OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

moneyistooshorttomention

This weekends plans...yet again...more house renovation. Most people wouldn't even try and live in a house needing this much work whilst it was being done....but still crossing fingers that within next few weeks it will at last be at least liveable in. I WILL have removed every single trace of the 1970s from this house some point this year <determined smilie>

The weather has done its "from bad to worse" thing over the last few days and am still in the "At least the house is safe from flooding scenario, but TOTALLY TOTALLY fed-up with it anyway" feelings.

Goes off humming "Keep right on to the end of the road".

BookWorm

Morning all and welcome to the newbies

I got woken up quite rudely by the postman today :eek: so just trying to wake up properly .... :coffee: anyone? lol

singlestep

'Morning BookWorm! I'm enjoying my third cup of the morning.

Good luck with banishing the 1970s, mitstm! When I moved in here, the whole place was woodchipped from top top bottom and the kitchen and bathroom needed replaced. Everything is now done to my liking apart from the hall, as I ran out of steam. One of these days, I may get around to doing something about it.

My plan for today : three hours of work that has followed me home and sitting down and reorganising finances. I'm lucky enough to not be struggling but at times other family members do have to depend on me helping out.

Will do some shopping but only for fruit, vegetables, bread and milk as my freezer is absolutely full to the extent that I have no idea what's in there if it hasn't gone in in the last fortnight. I should keep a list.

My iron levels are low and I'm feeling rather run-down so I have a portion of green soup (made when I had an unusually large amount of green veg left over in my fridge/freezer a couple of weeks ago) defrosting, I've been breakfasting/snacking on dried apricots and other iron-rich food and I'm having a nice steak for dinner later.

Ironing can wait until tomorrow, I think!

JustKeepSwimming_2

lostinrates wrote: »

Supposedly studies show that the same ingredients made In to soup actually leave the eater feeling more satisfied when asked between and beore next meals.

Further proof that I am abnormal :rotfl:
Think I'm just going to have to chowder all soup & throw in some potatoes.

dibuzz wrote: »

I have a single bed and it's fine, easier to change the bedding too....

...It confused the dog for a while and she kept falling out :rotfl:

Hilarious - the cat that isn't mine but just thinks he is & treats my house like a hotel was confused for a while about my new bed. It is much higher than before & far too much effort for him to jump up onto so he now sleeps on my son's bed.

Mrs_Bones wrote: »

JustKeepSwimming I've been looking at those day beds which double as seating with the railings around. I do like the look of them and can picture with lots of cushions and pillows on to sink into. My rooms quite small as well which is one of the reason I'm considering a small bed as it would give me a bit more room to move in and also maybe put a little table in to write at. I'm also not thinking I'd want to share it with anyone else now but if the erm...need arose I would have the double bed in the other room. The room at the front is bigger it's just my personal choice to sleep in the smaller room at the back. That looks out over the garden which I prefer, while bigger room at the front looks directly on the street.

Re the banks I think if they tried it in this country it would bring about a fall in government.

When I bought my day bed I thought I'd turn my bedroom into a "grown up room" by having it double up as a sofa, so I put in a spare small TV & DVD player & bought some lovely cushions - I've watched one DVD since Xmas & the cushions are in the airing cupboard rather than lying on the floor.

But the idea is still there & it is lovely to have a proper room to retreat to.

Banking - the govt. may indeed fall if they stole our money, but would we ever get it back?

JustKeepSwimming_2

Still playing catch up here today -

melanzana wrote: »

Sorry folks, had a bit of a meltdown today. But am a bit better now.....
.....Thanks for all your kind thoughts. Sorry if I upset anyone, didn't mean to, just needed to vent.

X

Melanzana & LB - so sorry to read your news. I hope things are a little easier today & I'll echo what others have said - time really does change things. It may not seem like that now but it does make events different to cope with, if not always easier. I understand your need to vent & I'm sure no one on here is upset by your venting. Hugs.

EmilyTee wrote: »

Hi All

I'm glade I have found this thread and will subscribe!

I have a Question:

I'm trying to spend as little on food as possible a month so I wondered - how much have you allocated for food and household spending (cleaning stuff)

I've started shopping in Al@i which is much cheaper but I wondered how much others had cut their spending down too?

Cleaning stuff - not a lot. I inherited a stash from a friend before she went aboard 4 years ago which I'm still working through :eek:. In my defence she was a little OCD & gave me 4 Sainsbobs blue boxes full of stuff.... When I've worked through it all I'll go back to vinegar. Washing powder & d/w tabs - I only use half the recommended amount & stuff gets clean.

I work on about £150 for 3 of us but this does include some eating out en route to kids' activities. I know I could do better, but sometimes my time is more precious so we have a chip night each week when we're back too late for me to start cooking.

