Dry Cleaning and Food shopping - my two big issues

1666hby

Register on your local freecycle.co.uk and request a simple iron and ironing board, though non-iron shirts are your best bet. Join a couple of groups in neighbouring areas as well to increase your chances. Join the local library and borrow cookery books - good suggestions above. Look on the MSE Old Style board for simple recipe ideas, and the packed lunch thread on here for office lunch ideas. If you've got an oven, roasts are dead easy (and impressive) and provide left overs to make into meals for later in the week. Nothing like getting home after a hard day at work and microwaving your own tasty home made food to eat straight away. Good luck!

x-cupcake-x

Also see if you can get yourself a slow cooker, you can put all sorts in especially cheaper cuts of meat. If you get a decent sized one you can batch cook stews & casseroles, pop what you don't eat in the freezer - cheaper, tastier, healthier "ready meals"

determined_new_ms

Hi when it comes to ironing I try to do as little as possible - so boring so much more to do that is fun! Personally I hang my washing as soon as it finishes in the machine and hang on hangers, when a shirt is on the hanger I run my hands from the top to the bottom to push out creases. I find I never reallly have to iron! When I'm getting ready if I think a top is a little creased I put it on but think if it needs ironing by the time I'm ready I'll do it, again nearly always don't need to! But that's just me...

I know u can get sheets that go in tumble dryers that dry clean clothes so much cheaper - sorry don't know what they're called...

I would recommend Sam Stern's "cooking up a storm" its written by a teenage budding chef, aimed at teenagers. I bought it for my son a few years ago, but I use it all the time. There's lots of different recipes from lunches, snacks up to a few family meals. I think he did one before as well.

Once you've got a couple of recipes under ur belt it'll seem less daunting, I promise!

katsu

Lakeland do a dry cleaning kit to go in your tumble dryer.

I second the advice on hanging your washing up. The minute my machine finishes I grab coathangers, give shirts a good shake then put them on hangers. If you dry them on hangers you can reduce your ironing (I find I can get away with not ironing some shirts at all and others need ironing every wash or couple of washes).

Look at the fabric of your shirts. My MIL taught me a trick about shirts - when in the shop to buy them grab a handful of fabric, scrunch in your hand, then release. If it looks a mess (creases staying in etc) then it will need lots of ironing. If the creases mostly dropped back out and it looks OK then it will be much easier to care for. Using this advice I don't need to iron shirts every week - most of his wash, go on hangers, dry then get worn.:D

I also recommend hanging outside where you can so the breeze dries the shirt saving it looking as "flat" as one dried inside. Although in the winter I hang the hangers on doorframes and they still dry OK.

For food, I agree go with a student cookbook. Get yourself down to your local library (having looked on amazon first for some ISBN no's/authors/titles), browse the shelf for books with photos and instructions and order in the ones you spotted online. Then you can test people out for free before buying any books. Very MSE

HTH, all the best.

Willow_K

If you find you really really can't get to grips with the ironing, another idea is to check out local ironing services (usually part of cleaning services) - most will iron a shirt for about 20p - some will wash and iron a shirt for 50p - its still outlaying money but its a lot less than dry cleaning.

tallyhoh

I have not used a dry cleaner since 1977, its a con. When you have washed your shirts, hang them on a coat hanger to dry. They need minimal ironing, start off with a fairly low heat on your iron till you have got the hang of it, make sure its hot enough to steam though.
I dont know how often you need to clean a suit, probably not that much. Buy yourself a washable one from M & S, cheaper than cleaning.

Noselfdiscipline

This was in Viz's "top tips" a few years ago - give your shirts to a charity shop, they wash and iron them, then you can buy them back for 50p each!