Food and living alone

Dunroamin

PasturesNew wrote: »

That's all I had yesterday.


I have food issues.... if I own food, I have to eat it ... all. It's hard to have a quiche and not scoff the whole thing in a day.....


I often do pizzas with them. I use ketchup and chilli powder as the base, or a jalapeno chutney when I've got that.

Finding me 'solutions' isn't the issue here.... the issue is that it's difficult shopping for one.

I have 1200 lovely recipes, I can meal plan etc. What I can't do is buy ingredients to make things as there'd be too much stuff left over to use up. And, to be honest, after 30+ years of living alone you tire of even thinking about putting effort into cooking for yourself as all it does it takes time, creates washing up .... and it's eaten in 5 minutes flat.

I'm in a strange place at the moment - so my lifestyle is not typical of my lifestyle. I own no saucepans right now and most of my kitchen stuff is in storage, including the frying pan ... and before you say "go and buy another" - that's how I ended up with the THREE I have in storage. So no buying new things.

"Me" isn't the issue/problem here. There's no problem. This is a discussion about how annoying it is to have to shop/cook for single people.

Somebody turned it into solving a problem ..... and those of us that are single are quite capable of solving the problem ourselves if we had: more room, more money, a freezer and hadn't lost the will to bother

But the problems that you have aren't the problems that most people have even if single, they're very specific to you.

If I were on my own again and on a budget, I'd have a piece of meat or fish for dinner every night with either a jacket potato, rice or bread and butter. For lunch I'd have sandwiches or soup and I'd eat a fair bit of fruit. None of those would be a problem to buy for one person and, as long as you had a fridge, there'd be very little waste.

It's not an eating regime that would suit everybody but it's very simple and no problem to shop for.

SailorSam

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes, all sorts. Holiday let, empty house sold/clearing it (last few nights slept on the bare flor), holiday let, holiday caravan alone in a cow field, cheap hotel, flat share, lodger, converted garage but self-contained

My belongings had several addresses too. Spread across two addresses, put into storage, then moved 3x in that storage as the volume was growing (due to house clearance/getting ready to move). Whole lot transported 200 miles. Whole lot moved 10 miles down the road. Whole lot moved 10 miles down the road the other direction.

I feel dead sorry for you Pastures, if you were closer you could have my spare room then we could shop and cook for two.

Kirri

PasturesNew wrote: »

Not sure if I like houmous - if it's the stuff with the chickpeas, then I've had it, but it's high calorie, so I don't buy it. Never had split peas, ever. It's not what I'd call a meal, except one spoon of it maybe with other stuff..... it's for dipping tortilla chips into.

Houmous is made from chickpeas and split peas are another type of pulse you can make a similar dip from. It can be a meal, I add bread, salad, carrot sticks or whatever, put it in a pitta with salad and use it as a filling and good for protein and not fattening though some ready made houmous may have more oil/salt but not something I would worry about eating.

PasturesNew wrote: »

What'd be a typical week's shopping/meals for you then, as you're in the same position.

P.S. None of that posh stuff that I won't understand now! I've seen posh birds type what they eat and I have to go and google it.

At the moment I am mostly only replacing cupboard staples for scratch cooked meals or baking, plus the occasional extra item for a particular recipe and maybe some dairy/juice every other week, so no typical weekly shop.

I'm far from posh lol, I may eat some 'weird' stuff but that mainly comes from being veggie and having to find alternative items..

Breakfasts are mostly muesli/yoghurt or toast and jam/cheese/marmite plus juice.

Lunches - snack for lunch ie toasted sandwich and salad or couscous/quinoa/lentils/veg/haloumi or omelette or even a houmous pitta!

Dinners - cooked meal based around dried wholefoods mostly, (cheaper and less waste/storage room than tins for me), ie white beans, borlotti beans, haricot beans, chickpeas, quinoa, paella rice, basmati rice, pearl barley, split peas, red lentils, green lentils, couscous, bulgar wheat, pasta etc. I have very few tins and mostly are bought just for specific recipes ie coconut milk.

Added to the above are herbs and spices and then I add veg with whatever has grown (or bought in winter) or sometimes base it around potatoes or dairy or bread if I've just made it, but I eat loads of veg and salad daily and do a lot of baking.

I'm the same height as you even, but eat 3 meals a day usually unless I run out of time/am out.

It's all immaterial though if you have no pans, don't like/eat salad or pulses, only eat 1 meal a day, can't be bothered to cook etc etc.. However, in general, it is possible to eat a fairly varied diet just for 1 with little waste, little storage, little money, if desired, albeit sometimes a few things have to be eaten in multiple meals or it can get a bit dull having to use things up.

honeythewitch wrote: »

The "pennies difference" is crucial to many of us though.

I was referring to the pennies difference in buying 4 x eggs at £1.49 or 6 eggs at £2.09 - the 4 eggs cost more per egg but it's cheaper overall so I wasn't losing out if I was only going to use 4 eggs in the timeframe.

Dunroamin

PasturesNew wrote: »

I rarely have meat; it's expensive. Jacket potatoes are OK, but take a long time to cook properly. I do sometimes have microwaved jacket spuds with 1/3rd of a tin of beans - I don't buy jacket spuds, they are over-priced, I buy "cheapest spuds" and would just cook 2-3 small ones instead of one big baker.

I'm not a lover or eater of much fruit. I'll occasionally pick up a hand of bananas, or have a tin of pineapple in fruit juice.

