Cooking for one (Mark Two)

Hollyharvey

Farway wrote: »

The unexpected expense plague may strike here soon. Noticed my gas boiler water pressure keeps dropping. The boiler is over 7 years old, and general consensus is modern boilers have life expectancy of about 10 years

I think I may need a replacement pressure vessel, or relief valve,or both :mad:

Luckily I have the funds so will get it fixed before I really need the heating on

Oh no! Hopefully you can get it fixed before it gets too cold.

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

....general consensus is modern boilers have life expectancy of about 10 years
...

That's pretty horrific... if you take that figure and say that "a random boiler" will cost £2500 to replace, that's £20/month to save every month towards the next one. For those with a maintenance plan that's another £15-25/month to pay.... and for an annual service for those without it's more money ....

Gas CH has a large hidden cost of ownership.

Mine's 7+ years old now.... better get saving

poppystar

PasturesNew wrote: »

That's pretty horrific... if you take that figure and say that "a random boiler" will cost £2500 to replace, that's £20/month to save every month towards the next one. For those with a maintenance plan that's another £15-25/month to pay.... and for an annual service for those without it's more money ....

Gas CH has a large hidden cost of ownership.

Mine's 7+ years old now.... better get saving

That is my feeling regarding gas central heating - the cost of the gas is pretty insignificant compared to the equipment cost, servicing and maintenance. Unfortunately when you have it it isn't so easy to change to a different system.

I remember a few years ago a coupled friend of mine totally bemused that their secretary had not replaced a broken boiler and was sleeping in a cold house. Could not get them to see that single on the salary they were being paid gave real problems when big breakdowns occurred. Totally no comprehension of living on one income:mad:


******

Feeling blue. Just found my fave sandwich YS in MS and bought it along with a YS ready meal for tonight. Got halfway through the sandwich and realised I wasn't actually enjoying it at all. Ended up chucking most of it.:(

So many family problems at the moment I think I've just lost my enthusiasm for any food .. and possibly sense of taste too:(:(:(

A real B since I'm too stressed I can't even cheer myself up with nice food:(

PasturesNew

poppystar wrote: »

.... single on the salary they were being paid gave real problems when big breakdowns occurred. Totally no comprehension of living on one income:mad:
...

Couples don't appreciate the concept that two earning couples will probably have a HUGE disposable income compared to one single, the spare of which can quickly accumulate into "savings" etc.

e.g. three people in the same job sitting in a row, all earning £1500/month take home, but two are a couple. They live in adjoining flats, paying the same rent and council tax.

Single person: £1500 after rent and council tax = £600 left over
Couple: £1500 x 2 after rent and council tax = £2000 left over, or £1000 each.

So in that "lower pay" scenario the couple are already nearly £5k/year EACH every year ahead of the single.

If you did a study you might also find that the couple "progress" more at work because they're seen as being "smarter and more outgoing" than the single as they're seen to be wearing newer/smarter clothes and going out to do more stuff/hobbies/activities. So their lifestyle makes them appear superficially to be more "the right sort of people" in the boss' eyes.

I'm sure most singles would like a couple more outfits/year and a small holiday too ... but it's not an option as you're saving for the next breakdown!

poppystar

PasturesNew wrote: »

Couples don't appreciate the concept that two earning couples will probably have a HUGE disposable income compared to one single, the spare of which can quickly accumulate into "savings" etc.

e.g. three people in the same job sitting in a row, all earning £1500/month take home, but two are a couple. They live in adjoining flats, paying the same rent and council tax.

Single person: £1500 after rent and council tax = £600 left over
Couple: £1500 x 2 after rent and council tax = £2000 left over, or £1000 each.

So in that "lower pay" scenario the couple are already nearly £5k/year EACH every year ahead of the single.

If you did a study you might also find that the couple "progress" more at work because they're seen as being "smarter and more outgoing" than the single as they're seen to be wearing newer/smarter clothes and going out to do more stuff/hobbies/activities. So their lifestyle makes them appear superficially to be more "the right sort of people" in the boss' eyes.

I'm sure most singles would like a couple more outfits/year and a small holiday too ... but it's not an option as you're saving for the next breakdown!

…also hols not an option because of the single supplement that means the single has to find even more from the smaller disposable income

…then the couple sends out one birthday card to the single who of course sends them one each back

….and so on…


As for how the single is viewed watch any TV drama and the single woman is either a career beach living in a luxury flat or a demented sad cow living in a cluttered flat with a cat. And whichever of these it is they still end up being the one that is slightly psycho!!

annandale

I certainly quite understand if other people don't seem to want meals at mealtimes personally and that's entirely up to them if they spend the whole day and miss all 3 meals. Their body. Their life.

What I don't understand is when they are with someone else (eg me) and they just go on and on and on with the "morning activity" (for instance) and the thought doesnt seem to occur to them that most other people will be expecting some lunch one way or another if it's lunchtime. To me - if someone is in my home for morning coffee for instance and it gets to lunchtime then one of two things happen - either it was just "morning coffee" and they've got other plans for the day or, if we are obviously still chatting, then I start asking them what their choice is for lunch and get on with making lunch for the pair of us.

If we're out and it's got to around 12 noon I'm checking out places to buy ourselves some lunch out and saying what ones I fancy and expecting them to say what ones they fancy (which could be a pub - if they don't want a meal - and I get my meal and a drink and they can just get themselves a drink if that's all they personally want).

Our ancestors didn't eat at 8am, midday and 7pm. People do so because its around work times. Some work times. I've worked nightshifts and my breakfast would be at 5pm when I woke up.

People don't need to eat to timeslots.

Farway

annandale wrote: »

Some work times. I've worked nightshifts and my breakfast would be at 5pm when I woke up.
.

