Jack Monroe #427 Frugal home cooking based on lived experience (now contested)

[Claret]

A few of us knew of Jack pre the big house sale. She used to drink in the Railway from time to time and be around us, but she had few if any real friends that we could see

The grift started just post the big house sale, there were quite a few people that gave her money because of the predicament she said she was in. She was never in that predicament as far as we could tell. She was openly bragging about how much was gifted to her

She was subsequently seen wearing things she said she'd sold, when she was asked about it she said that someone had bought it and gifted it back. We knew she was lying, she knew she was lying, and she knew that we knew she was lying. Losing credibility with those that just about tolerated her was a big price to pay, we didn't see her much after that

So the grift was born, I'm just amazed she has kept it going for so long

 

[Lazarus]

Spoiler: Me rail

fraus & herren, I feel this is a safe space / the only space I can share a little me-rail.
Mr Lazarus and I recently decided to elope next year. We haven’t told anyone, aren’t inviting anyone to our wedding and will ask two people at the venue to be our witnesses. I wish we could tell people because we want to share our happiness but as with many families when there’s a wedding, we could never keep it as small as we’d like. Even inviting two friends to be witnesses wouldn’t work without offending other friends.
Anyway, my wedding dress arrived today and I’ve been so stressed about spending such an amount of money on a dress for a small wedding, and secretly hoped I wouldn’t like it, but I love it. I’m between sizes (16/18) and ordered an 18 but it’s just a little too loose so I’m sending it back for the 16 as it’s quite roomy.
anyway, Im sorry for the me-rail, I just needed to talk about it xx

 

[ThrowawayProbably]

Hi everyone! Short term lurker, here, and likely to retreat back to that status after sharing the following…I really hope that this helps some of you who have commented on feeling guilty during tough times on spending over £20 on food in a week. The TLDR is that no, it’s not possible to feed yourself from this list for a week, let alone 2 people with leftovers.

I was interested in what the £20 shopping list (from June I believe) actually meant in terms of what actual products you can buy for that, therefore the weight, and calorific value of the weekly shop listed - and to see what that would mean for an average per day calorie intake. I looked on Asda, and found the product that met the price stated most closely, and seemed the most likely. Hopefully this approach hasn’t been done before, and this is a new way to look at things. I made a spreadsheet with the detail, which I have hopefully correctly added below.

Assuming I have done all these calculations correctly (everyone welcome to check my workings…), the calories of the foods listed total 10,584 for a week, or 1,512 per day (average). So if this is meant to feed 2, it’s 756 per day per person, or 38% of the recommended 2000 calorie daily intake. Dangerously low, and assumes all of this is consumed, with none going into “cupboard supplies”. Even if this list was for 1 adult, it is below the recommended calorie intake.

Plus, the high calorie items are really only the eggs, bacon and peanuts, which are all relatively high fat. I couldn’t be bothered to go into the macro nutrients here, but it does look to be carb (veggies are mostly carbs!) and fat heavy, with little by way of protein.

Note, I also listed fresh vs. pantry items…i.e. fresh would be more of a weekly purchase as many don’t last more than 1 week. Of the lost most items are fresh.

Sorry for the slightly rambling post, and very happy to remove if anyone believes this has been calculated wrong! Sorry if so!

 

[Saltfish84]

Woah ….

(Yes, I have Mail Online app )

 

[TreeTrunksApplePie]

Spoiler: Nicu

That fact never sits well with me and I'm not sure why as NICU graduates are to be celebrated.
For some context although the two babies cannot be compared, this is my experience. As a mum of a former NICU baby who had the worst prognosis on the ward and needed a heart lung bypass machine (it is a last resort), birthdays are very emotional. You can't quite believe your child has made it this far, you cry privately when you remember what they went through but you feel pride and gratitude at their progress, at their presence on this earth. To friends and relatives you might say 'look how far they have come' and our NICU likes an annual birthday pic to celebrate their graduates. But you don't go on about because it is painful to remember. For the sake of the child and their siblings, you don't reflect on the months of real trauma. Everything is kept positive and fun and the birthday child is made a big fuss of (rightly so).
I'm never sure about Jack's version of SB in NICU, the way she writes is a bit off. However she has shared a SCBU picture previously. He didn't require surgery but possibly extra oxygen and or monitoring. Undoubtedly it is a huge worry and whatever his difficulties in the beginning, SB is doing amazing now. Jack could just be being a proud and emotional mum although ideally not on a public platform.
One thing I fear is, did she smoke whilst pregnant? That might explain his stay. Just speculation though.

