Cooking for one

karcher

Nelski wrote: »

Hands up to most of this I like my £1 warburtons loaf if its sliced or 75p crusty if I can snaffle it on the same day.

I don't think I eat excessive meat but it does feature in lots of my menu choices and I am happy with that

I am somewhat a feeder and if you have spoke to me more than twice in your life chances are I will invite you for dinner

I don't count booze as part of my grocery budget but I know its a fairly hefty spend some months

Choose Life Choose Food :cool:

I'll drink to that :T

karcher

Talking of being indulgent, I absolutely love smoked salmon. I honestly can't remember the last time I had any, as (for me) it is very expensive and would blow any kind of budget straight out of the water

Nelski

karcher wrote: »

Talking of being indulgent, I absolutely love smoked salmon. I honestly can't remember the last time I had any, as (for me) it is very expensive and would blow any kind of budget straight out of the water

well you say that but if you buy it around hi days and holidays like Christmas or Easter theres always offers on the packs. I have 2 in the freezer which I think I paid about £3 for (probably from Asda or Sainsburys my 2 go to supermarkets) Well worth 3 quid for a nice salmon treat imo

i bought a couple of crab as well from Lidl ...Looking forward to a seafood feast for one of my menus

karcher

Nelski wrote: »

well you say that but if you buy it around hi days and holidays like Christmas or Easter theres always offers on the packs. I have 2 in the freezer which I think I paid about £3 for (probably from Asda or Sainsburys my 2 go to supermarkets) Well worth 3 quid for a nice salmon treat imo

i bought a couple of crab as well from Lidl ...Looking forward to a seafood feast for one of my menus

Invite accepted ;)

caronc

iammumtoone wrote: »

Food spend I don't know But I do know it could be less.

I would guess its at least £3 per day. I have been that person scrimping on £1 or less per day, I do know its doable but its hard. I now have more money so don't need to be that person anymore, and to be honest don't see why I should be. I do plan to get my budget down and and some point soon intend to start meal planing which will help.

I don't drink, so at least I save that way.

I looked and the nearest cosco to me is 70 miles, good job really I would spend a fortune if there was one on the doorstep.

Sounds exactly like me apart from the not drinking bit

PasturesNew wrote: »

We used to have Mother's Pride I think. White, medium sliced, hard blocks of Stork margarine if you didn't want dripping on it.

We used Stork for everything. Sandwiches, baking, frying eggs, deep frying chips.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Very occasionally I've had the good fortune to discover a ready meal usually priced at about £4.50 selling for only about £1. As that's the price I'd usually pay for a ready meal I've tried 1-2 of them over the years and, while nice/r, I've never actually felt that paying 4.5x the price for something to be "a bit nicer" is sufficient to ever crave higher priced products.



If that makes sense.

If I lived closest to A5da, I bet I'd spend more on food - their shops and food always look glorious ... I want so much when I wander round there... but I only visit about once a year and then I'm not in a position to "buy everything/anything and stock up". eg last time was just before Xmas and I had a fairly full freezer already and I was shopping for Xmas... so could only walk past it and admire the pretty packaging and sheer volume of choice presented.

*sighs*

If I lived within 1 mile of an A5da I'd probably weigh 2 stone more than I currently do.

Was blue riband margarine when I was growing up :eek: was horrible. Stork was special occasions Agree re the expensive ready meals seldom being worth it - I could and do make much better for less cash

Karcher - sorry not quite got this multi-quote business sussed! Smoked salmon yes please any way you like. I bought some for Christmas and fully intended to keep some back just for me but it was scoffed by the hordes Morrison's used to do packs of trimmings which were great and reasonably priced may still do. Tesco don't seem to but maybe worth a look elsewhere- if you don't mind smaller raggy bits they are just fine and won't kill the budget

iammumtoone

caronc wrote: »

Sounds exactly like me apart from the not drinking bit

Two reasons I don't drink, its expensive and not necessary (unlike food) but the main one is I don't like drinking alone. I got a bottle of prosecco at Christmas form work, I still haven't drunk the one from last year :rotfl:

When I go out with friends I always seem to be driving so don't drink then either.

As we have said before everyone is different it seems some don't think cooking a nice meal is worth it for one, I disagree but my thing is I just don't like drinking alone in the house (makes me feel like some kind of alky :eek:) Very occasionally I will have a nice cider or a cheap bottle of baileys (which I make a long drink with added milk).

Who mentioned smoked salmon , you will now get the blame for the increase in my shopping bill next time I go I haven't see the off cut packs in ages I used to buy them quite regularly.

I love fresh crab you can't beat it with fresh bread along with other seafood like cockles, shrimps, mussels. We have a local fish mongers what sell fresh from the sea (crab that has been frozen is awful). I has to be a whole crab, dressed ones are for wimps :rotfl:. Its expensive so its a rare treat also I can't get through half pint of the cockles etc. I normally give half to my Dad.

Does anyone like samphire? its a bit of a marmite thing I'm in the love it camp.

caronc

iammumtoone wrote: »

I love fresh crab you can't beat it with fresh bread along with other seafood like cockles, shrimps, mussels. We have a local fish mongers what sell fresh from the sea (crab that has been frozen is awful). I has to be a whole crab, dressed ones are for wimps :rotfl:. Its expensive so its a rare treat also I can't get through half pint of the cockles etc. I normally give half to my Dad.

Does anyone like samphire? its a bit of a marmite thing I'm in the love it camp.

Fresh seafood yum thankfully live in a good part of the world for that but can be so expensive. That said best crab salad I've ever had was in a tiny place called Noss Mayo in Devon nearly 11 years ago :eek: 1/2 pint of cockles - I could give it a good go not had in years. Clams though are my favourites especially with spaghetti- tinned ones are also ok but unfortunately not had in yonks as Trsco don't seem to do them :mad: Samphire yes please but rarely found around here not sure why plenty of sand, salt and marsh maybe too cold and windy

PasturesNew

Never had samphire, but there are two varieties.

One's from salt marshes, the other's from coastal cliffs.

I love crabs, we used to use nutcrackers to get the claws open .... there's no way I'd ever touch one and sort it out .... I'd be that wimp that buys "dressed"
Actually, it's just the white meat I want.

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

Never had samphire, but there are two varieties.

One's from salt marshes, the other's from coastal cliffs.

I love crabs, we used to use nutcrackers to get the claws open .... there's no way I'd ever touch one and sort it out .... I'd be that wimp that buys "dressed"
Actually, it's just the white meat I want.

While I do love a good poke around the claws unless I can get a live one it tends to be the dressed ones I very occasionally get. PN you can have most of my white meat and I'll take the brown

SpekySquarehead

Forgive me for not reading 23 pages as I'm sure the answer will have came up at some point.

I should be buying my own place later this year, to live alone, and I'm doing the sums early to see what sort of property I can afford. Any ideas on how much a single occupant can spend on food in a typical month?

I went shopping in Lidl on Sunday for myself for the week ahead and I was nearly £40. Admittedly a lot of this was for the freezer and combine that with the fact I was trying a few new recipes.