for eating such a darling little animal...it is San Francisco, after all.

Eat out a lot, too. Sea food is wonderful in this region.

Sassy wrote:

sphinx wrote:OK guys I was challenged to produce a shopping list for a SINGLE adult - which I did off the top of my head producing a very very fast simple list as an example.

The list included meat veg (look again sassy it is there) starches - most of the criticism seems to be about where it came from.  About the only item on that list that is questionable health wise is the white bread - all the other smart price stuff is ordinary basic ingredients no different from branded stuff so long as you drain the fat from the mince.  I mean what exactly is the difference in constitution between a smart price drum stick and a chosen by you drum stick?  What is the difference between a smart price potato and a chosen by you potato.

Also there is one thing I did not go cheap on although everyone thinks I did and that is the olive oil spread - that is not the smart price stuff,  it is not nasty margarine (that comes in 2kg tubs for about the same price as the 500g I used)  it is Asdas own version of  Bertolli with all the good stuff about olives.

My point is that it does not take £40 to provide food for a single person.  Others on here have already started including their tips and like I have already said in real life people dont shop for weeks in isolation - they will spend on one thing one week that lasts several weeks and something different the next - cooking your own bread etc is cheaper week on week  than buying bread but getting all the ingredients in one week is expensive because they last longer than a week.

Your veg was a kilo bag of mixed veg, which I presume is onion, carrot, parsnip, and nowhere near enough veg to give you the right vitamins and minerals and essentially misses out the ones that you really need, green veg.   Buying the ingredients to make bread is not more expensive, its cheaper.   Dried yeast is just over £1 and bread flour is about £1.50, if you buy the smartprice, it will be even cheaper and that will give you two big loaves and still have enough yeast to do about 8 others, then all you need is water and salt.   All margarine is nasty, look at the latest research, margarine is full of chemicals.  Sorry Sphinx, but your list has far to many carbohydrates, no where near enough fruit and veg and dairy.   A dietician would be horrified.

Can you read woman? I said making own bread would be cheaper not more expensive. I will also repeat for the third time that said list was a really fast off the top of my head full price complete week which is not how people actually live. I cannot give a list using butchers greengrocers etc because their products and prices change.

I mean it is generally possible to cook up a vegetable curry or pasta dish for considerably less than £1 - and meat is not necessary everyday. Also you can usually find a butcher selling of 5 kilo of chicken breasts for £10 - at the recommend 200 grams of meat a day that is 25 days meat - but it doesnt fit on a one week shopping list. The ways and means of providing for a single person for a week comfortably on £12 are massively varied - it simply does not take £40 a week for a single person to eat.

your all forgetting the cost of gas and electricity to cook the stuff.

nicko wrote:your all forgetting the cost of gas and electricity to cook the stuff.

It's not that bad around here. Down in Arizona, astounding. But then, they need air conditioning, particularly during the summers.

nicko wrote:your all forgetting the cost of gas and electricity to cook the stuff.

No whoever posted it needed £40 a week for food for one person had accounted gas and electric separately.

nicko wrote:your all forgetting the cost of gas and electricity to cook the stuff.

I cook mine over an  open fire nicko, cowboy style  

sphinx wrote:

Sassy wrote:

Your veg was a kilo bag of mixed veg, which I presume is onion, carrot, parsnip, and nowhere near enough veg to give you the right vitamins and minerals and essentially misses out the ones that you really need, green veg.   Buying the ingredients to make bread is not more expensive, its cheaper.   Dried yeast is just over £1 and bread flour is about £1.50, if you buy the smartprice, it will be even cheaper and that will give you two big loaves and still have enough yeast to do about 8 others, then all you need is water and salt.   All margarine is nasty, look at the latest research, margarine is full of chemicals.  Sorry Sphinx, but your list has far to many carbohydrates, no where near enough fruit and veg and dairy.   A dietician would be horrified.

Can you read woman?  I said making own bread would be cheaper not more expensive.  I will also repeat for the third time that said list was a really fast off the top of my head full price complete week  which is not how people actually live.  I cannot give a list using butchers greengrocers etc because their products and prices change.

