Single Money Saver living on my own

cat_smith

I always freeze carcasses until I have enough, then make the stock/soup and refreeze. Never had any problems.

smileigh

Well I have spent maybe two hours reading through this thread and I feel prepared to start batch cooking and freezing! I'm not single but my husband works abroad for 6-8 weeks at a time and comes home for a couple of weeks before heading off again, so I'm on my own most of the time. I have been doing okay with not wasting food but I do find myself throwing veg away and avoiding buying things like chicken because I know I'll waste it. I'm spending around £40 a week on food for one which is a lot of money and I'd really like to scale down.

I've got a slow cooker and I love things like spag bol, lasagne etc so I'm going to write a big list and give it a go! I had no idea you could freeze things like mash, I've learnt so much here, thanks everyone

Hopelessly_Hopeful

JackieO wrote: »

Having lived alone since 2003 owing to being widowed it does take awhile to get used to single living (I had been part of a couple for almost 40 odd years) but I cook from scratch (probably easier for me as I am retired.Last night for example I had a jacket spud with a portion of chicken curry (from the freezer) with some naan bread (also from freezer followed by a pot of yoghurt.I buy a large pot of yoghurt and decant it a portion at a time during the week into a smaller 125gm pot which gets washed out and reused.I have a stash of small yoghurt pots that I use to make a jelly in, and top with maybe some custard (HM takes about 5 minutes to make a pint of custard, and top off half a dozen little pots which are then kept in the fridge) Any custard left over can be used maybe poured over some fresh fruit of a piece of cake.
I always cook more than I need and my freezer is my best friend as surplus goes in there for another day.Last week I bought a lb. of M&S sausages.These have been divided up into wrapped parcels of two at a time(They are the big ones and quite filling) On Friday I had sausage ,mash,carrots and onion gravy.The carrots also came from the freezer
I buy a kilo of carrots and sit and peel,slice,blanche and then open freeze.Once frozen they get put into a poly bag (usually a turned inside out empty breadbag) and returned to the freezer for use as and when.
Cheaper than buying ready frozen carrots, and a handful in a pan of boiling water only takes about ten minutes to cook.I do have a large stash of the plastic take-away boxes that you can buy in a pound shop ,or scrounge of your relative and friends which I use to box up food for the freezer.I can make a large lasagne, and divide it up when cold into 6 portions and freeze in a take away box.Simple to retrieve (for you maybe first thing in the morning and put in the fridge to defrost) then bung in the microwave to reheat for dinner.I never buy ready meals, as I like to know whats' in my food and looking on the back of the ready-meals cartons there seems to be far too many unknown chemicals and colours in them.
I can live very easily on £25.00 per week and have money left over at the end of it.I like fresh fruit and veg and try to buy what's in 'season'. I wrap a celery up in tinfoil and it will keep almost 3 weeks at the bottom of the fridge (even when it starts to go a bit bendy then I will turn it into soup(again to go into the freezer for later.)
Lettuce, I buy Iceberg and have it stored in a betterware container in the fridge ,but you can just wrap it in foil (another tip never cut lettuce with a metal knife it makes it go brown I have a plastic one that I use to slice bits off with, or better still just tear it off with your hands).Most of the veg I keep in the bottom drawer of the fridge apart from potatoes which I have a betterware potato bag.But I often peel several spuds for the week and keep in a lidded container hafl filled with water in the fridge If you change the water every two days, peeled spuds will happily keep for a week or more.If your spuds are starting to sprout a little peel them boil and mash them and use an ice cream scoop or similar to round the mash into balls and open freeze on a plate in the freezer Once frozen bag them up and you have instant mashed potato to get out one or two balls at a time to be reheated in the microwave I never bin any veggies at all If I have some that are getting past their best then its peeled, chopped and into a pot of stock to be made into HM soup.

My favourite is parsnip and apple soup which is delicious, and uses up any stray 'bendy 'parsnips from the bottom of the fridge.
HM soup once made and cooled down stores very well in the freezer.I have a collection of plastic screw topped jars that hold half a litre at a time.That is two days supply of soup as a starter for my evening meal, or lunch with a sandwich.S
ingle feeding it a case of working out what you like and with a little planning you can eat healthily and well and not be spending a fortune on ready made stuff.A chicken done in the slow cooker for me makes at least a dozen different meals as the meat just falls off the carcass and the residue left over stock is the basis for soup .I have a zip lock bag of chicken stock at the moment in my freezer from when i cooked a chicken a fortnight ago which I took away with me when I went to Dorset on holiday .The stock is there waiting for me to use when I make soup next, its frozen solid from fresh so I can use it when ever
PM me if you get stuck I have become quite an old hand at single living
Cheers JackieO xx