Spoiler: “NICU/SCBU update”

I’ve mentioned on here before as we have a current neonatal baby and I’ve found a few of Jack’s comments upsetting. Everything you’re saying rings true for me. Those first 2 months are something me and my partner will certainly need some professional help to process. Not necessarily something for celebration.

Also just wanted to provide a quick update to those that remember as i had some lovely well wishes from those on this thread. Our very mini Treetrunks, born 13 weeks prematurely so needing all the incubation and oxygen support that comes with that and needing an operation to close the open duct in his heart had a successful operation and is now doing fantastically. We spent 7 weeks in a specialist NICU, 4 in HDU and are now in our local SCBU. He’s still on oxygen and a feeding tube but the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight and we’re hoping he’ll be home for Christmas

 

[Nottonightbabe]

I love how Jack thought she was tech savvy enough to produce a digitised retail index which improved on the work of a team of government statisticians but simultaneously doesn’t know how to check the list of her current and previous paypigs.

The Mail article is weak sauce but does explain why Molly wanted her “I’m an immigrant” fib cleared up.

 

[jenny2603]

Apparently Jack is busy with "work and campaigning" and remains a pass agg clown who regards people pointing out her failure to deliver as "smears and harassment".

 

[Serafina Pekkala]

Dear Canal,
I can't stop thinking about how much Leggy looks like she was drawn by Quentin Blake.

I know, I am going to hell for this. But if I can't say it here then I might just blurt it out at work. So thanks pals

 

[bracrumbs]

To go back to the previous thread and what being with Leggy did for Jack. For me, who probably has a quite similar background to Jack (minus the landlord grandad/dad so possibly a bit more genuinely working class), I remember the first time I met people who were genuinely rich. Up until then, I had sort of thought having a 4 bedroom house was a sign of wealth. Then you meet someone like Leggy who was born with more money than you’ll ever have in a thousand lifetimes and if you let it, you can start to feel hard done by in the lottery of life.

most people give their head a wobble and move on but as per the Fire Service/shift work/trazzers debacle, we know Jack is a perma victim. So at this point the story changes from “I was just a smol middle class pixie down on her luck” to “I’m working class, me mate, born into poverty and now still in it*”

*because my parents weren’t millionaires at the time of my birth.

It means she’s had to retcon her back story but it was too late. And for me, everything she’s done ever since is about trying to maintain that facade and she’s just shovelled shit onto shit and now the whole thing has collapsed under its own weight.

 

[Anglesx]

I completely agree with this. Middle class is such a wide spectrum - where I grew up middle class was a large semi, with a holiday abroad and two cars etc. (economically middle class) but then I went to university and met what I still think as posh people - private school, everyone had the accent despite coming from all over the country, horses, second homes, wine cellars etc. - and confusingly these people also identify as middle class!

It's because those people at private school who own horses and multiple homes mix in circles where they ARE the poorer ones, so they think themselves to be less well off than they are. They know people with a yacht, but they don't have a yacht, they must just be middle class and the people with the yacht are upper class. But people with yachts are super wealthy. There's a new class of super-wealthy that a lot of upper class people don't want to recognise, so they see themselves as middle, or even working, class.

I work with so many of these people. People who tell me that they are really worried about the cost of living crisis because they were planning on buying a new merc in the new year but now they're "not sure, they probably will though, because they've worked hard for it". I have colleagues who call themselves working class because they work, but one guy literally didn't believe that not all houses had bedrooms that all had en-suites. One who thought he was working class because his house wasn't "technically" a mansion. A woman who would take a month off in the summer to go to her family's second house in Singapore, but would say they were actually poor because it was just a house her parents owned, not some fancy hotel and she "wouldn't be getting room service and there are no maids!"

