Single Money Saver living on my own

zippychick

I live on my own as well so understand how hard it can be. I think the key is to not let it be an excuse if you know what I mean! Treat yourself and make more of an effort to cook for yourself. I usually batch cook on a sunday and it lasts me though the week. I would make soup, some savoury rice and maybe some lentil dahl - of course you can only keep rice a certain amount of time....

Last night i batch cooked some quorn mince curry and pilaur rice and some in the fridge, and some has gone in the freezer. Sometimes it is as handy just to reach for toast and eggs though:p

here's some linkies i stole from Pink:j

Single moneysaver living on my own!

What can a single person use on this board?

living on your own/cooking for one....

Saving Money On Food For a SINGLE person

Help a Single Saver

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the suggestions together.

Hope this helps.
Zip

pineapple

That's great Zip. Thanks for the links!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Good thread

My two best appliances are the freezer and slow cooker!

HHx

zippychick

yes i love my slow cooker. i have a 6.5 litre one, and a mini one about thirty years old =- got that in a second hand shop. Would like a second freezer and cringe at the fact I gave one away about 3 years ago! DOH!

ceridwen

Talking about kitchen items for singlies - Lakeland has JUST started stocking a wee little frying pan of a size ideal for us singlies:D.

I have been going through all sorts of "alarums and excursions" and wasting money over recent months trying to find a frying pan that is:
- singlies size (16 cm to be exact)
- non-stick
- "healthy" non-stick (eg ceramic lining - not those "unhealthy" linings that the vast majority of non-stick saucepans still have)

and yay hay - at last - I found the darn fryingpan I've been looking for many months now - and 'twas about £12:D (which counts as cheap chez ceridwen - where I've spent £80 odd unsuccessfully on just one frying pan trying to find one that met my criteria:cool:).

Had an omelette as part of lunch and it proved to be ideal size for my standard 2 egg omelette (as I thought) and should do nicely for pancakes, frying 2 eggs at a time, chappatis as well I would imagine.

Cor - what takes these peeps so darn long to produce such an ordinary everyday item for us to buy?
(hint to Lakeland - I'm still waiting for someone in Britain to start stocking one of those American-style "canners" - and I do know you are the firm that ought to be leading the way on this:D). <thinks - takes a person from a family with loadsa "businesspeople" in to go "I dont understand a firm missing a chance to make a profit.....">

SharkyGeorge

Apologies if this has been asked before or if it's in the wrong place!

At the moment I am keeping my fridge pretty much empty because I live by myself and even when I buy the smallest packets of food they go off before I can finish them. Im sure I should plan my meals better but even with things like Philadelphia I am always throwing away half full tubs.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where/what to buy to prevent this?

Many thanks.

spike7451

I know that feeling!I don't think manufacturers think of catering for single people.I usually but packets of rice,cous couse ect & use half of them,putting what's left (uncooked tho) in zip lock bags.For meat I ask my butcher's for portions for one,that way I only have to buy meat every four days or so.By keeping meat at the back bottom part of the fridge,which is the coldest,it keeps longer.

I_luv_cats

If I don't think puss n me will get through a basket of groceries I'll freeze part.

Freeze bread, meat, buy frozen veg.

Buy UHT milk

You could 'batch cook' and freeze. (using up short coded stuff etc.)

Check dates on spreads (I.e. Back of chiller might have longer date on
it)

ceecee1

You know I was thinking last week about possibly starting a thread for singlies !! Great minds and all that... I either cook a recipe and have to eat it for days or freeze half of it and then never take it out of the freezer.

I have just moved house and now have a HUGE mortgage, so I need to start saving money to pay it off, rather than be in the spending mode that I was in before.

So any and all ideas are greatly received.

song_of_calliope

For stuff like the philadelphia, yoghurt, etc, probably you already know this but an old housemate gave me this tip and it was a revelation to me. Always, always use a totally clean spoon or knife for these, never spread butter, jam, etc and dip into the cream cheese or whatever with the same utensil, even if you wipe it. It needs to be completely clean. This helps keep the bacteria out and your stuff will last a lot longer. I know that's probably obvious to most people but it helped me so I thought I'd pass it on.