Eat well for less?
Valuation: 
Secret Donors: Beat the price hikes
Valuation: 
The average British family throws away £60 worth of groceries a month. It’s unopened packages of sausage and chicken, moldy vegetables, stale bread, sour milk – all in the trash.
Gregg Wallace asked us to do something about it on Eat Well For Less? (BBC1), for seven years. But we don’t listen, and now the poor guy has given up.
He’s been replaced by Jordan Banjo, who joins co-host Chris Bavin in urging us to stop buying takeaways when we already have a fridge full of food.
But where that show failed, I fear the murky tribute to the real economy will be more effective. Gregg Wallace is annoying, but inflation is a lot worse. In the wake of the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics warned this week that it’s running at 9 percent.
Jordan Banjo joins co-host Chris Bavin in urging us to stop buying takeaways when we already have a fridge full of food
I’m old enough to remember the 1970s when prices rose more than 20 percent a year. Food was not thrown back then.
Anything not eaten was either given out as leftovers or frozen in Tupperware cups the next day. I still shudder at the memory of the coffin-like chest freezer in our garage — I had to lean forward from the waist to dig for ice-hard trays of potato pies, and when the lid fell on me, I knew I would . I can’t get out
My mother, who grew up on rationing, was brilliant at shopping for supermarket bargains. I learned math by calculating the price per ounce of competing jumbo boxes of cereal.
That might sound like smug nostalgia. But inflation is a wage cut for everyone, and one inevitable consequence is that we will all stop wasting food. The advice repeatedly served up on Eat Well For Less becomes common sense.
Chris had a fundamental lesson for his new pal when he spoke to Jordan about the difference between the use by date on food and the best by date sticker.
In short, “use by” is a warning to heed. Some foods, especially meat, are dangerous if they spoil. “Best before date” is practically meaningless, just an indication of when food was packaged. A candy bar can still be delicious a year or more past its sell-by date.
Anita Rani gave more of the same advice on Secretspenders: Beat The Price Rises (C4)
All the “best before” label does is trick people into throwing out perfectly good food. It should be banned.
Chris and Jordan had many more tips on saving and minimizing waste for a lovely family in Glasgow, the Stirrats. Parents Andy and Karen, with five-year-old triplets, already have too much to deal with: one of their children, Caleb, has terminal cancer.
When life gets tough, problems pile up – and inflation makes things harder.
Anita Rani gave more of the same advice on Secretspenders: Beat The Price Rises (C4).
But Anita seems to assume that most people are wealthy and just need a little guidance in managing their wealth.
She met Zanif, a wannabe influencer on Instagram in Cardiff, who spent more than £100 on beauty treatments each time. Zanif considered these to be “essential”. She also spent £1,500 on her boyfriend Mario’s 25th birthday, showering him in designer jewelery to “balance his dress sense” with hers. “We’re a brand,” she explained.
Anita persuaded her to save more of her money for a mortgage. It’s a financial dilemma most young people would envy.
Co-host Anna Whitehouse was even less realistic. She tested a classic Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair in cream suede for £12,000 and recommended we buy a replica in orange fabric instead – a bargain at £679.
Whatever planet Anna lives on, I would love to visit it.
Escape act of the night: Nick Knowles and his team were about to begin the renovation of a houseboat on the Thames on his Big House Clearout (C5) when it disappeared – towed away by a tugboat for repairs. This wasn’t the eviction Nick had expected.