I think Jack fell into this trap. She was middle class until she met Allegra. Until then, middle class was fine, she was better than all those people watching Jeremy Kyle and wearing tracksuits. But then Allegra's circle made it clear that she was still bottom of the totem pole. So, instead of acknowledging these people are incredibly wealthy and being middle class wasn't enough, she's decided she's working class because then she can blame that for why they hate her, it's discrimination, not just that she's a wanker.

 

[CoraBlimey]

Hello everybody - I just came hear to say how much I enjoy the Jack Monroe threads.

I've been doing some googling on her after looking for some nice economy recipes online, then stumbling across her latest essay about her everlasting poverty trauma and how she has to boil soap for shower gel. I then felt like a terrible person for laughing out loud, and in my attempt to assuage my guilt by finding people who are even worse than me, I found this forum.

You make me laugh so much. Thank you!

 

[jenny2603]

I've done an archive of the Daily Mail article for anyone who'd like to read without giving them the clicks and to preserve it before Jacks pro bono lawyer and team of paralegals fly into action (lol).

Row between anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe and detractors flares…

archived 17 Nov 2022 10:55:07 UTC

archive.ph

 

[Brian Butterfield]

A few of us knew of Jack pre the big house sale. She used to drink in the Railway from time to time and be around us, but she had few if any real friends that we could see

The grift started just post the big house sale, there were quite a few people that gave her money because of the predicament she said she was in. She was never in that predicament as far as we could tell. She was openly bragging about how much was gifted to her

She was subsequently seen wearing things she said she'd sold, when she was asked about it she said that someone had bought it and gifted it back. We knew she was lying, she knew she was lying, and she knew that we knew she was lying. Losing credibility with those that just about tolerated her was a big price to pay, we didn't see her much after that

So the grift was born, I'm just amazed she has kept it going for so long

The Canal:

The Canal:

 

[Geetbo]

"the tomatoes I am growing for my lover" has finished me off this morning.

 

[moldwarp]

I reckon the Mail put this together a couple weeks ago; it's the mainstream outlet AM was referring to when she said she was contacted for comment.

It'll have been thoroughly lawyered, given Jack's track record.

And I bet they chose to pubish today cos they've had a look at Jack's twitter feed and seen that she likes to go on DER EBIL TORIES rants on Budget days or days when major economic news is released. So they figured that more likes / searches for Jack Monroe would increase interest in their article and push it up the Google rnakings.

Jack's probably known about it for a while. In fact, I reckon they contacted her for comment on the day that she tweeted "Life is tough my darlings but so am I". It's exactly the sort of response you would expect from a narc who's been caught out and is beshitting themselves.

Finally, the Twitter silence is explained.

 

[colouredlines]

You Don’t Batch Cook When You’re Suicidal | JACK MONROE

than oven chips. It disappeared from my site when it crashed late last year, but for posterity I have reposted it in its unedited entirety]

cookingonabootstrap.com

Widow's mites and Pharisees??

This is such a minor, stupid lie, but it made me laugh.

Potatoes:

Note that Jack was standing in their office and got turned down in person.

But back in 2012 that conversation took place over the phone:

Never underestimate the capacity of Jack Monroe to lie about every tiny, unnecessary detail.

 

[mince]

"the tomatoes I am growing for my lover" has finished me off this morning.

Spoiler: And then there’s…

Spoiler: BOULEVAAAAAAAAAARD

 

[Geetbo]

Imagine announcing on insta that you’ve fingered some people. Just no need.

 

[Claret]

"I have a surprise for you"

"How exciting, is it a diamond, a Faberge egg, a holiday...?

"Here are some tomatoes"



What else can you tell us about, Jack? Was she claiming to work in a brothel back then? Did she ever mention "living rough"?

Never any mention of working in a brothel or being street homeless. Never any indication of being in poverty either, she was always well presented, always had enough money for her drinks. The whole thing was a sham, all to gain profile. The sale was promoted in the local newspaper, who did what every other enabler has done since......they swallowed what Jack told them to swallow without question.

There is no chance that she sold all her belongings, we all saw evidence of that. If she fed her child weetabix and water she chose to, I'm certain there was no necessity. If there had of been a necessity then the food bank would have been there for her too. It's all a sham, it always has been

 

[jenny2603]

Now, this sounds like the go to guy for proper, factual well sourced news....

Oh no!

Well said that squig.