If People Would Learn To Cook, Make Tasty Broths With Bones From The Butcher, Buy An Occasional Pigs Head(Eyes Left In To See Them Through The Week)...

[sandyRoe]

...would there be any need for food banks?
There's an ass of a Tory MP who thinks there wouldn't be.

[naomi24]

OldChestNuts, //The MP says you can you can cook for 30p.//

No he doesn't. He says there's a scheme running in his constituency that allows people to make a meal for about 30p a day.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10806007/Tory-MP-faces-fury-claiming-people-use-food-banks-cook.html

[THECORBYLOON]

He said that folk coming for a food parcel have to register on a budgeting course and a cooking course.

They are then shown how to make meals for about thirty pence a day.

[pastafreak]

To Naomi...and TTT...at the time I could only judge it from the point of view of someone who'd just been transplanted several 1,000s of miles from A to B. Things improved for us personally....but did it for the average person? After being in the UK 10+ years, we moved to a city that seemed very poor and behind the times, but was just on the verge of having more money poured into it...new building, an upwardly mobile economy, a university that was establishing itself. A city that has changed a lot in 20 years.
But it's still got plenty of not so well off people...myself included.
Whether or not its improved depends on where you were *then* vs now.

[MissTerious]

THECORBYLOON He said that folk coming for a food parcel have to register on a budgeting course and a cooking course.

____________

Good idea.

[burlyshirley]

9:44 well barry, all I remember of that were the power cuts, but they probably didn't bother me because I was young ! I never worked a three day week, we never had to queue for water. I had a well paid job, got married and bought a little house. The late 60's and early 70s were very happy times for me and my parents. In fact I don't remember any 'dark' days' at all.

[jourdain2]

The late 60's/early 70's were very difficult. Others have explained. I was newly married. We bought our first basic house in June on a mortgage rate of about 4% and budgeted to cover a rise to about 6% - within a couple of months there was the fuel crisis and our M. Rate went up to 14%. This put us back years. We had my mum's old blackout curtains and bare floorboards, with a square of cheap carpet on which to sit the playpen.

I stopped smoking (good!) so I could feed us, grew as much as possible in the tiny garden and learned to make my own bread. We made our own wine & beer. I was given a book of 'Make do & Mend' for a wedding present - and boy did I need it!!
You can eat well very cheaply - but it takes time. When the 3rd-hand twin-tub expired and I had to wash everything (sheets, nappies - everything) by hand it took 2 exhausting days.
We lived and were happy - I became quite proud of the skills I developed and could still turn a collar if desperate.
As I said, the MP has an underlying point and I know from covering Food Tech. classes in the 90s that the curriculum does not teach the skills we had. I can still make a good meal for 2 of us for under £2.

[burlyshirley]

Like I explained at 13:35 they weren't difficult for me and my husband, so you can't really speak for everyone.

[Canary42]

... or use leftovers.

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Food-and-Drink/Question1795557.html

[gulliver1]

Just goes to show how out of touch these Tory MPS are with the real World ..what a load of plonkers.

[gulliver1]

This advice is coming from a Tory/Con MP
who claimed .
£222.000 in expense in just one single year.

[Atheist]

jourdain 17:17.
I share a lot of your experiences. Could you please tell me how you'd make a good meal for two oldies for £2? I need tips like that.

[ToraToraTora]

jourdain 17:17, BA.

[bhg481]

Egg and chips tonight. A couple of eggs, a few home-made chips with some peas and couple of slices of bread to make a butty. That should come in at under £2. A meal we used to have when we were really hard up and still do because we enjoy it.

[naomi24]

Atheist, if you can't make a meal for two for £2 you must be very poor managers.