Single Money Saver living on my own

bupster

I've lived alone for a few years now and I have a four hour commute every day, and I've got an allotment, a part time PhD and I'm on the local council, so I dare anyone to have less spare time than me!

But I never buy ready meals. Once a week at least I'll be home for three hours on the trot, and I make a giant pasta bake, and nuke a load of fresh veg in a tupperware container in the microwave. That'll happily sit in the fridge for a week, and that's, for example, Sunday night's dinner and lunch for a week. While I'm doing that, I'm roasting a whole ham or this week a chicken - two nights of roast chicken with new potatoes and fresh veg, sandwiches for when I'm extra hungry, soup if I can be bothered, and chicken scraps for all sorts of meals in the week - tomorrow it'll be egg fried rice with chicken and peas, later in the week spaghetti with chicken, mushrooms, garlic, chilli and lemon juice. None of these weeknight meals take more than twenty minutes to prepare and cook.

Sometimes I put extra bits in the freezer so as not to waste them, but mostly I cook about ten portions (or ingredients, eg chicken or whole ham) at a time so I've food for five days running.

I don't have a car - but I have rucksacks and a bicycle. Once every couple of weeks I take my bike trailer to Aldi, but I managed perfectly well with just panniers, or before that with a rucksack. Or getting the heavy stuff delivered - chopped tomatoes, washing powder - and going to the butchers and the market for fresh. Shopping well actually helps you to cook well, because you become more engaged with the whole process and start to look forward to cooking the things you've bought.

Start to love food and cooking and it will become a pleasure to prepare and cook everything. Honest!

[Deleted User]

Re the potato's I have for the past 40 plus years spent an hour maybe on Sunday mornings (usually listening to the Archers at the same time ,I always multi-task:))
Prepping the veg for the week.I will peel a long tuppaware box full of spuds and cover them in water and put the lid on. Use as required through the week for mashed,boiled or roasted 'taters.Once covered in water they keep uncooked very well in the fridge.Change the water every two days and it will keep them fresh.I also peel and slice around half a kilo of carrots and put in a bowl in water all ready for when I need to use them during the week.Yesterday I peeeled and chopped a couple of red onions and put into a lidded takeaway box, the sort you get that usually hold rice from the chinese shop.This I put into the bottom box in my freezer to use as an when wanted already chopped so I can use a small amount in soups stews or casseroles when I need them.

I have also got in my freezer some chopped leeks ,brocolli and a box with sliced up brocolli stalks from a couple of weeks ago that will go into soup.I use my freezer to capacity as a half empty freezer costs more to run I also have a bag of chopped sliced mushrooms in there which will also go into a casserole when needed.This way with the prep. out of the way I know that my frozen veg (bought fresh and prepped by me) is of the best I can eat, and easy to get hold of.
An hour a week prepping veg saves such a lot of hassle when your tired and don't fancy standing in the kitchen in the evening I am retired but have full time care of four of my grandsons before and after school so I often don't get home until just before 7 at night.The last thing I want to do is stand making a dinner ,so its easy for me to whip something up from whats in the freezer.I also peel and biol and mash spuds then open freeze in balls of mash once cooled and when frozen put in a poly bag for storage in the freezer.These microwave very well as a quick accompaniment to a coupls of sausages and a handful of frozen onion for a quick dinner in the evening.
I have been prepping veg like this since I first married in 1962 and also when the children came along and whilst they were growing up and I had returned to working outside the home .Now I am retired and sadly widowed, but I still prep the veg every week as I HATE peeling spuds so its one job thats over and done with as quickly as I can.

Batch cooking is easy once you get the hang of it its just cooking a slightly larger portions and then dividing it up when cooled into either white plastic take away boxes or if you have as I have a stash of small one portion size brown earthen-ware dishes that I have bought over the years at boot sales for around 20p odd.
These are brilliant for small pies.I just slow cook what ever meat and veg over night for the filling and when cold fill and top off with a pastry lid and freeze for use later.
Instant meal that doesn't cost anywhere near the price of a ready-meal from the supermarkets ,plus you know whats gone into to it no additives or chemicals just good meat and maybe carrots and a handful of onions and your own gravy.
I make my gravy from bisto powder and a crumbled up oxo cube with a little cold water stirring to get the lumps out and then adding a bit more water at a time until I have a nice jug of gravy this I chuck into the slow cooker with chopped up stewing beef and some sliced carrots and onions and maybe even a slosh of wine or beer if I have any and put the slow cooker on last thing at night and in the morning you have a big casserole of cooked beef and the kitchen smells gorgeous.This is the filling for the meat pies, or I will sometimes just top the meat portions with some mashed potatos .Once they are all cooled its into the freezer with them and 6-8 meals are cooked and frozen ready for when you come in from work to chuck into the oven or microwave. Simples

cat_smith

Although I cook for 2, I do seperate things often - I prefer fish/salad and DH needs a much bigger meal as he's on his feet all day and works up to 30 hrs so I have to send him off with multiple meals.

