Hello Dear Reader,
Today, in Twittersphere, the argument has raged on whether you can feed yourself and your family on £80 a week. As usual, an out of touch politician had no idea how much groceries cost and thought his family (with a joint income of £350,000) spent around £80 and then back pedaled to say that’s what they spent on fruit and veg.
Rose Prince, in the Daily Mail, thought said politician was out of touch and you would almost have to eat supermarket own brands and have nothing worth eating for £80 a week! You can read the article (if you need a laugh) HERE
There are elections tomorrow, and I shall vote but really they are a rum lot and none of them worth the wages they are paid!
Out of touch? I should blinkin’ well say so.
Well get this politicians, which ever denomination you ‘stand’ for! You haven’t a clue!
People are struggling to get by! Spiralling living costs, rising house prices which obviously have a knock on effect on the price of renting too, and families with the burden of debt mean the only area where families can cut back and that’s because they HAVE to, is the food budget!
Get real you snuffle nose wally! If you want people to vote for you, then know the reality that the voters are living in. I must add, I make no distinction between a snuffle nose wally and a plummy public school boy……if you don’t know how real people live, their issues, their concerns and the biting reality of having to do with less, then don’t expect us to put a tick by your name!
Don’t think you can pop down to the Deli as if you are ‘street’ for not sending your housekeeper and buy your artisan bread and think you are one of us and that we are all in it together.
As for the Rose Prince article, I know families who just dream of having £80 a week. No surprise that the tabloids are condescending to the ordinary folk of the UK, and equally no surprise that the leaders of the major political parties haven’t a clue either.
If issues of debt are biting into your family and you are struggling to pay the bills and feed your family then take action and take advice from Step Change or Christians Against Poverty. If you are working and managing to pay and want to get on top of your debts then come back at the weekend when I will upload my first How to get debt free webinar, which is free to view and you will be able to come back to when ever you would like.
Over to you Dear Reader, please feel free to use the comments to blast at aforementioned politicians without a clue!
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs,
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Ooh to have £80 per week to spend on food! That would be wonderful 🙂 Imagine how packed your trolley would be at Aldi?
I think they're all as bad as each other and I really don't know if I want to actually VOTE at all!xx
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oh my days, an £80 week is celebration city, you can go completely bazonkers in Lidls on eighty quid. I aim for roughly half that for a family of four including two teenagers, but I know how very blessed I am by a big veg garden, laying hens and a milk goat.
I completely agree about politicians, and really believe we need a 'none of the above, come back with someone worth voting for' box. My biggest worry about all the ranting about what a **** Farage is, is that it might lull some innocents into believing any of the rest of them are a great deal better.
I feel better for that now.
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I agree with you 'Froogs' that this does seem ridiculous from our enlightened 'Frugal' point of view. I think if I went to Sainsburys and just threw anything I wanted in my trolley, I would spend well over £100 for the week. But like you I always stock up on discounted goods and bargains when I see them. That's what a freezer is for! Until recently I got by on about £110 a week for two adults, two teenagers and a dog. This included all shared toiletries and cleaning materials for the household, but not wine or sweets. I now have one child away at university and I've cut it down to £75 a week for the same things. I'm finding it surprisingly easy to stick to my budget, now that I have dispensed with luxuries like shop-bought yoghurts and cakes. So I would say £80 a week was easy to live on with a little careful planning. Meal planning is essential as it cuts down on so much waste, and having to buy expensive last-minute meals. I am cooking your butternut squash and chorizo recipe as I write! I know from what I read on your blog and elsewhere that many people manage on much less than me, so as you say the politicians really are out of touch.
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Yes, they really are completely out of touch with reality.
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I spent £80 in Aldi last week - the trolley was overflowing - and the cupboards and freezer are full as a result. That will keep us going for about 3 weeks!
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Far to much of a lady to give them the name I want, but what a load of ******* count the * I have always prided myself on voting and tomorrow I shall turn up but quit honestly I don't think I will bother voting but it is important to me that I do make the effort.