Fantastic post

Sorry for your loss

Thank you for the tips and inspiration

HHx

[Deleted User]

I am on the Fiscal Fasting forum and it means that for 7 days you try to stay away from the shops and use up what you already have in store .Last Saturday I did my shopping, and it came to under a tenner, and I don't need anything elses at the moment as I have enough to last me for at least a week in the cupboards or Freezer.menu planning and utilising every bit of food and not throwing anything away that can be turned into a meal helps no end.I enjoy fresh fruit and veg but its not obligatory to eat five bits of fruit a day you won't snuff it if you only manage an apple or orange.I like bananas and will have one in the morning either with some wholewheat toast or chopped up on top of museli or bran flakes.
today I had a boiled egg for breakfast with some crispbread and for lunch I was at DDs so I had a ham salad sandwich which she made for me as I had taken her to the shops (but I didn't buy anything myself)
Tonight I am having a jacket potato with some grated cheese on top and an orange for pud .Later on I will probably have a cuppa and a bit of HM cake that I made last saturday from my cake box.
i don't eat crips as I think they are just a waste of money I would rather have an apple/orange instead.

Tessie_Balloon_Juice

Hello!

I've been lurking around this thread since I moved in on my own about a month ago so I thought I'd throw in my 2 pennies worth and try revive this thread.

Sorry if some of these thing have been mentioned previously. I haven't read the whole thread yet!

First things first, make sure the things you can't do without are as cheap as possible. Check with your utilities supplier that you're on the best tariff for you. The last person/people who lived in your house may have had different needs and the tariff they chose might not be your best option. Contact the council about getting a reduction in your council tax. Consider getting a water meter installed. There was already one in the property I moved into so I didn't have a choice but I'm paying about half the amount my mum pays for a similar property on the standard non-metered charge. I'm moderately water saving savvy. I try not to be wasteful but I still use my washing machine, dishwasher and fill the bath without hesitation. The point is, having metered water doesn't make me go without.

Think about turning your boiler off completely in summer. I moved in in May so I haven't used the central heating at all. The boiler was switched to the hot water only setting and I could hear it firing up all the time. It isn’t particularly efficient and it takes aaaages to get hot water from the taps so if I need to fill the sink I usually boil the kettle and I've had to get used to washing my hands in cold water so now I just switch the boiler on to heat the water before I get in the bath or shower. Oh and my washing machine and dishwasher seem to work fine with the boiler off, in case you were wondering.

Speaking of the dishwasher, if you can afford it/have storage space make sure you have plenty of cups, plates and glasses- enough to fill the dishwasher before you start running out of clean things! If you're without a dishwasher I'd still advise getting plenty of crockery so that you're not filling a sink full of hot water to wash one plate at a time. If you like the vintage look (I do!) you can pick up pretty, mismatched glassware, cutlery and crockery at car boot sales for next to nothing, so its worth building up a collection. Having plenty will be handy if you're entertaining as well.

If you're not a proficient cook try to learn a few recipes. Cooking doesn't have to be complicated or flashy and making your own dishes is far cheaper than buying ready meals or takeaways. Learn how to make a bolognese sauce. You can easily adapt that recipe to make chilli, moussaka, keema, or cottage pie filling. If you can make a stew with beef, you can do the same with chicken, lamb or pork. Have it with mash, put a pastry lid on it, top it with sliced potatoes for a hot pot type thing. You only need a couple of recipes and you can change them up a bit to eat a variety of foods without an encyclopedic knowledge of cooking. You don’t even need to invest in recipe books. These days the internet is teeming with recipes, you tube tutorials, cooking blogs, and there are cooking programmes on tv 24/7. If you do get into to cooking and want to start a recipe book collection, Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food is a really good one for beginner cooks.

When it comes to food shopping I find it can be easy to overspend, but I think it’s a good idea to be flexible with your budget (if you are able to) to make the most of special offers. I try to average out my food budget so that I can overspend one week as long as I know that I'm buying enough to last into the next week. That said, don’t buy more than you need and end up wasting food. Don’t buy a bag full of carrots if you only need 2 for your recipe. If you do slip up you can always use up beyond-its-best veg for soups. Try growing your own salad (on a windowsill if you don’t have a garden) as shop bought salad veg doesn't last very long and the small bags of prepared salad aren’t very economical anyway. Herbs do rather well on kitchen window sills too.