JackieO wrote: »

I also peel and biol and mash spuds then open freeze in balls of mash once cooled and when frozen put in a poly bag for storage in the freezer.

I don't even bother with peeling - just scrub. I do a whole pack at a time and freeze in portions. Very economical as you don't 'forget' and end up with half a bag of green potatoes.

JackieO wrote: »

I make my gravy from bisto powder and a crumbled up oxo cube with a little cold water stirring to get the lumps out and then adding a bit more water at a time until I have a nice jug of gravy this I chuck into the slow cooker with chopped up stewing beef and some sliced carrots and onions and maybe even a slosh of wine or beer if I have any and put the slow cooker on last thing at night and in the morning you have a big casserole of cooked beef and the kitchen smells gorgeous.

Can't wait to try the bisto gravy method Jackie. I always get frustrated by having to thicken the liquid from the slow cooker afterwards. With the bisto I would imagine you get a ready thickened gravy. Yum. Thanks for the tip.

Pink.

Hi Citygirl,

As your thread has dropped down the Old Style board I've added it to our existing thread for Old Stylers living on their own where you'll find lots of advice.

Pink

VfM4meplse

bupster wrote: »

I've lived alone for a few years now and I have a four hour commute every day, and I've got an allotment, a part time PhD and I'm on the local council, so I dare anyone to have less spare time than me!

I have no idea how you manage! I used to have a four hour commute (2 of which were uninterrupted so would be spent catching up on work) on top of working 10 hours days and it half killed me, I just didn't have the time (or inclination) to do anything esle for myself, let alone anyone else. Although I would shop and cook in bulk on a Sunday morning, I really resented the fact that it would take up 1/4 of my weekend but accepted that if I didn't plan, I would have ended up eating out every night and that would cost me a fortune.

bupster

That's pretty much my thinking! I couldn't do it on top of ten hour days though, I'm out of the office door bang on five. I work from home one day a week thank God - otherwise I'm not sure when I'd manage stuff like taking the rubbish out

Citygirl1

Hi again, just wondering about the batch cooking. How long do these meals last in the freezer? Also, if you get one out to thaw and then your plans change for that evening, how long will it last in the fridge? I do tend to eat out aswell so need to plan my cooking around that.

snowleopard61

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

OP: please don't be afraid of freezing a chicken meal and reheating. The rule is that you only ever freeze it in the same state once. so, a frozen chicken cooked and made into a home-made ready-meal frozen and then reheated should be absolutely fine.

I don't eat meat myself so am a bit wary of the hygiene issues involved, although I'm aware of the above advice. I was recently asked to provide two cooked chickens for an extended family event, and arranged them carved up on a platter. To avoid wasting the carcasses I bagged them up and slung them into the freezer, with a view to making soup later. However, as I have only one meat-eater to make soup for (and she's away at university atm) I wondered whether it would be safe to make the soup and freeze it - does this count as a different 'state' - or is it a case of once it's cooked and frozen once, that's it? Would appreciate guidance.

VfM4meplse

^^^ I think you're incredibly tolerant! I won't have meat in the house. Unless space is an issue, I would just leave the carcasses alone and make them up for DD when she comes home.

snowleopard61

VfM4meplse wrote: »

^^^ I think you're incredibly tolerant! I won't have meat in the house. Unless space is an issue, I would just leave the carcasses alone and make them up for DD when she comes home.

I'll probably have to do this. Part of the reason for asking was that it would make quite a lot of soup, and it would have been helpful to be able to freeze it in portions so she didn't have to eat it all at once, but I think this may be a freeze too far, so will probably just cook it up when she comes home and hope she eats a lot of it.

(I don't especially like cooking meat but the reasons why I sometimes do for others are a bit of a long story - also I'm not truly vegetarian myself any more as I started to eat fish some years ago, so I haven't really got a leg to stand on .)

PS Having cooked it in the first place I did feel it was at least preferable not to waste any of it, if you see what I mean.