What extras do you take when self-catering?

juno

My mum always packed a carton of long life milk, some teabags and a small jar of coffee.

no.1swimmum

I have two self catering holidays in August a week in Sheffield (well just outside and not really a holiday as my son has a National swimming competition for 5 days) and 16 days in Florida - I have two boxes on the go at the moment for things to take with me.

For Sheffield I will take almost everything with me as most days will be spent a ponds forge, although not in my box I will take one of my slow cookers as sometimes we will not finish at the pool until late so this will come in handy. One thing that I always take is my oven glove, as I always seem to get the accomodation with out them or the thinnist pair and end up with a burn! Antibacterial cleaner, Lots of pasta, tinned tomatoes, cereals etc, washing up liquid, toilet paper and kitchen roll, teatowel just incase there aren't any (we have had that happen to us in the past) Potato peeler and bottle opener will go in last minute.

For florida - my oven glove, but top of my list must be tea bags those on sale in US are awful, my soap tablets for clothes washing, as youngest has eczema, the same for shower gel and shampoo.

I am sure there will be other things but really can't think at the moment, I do not take crockery/cutlery but the first thing that I do is to wash everything that we will definatly use, as I am a bit paranoid about cleanliness, and if there is a dishwasher I even take a dishwasher cleaner (normally bought when on special offer) with me as this is often one area that is neglected.

Gers

We always do 2 holidays a year in Scotland, at the same cottage and just love it. For the first time this spring we didn't take anything :eek: I was recovering from surgery and decided that I didn't want to cook every day so we picked up teabags and milk and so on at local shops. For main meals we either ate out or ate the food available from the owners of the estate and stored in big freezers in their garage - son is a chef so the food was delicious.

Yes, it cost more that we'd normally spend and it even cost more than I planned for, but it was so restful and relaxing and, most of all, a real treat as the garage food was so much better than I could make. :j

Normally we'd take essentials for the first day, but no gadgets except my favourite corkscrew which is now redundant cos of screwtops on wine bottles.

kunekune

Oven gloves ... fab idea. I have never found decent oven gloves in holiday cottages, and they won't take up much space. I use the oven a lot - who can resist roast jersey royals?

For the record, we aren't going abroad. We're off to Aberdaron in the Llyn peninsula. My concern is mostly that we're a long way from a supermarket (hence the food for night 1) and don't know what the shops in the village will be like. Probably good, from the pre-rental info we've had, and there's a great pub (who else chooses holidays with the CAMRA guide in hand?) but Sunday? In welsh-wales? Best to be careful.

[Deleted User]

tea towels and my own well worn spud peeler as I always have a problem with anyone elses I also take my remoska as there are three adults and five children and where we stay although there is an Aga cooker the remoska helps to cook things a bit quicker and extends our cooker range a bit

jcst104

Hi all,

The family (5 of us) are going on holiday to Greece next week and we are all a little short on cash so have booked a really cheap self-catering last minute jobbie (yes I know we shouldn’t be booking a holiday if we are short of cash). What I am hoping you can help me with is ideas of lightweights food items to take away with us so we don’t have to buy stuff once we get there because mini markets are always so over priced and we never use up our weight allowance on trips.

Do far we have got:
Dishwashing liquid and sponge
John West flavoured tuna steak’s
Salt and pepper (paper packs stolen from motorway services)

Ideas??!!??

liney

Breakfast cereal?
Crackers?
Couscous sachet thingymebobs?

mandi

Pot Noodles/cuppa soup/crisps/crackers/biscuits/packets of rice and pasta/bacon/cheese/tea/coffee.. All I can think of at the moment

ixia

I'm just back from Corfu we are a family of 5 and it was pretty reasonable to eat out. We could get a meal for all of us with drinks for between 40 and 50 euros- all adult portions.

I do appreciate your looking for self-catering ideas but just incase you fancy a meal out.

I would take cereal, teabags,noodles,cup a soups, pasta and sauce packs, cous cous,bacon, some bits for sandwiches. if you've got a small cool bag I would take butter as it was expensive.

3 of mine are veggie so I took veggie bacon, v sausages etc wwith me.

Have a lovely holiday.

Flibsey

I always take my own tea bags. I am a creature of habit and NEEd the right ones lol.