Making ends meet | Economic Crisis | Living in the 1970s | Feeding your family | 1974

'Good Afternoon' presenter Joan Shelton discusses ways to feed the family in the harsh realities of 1970s Britain with housewife Shelia Roberts and Georgie Rodgers Home Economist.
First shown: 29/11/1974
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Quote: VT10336

[@TheTRStv]

This is fascinating! I was 7 years old in 1974, amazing to think how times have changed. Sheila was a bit negative, she was probably in her late 30s but looks late 50s.

[@honeyfungus4774]

Her cough. 🤮

[@andymerrett]

The vegetable shop! So glad Joan told us what a greengrocers is :)

[@Netehope123]

Loved seeing how things were done in the past.

[@axs203]

Mrs Merton is everywhere!

[@zenawarrior3012]

I feel this mom so much. She has 4 kids, and doesn’t eat enough so is always exhausted. Can’t get stable bc she has to do her menu off of the sales. Fruit spoils so quickly as well. I would’ve suggested at least adding canned (with no high fructose syrup) fruit to the menu instead of jam. But we have many more options today.

[@honeyfungus4774]

She was right to favour meat over fruit. You don't need fruit at all, you need vegetables.

[@jacksugden8190]

Joan Shenton (79) loved watching her on Thames.

[@MimiYouyu]

The housewife is resistant to change, lets her kids dictate a bit too much, and has no idea of how important nutrition is. A charming watch. 💞

[@jemmajames6719]

Your wrong, the woman trying to ‘teach’ her wasn’t listening and obviously has never been on the bread line. Bread and jam has always been dirt cheap, I’m talking of cheap bread and cheap jam. She had no money for fruit, she was buying the cheapest meat etc she could.

[@karenhone9900]

Ahhh bless you Sheila and all those other housewives doing their very best back then 🙏

[@raphaelrau1728]

Where did Sheila live?! I can’t believe apples or pears were really expensive in 1974! Broccoli or cauliflower too. This isn’t about price it’s what Sheila and her family liked to eat and they didn’t like fruit and veg! What a difference 48 years make!

[@jemmajames6719]

Broccoli? You never saw broccoli then! Fruit and veg was still mostly seasonal. Just looked it up that £12 in 1974 is about £157 today! Who can buy healthy meals for a family that size for that money.

[@bojack40]

This is when ‘poverty’ meant something. Now everyone cries poverty and they cant even tell you what things cost, because they believe poverty means you cant buy what you want when you want it.

[@BOZ_11]

we have a food bank explosion and ballooning homelessness rates. go tell someone sleeping under a bridge they've never had it better

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

I'm in ABJECT povver eh .... I've had to cancel my amazon prime AND netflix subscriptions and dropped to 40 fags a day to be able to afford the monthly contract on my Iphone 47 and a half !!!!!

[@BOZ_11]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 you should be in a straight jacket

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@BOZ_11 When did you escape from yours?

[@itsalwayshalloweenexceptwh5118]

Poverty means you can't afford one or more basic needs (a roof over your head, food, etc) in my opinion. When someone told me "there are people with expensive smart phones and expensive cars lining up for financial assistance and the food bank" I thought it was a joke or a gross exaggeration. I've seen that it is true now. I've heard people call themselves poor or broke when they had non essential services they could cancel and other expenses they could cut down on to free up quite a lot of money.

[@beausexon7546]

I thought they were going to end up smacking each other with their handbags.

[@andymerrett]

Don't you disrespect my pies!

[@gavinbarnes6310]

Gosh she’s argumentative

[@juliamaitland7160]

That lady's family diet seems like pretty standard fodder for those days. Most people ate a lot more carbs like bread as opposed to vast amounts of crisps and other snacks that some people eat these days. It's amazing we managed to survive really 😅😅

[@jasonayres]

Amusing, and very interesting. I think we all need a Georgie Rodgers in our lives. It was only several years ago, when I was buying a coffee and muffin one day (-after paying for petrol. Classy cafe, yes.) The man behind the counter looked at the muffin and said, "They're bad for you. They make you fat." At first I was surprised, and defended my actions. "It's got fruit in it." I said. "Like 'banana' bread", he replied, "Yes, it's full of sugar." "So, it is bad for you." "Yes." Right 😔

[@terawattyear]

I think Sheila will go home and do exactly what she has been doing. They ganged up on her to prod her into menu ideas she did not want to attempt.

[@TheMoromax8]

£12 a week is £135 in today's money. It was easier then and you could get a council house too

[@our-days-are-short8254]

My Grandad would slip £5 to my mum behind my Grans back. That £5 would feed and pay bills for my parents and 4 kids under 10 all the week. You can't even buy 2 cornish pasties for £5 now.

[@george.mathieson2]

I was born in 1974, how times haven't really changed with poverty to this day.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

And they never will do... no matter WHAT conflict or agro is being pushed in the MSM the REAL fight is ALWAYS "Rich suppressing the Poor"... everything else is smoke and mirrors.

[@janemasini356]

Jesus i was 4 yrs old back in 74, completely different planet 😮

[@americanmanhood]

I love this. Sheila is a bit of a cow, isn't she. I like Georgie.

[@markusbramley]

Cough loud into that microphone love

[@dantemedici8179]

A baby? She looks about 60

[@lesleyhubble2976]

The diet was appalling, no fruit and vegetables. They must of all passed from coronary heart disease, unless they walked off the crap she fed them. I was 13 in 74 I’m sure we didn’t eat meat pies all the time 🤮

[@Markcain268]

Cut out the takeaways and booze and stop relying on electronic devices to run your life

[@blakaeg]

In those days there were no electronic devices like today duh!

