shopping saturday

Every Saturday morning before eight, my husband, mother-in-law, three-year-old daughter, and I get into their work van and make our weekly pilgrimage to the grocery store. In keeping with the family tradition established before I arrived, we shopped at the UK’s largest retailer. We walk through the corridors that are so familiar to us; selecting what we need for the week. Once every two months, we also go to the big warehouse store to stock up on items in bulk, such as toilet paper, kitchen towels, laundry soap, and the like.

When we first moved into our flat in November 2006, it was me, my husband, my eldest son and daughter, my now eighteen-year-old son, and my youngest daughter: four adults, a teenager, and a baby. We spent about ninety pounds a week on our groceries, plus meat from the butcher. Now, two years later, it’s just me, my husband, my eighteen-year-old son, and now my three-year-old daughter: three adults and one toddler. And we still spend ninety pounds a week, plus meat. It’s been a huge source of frustration for me…that I can’t get the bill below that. This week, I did; for five pounds anyway. Seventy pounds wasn’t my goal, but at least it was a start.

But it was something less that caught my attention on Saturday. One of the reasons I started this blog was to address the issues of the lost arts, including cooking. I have read a lot about families that rely solely on prepared foods, prepared meals. News articles have generally focused on lower-class families on benefits, eating nothing and facing not only the high cost of living but also long-term health consequences. However, what I noticed on Saturday is that this problem goes much deeper than that; on all class lines.

Now, when I examine the conveyor belt with our weekly offer, I admit that it is far from perfect. We often have several jars of sauces prepared for pasta or Indian food. But we also have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as low-fat dairy products, including organic low-fat milk (three or four 6-pint jugs, in fact…nearly ten pounds of plain milk). Even those prepared foods are handled long before they reach my table. For example, Tikki Masala sauce would be added not only to fresh chicken stir fry, but also to two cups of fresh vegetables, including onions and bell peppers. So even when we start with a prepared option, my style of cooking increases its nutritional value and dilutes the amount of added salt and sugar.

The couple in front of us in line on Saturday had nothing but junk food, canned, jarred, boxed, frozen. While I don’t know how many people they were shopping for, their demographics were pretty close to ours; a mixed race couple in their forties. His bill was a staggering one hundred and seventy-six pounds and forty-seven pence. His shopping cart was considerably less full than ours. Of course, anyone who knew enough to read labels—although that may sometimes require a Ph.D. in nutritional science—would see that his diet was high in salt, sugar, and fat. It begs the question: how does a family survive?

But the story does not end there. As I waited for my mother-in-law to leave, I watched others around us. There was the upper-class couple from the late fifties or early sixties. Of course, the products they bought consisted of more brand name products and several of the ‘healthy’ or ‘light’ foods, but their purchases contained just as many prepared foods as the other pair. Add to that a considerable amount of alcohol, and there are serious reasons to worry about your health, if not your budgets. Then there was the young family, with a little girl my daughter’s age, their purchases included many specially prepared ‘baby’ meals, which were essentially glorified potato chips.

If anything represents the reason why I spend my mornings writing, it is the phenomenon of prepared food. Let’s examine how those prepared dishes compare to the four core values ​​of the Frugal Family:

Spending time together. Alright, even I have to grudgingly admit that this one might work in favor of prepared meals. Having been a working mom myself, I am intimately aware of the challenges of balancing time, cost, and nutrition. But having said that, he still wasn’t relying solely on prepared meals. I often prepped and refrigerated/frozen meals for the week on my weekends. As for the argument that the time I spend cooking could be better spent with my daughter, I make an effort to include her in my kitchen. Yes, my kitchen gets messier. Yes, I could do it faster on my own. But in addition to the immediate rewards of time together, the long-term benefits include a twenty-year-old daughter and a twenty-two-year-old son who can cook very well. So in the end I’d probably mark this core value as a wash…they both have their pros and cons.

Saving money. We often hear that it is cheaper to feed our family junk food than a healthy diet. I would argue the point. For example, one of the most purchased ready meals in the UK is meatloaf. I make a very tasty version and cheaper argument. A medium container of this prepared meal costs between two pounds and fifty pence and three pounds; and served three to four people. I can make the same meal using fresh and frozen for less money. My recipe would call for a half pound of fresh ground beef or ground lamb (I also use ground turkey for a healthier option); this costs less than a pound. I use about two cups of frozen mixed vegetables; for a cost of about thirty pence. A tin of beans costs another forty pence and half a bag of chips adds fifty pence to the bill. The total cost is about two pounds and twenty pence… and about half an hour of our time.

Environmental friendly. Let’s continue using the example of my shepherd’s pie. The prepared version comes packaged in a plastic cooking container, covered with aluminum foil and wrapped in a cardboard box. While I admit most of those items are recyclable, my version features a can as well as a dirty pot for boiling mashed potatoes and a baking pan. Of course, it takes soap and water to wash those items, but compare this to the astronomical environmental cost if that plastic cooking container isn’t recycled. No one knows for sure how long it takes for a plastic container to decompose in a landfill, but estimates run as high as 500 years…and imagine all the trash that’s going to release into the soil and ultimately into the groundwater. . that our great-great-great-great grandchildren will be drinking.

Healthier. Granted, shepherd’s pie isn’t the healthiest meal period, but my homemade option will contain far less added salts, sugars, and preservatives than the meal-prepared version. Also, as I mentioned when selecting the ground beef/turkey burger, I can significantly reduce the fat content of the prepared meal. And for a little more money and time, you could choose to make an entirely fresh version of this common meal with fresh vegetables and homemade beans…and significantly improve the taste and nutritional value of the meal.

So the next time you’re standing in line at the register, I challenge you to look around and see how the items you’ve selected compare to other shoppers. Then think about how you can improve those selections to give you more quality time with your family, save money, protect our precious environment, and live a healthier life.

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And for those of you interested, here is my Shepherd’s Pie recipe to serve four people:

½ pound ground beef/hamburger… lamb, beef, or turkey

1 can baked beans or 2 cups cooked dry beans (kidney or pinto beans are great choices)

2 cups frozen or fresh steamed mixed vegetables (broccoli, carrots, peas, bell peppers, mushrooms…get creative)

1 pound fresh potatoes…cut and boiled then mashed

Seasoning…I use Everyday Caribbean…but be careful about the salt content in these products

Start by cutting and preparing your potatoes and vegetables if you are using them fresh. Then boil these while browning the ground beef/burger along with your spices. In the bottom of your saucepan (medium square or round) combine the cooked ground beef with the beans and vegetables. This is a great way to use up leftover beans and vegetables. Once the potatoes are boiled, mash them like they were… with butter and milk. Spread the puree on top and bake in the oven for twenty to thirty minutes until the potatoes are lightly browned. Serve with a fresh salad and bread.

This meal provides:

1 serving of protein/meat… from ground beef and beans

1 servings of mixed vegetables frozen or fresh

1 serving of starch/carbohydrates from potatoes.

From start to finish, this meal can be done in under forty-five minutes, twenty of which are in the oven and you can be doing something else.

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