Sometimes when I was on nights my late night pint would be 6am when I knocked off

Dinner was the corned beef hash bubble & squeak, and found some forgotten mushrooms at the back of the fridge, had them nuked, plus fried eggs. Didn't need beans in the end

Just space for some stewed apples with Greek yoghurt and honey

Last chance saloon for the boiler, I have repressurised it to 2 bar, but I suspect it may be the same as inflating a punctured tyre, you hope it will hold but secretly you just know it will fail again at some point. In the case of hot water probably at 7am as I am in the shower:(

moneyistooshorttomention

annandale wrote: »

Our ancestors didn't eat at 8am, midday and 7pm. People do so because its around work times. Some work times. I've worked nightshifts and my breakfast would be at 5pm when I woke up.

People don't need to eat to timeslots.

I think different peoples stomachs vary - and probably a lot of it is what one is used to. Some people just don't seem to be that hungry come mealtimes - others of us most definitely are and would be positively "starving" by a couple of hours after the meal was due if we hadnt had it (that would be me then:rotfl:).

I know that, back before retirement, one of the worries of if my employer had been able to force me out of a more "standard" type office job with standard "office hours" into factory type work within an office (ie call centre work - with shifts according to what the employer wanted) that I just knew I'd land up having them trying hard to sack me in two seconds flat. I knew that, if I'd been taken off my own hours (ie 9am-5pm approx) and put onto a shift of, say, 2-8pm that my stomach would be demanding its dinner as usual at around 6/7pm and I was well aware I might try to make it wait for a day or two. Then I'd be bringing in a "packed lunch type" meal and trying to eat it at my desk at the time dinner was due - and then I'd probably land up sacked - as I would have tried to make my stomach wait and it just wouldnt have done so and so I would have continued to eat at mealtime as usual.

I was very well aware that (for myself personally) any antisocial hours work job just wouldnt have been possible - and I'd have landed up unemployed for however long it took to get an "office hours" job again. I was so relieved to hit retirement and know that that scenario was definitely off the cards and I didnt have to worry about that any longer. Thankfully, I managed to get through 40-odd years of full-time work without anyone having a serious attempt to force me to work antisocial hours. There was a bit of intermittent attempts to make me vary my hours just by an hour or two - and they didnt manage it.

Farway - Gawd at the thought of nightshift work. My admiration - as I'm a lark and would have been found sound asleep at around midnight - after struggling (and failing) to stay awake. Yep - another scenario in which I would have been sacked.

*************

PASTURES - I so hear ya' sista re the large amount of extra disposable income married/coupled-up people have compared to their single equivalents on same money. That's been "story of my life". I rather think I've lost count of the number of times I've had the rejoinder from a coupled-up person when I've pointed that fact out of "Oh - well I've got children". Y....e...s - maybe - but it's not anything to do with us singles that they chose to have children (knowing this would cost them money). Trying to point out to some people that having children was their personal choice - and our personal choices are equally valid does sometimes seem to go straight in one ear and out the other....:cool:

caronc

Farway wrote: »

The unexpected expense plague may strike here soon. Noticed my gas boiler water pressure keeps dropping. The boiler is over 7 years old, and general consensus is modern boilers have life expectancy of about 10 years

I think I may need a replacement pressure vessel, or relief valve,or both :mad:

Luckily I have the funds so will get it fixed before I really need the heating on

Oh I hope it's nothing serious. My boiler is 15 years old, I really do need to factor in replacing it when I finally manage to get my finances sorted out:eek:

poppystar wrote: »

That is my feeling regarding gas central heating - the cost of the gas is pretty insignificant compared to the equipment cost, servicing and maintenance. Unfortunately when you have it it isn't so easy to change to a different system.

I remember a few years ago a coupled friend of mine totally bemused that their secretary had not replaced a broken boiler and was sleeping in a cold house. Could not get them to see that single on the salary they were being paid gave real problems when big breakdowns occurred. Totally no comprehension of living on one income:mad:


******

Feeling blue. Just found my fave sandwich YS in MS and bought it along with a YS ready meal for tonight. Got halfway through the sandwich and realised I wasn't actually enjoying it at all. Ended up chucking most of it.:(

So many family problems at the moment I think I've just lost my enthusiasm for any food .. and possibly sense of taste too:(:(:(

A real B since I'm too stressed I can't even cheer myself up with nice food:(

Sorry you are feeling stressed, at times like that I find simple foods like soup or scrambled egg comforting. Re "single" costs I'm not even going to start on that one, I'd just depress myself.

I haven't got as much done today as I hoped, my balance is really iffy (it will be playing up because of the impending storm:mad:). Still while not fully sorted I now have everything sorted into the freezer I want it to live in. The smaller freezer is more or less in order and re-inventoried, just the door shelves to do, though the bigger one still needs some serious sorting out. Only one UFOs which I think was a small bag of egg whites which has been ditched along with some very freezer burned crusty bread which isn't too bad. On the non-meat front I seem to have rather a lot of cheese (various types), whipped cream, leeks, brambles, passatta and broad beans though the last 3 are from growing stuff rather than over buying:).
However, I'm shattered and now CBA so I'm not going to butcher the chicken just cook it whole. I've plenty of uncooked portions in the freezer and I'll just portion and freeze what I don't use later in the week. Mr Chookie will be getting a lemon, garlic and onion shoved up his bahookie:rotfl:, sprinkled with thyme & rosemary and popped in the oven soon. I'm going to pop spuds, carrots and parsnips in with him so that's veg sorted, I've a portion of stuffing defrosting so really just gravy to make:D.

candygirl

I got a few curries from Morrisons yesterday, saag aloos, saag paneers, Bombay spuds n bhajis, all either £1 or £1.50 each, normal price, n really tasty. One of them with bhajis n rice does me for a meal, n the rest go in the freezer 😁