Spending too much on food

nogoodwithmoney11111

First of all sorry if this is in wrong place. I know how helpful dfw'ers are.

Been on this site for a long time now and managed to pay off debts with a lot of peoples help. Now gone self employed and its working out ok-ish. But have taken a contract away from home during the week for the next 3 months that I hope will get some needed cash in. I am staying in a cheap hotel (haggled them down to a really good b&b rate, block booking) but the lunch and evening meals are hurting already. Not having a fridge or cooking area is a major hassle. Have prepaid month in advance at the hotel so stuck here for next 3 weeks at least.

Have been to a couple of supermarket cafes for evening meal deals but these are £5 or £6 anyway, and the quality is not the best, it's ok I guess. So I am looking for any clever suggestions to avoid a food bill of £50/week that I could do without.

Thanks

nogoodwithmoney11111

Trying to repost to the old school board with no success.....sorry.

ceejaydee23

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, things will be more expensive, but a good hearty pub meal will probably be your better bet, OR possibly do a google search online for places to eat, if they do online menus OR ask the B n B owner of places to go (is it a b n b?), as normally they can recommend places.

nogoodwithmoney11111 wrote: »

Trying to repost to the old school board with no success.....sorry.

EssexHebridean

OK - assuming you are having (or have the facility to have) a full cooked breakfast, why not turn things on their head and treat your breakfast as your main meal of the day (as you are paying for this in any case) and then your evening meal can easily be something which needs either no, or minimal cooking. Fine egg noodles can be "cooked" by putting into a wide necked food flask, pouring on boiling water and leaving to stand for 5 minutes or until they are tender. If you have access to a microwave at work then that same flask might be useful for bringing back some soup or even pasta in sauce - with a bit of crusty bread you've got a decent meal there. As the weather is warming up and a bit more cheerful now salad a couple of nights a week would be nice - healthy, and you can still have the sort of plateful that says "main meal" to your brain! Good luck with your self-employed career - I'm also trying to make a go of it on a SE basis at the moment so I really do wish you the very best with it!

[Deleted User]

You could have salads, with bread rolls. Or anything that only requires boiling water to cook (I am assuming that you have access to a kettle)
-noodles, couscous, cup-a-soup.

Do you travel home on weekends. You could bring Mondays meals (lunch and dinner) prepared with you (and keep in work fridge), also if doesn't take up all of the work fridge sandwiches for tues-fri?, have one meal out say Wednesday (cheap pub, supermarket, or cafe type place), and then eat prepared meals tues, wed, and thursday (noodles, cup-a soup, couscous type things) (not very healthy or exciting, but given it's only temporary you could probably get by for the remaining 3 weeks). Then a proper home cooked meal when you are home on Fri?

Given you have only pre-paid one month out of three it might be worth looking for lodgings for the two remaining months, as you will then have access to a kitchen and fridge facilities.

nogoodwithmoney11111

Thanks all,

I actually had couscous last night - it was quite nice if a bit bland on its own. I am investigating the timing aspect too of bringing up some food on a Monday morning with me, "kettle meal" on a Tuesday, eat out cheap on a Wednesday, then kettle meal Thursday or a combo thereof.

I can only imagine the health impact of convenience foods after 3 months.

Have been looking on a website where you can rent the second room in a 2 bed flat, for example, bills included and short lets.

Should have done more research before!!:mad:

I knew the dfw'ers would come to the rescue:T:T:T

thanks again all,

ngwm.

nogoodwithmoney11111

sry forgot to say good luck to Essex and others taking the brave step to being your own boss in these current times.

MilneBay

How about fresh pasta? You can get a lot of the filled stuff that only needs to be covered with boiling water for a few minutes. Not sure how you would get on with any kind of sauce with it though!
Perhaps you could buy a couple of bottles of sauce to liven things up - the sweet chilli dipping sauce goes with most things.

If you do have access to a fridge/microwave at work you could try freezing home cooked meals in individual portions to make them last longer - take fresh for Monday Tuesday and frozen for Wednesday/Thursday?

As long as you are eating plenty of salad/ fruit sure you will survive a few weeks though it may not be ideal!

MilneBay

Oh and I think M&S now do some kind of fancy pot noodle - someone at my work had one the other day and looked good with plenty of veg. Wouldn't pay a coupl of quid for one for my lunch but might if I was in your situdation! MB

Mrs_Arcanum

Also worth popping into the supermarket on the way home to snaffle a bargain to eat that evening. All the reduced stuff is heavily discounted by then.

Sparklyfairy

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Also worth popping into the supermarket on the way home to snaffle a bargain to eat that evening. All the reduced stuff is heavily discounted by then.

I was just about to say this! Also if you don't find any bargains - at least you'll be spending loads less than eating out..

My suggestions would be to jot down food that you can eat without needing to be heated (bar the kettle)..you'll have to realise that for the next few weeks/months things might not be 5* cuisine!

I suggest looking out for:
Fresh salads (in bags), sliced ham/chicken/beef, ramen noodles, fruit, nuts, bread, butter, soup (if you can get a cheap can opener) warmed with water from the kettle...obviously small packages will be key like a small block of cheese..the larger grocery stores usually have a cooked food section where they sell rotisserie chicken & have a salad bar, sausage rolls - well worth checking out.