[@Markcain268]

@@blakaeg true, but just because they're available doesn't mean you have to buy them

[@matthewburns7989]

@@Markcain268 yeah just like people didn’t need to smoke to hell and back in the 1970s chap. Poor people shouldn’t have to be denied all possible pleasures in life. Grow the hell up and get real here.

[@frentbow]

Tin of fruit cocktail and a slice of bread between six of us or even better bread and pullit as my grandad would say.

[@sarahjones-jf4pr]

Dreadful smokers hack from lady in the green how much for cigarettes a week?

[@chaddamp2894]

Dripping toast...mmmmmm !!

[@andymerrett]

brilliant eh? On one hand she wants them to have more fruit and veg, and then she suggests eating fat on toast! (Yes, I know, balance)

[@djtonylee]

She suggests more variation then tells her to eat the same thing as the night before 🤔

[@OlafProt]

Poverty really has become a misused word. The crisis we are currently in is still, thankfully, a long way off from reaching anything like the poverty of the 70s. Imagine people now “struggling” with one car, Freeview, no two ice daily café Nero, and a £15 a month smartphone. What WOULD the neighbours say?! 🙄😂 also, Joan Shenton was gorgeous!! an amazing woman. Go read about her.

[@londonparticulars2968]

Bang right mate 👍

[@andymerrett]

There always have been and sadly always will be people in genuine poverty (as measured by the general standards of the country they live in). Let's not start the stereotypes of lazy scroungers, or how people in the Third World have it worse (they do, but it's a different set of circumstances and markers). There are a lot of people genuinely trying their best on relatively little money. They might need a car for work (yes, some poor people work). Freeview, well duh that's free once you have the box and the TV. Most people in genuine hardship aren't getting soy lattes from the coffee shop. They actually might need a phone to apply for jobs, go online as everything is done that way now, keep in contact with the school for their kids, etc. etc. But hey you keep trotting out the same old sh!te from your ivory tower. Idiot.

[@frenchfree]

Get a slow cooker and use more lentils and beans. Less meat.

[@socalpimp1974]

hilarious...... no veggies

[@Knappa22]

There were peas with the minced beef pie!! But they were probably from a tin lol!

[@anybodyoutthere3208]

Sounds like a complete carb fest for the family. Glad she does like meat 🥩

[@williamneale7238]

The housewife seems quite unpleasant. She chose to go onto television, refuses to take advice, instead just buys crap from the supermarket, stuffs her kids with bread, and refuses to buy fruit or try anything else thats cheap

[@robertwilson7750]

All very posh

[@bojack40]

Bigot

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

All my old neighbours on the Liverpool council estate where I grew up in the 60s and 70s talked "proper" English....by the time I moved out in the mid 1980s I could barely understand half of what the replacement neighbours were saying. Nowadays its easier to communicate via emojis with a lot of them.

[@jungleboy1]

2023 = new 1970s lol.

[@johnsinclair4111]

This is a time before we had the politically contrived definition of poverty. Poverty today seems to include expensive but unnecessary electronic gadgets like phones and tablets. There are four children mentioned. It is about time that our planet saving green politicians said two children maximum. Lower world population, lower greenhouse emissions.

[@matthewburns7989]

You’d still moan if a person hasn’t got any children at all and is still a virgin at 32, and doesn’t work for WHATEVER reason wouldn’t you?

[@ThomasBoyd-tx1yt]

No poverty in 1974 England London Britain it Mixed economy. Cost of living crisis 2024 Britain London England. This in 2024 66 million English people paying £1980 per year electricity and Gas bills per year. British MP salary £13000 per year. 2024 129 MSP's Scottish government parliament pay it £72000 per year for each MSP'S salary per year £72000. Brilliant content. These people England in 1974 are normal stable and well off in 1974 it gone it shame about it what we lost politically and economically. Art Bezrukavenko bring it back Britain England London Mixed economy. Labour party England British government UK general election 2024 Labour party landslide victory over the Tories.

[@felixgarnet]

Georgie looks miserable.

[@BernardCharles]

Just putting up with whatever some expert suggests but the reality is people need more money period and stop perpetuating poverty. Life hacks is not living.

[@telstar32]

Dripping toast 🤢

[@Markcain268]

My dad used to take bread n dripping to work for his snap

[@blakaeg]

Have you even ever tried it??

[@alexmckee4683]

Dear oh dear, the diet of that family sounds awful. Meat pies twice in a day, jam sandwiches every day. Mind you the suggestions from the expert sound pretty poor. Porridge is OK, but baking all the time is a bit off and not particularly good for their wastelines. As for the time taken for baking, recipes very rarely take the time suggested in my experience even though I cook pretty well every day for several years now.

[@carolineridlington5010]

Introduce a little fruit....its meat you need.....

[@benstevens6982]

in the 1970s we didnt have synthetic food like they do now mass produced depressing forming sludge we ate good quality basic foods that were not tampered with by manufacturers

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Then again I well remember "goblin" tinned beefburgers and "vesta" boxed meals (both STILL going apparently)..... it wasn't all agricultural labourers scything fields of golden wheat back in those "golden bucolic days" !!!

[@alexmckee4683]

No, apparently everyone ate meat pies for dinner and evening meal too.

[@andymerrett]

Oh I think we did. Maybe not to the same extent but there was some serious gunk being pushed out.

[@williamneale7238]

Yes, that lovely natural Angel Delight.

[@jb-zr4ez]

Didn’t those aliens bring us the Smash?