I know many of you will have watched it and many of you will no doubt mention it, but I was quite literally rendered speechless last night..... Yes, you've guessed it, the christmas food and drink spend on last nights's Eat Well for Less. I turned on the TV at exactly the point where they were told how much they spend. £1400!!!!!!! I know I said I was trying to cut down on exclamation marks, but it's a sign of how long it took me to shut my gaping mouth and find words to express how horrified I was. I mean, they saved them £860 for heaven's sake. I don't spend anywhere near £860 to begin with and I'm quite sure none of you do either. I do spend a little extra than my normal months shopping, but I would guess at a maximum of £50 over. I am still within my normal months budget at this point but still have the veg and Turkey to pay for, plus the odd extra thing we may need/run out of. Might I also add that my Christmas menu last the whole week because I always plan a week's food shop, so it's it just two days like theirs was! AND that includes my dinner party food from Wednesday.
I know they pick extremes for the show, but really?!
Mr D breaks up today so then we can really start our Christmas holidays. The youngest two broke up yesterday so I don't imagine I'll see them until lunchtime and my eldest arrives home for the fortnight this evening. Sadly my other daughter will be spending her Chrstmas in the States, but I'm sure she'll have a wonderful time experiencing a proper family american christmas and her little charges will be thrilled to have her there no doubt!
I'm starting to get excited .... :)
Missed that one I watched Christmas on the poverty line and was impressed with the family of nine there total christmas spend was £245 that included pressies for 7 children and they were such a happy family, the mums quote was Invest time in your family not money, I thought it was wonderful :-)
ReplyDeleteI'll have to watch that on catch up - it sounds like the perfect antidote!
DeleteMy girls had a DVD on last night so I didn't see either this programme or the one that Dawn mentioned - I shall have to catch up over the weekend! Thanks for the reminder, as I had forgotten. Hope you have a lovely Chrismtas xx
ReplyDeleteThank you - you too :) x
DeleteHorrified too!!! Would they really spend that much on champagne if the cameras weren't there? Must watch Christmas on the poverty line now. The Aldi Cava is flying off the shelves in my local store - will report back if it's as good as the programme said. Enjoy your Christmas and thank you for your blog xo
ReplyDeleteWe were given a bottle of champagne, so that will do us, but I'm not snobby with bubbles, especially as I add cranberry juice or my limoncello! Have a lovely Christmas too :) x
DeleteI've not seen the programme yet but will watch it on catch up later today and no doubt be muttering to myself.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, it will cause you to mutter! Silly, foolish people out there!
DeleteI was going to watch but knew I would get annoyed so didn't bother. Our food, drink, toiletries overspend, for 4 of us for the week is just over £90, so not too bad. I think January will be cheaper as we shall be eating anything leftover!
ReplyDeleteAnd of course there will be no waste either. They were throwing away piles of what they had bought. The packaging alone would have been horrendous!
DeleteI started to watch it but it really annoyed me so I switched it off.
ReplyDeleteI can sympathise - it was horrendous in many ways!
DeleteI watched it and found it entertaining on one level and totally shocking on another. As they loaded in 10 bottles of champagne at £30 a bottle into their trolley I nearly slid off the sofa .... even I could do that maths straight away!! I mean even with a big party and all the guests drinking surely after the first sip not one of them would notice they were drinking a cut price Cava!!
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I did think the programme pointed out well was that it can be more enjoyable to cook from scratch and use leftovers than it is to heat up ready prepared expensive trays of shop bought posh nosh.
I need to watch the programme that Dawn talks about I think just to get things back into perspective.
Yes, I'm certainly going to search out the programme Dawn mentioned to cheer me up!
DeleteCan't imagine spending that kind of money, are they feeding an army?
ReplyDeleteThey had some friends over for a party with nibbles, 10 for Chrstmas day and the four of them for Boxing Day - not exactly an army!!
DeleteI watched this and viewed it as a comedy. The wife was entertainment personified, I am sure that their spending was ramped up for the program and I am also sure that they know exactly what it normally costs them, after all they have to pay for it.
ReplyDeleteI think the husband certainly knew roughly what they were spending as he had to do all the extra hours just to pay for it - total madness. Let's hope it taught many people a lesson.
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