how the hell am I spending £200 a month on groceries

Raychee

fayjmck wrote: »

Silly question
can you invest in a decent micro/combi/grill oven/ and or a slow cooker and keep it in your room - with that and a kettle - you can almost do it all by yourself in your room? All you would really need is a wee table with room for them and some prep area?

If you kept the bits you needed in your room dried food/pots and pans etc your own tupperware etc - you'd only really need to go into kitchen (with your clean bits) to use a hob, retrieve stuff from fridge freezer etc? Wash up - in and out like a Ninja??

Goodluck

OOOH! That's just genius! :T :T :T

twirlypinky

fayjmck wrote: »

Silly question
can you invest in a decent micro/combi/grill oven/ and or a slow cooker and keep it in your room - with that and a kettle - you can almost do it all by yourself in your room? All you would really need is a wee table with room for them and some prep area?

If you kept the bits you needed in your room dried food/pots and pans etc your own tupperware etc - you'd only really need to go into kitchen (with your clean bits) to use a hob, retrieve stuff from fridge freezer etc? Wash up - in and out like a Ninja??

It breaks my heart to hear you not be able to feel as if you can cook.

My lodger shares our kitchen - she cooks in it during the day when no one is about - it suits her better - if you could bulk cook and like they all say freeze it and use it when the kitchen is too busy.

Decent bits of kit aren't too much and they will save you money in about a month by the sounds of it.

We spend - £250 - 2 adults (1 lodger so have extra stuff in), 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat and all our bathroom/cleaning/petfood etc products. We could spend alot less - I am a work in progress.

Goodluck

These are great ideas, but unfortunately we're not allowed any of that kind of kit in our rooms, otherwise I'd never leave mine. We're not even allowed a kettle - fire hazards they say.

I used to be a bit of a foody, that's the daft thing. All my cookbooks are at Grandads in a box waiting for me to get my own place, I'm so looking forward to it.

Cooking is something i do when I'm happy, I used to bake a lot, people at work miss me bringing cakes in. When I was happy with ex-H i used to make us both packed lunches of interesting things (until I kept finding his uneaten in his car because he'd gone to KFC). I wouldn't have dreamt of buying a ready meal, I always cooked from scratch. At the moment though, I really don't enjoy it, i see it as something I have to do unless I can avoid it.

I've had a thought, I could do jacket potatoes fairly easily, i could !!!!! it with a fork, stick it in the oven, hide out in my room for an hour, go back in, throw some beans on it and go back to my room.

The people I live with are doctors, but they eat very oddly. One guy is chinese and he's always boiling dumplings and cabbage, it smells rank. The woman is Indian I think, and she's always burning things and stinking the flat out. The other guy is quite young and he seems to live off Rustler's micro burgers.

OrkneyStar

fayjmck wrote: »

Silly question
can you invest in a decent micro/combi/grill oven/ and or a slow cooker and keep it in your room - with that and a kettle - you can almost do it all by yourself in your room? All you would really need is a wee table with room for them and some prep area?

If you kept the bits you needed in your room dried food/pots and pans etc your own tupperware etc - you'd only really need to go into kitchen (with your clean bits) to use a hob, retrieve stuff from fridge freezer etc? Wash up - in and out like a Ninja??

It breaks my heart to hear you not be able to feel as if you can cook.

My lodger shares our kitchen - she cooks in it during the day when no one is about - it suits her better - if you could bulk cook and like they all say freeze it and use it when the kitchen is too busy.

Decent bits of kit aren't too much and they will save you money in about a month by the sounds of it.

We spend - £250 - 2 adults (1 lodger so have extra stuff in), 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat and all our bathroom/cleaning/petfood etc products. We could spend alot less - I am a work in progress.

Goodluck

Would there be any Health and Safety issues about this though- cooking in room I mean ?
Don't want to get OP into trouble!

wyebird

Do you really not like your flatmates, or is it that you don't really know them? If it's the latter then maybe you could break the ice a bit by offering to cook a meal for them? My DD used to do that in halls as she enjoyed cooking and as she cooked she used to make the others by the food

twirlypinky

wyebird wrote: »

Do you really not like your flatmates, or is it that you don't really know them? If it's the latter then maybe you could break the ice a bit by offering to cook a meal for them? My DD used to do that in halls as she enjoyed cooking and as she cooked she used to make the others by the food

I have tried to get to know them, but they're not really interested. I've suggested cinema trips and things, but they don't really want to know. I'm also fairly sure that cooking for them wouldn't help, judging from the food they eat our tastes are quite different. I have to confess not trying that hard with the woman, but i really struggle to understand what she's saying because of her strong accent and end up just agreeing with her because it's easier. None of them can believe I actually live there either, as they've all got "proper" homes to go to when they're not working here, and I haven't.

I'll get through it, it's only for a couple of years, and if i get to hate it that much, then I'll just quit my job and move back home to my family for a while. There are worse things that can happen to me!

The micro meals need to stop though, they're not cheap really.

Burlesque_Babe

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

ah, but it's not.

it's a decent amount of very high quality food.

no carby fillers or value products

(following a low carb diet)

where do you shop for your meat? I use an organic butcher who does fantastic mixed boxes, I would really struggle to spend £250 per person and that's cooking everything from scratch - I don't buy any ready meals.

Might be worth doing a bit of comparison between supermarkets and local and farm based butchers - high quality doesn't necessarily mean expensive

twirlypinky

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

where do you shop for your meat? I use an organic butcher who does fantastic mixed boxes, I would really struggle to spend £250 per person and that's cooking everything from scratch - I don't buy any ready meals.

Might be worth doing a bit of comparison between supermarkets and local and farm based butchers - high quality doesn't necessarily mean expensive

Don't forget my money includes cleaning products, shampoo etc, make-up, toiletries, medicines and all that stuff, it's not just food.

tinkerbell84

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

where do you shop for your meat? I use an organic butcher who does fantastic mixed boxes, I would really struggle to spend £250 per person and that's cooking everything from scratch - I don't buy any ready meals.

Might be worth doing a bit of comparison between supermarkets and local and farm based butchers - high quality doesn't necessarily mean expensive

I'm veggie.

And I live in London. Not many farms/farm shops in London

My OH only eats organic free range meat from the butchers - costs about £5 for 12 slices of bacon, £4 for 12 sausages (97%+ meat). We eat a fair amount of fish (fishmonger - a sea bass costs about £5 usually and we'll have one each).

I buy 3-4 dozen organic free range eggs a week. We spend about £15 a week on cheese. A few bags of brazils and cashews.

3-4 pints of double cream a week, organic fairtrade decaff coffee beans.
2-3 cauliflowers, salad stuff, other veg.

Plus cleaning stuff, washing powder, dishwasher tabs, and so on.

We have 3 properties and so can't really freeze much. I cook everything form scratch. It's a complicated life! :rotfl: :rotfl:

av_raje

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

where do you shop for your meat? I use an organic butcher who does fantastic mixed boxes, I would really struggle to spend £250 per person and that's cooking everything from scratch - I don't buy any ready meals.

Might be worth doing a bit of comparison between supermarkets and local and farm based butchers - high quality doesn't necessarily mean expensive

Agreed. 250 per person

We roughly spend less than 1/5 th of that per person and still eat healthy food imo. I suppose if one has that much money to indulge, why not?:p

Burlesque_Babe

wow- that's a lot of eggs!! Omelettes a la tinkerbell a speciality

Chegworth have opened a farm shop in Notting Hill as well as their farmer's markets - might be worth checking them out but being in Notting Hill is probably going to slap a premium on prices!