I do try & batch cook, & save the 4th portion of most recipes for my lunch the next day at work. I'm not a brilliant cook & I don't always enjoy the faff that goes with cooking, so I like one pot stuff. I love curries & veg, but my kids aren't so keen - if they weren't here I think I'd live on slow cooker curries.

debtfreefuture wrote: »

Good evening everyone!
Blimey, it's windy out there....
I know there are many thing we all love/hate about being single, but one thing I can't get my head around (after nearly 6 years) is cooking for one.
What do you all eat. I get so fed up with ready meals. I have good intentions when I go shopping to eat loads of veg, but when I get in from a long day at work I really can't be bothered to cook them. I'm feeling so lethargic and yucky at the moment and I know it's all do to with what I'm eating.
So singlies, what's on your menu's?

Do you have a slow cooker? If I'm mega organised (which isn't often ) I can get something in it before work. If my kids are with their Dad on holiday I've given myself time off from cooking & tried living on ready meals & by day 3 I've always started to feel a bit rubbish. I do feel much better when I'm eating meals I've cooked from scratch - but I struggle with the organisational side of it all!

LavenderBees

[STRIKE]Morning All[/STRIKE]

Oh well, make that "Afternoon All" :rotfl:....I did get up around 6am to feed "the boys", but then discovered that the latest cat treat "Da B1rd" had arrived....Such fun! I need a bigger house though as swinging that around in small rooms means everything is in danger of being smashed either by the toy or an over enthusiastic cat or two!

We all three retired back to bed exhausted after a few hours play. "The boys" are still spark out, but I'm finally up and about properly although still in my PJs.

Got some reduced leeks last night and have some ropey potatoes so am going to make soup for lunches for next week. By the time I finish doing that, I might be awake enough to watch a film while sorting my document file.

On the cooking front, I'm slightly different in that I usually cook a proper Sunday lunch with shed loads of veges and then eat that for 3 or 4 days, so I usually only have Thurs or Fri to think about, and inevitably have a portion of something home made like spag bol or lasagne in the freezer. I agree that my freezer is one of my best friends...couldn't manage without it....unlike one or two of my "friends"...;)

Enjoy a peaceful afternoon

LB xx

ETA - if I find your Birth Cert in my pile, GQ, I'll give you a shout :rotfl:

Charis

One more reason to make the effort to cook at home even if there is only one. In the comments it says 'the food industry only exists to sell us air and water'.

Like others here I usually cook four portions and freeze three for later. Saves time, effort and washing up. I use L*kel*nd's smallest plastic containers, 400mls. They are easy to label, easy to stack in the freezer (or when empty, nest in neat piles in the cupboard) and have colour coded lids. They look small but, even allowing a gap for expansion when frozen, they still hold adequate for one serving. Long lasting and easy to clean properly, and the lids stay on.

moneyistooshorttomention

Charis wrote: »

One more reason to make the effort to cook at home even if there is only one. In the comments it says 'the food industry only exists to sell us air and water'.

Like others here I usually cook four portions and freeze three for later. Saves time, effort and washing up. I use L*kel*nd's smallest plastic containers, 400mls. They are easy to label, easy to stack in the freezer (or when empty, nest in neat piles in the cupboard) and have colour coded lids. They look small but, even allowing a gap for expansion when frozen, they still hold adequate for one serving. Long lasting and easy to clean properly, and the lids stay on.

I've also got a stash of those Lakeland 400ml containers. I too find them ideal for a singlie portion of something that just has to be taken out of freezer and have some "filler food" (eg potatoes) and some veg. of some description put with it and "Dinner is served". Latest thing I used them for, for instance, was I made 4 portions worth of veggieburgers and used one on the day and the other 3 went into 3 of those containers and in the freezer.

I would say one of those would also do for, for instance, 1-2 portions of home-made icecream. That reminds me, I've been meaning to try making home-made frozen yogurt for a while....goes off to add yogurt to the list.

They're also handy for decanting bags of frozen fruit into and I take them out one at a time from freezer and stick in fridge for adding a bit to my morning porridge.

LavenderBees

For the cat lovers...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/14/olympic-curling-cats_n_4786770.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular#slide=2065252

LavenderBees

Charis wrote: »

One more reason to make the effort to cook at home even if there is only one. In the comments it says 'the food industry only exists to sell us air and water'.

Should be strung up!

Seems to me though that the problem is we could be buying ingredients to cook at home that aren't what we think they are e.g the mozarella, and we'd be cooking with them in good faith believing they are what we think they are.

I must admit that I have usually avoided ready meals due to the amount of additives like salt...the horse meat scandal of last year simply made me more determined to avoid them. But if INGREDIENTS are also now a problem, then I'm starting to struggle to see how to keep eating healthily (or as healthily as I'd like to)