Esther Rantzen Needs To Look In Her Bloody Fridge

Budgeting is a huge part of my life and I've gotten quite good at it. I plan the meals in advance, I plan lunches in advance, I plan how to save money for holidays, Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Days Out and rainy day treats. You get the idea. I go food shopping every week with my Mum and when I saw a post on MoneyWise by Esther Rantzen about being punished for eating alone I was interested as my Mum lives alone and I'm only too aware of how unfair supermarkets are to singles but the post actually just pissed me off. To me it smacks of I'm old and famous so listen to me denounce supermarkets and food manufacturers whilst not placing any blame on myself!

I can identify with the post to start with, yes packs of food are sold to families rather than singles, there are multi buy offers which you feel you are being ripped off on if you don't take advantage of, a lot of ready meals are designed for more than one person to eat and this can lead to a lot of waste but Esther takes the stand that this is the supermarkets fault and not hers. Esther claims that her freezer is full of "corpses of salmon and casseroles, rock hard and covered with a thick layer of snow" but that isn't her fault of course, it's the Supermarkets for only selling Salmon fillets in packs of four. I'm pretty sure Supermarkets can stand up for themselves but seriously Esther you're famous for talking no nonsense and here you are talking a load of bollocks. How hard is it to look in a freezer before you go shopping to see what you do or don't need to buy even if you are 71?


Esther claims that her fridge gets full of leftovers that she throws away because she doesn't use them, or food which isn't as tempting looking the day after it's been cooked gets thrown away. WHAT? Seriously she's going to bitch how a roast chicken she cooked one day looks dry the next so she is going to throw the whole bird away and this is the Supermarkets fault for not selling things in single packs?


Here's a few suggestions for you Esther that might help your grocery bill be reduced and they will work for "normal" people too.


1) Look in your bloody freezer and fridge. See what food you have in there and plan your meals around them. It's what the rest of the population do, it's what sensible people do, it's what you should do.


2) Invite another single friend to go shopping with you. When there are multi pack deals split them with them. You know if you buy oranges on a buy on get one free deal give your friend the free oranges. She can do the same to you with the free potatoes or whatever. Or here's a suggestion, you know that food bank at the local church? Give your extra canned goods to them, find out if there is a food bank that takes fresh food, donate it to the woman that lives down the road with the kids that scream too loud when you're trying to watch a TV programme, find a homeless shelter and give it to them! There is always someone grateful for food.


3) Invite friends round for dinner. Maybe on Monday it could be Moaning Esther Mondays and you serve a group of friends a Roast Chicken and extras. On Tuesday you could go to your friends house and have Salmon Fillets with new potatoes and on Wednesday you could go to another friends and have Casserole... you get where I'm going with this right? Yeah, it requires a bit of planning, but I'm sure you can handle it.


4) Cook a meal for four and portion it out in the freezer. Look at that you can have one of those meals a week for the next four weeks and it's, wait for it, just like a ready meal!


Don't get me wrong, I actually like Esther Rantzen and she does have a point, there should be more affordable food in individual portions but until Supermarkets work out a way to make money out of it she should do something more constructive than contribute to the food waste.


To end on a funny note, here is one of my favourite comedians talking about the same thing.