I mean it is generally possible to cook up a vegetable curry or pasta dish for considerably less than £1 - and meat is not necessary everyday.   Also you can usually find a butcher selling of 5 kilo of chicken breasts for £10 - at the recommend 200 grams of meat a day that is 25 days meat - but it doesnt fit on a one week shopping list.  The ways and means of providing for a single person for a week comfortably on £12 are massively varied - it simply does not take £40 a week for a single person to eat.

It was fast off the top of my head too, but you did say that the ingredients for bread in one week is expensive, and it's not. I'm sorry, but your shopping list doesn't cover the essentials for good nourishment, and you said that it would be a good diet for £10. It most definitely isn't a good diet, by any stretch of the imagination.

And...where's the 5 a day??

Sassy wrote:

sphinx wrote:

Can you read woman?  I said making own bread would be cheaper not more expensive.  I will also repeat for the third time that said list was a really fast off the top of my head full price complete week  which is not how people actually live.  I cannot give a list using butchers greengrocers etc because their products and prices change.

I mean it is generally possible to cook up a vegetable curry or pasta dish for considerably less than £1 - and meat is not necessary everyday.   Also you can usually find a butcher selling of 5 kilo of chicken breasts for £10 - at the recommend 200 grams of meat a day that is 25 days meat - but it doesnt fit on a one week shopping list.  The ways and means of providing for a single person for a week comfortably on £12 are massively varied - it simply does not take £40 a week for a single person to eat.

It was fast off the top of my head too, but you did say that the ingredients for bread in one week is expensive, and it's not.   I'm sorry, but your shopping list doesn't cover the essentials for good nourishment, and you said that it would be a good diet for £10.   It most definitely isn't a good diet, by any stretch of the imagination.  

When I said expensive I mean more expensive that bought bread for one week. Idont recommend using smartprice flour for bread because its not strong enough or something - anyway comes out horrible. So you are looking at £2 to £2.50 for all ingredients in one go versus £1.41 for 3 loaves of bought bread.

Hey if you think £40 is required for a single person carry on.

"Its food Jim....but not as we know it"

sphinx wrote:

Sassy wrote:

It was fast off the top of my head too, but you did say that the ingredients for bread in one week is expensive, and it's not.   I'm sorry, but your shopping list doesn't cover the essentials for good nourishment, and you said that it would be a good diet for £10.   It most definitely isn't a good diet, by any stretch of the imagination.  

When I said expensive I mean more expensive that bought bread for one week.  Idont recommend using smartprice flour for bread because its not strong enough or something - anyway comes out horrible.  So you are looking at £2 to £2.50 for all ingredients in one go versus £1.41 for 3 loaves of bought bread.

Hey if you think £40 is required for a single person carry on.  

Asda smartprice BREAD flour.   And it isn't more expensive that bought bread, its cheaper.   And the cheap bread is full of additives.   I don't think £40 is necessary for one person, but £10 is not adequate for a good diet.   As I said, I could do a decent diet on £15 a head and do, but that doesn't included cleaning products and when you run out of staples like salt, pepper, oil, herbs, spices etc. And you need fish to get your vit E, which OH got me fresh from the market today.

grumpy old git wrote:"Its food Jim....but not as we know it"

It's just filler, not nourishment.

Sassy wrote:

sphinx wrote:

When I said expensive I mean more expensive that bought bread for one week.  Idont recommend using smartprice flour for bread because its not strong enough or something - anyway comes out horrible.  So you are looking at £2 to £2.50 for all ingredients in one go versus £1.41 for 3 loaves of bought bread.

Hey if you think £40 is required for a single person carry on.  

Asda smartprice BREAD flour.   And it isn't more expensive that bought bread, its cheaper.   And the cheap bread is full of additives.   I don't think £40 is necessary for one person, but £10 is not adequate for a good diet.   As I said, I could do a decent diet on £15 a head and do, but that doesn't included cleaning products and when you run out of staples like salt, pepper, oil, herbs, spices etc.   And you need fish to get your vit E, which OH got me fresh from the market today.  

And I said I could do 4 a good diet on £40 a week - doing 4 is cheaper per person per day than doing one per person per day.

Do they even do smartprice Bread flour? I know they do plain and self raising but never saw a smartprice bread flour - had to buy from the more expensive ranges for that.