cooking on a budget

Well after all the debates regarding Jamie Olivers new book and program i thought right lets watch it and see what happens. 

Now i can cook, well kind of, no ones died yet! I have myself how cook from scratch and its hard at first but its get easier the more you do it.

I used to be a big fan of his and i would regularly watch his programs, especially the grow your own one.  Some really good ideas about growing fruit and veg and using them straight from garden.

This program in it self is not really for people on a low grocery budget. Personally i think its more for the higher spenders. For instance mu budget is  £200 a month, so very low. My sister phoned me up and said i've just watched that jamie program and thought it was rubbish. Her words were " where the hell am i going to buy a blender like that, just looked in the catalogue and it costs £150 quid!"  This coming from someone who spends over £100+ a week on food, and more if she buys a takeaway.
My sister can cook sunday dinners, but nothing much else. So this program is supposed to be for her.
 then she says "Oh and those pans where do i get them from? " My advice to her just use a rectangle roasting tin or cake tin. She said oh that not what he said. 

A few year ago there  was a program called Economy Gastronomy, it was really good, had better ideas and really took the time to tell you how to make things from scratch. Not the cheapest ideas but they took the time to tell you have chicken stock from the bones.


But what really annoyed  me about the whole program was the pizza and bean thing.

A supposed heating engineer sat in the background with a bottle of beer, glass and a fake cockney accent. No pizza costs £12 from a takeaway, i know, i served my time in five different ones! 
A 16" pizza costs about £9.50 and that's a full blown meat feast. So its a load of nonsense. In Hackney,London its even cheaper! again i know because when we visited family there we got a takeaway for £20 came back with a 16" pizza, chips, and 2 extra large kebabs, sauces and drinks for us all.

My partner is also a gas heating engineer and he wouldn't dare go on telly with a beer in his hand! Its just something no self respecting person would do. If he really meant to make to a pizza he should have been there making it with Jamie.

Or having beans with his fish pie, yeah right, you could tell it was fake by the look in his eyes. We are big bean eaters. I thought what a toss pot trying to appeal to the "poor" people. 

I'm not great at budgeting but i'm getting better, i do need help with ideas. We all do.
But this program just isn't for me or anyone struggling on a low budget. Lots of the recipes he's done in this program he's done in past on his other shows.  Best thing thing is they less preachy.

So for me, the program is a let a down, bring back allega and paul!