City living Old Style?

juliapenguin

My situation is that I've recently moved to a small apartment in Manchester city centre, from a 4 bed semi with a garden in a small town.

I have hardly any kitchen space - there's basically one room which is sitting room, dining room and kitchen, and I have about a quarter of the cupboards and work surfaces that I had before.

I absolutely love being here, but my eating and spending habits have become very un-OS. There are about thirty places to eat out within a five minute walk, and the two local shops, a 24 hour Spar and a small Sainsburys, stock more studenty/'young loaded professional' foods than the sort of things I used to buy. For example, you can't buy many basic ingredients for cooking a sauce, but you can buy a ready made sauce in a jar, if you know what I mean. You can't buy bread flour, or BM yeast.

Are there any other OS city livers around? If so, how do you cope with the lack of storage space for kitchen ingredients/pots and pans? I want to go back to my OS ways, but it's so tempting to be lazy .

So, please help me out if you can - or we can form a city livers OS group and share our ideas!

rockie4

I work in Manchester city centre. Can you get down Oxford road towards Rusholme? There's some Indian supermarkets down there where you can get lots of ingredients (can't remember names :rolleyes:) There's a Lidl as well and 8th Day veggie shop sells some pretty good stuff.

Haven't a clue how to help with the storage problem though

Primrose

Well, growing some herbs on your window sill will be a start. Suggest basil, parsley & oregano which will help you pep up your home made sauces, potato salads, etc. Also, if you're short on cupboards, one of those big plastic see-through boxes with lids which you can often buy from Pound Shops and similar outlets will make a good storage space for some of your old style cooking ingredients. If necessary put a decorative cloth over it with a lamp on top and store it in your living room so it can double up as a piece of furniture.

clutterydrawer

I live in a village but am in a similar situation in that my kitchen is minute - you literally cant fit two people in it at once. The only shop is a co- op which like your shops mostly sells convenience stuff not basic ingredients.

tbh i just get on with it I have one cupboard of crockery and one with pans/mixing bowl/ jug/grater/over dishes and one for all my food (about 2'x1')

I plan super carefully so I can do my shopping once a week in morrisons in town and avoid the village co op - there must be a supermarket in manchester somewhere?? I plan meals in such a way that i don't need *everything* in stock all the time. eg I used to keep all the pulses in my storecupbord, but now I just have one, use that till its gone, then change to another for a bit.

sugarcultsweetie

I am in your exact position Soooo.....

*There's a huge Asda in Hulme (google it) - not too far to walk, there's also a bus stop right by and they have taxis in the carpark - well worth going there for the "big shop". They have EVERYTHING, so it's worth stocking up on the longlife items, to the extend you can in a little flat!

*Rusholme have good food shops (there's Worldwide Foods for one, right at the top of Rusholme) They stock flour, fresh fruit and veg etc, and also have a butcher within it - Halal meat doesn't cost much more at all than normal stuff, and there's the benefit of buying the exact amount of meat that you want!

*Underbed storage boxes for the win, for everything Allows for a little careful bulk buying... If you live off pasta or rice, buy a 3kg sack of the stuff, it'll last ages and most probably then be a fair bit cheaper

*I'll be growing herbs next year in a Manchester flat too

*On non-food points..... plan laundry cleverly to make the most out of a cycle, and buy a clothes maiden! Walk whenever you can, the city isn't massive - or a bus along oxford road is around 80p (avoid stagecoach = expensive), taxis are only worth it if you're sharing with friends.

flutterbyuk25

I have just moved from my parents home in the countryside with large garden where we grew loads of veg to a 2 bed apartment.

I'm lucky in that I have a biggish kitchen and a small balcony to grow things on.

But you can do lots where you are. Get back in the habit of being OS. Spend a day a week batch cooking, baking bread etc and freeze then for rest of week. Use a slowcooker if you have one.

Do you have a dishwasher? If so and you aren't planning on using it then this can be used as storage. Can you use the top of wall cupboards as storage?

HTH

x

juliapenguin

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

Do you have a dishwasher? If so and you aren't planning on using it then this can be used as storage. Can you use the top of wall cupboards as storage?

HTH

x

No dishwasher - sadly, because OH is rubbish at washing up by hand :rolleyes: and the wall cupboards are ludicrously high up - I'm really tall but I struggle even to reach the stuff in the top cupboard, let alone on the top! When my friends are round or staying and want to make a cup of tea I have to get the tea and the cups out first!!! I bet it was all designed by a very tall bloke...

juliapenguin

sugarcultsweetie wrote: »

I am in your exact position Soooo.....

*There's a huge Asda in Hulme (google it) - not too far to walk, there's also a bus stop right by and they have taxis in the carpark - well worth going there for the "big shop". They have EVERYTHING, so it's worth stocking up on the longlife items, to the extend you can in a little flat!

*Rusholme have good food shops (there's Worldwide Foods for one, right at the top of Rusholme) They stock flour, fresh fruit and veg etc, and also have a butcher within it - Halal meat doesn't cost much more at all than normal stuff, and there's the benefit of buying the exact amount of meat that you want!

*Underbed storage boxes for the win, for everything Allows for a little careful bulk buying... If you live off pasta or rice, buy a 3kg sack of the stuff, it'll last ages and most probably then be a fair bit cheaper

*I'll be growing herbs next year in a Manchester flat too

*On non-food points..... plan laundry cleverly to make the most out of a cycle, and buy a clothes maiden! Walk whenever you can, the city isn't massive - or a bus along oxford road is around 80p (avoid stagecoach = expensive), taxis are only worth it if you're sharing with friends.

Thanks for all these points - I need to check out the Asda. OH still has his car (I've had to sell mine - nowhere to keep it) so we could do a big shop if I could only work out where to put the stuff when I've bought it!!! The beds go right down to the floor, otherwise the stuff could go under there....

juliapenguin

rockie4 wrote: »

I work in Manchester city centre. Can you get down Oxford road towards Rusholme? There's some Indian supermarkets down there where you can get lots of ingredients (can't remember names :rolleyes:) There's a Lidl as well and 8th Day veggie shop sells some pretty good stuff.

Haven't a clue how to help with the storage problem though

I work across the road from 8th Day - the bread there is so gorgeous I'm almost not missing the BM.....

I'll have to investigate the Rusholme end of Oxford Road - I tend to go everywhere on foot and buy small quantitities because it doesn't seem worth stocking up when I've nowhere to put the stuff when I get home.

kippers

My kitchen is tiny and i have a place for everything i need. i use the tops of cupboards and evert nook and cranny possible to store food, gadgets etc. I only buy a gadget if i can truely justify the savings made or the usefulness of it ie my breadmaker or food processor

Ellidee

Julia - there is an Aldi in Market Street/Arndale centre but I guess you would have to carry any stuff you bought.