Can't afford to eat healthy - what do we all think of this?

[LoveMyCat]

For goodness sake. This is ridiculous. Yes it is more expensive to eat healthier and frozen pizzas are cheaper - but giving up swimming for Chinese takeaways? Wanting more money? I earn 7 grand less working full time and I manage to feed my household healthily on a budget. I think this lady is going to make the people that think benefits is a bad thing, which they aren't, feel even more strongly about it. Yes it's hard being fat and yes it'd hard losing weight but at the end of the day you just have to get on with It if you want to do it.

 

[His-beau]

I saw the clip of her on this morning, I cannot believe she was asking for a voucher for food and a gym membership! Did she expect ITV to say they would fund her weight loss for the telly? People need to get their priorities in order, the more they have, the more they want. Her cupboards are full of junk, she can afford take aways which aren't cheap!
A packet of value porridge oats made up with water and some frozen berries on top, breakfast sorted. If she really couldn't afford to lose weight with healthy food she would be living on gruel.
Why would you expose yourself like that in the paper and on the TV? All she is saying to the public is that I get loads of money each year and I want more!
Bless the people actually on the bread line who literally can't afford any food let alone 'healthy food'
there is always a way round it, frozen fruit and veg, canned fruit and veg. Batch cooking and freezing, offers and value items. She just doesn't want to.
Dont even get me started on the 'overweight' Katie!! Haha she's 12 stone and taking about breathing and joint difficulties!

 

[Dance Mum]

I saw the clip of her on this morning, I cannot believe she was asking for a voucher for food and a gym membership! Did she expect ITV to say they would fund her weight loss for the telly? People need to get their priorities in order, the more they have, the more they want. Her cupboards are full of junk, she can afford take aways which aren't cheap!
A packet of value porridge oats made up with water and some frozen berries on top, breakfast sorted. If she really couldn't afford to lose weight with healthy food she would be living on gruel.
Why would you expose yourself like that in the paper and on the TV? All she is saying to the public is that I get loads of money each year and I want more!
Bless the people actually on the bread line who literally can't afford any food let alone 'healthy food'
there is always a way round it, frozen fruit and veg, canned fruit and veg. Batch cooking and freezing, offers and value items. She just doesn't want to.
Dont even get me started on the 'overweight' Katie!! Haha she's 12 stone and taking about breathing and joint difficulties!

I think you just about summed it up His-beau. She can afford takeaways... well for a start cut them out coz they arent cheap & there are lots of free ways to exercise out there without having to spend money on gym sessions. Maybe the government should give her food vouchers that she can only buy healthy food with instead of the junk she has in her cupboard but in lieu of some of her benefit rather than in addition to them

 

[Featherhat]

Eating takeaways more than once a week gets very expensive, especially if she gets any "branded" takeaways like Dominos. "It costs too much" was one of the excuses I gave (I was a student not on benefits). Funny how I always managed to find the money for "treats" in the snack aisle, booze and expensive panini's and sandwiches from coffee shops and supermarkets. I never looked for good deals on fruit or veg but was always aware managed to buy 241 or "reduced" snacks.

I read this story at lunch and popped into Lidl on my way home. There were at least 10 different fruit and veg items under £1, several different cuts of meat and fish under £2 and more under £3 and lots of cheap staples (rice, pasta etc) for under £1 or available to buy in bulk. All supermarkets have basics/savers ranges, even for fruit and veg.

If she's on benefits she's got time to source which stores are having special offers every week etc.

 

[Tigger.88]

Food really isn't that expensive, like someone else said you can buy in season fruits and veg, make soups.....ALDI is fab for cheap healthy food!
Walking, jogging, you tubing fitness regimes costs nothing!!

Some people just want others to do it for them but when it comes to losing weight, only yourself can make that happen....I don't think that woman does truly want to lose weight...all that junk in her cupboards is shocking, even when I'm not 'dieting' I don't have that much rubbish in my cupboards!