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We manage all our cleaning products, toiletries, some wine and a few treats every week for less than £80. We cook from scratch and eat bloody well. Wasn't impressed by old Ed but the Daily Fail article was ridiculous and patronising. Who on earth were they aiming it at???
Am lost as to who to vote for tomorrow as I think they are all a self serving waste of space. However, many people died to give me the right to vote so I'm not going to give up that right.
Just wish I felt there was someone deserving of my vote!
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“Snuffle nosed wally”! I love it! I live in Texas and have never heard that expression before. But we too have worthless, out of touch, overpaid politicians here too and I can think of nothing that describes them better than Snuffle Nosed Wallys
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I actually feel really offended! As a stay at home mum, I have to manage a low budget. We spend £40pw for my husband me and two children. I don't think I could spend £80 a week if I tried. I have to manage on £40pw as that is all we have, we certainly don't eat badly at all, we eat healthily too. For someone to think spending double what I spend is living on the breadline just makes me offended at their sheer ignorance as to where the breadline is!
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Sorry I have just read that article, that woman needs a serious reality check! £200 a week on food shopping!? And nothing left in the fridge?? In contrary to her assumptions, on £40 a week my children eat musli, yoghurts and fruit (all from lidl!). Honestly I am flabbergasted! She has made just as much as a prat of herself as he has!
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I read that article in the Daily Mail and laughed out loud at how the writer complained! When I had 2 hungry children at home I used to make our money go as far as possible by making a monthly menu plan and sticking to it, unless there was a great offer that would stretch the ££s even further. And we didn't have Lidl or Aldi back then, so it was a case of supermarket basics whenever possible, although with one child with coeliac disease I mostly had to stick to cooking from scratch.
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there is only me and my husband but £80 would stretch to almost three weeks with the odd top up of milk , potatoes or just an item or two i forgot , I wish you would become a politician , i would definitely vote for you ,but like you i have no faith in the out of touch politicians so i will not be voting tomorrow..
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Well put Froogs! I think what you say about politicians is a world wide problem. I am looking at our morning paper here in Melbourne and the front page story is “The poorest families pay most in budget”. Here a conservative tea party Abbot government has just delivered its first budget that punishes the pensioners, the unemployed, the working poor and the lower middle class with severe cuts to benefits, co-payments for all doctor visits and increases in medication. This is just smidgen of the the budget changes announced that will impact on low income people. The well to do have been left untouched. A common cliche being peddled is that the increases are “just the price of a coffee” This is such an insult to people doing it tough and trying to make ends meet on the little they have. It is shameful for anyone to suggest that low and middle income people are living a self indulgent life. Our lot was elected on false promises and visions of a better future. We now find that we face a very grim future in a society that will have an even greater divide between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. I have little regard for what comes out of a politicians mouth. In my view Australian's had their best government when they elected independents or/and minor parties that held the balance of power and kept the bastards honest. Good luck with your vote.
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The Daily Mail doing what it does best. It's surely now only a parody of a newspaper. No-one can be reading it other for its comedic value. Politicians, however have always got it wrong when asked about how 'ordinary' people live - nothing new there. Morally, I feel obliged to vote tomorrow, but can't find any party that actually represents my views. Have concluded that they are all t*****s and this just reinforces my opinion.
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It doesn't matter where you live, the politicians are all the same!!
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She's buying full boxes of ceral, coffee jars and boxes of teabags every week? Every?
Her family manage to eat a whole loaf of bread each?
She is buying whole chicken and bits of chicken?
Oh dear. All that caffeine and carbs. She must be wired.
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Obviously being an Australian I cannot comment fairly on your situation. My daughter spent 4 weeks teaching in the UK in February and they found it difficult to find the cheaper supermarkets. Our new government has just laid out a pain filled budget that has many targets to hurt those who can least afford it. It hasn't be approved by the senate so we shall see. So many world wide feel the same pain.