When you need non-perishable store cupboard things, don’t automatically reach for the smallest pack. The difference in the smallest jar of coffee and the biggest one might only be a few pence, but you get three times as much. This is where I would employ my “flexible budgeting”.

I know that others have mentioned this but eating veggie a few times a week is another good way to lower your food shop spend. Even the most committed carnivores like a few meat free meals. Start off with pasta in a tomato sauce, plain or veggie risotto or your favourite curry with mushrooms instead of meat if you’re not convinced. You might be surprised!

The thing that really keeps my food budget in check is this: I don’t ever pay full price for meat or fish in the supermarket. Ever. I occasionally buy from farmers market or my local farm shop where I’m happy to pay a bit more for better quality and to support local business, but in the supermarket I only ever buy meat and fish from the reduced to clear section. I will happily go over my budget to snap up bargain meat and fish. When I get home from the shop I immediately separate it into portions and freeze it (do be careful with reduced fish from the fish counter. Often its not suitable for home freezing).Then when it comes to writing my shopping list I plan to make meals using what I already have in the freezer. I usually only have to buy a few vegetables, and store cupboard items. I check the reduced section every time I’m in a supermarket because I like to keep my freezer well stocked . That way I know that If I have to slash my budget in an emergency I can eat well with the things I already have. The reduced bread sections is a good place to get things like pittas, naans, crumpets, scones, pancakes, bagels etc. They can all be frozen and you can usually toast them from frozen. I rarely eat ready meals as I enjoy cooking but if i do buy prepared meals I only buy them from the reduced section too.

If you enjoy cooking I would recommend buying one cook’s ingredient every week, even if you don’t need it. This is something that I learned from a friend at university and I’ve stuck to it ever since. I always pick up a herb or spice, different kinds of rice, flour, oil, vinegar etc when I go shopping. They’re usually around £1 so it doesn’t make a noticeable difference to your total bill but it means that you can build up a good collection of ingredients. If you want to try a recipe that calls for 5 different spices you don’t have it can be very expensive to buy the things you need. I don’t like to be priced out of a recipe so building up a collection of cook’s ingredients bit by bit is important to me. If there’s a budget version of a herb or spice I always go for that. The value range tends to have bigger tubs for less money. I also buy value tinned tomatoes. I buy the plum rather than chopped as I find the budget chopped tomatoes lack the sweetness of the premium brands. If your recipe calls for chopped tomatoes you can always attack them with scissors before you use them.

Embrace the £1 shop, but proceed with caution. It’s easy to get carried away when everything is only £1 but think carefully before chucking things in your basket. Branded foods and cleaning supplies are usually a safe bet. Recently I picked up 160 pg tips tea bags, a big box of dorset cereals museli, lindt chocolates, fabreeze, and Dettol floor cleaner and was fairly chuffed. In the same trip I got a bottle of bleach, and paracetamol and ibuprofen on 2 for £1. It was only when I got home that I realised I could have bought bleach at Wilkos for about 50p and the basic range painkillers from Boots for under 40p each on 3 for 2. It’s not a great example, I only lost out on a few pence but don’t get suckered in to buying just because it’s in the £1 shop. Try other discount shops like B&M and Home Bargains. These shops are sometimes cheaper that the pound shops and often have cheap branded booze too

Think twice before signing up for a TV contract. If you don’t want sports channels its probably cheaper for you to get freeview and a subscription to lovefilm and/or Netflix. I think they have a better selection of movies and tv boxsets anyway and you can cancel at any time unlike Sky, Virgin or BT tv.

A couple of other points about living alone, not really to do with money saving:

Introduce yourself to the neighbours. Let them know that you’re available for plant watering/pet feeding duties when they’re away. You may need them to return the favour one day.

Don’t announce the fact that you live alone to all and sundry. Keen eyed neighbours will soon notice that you’re the only one there but until you get to know the people living near you it’s better to be safe than sorry. A vague “we’ve just moved in” rather than “I’ve just moved in” should help when you’re getting to know the neighbours. If you have pets it’s not really lying either.

Up the security if necessary. You won’t be able to enjoy living alone if you’re worried about how secure your home is at night or when you’re out. I was lucky enough to move into a house with an alarm system and cctv. The previous owner installed them for a living and only wanted £200 to leave all the equipment behind and teach me how to use it. If your budget won’t stretch to that kind of thing, try getting some sash jammers for your windows and doors to prevent them from being forced open. You can find them for less than £1.50 each on ebay and if you can borrow a drill they’re quite easy to install yourself.