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[GrannieAnnie]

Don`t suppose "fat girl" and "pseudo-fat girl"(Katie) have to take two buses to get to Aldi with a shopping trolley and carrier bags?

I have to do it every week and it takes several hours. I have to go to Aldi twice as I can`t carry everything all at once. I get what`s known locally as a day-rider bus ticket. That means I can hop on and off buses all day. So I try to make the most of my bus ticket. Can`t afford to get more than one per week. The rest of the week, I walk everywhere (great body magic!).

 

[Featherhat]

The thing is, even if she buys the cheapest saver pizza available, you can still make it healthier. Add a richer base with a drained can of tinned tomatoes from a savers range, a 50p packet of ham, some frozen sweetcorn/spinach/broccoli/mushrooms and even a small amount of the cheapest cheese and you've bulked it out a bit and made buying empty calorie snacks less necessary. She's got at least four bottles of syrup in that cupboard. Now maybe that was from a special offer but like most of her store, its not essential and costs a lot more than buying four pack of tomatoes, beans or low fat yoghurt to name a few examples. Now maybe it was that way for the cameras but there is absolutely nothing that was pictured that had any nutritional value at all. Even if she cut down on that crap by 1/3 and used that money to buy frozen/canned veg that would be a start.

 

[gazter]

I found this appalling, however for a lot of people eating healthily isn't an option. A friend (not on benefits) has recently stopped going to SW because they can't afford to eat healthily. I tried to help with cheap recipes etc but my idea of a cheap shop is different to hers. She feeds a family of 4 for £15 per week. When 6 apples cost £2.50 (this is what I paid yesterday in tesco who didn't have any on offer this week) and a big bag of frozen chips cost 0.75. You can guess which wins.

How about a big bag of potatoes? Pre prepared food is not cheaper. It is a myth put about by people too lazy to cook.

 

[lardylady]

I went into Tesco Express yesterday as I was feeling peckish. A banana cost me 18p. You couldn't get a bag of crisps or bar of chocolate for that.

 

[Superfree Princess]

Well I called in briefly to the market today and spent a fiver. I got 12 apples, 4 courgettes, 3 cucumbers, 2 bunches of spring onions, 2lb cherry tomatoes, 6 tomatoes and a huge bag of mini yellow peppers! It can be done!

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[His-beau]

Well I called in briefly to the market today and spent a fiver. I got 12 apples, 4 courgettes, 3 cucumbers, 2 bunches of spring onions, 2lb cherry tomatoes, 6 tomatoes and a huge bag of mini yellow peppers! It can be done!

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Local markets can be great for fresh food! That's loads for £5!

 

[ununpentium]

I caught the end of this interview on TV. It's difficult because we never know completely what her situation is. But with that said, if she's on 20k of benefits a year then she can afford to eat healthily. Maybe she has some kind of idea in her head that eating healthily is dining out at posh restaurants and having caviar or something?!

It's pretty ridiculous that she gave up swimming because she couldn't afford to go swimming AND have takeaways.

I suppose it does depend on what shops are in her local area. For example I know Lidl and Aldi are fantastic for cheap fresh fruit and veg, however in my area I'd need to get two buses to get to one. It would take me probably nearly an hour one way to get there. But there's an Iceland in my town, yes they do fruit and veg but in the windows are massive posters advertising a massive bag of chips for 89p, huge pizzas for £1 and so on. My mum is a cashier there and she says she feels so sad when she gets mums doing their food shop in there and all they buy is chips, pizza, chicken nuggets and coke for the whole week because it's 'cheap'.

With some planning you can make your own healthy versions of chips and pizza for probably the same price (well actually you would probably get MORE meals because if you bought a KG of potatoes you'd have enough for chips every night of the week, and if you got passata and wraps you'd have enough for 6 pizzas!)

I know we're told to eat less, lose weight and all this from the government and doctors but I do think that we could be helped more in order to achieve it.

But as for that lady, well, no I don't believe she should be paid or rewarded for every 1lb she loses. She has the means to lose weight, she has enough money certainly, and she should want to lose weight for HERSELF not because she'll get paid for it.