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Our politicians in the U.S. are out of touch with the people too.
Could you write a letter to the editor of the Daily Mail, and include your menu for the week? Perhaps that reporter might learn a few things too.
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I know that I ought to place an X but really they are all as bad as each other, in short totally clueless. Now if you were standing for election Froogs I'd vote you in anytime!! Looking forward to the next webinar.
San xxx
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We have provincial elections coming up in Ontario. All three major parties are out for the middle class vote but are pretty much all completely delusional on what middle class even means.
The leader of our Federal Liberal party grew up rich and has the gall to pretend he knows what the middle class needs. They are all liars out for their own gain. It makes voting seem pointless but men fought and died so we could have that privilege.
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'Self serving waste of space' - couldn't have put it any better myself! You are so right - oh for someone deserving of all of our votes
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well said! sadly there isn't a lot to choose between the lot of them, nobody inspirational at all and hardly anybody has bothered to canvas for my vote…
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I know there are things we here in California pay through the nose for, such as gasoline, but I am truly sorry $135 per week is something most folks in the UK can not afford. Our highest food monthly spending recently….just food, was $187 for three adults. I guess we are spoiled living in the citrus belt with so many farms/ranches/farm stands to buy from. Spending your £80 per week would have our cupboards bursting at the seams.
As far as politicians…they are all out of touch. Do not get me started on the ones in The White House and Congress.
blessings, jill
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It's scary to read the comments and see how demotivated people are to vote. Frugal people with common sense and an eye on reality are exactly who we need to vote! Please, please, even if you think it's pointless I would urge you to vote today - supporters of more extremist parties are eager to vote so it's important to take a stand against them. In terms of the article, my husband and I have a £150/month budget for two on which we live very luxuriously! But as many commenters say, planning and cooking ahead are the key.
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Well said! We does this person live? I don't just grab the first item, I compare prices before it even goes in my shopping basket.
I saw this on FaceBook the other day - “Put the politicians on minimum wage and see how fast things change!” - we know it'll never happen!!
Julie
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£80 a week would be a brilliant amount of money to spend each week on food and I bet a lot of the folk that are having to use Food Banks at the moment would think they had died and gone to heaven if they were suddenly given eighty pounds worth of food each and every week.
Politicians seem to be a whole different species to the rest of us, and we let them run the country …….
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Gosh, this does make me feel like I'm good at budgeting! I spent between 40- 50 for four of us, including toiletries, nappies, baby wipes and cleaning stuff. And we eat well too - today we had creamy spaghetti (leftovers) for lunch, and for tea, slow cooked bacon joint with new potatoe and egg salad. There will be leftovers for lunch tomorrow, and tea will be ham, eggs and beans. We use everything, but don't need anything else xxx
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I spend about $A75pw for 4 adults, don't have a huge vege patch, but grow a few things, swap, freeze, make jam, cook from scratch, and portion control, that $75 also includes other supermarket stuff like cleaner ingredients (I MOO ) and toilet paper. We're getting a trip to UK this year because of it.
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Hi Froogs .. here in the US, for the last few years we've been “treated” to the spectacle of some politician (usually in a lower income district) trying to live a week on the income t was going without coffa food stamp budget would provide (usually around 25-30 dollars per person). They then recount about either how hungry they were/how tired from an overdose of carbs/lack of protein or fruits and veggies, or how difficult it was withdrawing from coffee. Once re-elected however, all is forgotten and they go back to passing laws that essentially punish the poor for being poor, and continue enriching the pockets of their wealthy political donors. I worry about the country our children and grandchildren will inherit.
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I am about to go up the road to vote, but still haven't decided what to do. Don't have any respect for any political party right now. I may spoil my ballot paper.
I live in a True Blue area, so whatever I do won't change anything. I will always vote however, those in power would love it if ordinary people like me didn't bother
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Yep. The Murdoch press. The ordinary person's best friend. Not.