Don’t isolate yourself. It’s lovely to have your own space but don’t forget to stay in touch with friends and family. Entertaining need not be expensive. Have a girls (or boys) night in and get someone to bring booze, someone else to rent a dvd and you provide snacks. A value bag of tortillas and a tray of dips will only set you back a couple of quid and you can get a just-add-water brownie, cookie, or cake mix for around £1 if you really want to push the boat out on a budget. I have a big family and we like to get together regularly for a meal. It costs a lot to feed us all so the host will make the main dish, someone brings soft drinks for the kids, someone else gets booze, someone brings side dishes, someone brings dessert and someone brings snacks for later in the evening. If you have a table big enough for everyone, great. If not, sit on the floor and eat off trays or have a carpet picnic. They don’t care what they eat off, they love you!

Keep yourself occupied. Anyone who lives on their own will have good and bad days. If you feel bored or lonely, do something to keep you busy. Go for a walk. Do your supermarket shop. Use your washing up bowl to soak your feet and dig out a nail polish to give yourself a pedicure. Invite someone round for coffee. Find a free local museum and spend the afternoon there. Have a bath. Treat yourself to a few magazines or catch up on your favourite blogs. Dye your hair. If you have a garden, go plant a few seeds. You get the idea!

Lastly, if you don’t already have one, think about getting a pet for company. I have two cats and I love them dearly. They’re equally hilarious and endearing, they’re always available for cuddles and when they’re around I feel a bit less weird about talking to myself (if you live on your own you’ll start to do it too. You have been warned!). I pay about £25/month to insure them but there are much cheaper policies around. Their food and cat litter costs me about £10 a week. You can feed a cat for much less than this but one of mine has a dicky tummy so has to eat the most expensive biscuits from the vet (typical!). If you adopt a cat from a rescue centre and they have a special diet or need medication the centre will usually pay for it for the rest of the cat’s life (in my experience, anyway).

Phew! That was much longer than expected. Sorry, I was on a roll.

Hope you find these ideas helpful if you’re living alone or thinking about it.

Lots of love,

Tessie Balloon Juice, the newbie
xx

andrar

That was a great post Tessie!

I've just got a new job (same workplace different location) and have to move. I've flat/house shared for years and now am desperate to live on my own!

Does anyone know of any budget guides which could give me a rough idea of things like how much electric/gas/water etc might be for a single person in a one bed flat/house? Just so I can budget before making the big decision whether I can afford to live on my tod or not.

Thanks!

[Deleted User]

I have EDF for my supplier and just had the yearly account inand it was just under £600 for the year for duel fuel gas and electric.I have gas central heating and cook by electric I bought a remoska cooker three years ago and its paid for itself as I only put the big oven on when batch cooking cakes or biscuits.I have a water meter which costs me £16.50 per month as opposed to the old water rate of almost £30.00 per month so that saves maoney and I use every bit of water wisely and wash the dishes once a day at night before I go to bed. I have a five litre bucket in the shower so the cold water thats run before it gets warm is saved and used to water my shrubs in the garden i see no need to waste water that I'm paying for.I have now adjusted my food budget to £60.00 per month and find that more than enough to cover all my food requirements .My freezer is stuffed full and also my cupboards.I do have my main sunday lunch at DDs which is lovely and the rest of the time I eat fairly well.On Monday I went shopping for food for the first time this month and spent just under £18.00 ,the largest bit being on fruit and veg I shan't need to shop for at least another week. its trial and error really I have cut back on the amount of stuff I buy as my cupboards were getting too full.So I onnly shop now around every 7-10 days and then only for essentials

andrar

Thanks JackieO that's useful info and you're the second person to recommend EDF so will def take a look at them

joedenise

It's best to use a comparison site rather than just look at one supplier. You'll find different suppliers are better in different areas. For example, when I first moved to my current property more than 10 years ago EON were the cheapest and they stayed the cheapest until a couple of years ago when I changed to Scottish Power who are still the cheapest in my area at the moment. I check about every 6 months so that I can change when another provider becomes cheaper (but need to make sure you're not tied into a contract that will charge you to leave early).

Denise

Tessie_Balloon_Juice

Hi Andrar! :wave:

Have you heard of Ebico? They're a not-for-profit energy supplier and they don't tie you into a contract. Worth looking into, I think.

http://www.ebico.org.uk