My mum is earning 9k a year and she support three of us on that wage. She can afford to buy healthy food so that I can cook us slimming world meals every night. The initial outlay was more expensive to buy herbs and spices, fry light etc but now all we need to get each week is some meat (often 3 for £10 in sainsburys), some frozen fish from Iceland and our fruit and veg.

 

[lickthelid]

I read the article and watched the clip. Now, it's from the Mail so I take it with a pinch of biased salt BUT who can be anything less than appalled with this woman's views and I am less than sympathetic that she is upset that people have vilified her. She claims not to work because of her daughters ADHD and kidney issues. Right, ok, to a degree understandable but how old is her kid? In the photo they look about 3 and 7? So at the least the girl must be at school. That's 6 hours a day where she could be working or if not working then out walking to get some FREE exercise. Her cupboard is awful and it's the slightly self satisfied look on her face in the pictures.

Much like Katie Hopkins the Mail rarely sets out to shed people that the deem less than desirable in a positive light and are well know for their views on benefit Britain, but still.

The main things I took from this:
1- she has a few hundred pounds worth of tattoo art across her body.
2- Her hair is coloured and looks to have been recently done.
3- She can afford branded goods and clearly doesn't visit "budget" stores like lidl or Aldi.
4- That kitchen is, from what I can see, much nicer than mine and fairly new looking too.

I can't feel sorry for someone who has been vilified by the press for being lazy and entitled when, for once, thy have it spot on.

oh and Katie Hopkins? That's not sympathy. All she does is refer to her as "hugely fat" with "masses of weight to lose" and forces the woman to agree before turning rhe topic round to herself again. Her and her weirdo Twitter followers. I was, on the other hand, pleased to spot Katie's double chin. Bonus.

 

[lickthelid]

Known for its sensationalism so even worse!

 

[Jamesie]

She could get referred to Slimming World by her GP, go to Aldi and buy their Super 6 fruit and veg each week, plus a few other staples, walk in the park/do exercise at home and lose weight that way.

A deluded woman in many respects. I would feel sorry for her, if she wasn't 'friends' with Katie Hopkins and had her story told in the Daily Fail.

 

[Featherhat]

I agree that we don't know the full story and in the past she might honestly have tried and failed like so many of us do, but she went on This Morning and said pretty much the same thing as in the original Closer interview. Even if she can't/won't run or walk around the park or block there are plenty of exercise DVDs that you can buy in the bargain big of any shop, not to mention free online which you can do for a few minutes in the comfort of your own home whilst watching the kids. I'm extremely sorry her kid apparently has medical issues but if you can leave them with someone long enough/or they are at school for a few hours to take up your subsidized gym membership then you have enough time to source better food options and take up many cheaper or free exercise options.

If you really have to chose between money on swimming or takeaways and you choose takeaways then you aren't really interested in living a healthy life and this is about extra money and excuses. No amount of money or free services thrown at her will make a difference. Buying a pack of economy brand meat, tomatoes, pasta and canned peas costs less than one box of pop tarts and a packet of crisps. At least try to make an effort before making excuses about your personal life style that blames anyone but you.

 

[Mandlegrot]

Zero sympathy. I live on far, far less and am vegan (which is damn expensive). I buy some organic items, I don't scrimp when it comes to food. I got paid £860 last week, that's my monthly earnings.

How do I do it? I don't drink alcohol, I don't go for meals out, I don't have TV/sky (mainly because I think its a load of **** myself!) I save whenever I can, even if it's just 50p. If this woman had any sense she'd figure out how to do it. If she didn't have kids id be a bit more sympathetic but she needs to sort it out as she's leading a bad example.

 

[Blueway]

This is such a non story - she eats cr@p and doesn't exercise then complains she's overweight??
Katie Hopkins and her fake sincerity just makes it even worse!

 

[wafflewaffle]

I just can't stand Katie Hopkins what planet is she from, media hoar

 

[strawberry]

Wish I could afford to buy branded crisps every week!! own brand stuff for me.