But even the above would be boring by week 2-3. It's that "all the same" thing I try to avoid.

I bought some frozen veg the other week, and some frozen mini yorkshires and made some mash. I had 6 mini yorkshires, mash and veg with gravy for two days (had to have 6, not 3-4, as they had been frozen). Then some of the veg was still left over so I made some pakoras from mash/veg - which then took me 3 days to get through.

The following week I didn't buy the same again as I was sick of it.

Next time I'll be using a packet of yorkshire mix (add water), sausages, mash and baked beans. I think that'll be a better way. That mixed frozen veg's a bit hit and miss.

I've 1300 recipes ..... and 1,000 ideas on what to cook - it's getting the balance right of what you have to buy, how long it lasts, what'll be leftover when you've gone through 3 days of it. e.g. sausages/mash is 4 days, tin of baked beans is 3 days, so on the 4th day do I open another tin of beans, or just squirt brown sauce on..... Having sauce means there's no new "open can" to use up.

Not all meat and fish are expensive, you just have to be selective in what you buy.

I don't see why you have to eat things 3 days in a row. You could just buy a couple of sausages or, if you want to buy a pack, eat a couple on one day, have something else the next and then go back to the sausages after a break.

I really think that you'd have the same problems if you were living as part of a couple or with children

SailorSam

A._Badger wrote: »

More of a problem, I find, is the infuriating 'Buy One for X buy two for X plus 10p' offers.

I might be making this up but i'm sure i remember reading about one supermarket that instead of making people buy 2 for 1 when they lived alone they'd offer the customer some sort of voucher to get the 'free' one when they did their next shop.

dlusman

SailorSam wrote: »

I might be making this up but i'm sure i remember reading about one supermarket that instead of making people buy 2 for 1 when they lived alone they'd offer the customer some sort of voucher to get the 'free' one when they did their next shop.

Tesco will give you a voucher for you to get a free product at a later date if there is only 1 in stock and item is BOGOF, ( or by 2 get 1 free and they only have 2 left , etc etc ) or a voucher to allow you to buy a product at a promotional price and they dont have any in stock. ( or least they used to - dont know if they still do )

Dont know of anyone who will give you vouchers if they DO have sufficient stock to fulfill the promotions

Dunroamin

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never bought 2 sausages; I get 8 for £1.49 at Lidls usually. I've never been to the meat counter at a supermarket.

If I were living in a family it'd be much easier. I'd have a proper home, a kitchen with all my things, a freezer - and people who'd appreciate what I make and eat up things I don't want to finish off. I'd cook completely differently as I could spend the time cooking for a reason/purpose. When it's just "for me" it's easy to let it slide and not bother.

I could buy or make deep filled pies - and just have a small part of it. I could make great chilllies and freeze half as jacket spud toppings. I'd be cooking 4-6x the volume and everything would be eaten that day, or reheated the next day (e.g. cooking double the mash). But the main part of the meal could be different every day easily, with volume cooking.

Fair enough, I'd forgotten your living situation, I was just thinking of the food buying side of it. Sounds like most of your problems will be solved when you can have a freezer.:)

Sory, but I have to ask, why don't you use the butcher's counter at the supermarket, or an actual butcher, for that matter?

SailorSam

Dunroamin wrote: »

Sory, but I have to ask, why don't you use the butcher's counter at the supermarket, or an actual butcher, for that matter?

I don't use butchers counters either, i think 'cos i'm not sure what to ask for, so it's easier picking up pre-packaged things off the shelf. Same with fish i get frozen stuff.

Dunroamin

SailorSam wrote: »

I don't use butchers counters either, i think 'cos i'm not sure what to ask for, so it's easier picking up pre-packaged things off the shelf. Same with fish i get frozen stuff.

If you don't know what you're buying, how can you pick the right packet?

KxMx

Nada666 wrote: »

No they do not.

Eggs last one or two weeks at least. There are three normal portions in a normal pack. (Five in the case cited). Double that if you just want a single egg (and this is my money saving tip to single people - buy large eggs, not medium eggs - that way you get six portions instead of three portions for little difference in price.)

If you can't think of a variety of ways to use five eggs over twenty-one meals over one week then you do not like eggs and should not be buying them in the first place.

Pitta bread - three portions over two days, third day if it is toasted. Again, if you don't want to eat a couple of slices of bread over three days then don't buy it in the first place.

Valid beefs: cucumbers mentioned above - the minimum purchase in most supermarkets is now two cucumbers. Why pay 45p for a half when everyone else pays 50p for a whole one? Valid beef beef - whack £2.50 worth of meat in a pack, stick a £4 label on it and demand customers buy three of them to pay £3.33. Valid beef avocados - a whole avocado is not a single portion and is not storage friendly.

I don't understand why two ingredients that most people regard as daily staples is a valid example.

Well you can take that approach. Moan pack sizes are too big and moan when smaller options are more expensive. You can go without if you want because you resent paying 5p less for 1/2 when "everyone else" can get a whole for 50p.

Or you can think money isn't everything, I really like cucumber so i'll buy the half and feel grateful/pleased they at least do a smaller pack even though it's not as good value.

I mean, I can't manage the 20l bags of cat litter so have to get the 10l ones. I'm not going to moan about the economy side of it, i'm going to be glad at least there are the 10l bags as an option, and are worth paying more for as it enables me to manage on my own and not have to ask for help.