Eat Well for Less

Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin are in Newport with the Scott-Dent family, who are addicted to freezer food. They are a busy family who hardly ever cook from scratch and are throwing away a fortune in food every week. They desperately need to get their spending under control so that they can save for their first family home.

Kate and Chris have three children under ten, with Chris being stepdad to the oldest two. They both work, and Kate loathes cooking, and with non-existent kitchen skills she finds preparing food too much of a chore. She has a fear of food near its sell-by date and is convinced that reheating it will make her family ill.

To see where the family is going wrong, Gregg and Chris secretly watch them on a weekly food shop - and they make every mistake in the book, buying sliced and grated cheese, pre-prepared fruit and veg and overpriced frozen food. It's time for a reality check, and they're shocked when Gregg and Chris reveal that they are spending twice the amount of an average family of five. Can Gregg and Chris save this family some serious cash and improve the quality of what they eat at the same time?

Chris wants to allay Kate's fear of sell-by dates and investigate just how safe our food labels really are. Kate also believes that butter is better for you than margarine, and Gregg wants to find out if that's the case. Along the way, dietician Lucy Jones gives us the nutritional differences.

Their usual shopping has been replaced and everything is put in plain packaging. Most are cheaper products, some are the same and some are more expensive, to show that sometimes it is worth paying more. The fridge is full of fresh food and the freezer is left practically bare for the first time, but at the end of the week will this family change their ways and embrace Chris and Gregg's changes?

Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin are in Sutton Coldfield to help the Saini family, who are seduced by supermarket offers and overindulge on snacks and sweet treats. This snack-obsessed vegetarian family will even eat crisps with a traditional Indian meal! Gregg and Chris have their work cut out. Can they help the family not only have a healthier and more balanced diet but also save money?

Vijay and Jyoti juggle looking after two children and working full-time and have found themselves stuck in a mealtime rut full of pre-prepared food and topped up with snacks and sweets. Mum's coupon addiction influences the food and drink they buy, and she has even been known to buy things they don't even use, just because they're on offer!

Gregg and Chris secretly watch them as they do their family food shopping and see that they are immediately drawn to the deals on snacks and junk food. They buy so many snacks that Gregg and Chris can't work out what they actually eat for dinner - they buy nearly 60 bags of crisps in one shop! Gregg and Chris surprise them at the checkout, and it's not long before the Sainis start to realise their food shopping is out of control.

The family are vegetarian, so dietician Lucy Jones looks at the nutritional difference between beef mince and soya mince, with some surprising results. And committed carnivore Gregg visits a Quorn factory to investigate how it's made.

All their usual brands have been taken away and some are swapped with cheaper alternatives, some stay the same and some are replaced with more expensive products to show that sometimes it is worth spending more. Along the way, Gregg and Chris introduce the family to some easy, healthy and budget-busting recipes - but will it be enough to change this family's ways?

Gregg and Chris are with the Austen family from Sussex, tackling the highest expenditure on food they've ever encountered. Mum Denise has recently had to give up work, which means the family income has reduced by a third, and yet she still raids the supermarket like she's earning her old salary. The family are guilty of stockpiling food to the point where they can't open the fridge door without items falling out. On top of that, they're utterly devoted to high-end brands.

Gregg and Chris spy on the family's weekly shop to discover Denise only buys items she finds attractive, and it's not just glossy packaging she's drawn to, but also premium-priced, premium-packaged fruit and veg. The boys are further aghast when they get back to the Austens' home and chance on the nine jars of jam in the kitchen. This is a family who desperately need to change their habits and save some serious cash.

As well as opening the Austens' eyes to tasty lower-cost products, the show features blind taste tests with the British public on mayonnaise and jam. Another of Denise's weaknesses is for sugary drinks, so Chris visits Manchester Dental Hospital to look into the impact of fruit juice, milkshakes and other soft drinks. Meanwhile, Gregg goes on the hunt for affordable cuts of meat. The show's advice is often that meat is a product worth spending money on, so Gregg wants to look into more unusual, lower-priced alternatives to costly prime steaks.

When Gregg and Chris return to Sussex for the final time, they're anxious to find out whether the family will agree to be prised from their top-end purchases. Theirs may have been a record food spend, but will it be a record saving for the boys, or will the Austens revert to their old ways?

Gregg and Chris are with the Parsons family in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, with a unique challenge. Mum Clare and dad Richard both juggle work with looking after two young kids, six-year-old Aston and four-year-old Ava, so they have found themselves in a rather unusual rut. In an effort to save time, the family have devised a weekly meal plan that has hardly changed in seven years.

Gregg and Chris pry into Richard's weekly shop with the kids and discover that, not only do they have a set routine, but they are stocking up with big brands and premium supermarket ranges, leading to a sky-high bill at the checkout.

Back at the Parsons house, Gregg and Chris discover the true extent of the family's mealtime schedule. Monday's pizza, Wednesday's spaghetti bolognese and every Saturday is fajita night, so it's not surprising that they're becoming bored of their diet. However, Clare admits that she is bland in her tastes and doesn't feel that there is enough time in the evenings to cook proper meals from scratch.

Gregg and Chris swap the family's food to introduce new dishes and to steer them away from the pricey brands. But, as a family who have eaten the same foods for years, will they be able to spot the difference?

Gregg visits Clare to show her that it's possible to cook healthy, tasty meals in under 25 minutes, while Chris gets messy in the kitchen with Richard, Aston and Ava, encouraging the kids to try new foods.

The great British public are put to the test as they sample a range of ice creams, and Chris discovers the difference between fresh and dried pasta. Meanwhile, Gregg investigates how water gets from rivers to our taps and how safe it is to drink, to try to help the Parsons save money by stopping them splashing the cash on bottled water.

Gregg and Chris come to the aid of the Guest family from Loughborough, whose diet of beige convenience food is not only unwholesome - it's also frighteningly expensive. Mum Lisa is desperate to make her family healthier but is going about it in all the wrong ways, buying into costly superfoods rather than good old-fashioned fruit and veg.

As Gregg and Chris spy on the family's supermarket shop, they're astonished to see the couple haphazardly throwing anything beige that catches their eye into their shopping trolley, and realise they need a serious wake-up call.

Learning that your food bills are actually 50 per cent higher than you thought they were would reduce anyone to tears, and Lisa Guest is no exception, shocked to the core when Chris delivers the bombshell. But in order to save money the family have to agree to cook more, change their diet, eat more veg and accept some low-cost products - will it prove a step too far?

In between bringing colour to the Guests' dinner plates, Gregg and Chris look into how cost-effective canned fish compares to fresh, and which oil we should be cooking with, as well as what diet cons not to fall for. They offer up delectable budget-friendly recipes, from chickpea-based pizza to a Moroccan spiced casserole that provides your entire recommended five a day in just one serving.

Will the Guest family agree to banish their beige convenience food in favour of veg-filled, home-cooked meals? And will they manage to slash a decent chunk off their very hefty shopping bill?

Chris and Gregg are determined to prove that you can save money without scrimping on indulgence over the festive period. They test mince pies, champagne and cava and most importantly turkey to see what comes out on top as well as trying to save the Goff family some money in the process.