A fast-food loving family who spent a staggering £550-a-month on chocolate, biscuits and sweet treats alone have saved £1,000 in eight weeks simply by cutting out the 300-monthly sugary snacks they consumed.
Catering assistant Claire Thornstone, her caretaker husband Jason, Harley, nine, Amelia, six, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, appeared on the first episode of Thursday night’s ITV Eat, Shop Save, after admitting their eating and spending habits were ‘getting out of control’.
The family relied on snacks like crisps, chocolate, pot noodles, fish and chips and chicken nuggets for their daily meals, and admitted their ‘fussy’ children refused to eat vegetables, and they often ended up doing daily £30 shops on top of their weekly shops, out of convenience, amounting to at least £120.
Admitting the diet was making them lethargic, as well as emptying their wallets, they enlisted the help of presenter Ranvir Singh to overhaul their lifestyle – in an eight-week challenge which saw Claire and Jason lose two stone between them. They also brought their weekly shop down to £47 – saving at least £73 a week.
Their monthly food outgoings dropped from £670 to £188, saving an impressive £482 a month.
Catering assistant Claire Thornstone, her caretaker husband Jason, Harley, 9, Amelia, 6, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, appeared on the first episode of Thursday night’s ITV Eat, Shop Save, after admitting their eating and spending habits are ‘getting out of control’
At the beginning of the show, Claire admitted they don’t plan their family meals ahead and ended up shopping daily.
She said: ‘It’s getting out of control, I’m the only one who cooks but we’re just eating so unhealthily constantly.
‘I used to be fit and now I’m too tired. We only buy junk food on our weekly shop and then our daily shops end up being £30. We go for quick fix food which suits fussy eaters.’
Jason added: ‘The kids are so fussy that if they don’t like it they won’t eat it. They don’t like vegetables.’
The team put the family on a strict eight-week regime, which aimed to ditch the convenience meals, reduce their shopping bills and cook healthy meals the family could enjoy at the table together – instead of TV meals.
Sweet tooth: Kate revealed they spend £550 on 300 snacks alone every month, and £6,600-a-year, leaving the family flabbergasted
Nutritionist and top chef Dale decided to kick off the plan by ‘hoodwinking’ the children before they got home from school.
He created a secret vegetable sauce blend out of leeks, courgettes, red onions red peppers for sweetness, with a tomato passata which he described it as a ‘sauce packed with vegetable goodness the kids won’t even know they’re eating’.
He used the base to make a healthy pizza, making the dough out of a convenient supermarket-bought mix of dough that just needed water.
Making it fun for the kids, he presented them with the dough, the base, and a range of toppings including cheese to create their own fun pizza with.
And Claire was left shocked as Amelia opted to put mushrooms on her pizza.
The meal was a success, and as the children admitted to not liking vegetables including red onions, Jason said: ‘I’ve got something to admit to you guys, all these vegetables were in that sauce you’ve just eaten – and you enjoyed it!’
Amelia screamed ‘Ewww!’ in horror as Harley looked on in surprise.
Even dad Jason admitted: ‘There’s stuff on there that we’ve never even tried, I can’t believe they enjoyed it!’
Next, cash expert Kate Harcastle decided to help overhaul their financial situation.
The family were visiting the supermarket most days, adding up to around £120-a-week.
She decided to help them overhaul their shopping habits by creating a weekly shopping list.
But the family were particularly shocked when Kate showed them a huge pile of biscuits on the table – revealing that is one month’s worth of their confectionery intake.
Nutritionist and top chef Dale decided to kick off the plan by ‘hoodwinking’ the children before they got home from school, getting them to help make a healthy pizza
The fast-food loving family who spent a staggering £550-a-month on chocolate, biscuits and sweet treats alone have saved £1,000 in eight weeks simply by cutting out the 300-monthly sugary snacks they consumed. Seen: cash expert Kate Harcastle
She then added the trifles, crisps and sweets they have every month, amounting to over 300 snacks a month.
Claire said: ‘I’m so shocked seeing that!’ – gasping when Kate revealed they spend £550 on snacks alone every month, and £6,600-a-year.
The family are faced with the extra challenge of doing the eight-week plan during COVID-19.
While their wages were not affected, the battled with around-the-clock care for the children, less ingredients in the supermarket and no gyms for their fitness plans.
However they started planning a daily menu, and personal trainer Tom Pitfield was seen giving them a weekly workout plan via video call.
Presenter Ranvir Singh tweeted during the show that the family had actually saved double the amount shown on the show since it was filmed – that’s over £2,000
Two months on, and the family revealed they now make meals from scratch, including spaghetti bolegnese, butternut squash soup, fish, homemade chips and peas, curry, and batch cooking vegetable sauces.
Their snacks include healthier options such as popcorn, and with their strict planned weekly shop, they are only spending £47-a-week for the family of four.
Gone are the TV dinners, and the family all eat together around the table, with Jason revealing he has lost 1st 4lbs, while Claire has lost 9lbs – just by cutting out snacks.
Jason admitted: ‘Food actually tastes better, and it’s a lot cheaper,’ as the couple revealed they have saved £1,000 in eight weeks.
Viewers of the show commented on how eating vegetables incorporated into sauces and meal planning had also worked for them, however others said they’d like to stick with the chocolate
One viewer, Karen France, praised Eat, Shop, Save’s hidden vegetable sauce recipe and said it had also been a success in their house.
While Hannah Louise agreed with the show that ‘meal planners actually transform your life’.
Alice Denice Johnson was less understanding, calling the family ‘greedy’ for consuming so many snacks.
Sandeep tweeted that she had also made a similar ‘breakthrough’ when she began eating vegetables and would never go back to her old habits.
However David Clifford said that he would ‘rather spend £550 and eat all of the chocolate’.