Swap the bad for the good
A new local series shows how you can save money while living a healthier lifestyle. Kerry Harvey reports.
If you have watched Britain’s Eat Well For Less and smugly thought ‘‘Kiwis know better’’, you were wrong. It seems some of us are spending the equivalent of a small house deposit on food every year.
Eat Well For Less New Zealand presenter, restaurateur Ganesh Raj, says several of the families featured on the series were spending $45,000 a year or more on groceries and takeaways before they sought help from him and his co-host, chef Michael Van de Elzen.
Raj says he would be ‘‘dead’’ if he ran his restaurant like some families run their food budgets. ‘‘The money that people are spending is out of control but, in a way, you can’t feel angry with them because they’ve had no guidance,’’ he says.
‘‘They’ve never had anyone look at it and point it out to them. I think that’s what this show is going to do. We have found eight different types of families that, hopefully, showcase a cross-section of New Zealanders.’’
The pair work with families to improve eating habits and also show them how to save money. And they hope viewers will learn a few things along the way as well. ‘‘Anything we can do to help people over the next six months to a year is going to be helpful,’’ he says.
In the first episode they help a family of five, including three preschoolers, who are currently spending $875 a week – $350 on takeaways and $525 at the supermarket – in an effort to satisfy each member’s separate food requirements.
‘‘We have to get people thinking about how they spend their money, stop caring about brands and spend more time together,’’ Raj says, adding both hosts were blown away by the high level of brand loyalty they uncovered. ‘‘We knew people were loyal but we didn’t realise they were loyal to the point they would pay three times the amount for something just to be loyal.
‘‘There’s a lot of a supermarket’s own brand stuff that’s absolutely perfectly fine.’’
He knows because he uses those products himself. ‘‘I’m a home-brand human from way back. Knowing how to cook gives you the ability to use cheap ingredients and make something special. Any day I would stand up my budget tomato bolognese sauce against any fancy-pants sauce,’’ Raj says.
He stresses it’s not about giving up everything
We’re pleased to offer this extra television coverage – courtesy of our sister publication The TV Guide – while it is unable to publish under current restrictions. you love but rather a matter of choices. ‘‘We’re not saying don’t have this or that,’’ he says. ‘‘We’re saying if you change this and that and still kept this and this you’d save this much.
‘‘You have to make personal choices. If you want to save $10,000 a year, you might keep your expensive mayonnaise but you’d better drop your tomatoes or you’d better be more careful on the type of fruit you buy.
‘‘Frozen fruit and veges is one of the areas I’m passionate about. If it’s snap frozen it’s just fine. These are simple moves that don’t cost money.’’
Eat Well For Less New Zealand, TVNZ 1, Tuesday