The difference in reporting by the misogynistic Murdoch minions on our first female prime minister, compared to the headlines our recent incumbent is receiving is poles apart. It is galling.
Our new government has brought down its first budget. And guess what? The pain for the top end of town is around 1 percent of income, for the middle, between 5 and 10 percent, the bottom get slugged even more, and kids studying and attempting to work to survive have the potential to lose half of what they may have received if certain measures aren't met.
Our free medical insurance equivalent of Britain's NHS will no longer be free unless you are chronically ill, but you have to pay the co payment for the first 10 visits before you qualify, and the cost of medication has increased for all. Life's a beach.
And in other news, while tertiary education is going to get a whole lot more expensive for all, and an impossible dream for the less privileged, the PM manages to swindle his daughter a $60,000 scholarship. Nice work, Tone. Honestly, they really don't live in the real world, do they?
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i have just read all of your blog from the very beginning and i have to say i find it very inspiring and interesting. We are luckily not in debt but do have some bad money habits which i would like to fix, we are as a couple maybe not on the same page but you can but try. ive tried lots of your recipes and love them…. im an avid corcheter and would like to give quilting a go as well. ive just followed your blog looking forward to more from you froogs…. Verity
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Hi Froogs - i agree the thought of having £80 a week to spend on food is laughable! This is my first comment as ive just finished reading your blog from the very beginning and i have to say its very inspirational and we are lucky enough not to be in debt but we do have some bad money habits which i would like to kick. Ive tried lots of your recipes which are great and im a kee crocheter but am tempted to give quilting a go. Ive just followed you keep up the good work 🙂
Verity
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Stacey, I found the article to be an insult to my intelligence. Wonder how much that woman was paid to write such drivel????
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I wish I had £80 a week, £25 is more my barra……..
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I read, and commented on, the article by Rose Prince. If I shopped the way she does my family would starve. I feed 4 adults and 2 toddlers on about $60 American per week. Not sure of the exchange rates but I feel pretty certain I could manage on $80 British per week. I know you and plenty of others that do!
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I picked up the Daily Mail in work yesterday and read the Rose Prince article. I was simply appalled by it.
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That is truly amazing!
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I vote even when it seems pointless. Sadly my husband did not vote in our last federal election, despite my reminding him that his grandfather fought for 5 years in WWII and his great grandfather fought in WWl so we could live in a democracy. We MUST vote.
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The night I read this, someone called round to ask where the local food bank was as they had nothing left in the cupboards and nothing to buy more because of our fantastic benefits system. Fortunately we were able to help as the food bank only opens 1 day a week. Stupid out of touch whatmits.
Surprisingly, our local MP has never taken up any of the numerous invites she's had to visit and talk to people.
Still voted though - I was one of those horrible, educated voters who meant UKIP didn't do as well as they hoped!!!
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Well…I spend $50-60 per week on groceries, which at the most recent exchange rate I saw (about $1.69 per GBP) is £30. But we also don't buy individual yogurt cups, cereal bars (I assume those are what we call “granola bars” here in the States), or packets of crisps for lunches. Those are all occasional treat foods, and lunches generally consist of either left over dinner foods or homemade macaroni and cheese. We also don't go through four (FOUR?!) loaves of bread in a week, although my three year old does drink three gallons of whole milk each week just by himself.
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I don't really get why EM was lambasted for saying his family spent £80 a week - he was agreeing that the cost of living is very high and that many families can't afford that amount. I've always assumed that politicians have relatively low groceries bills - a lot of them eat three meals a day at the House of Commons, all subsidised, so the family supermarket bill is going to be much lower. Not fair, but not surprising, perhaps.
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But if no one in the middle or lower income brackets votes, won't things by default be weighted to the worst possible candidate for those brackets?
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I'm in OK, we have the same problem.
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Indulge a question? If a £ is a pound, what is a £ with a “pw” suffix?
If the conversion, pounds to dollars, is the same, WOW you are rocking it feeding 4 with that!
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Pw = per week
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