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Cooking for one

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  • Hollyharvey
    Hollyharvey Posts: 1,939 Forumite
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    Afternoon everyone,


    I've had a strange day and am now totally fed up with food.
    Breakfast - I can't remember what I had now.
    Lunch was some toast.
    Dinner was going to be yesterday's left over meatballs with a freshly made italian type sauce but I've just had a small piece of haddock and a tomato.
  • Hollyharvey
    Hollyharvey Posts: 1,939 Forumite
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    moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

    ....and the prices of cheap meals out are noticeably dearer here. Yep...I cant figure it out either....but am guessing it's down to the fact that there are a lot of students in Home City and there arent here. So I tend to put it down to the "student factor" personally.

    .
    Sorry, hate to disprove your student theory, but I live in a university town and the prices for eating out are much higher here than they are if I get on the train and head down towards London or north to Suffolk.
  • Hollyharvey
    Hollyharvey Posts: 1,939 Forumite
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    Farway wrote: »





    Lunch was a part baked baguette with sausages in, note for for other lovers of quality high meat content sausages, Waitrose have Heck ones, 97% meat, on offer at £2, normally over £3 pack. I bought two packs this morning, long dated to 23rd and will freeze if not eaten by then
    The Heck offer at Waitrose is on up to and including 8th August, so plenty of opportunity to get some :)
  • moneyistooshorttomention
    moneyistooshorttomention Posts: 17,940 Forumite
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    Hollyharvey wrote: »
    Sorry, hate to disprove your student theory, but I live in a university town and the prices for eating out are much higher here than they are if I get on the train and head down towards London or north to Suffolk.

    Then maybe it's down to the high number of places to eat out back in my Home City. There are loads and it's always worth keeping an eye out for new ones opening - as it happens frequently (whether it be totally new places opening up or places changing hands).

    Add that I think there is a way of thinking that's very "critical consumer/pretty high standards" there.

    Here - there are very few places and it's down to villages/small towns/not very big at all towns and a lot of "peer pressure" to keep your mouth shut if you're not satisfied with standards. You're probably talking about someone's friend/relative/neighbour if you say anything about a service being less than satisfactory - whereas, if it's all much more anonymous, then you just move onto the next thing/place/etc if somewhere is less than satisfactory. That helps a lot in keeping standards up - and I'm guessing it also helps keeps prices down.
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    For tea I went for beans on toast with 2 poached eggs on top ... and a splash of brown sauce.

    Then .... a choc ice.

    Then ...two digestives.

    I've newly decided to keep all "bread items" in my bottom/half drawer in the freezer. So I put in there the 2/3rds of the last loaf I've not eaten (date says today) ... and two crumpet packs, one with 2 in, one with 4 in. I decided to do this when I opened the freezer to chuck the bread in and realised it wouldn't fit in either of the two drawers... and the half drawer was empty, so I thought of it and then did it.
  • SunnyGirl
    SunnyGirl Posts: 2,639 Forumite
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    I don't know about cheap food in university towns but there is ridiculously cheap alcohol! I've had my daughter and elder son at uni in Leeds and Manchester and my youngest is currently at Bangor where all drinks are £1 in lots of the pubs/bars. I don't agree with it being that cheap but hey ho.
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    I knew a chap who was at Hull Uni in ~2007/2009 - he said there was an All You Can Eat at £2.50!! That was an unbelievable price even on that date. Typically a cheap AYCE would be ~£6-7.

    In 2009 I visited somebody I knew in London - he had a house guest arriving and I was turning up later that day, so he took his transatlantic guest to a local indian restaurant. He didn't live in "the cheap seats" with a riverside flat with a wall of windows overlooking the Thames and a significant bridge .... yet what he paid for that indian restaurant within half a mile of his flat was cheaper than I'd be able to pick up a takeaway for!
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    I've got a new "cheap/good" tip .... I've been trying to cut back on pricey Pepsi Max - which I've been buying at a price of 25p/can for the last few years.... I needed to break that habit and find a fizzy pop that didn't feel like I was cheating myself and that didn't require me to continually search for the cheapest deal/price and then over-buy because it was cheap, then drink the lot because it was there. The price was getting ridiculous, to be honest, as I was "chasing the deals" and stocking up, so guzzling it .... and it wasn't cheap at 4-5 cans/day.

    I accidentally tried the L1dl Fiery Ginger Beer, No Added Sugar, 45p/2 litres last Saturday (bought for workmen who had finished the job/packed to leave by the time I got back....). I hadn't spotted it was the No Added Sugar in the shop as I was in a rush but then got held up with till problems/queues.

    I used to LOVE ginger beer when I was younger - had a few cans over the years since but have been disappointed - but this one really hits the spot.

    At that price it's worth a go.

    Tip: It MUST be served very cold. Shop temperature, or 1 hour in the fridge, isn't enough.... after 3 hours in the fridge that's the one!

    Cheap as chips.... I'm now on 1 litre/day :)
  • Hollyharvey
    Hollyharvey Posts: 1,939 Forumite
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    PasturesNew wrote: »


    Cheap as chips.... I'm now on 1 litre/day :)
    "I'm now on 1 litre/day" . I did find that amusing :) it sounds like a confession of someone who is abusing something addictive :)
  • Hollyharvey
    Hollyharvey Posts: 1,939 Forumite
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    PasturesNew wrote: »

    .... yet what he paid for that indian restaurant within half a mile of his flat was cheaper than I'd be able to pick up a takeaway for!
    I think that it's just market forces that dictates prices in independant places. As you said, you live on the south coast and there is a lot of yacht types/tourists. When I lived in Beaulieu with Lyndhurst/Lymington, Brockenhurst on doorstep and the middle of the New Forest prices were extortionate. But, go into Southampton itself and you could literally half the cost of a drink/meal out/takeaway. This was even the same when we moved to Chandlers Ford. When I finished uni and my 1st ex husband (yep I've got two of those :)) got posted back to Suffolk and we moved back up here we couldn't get over how cheap things were, and we were living in Aldeburgh which isn't a cheap area.
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