Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

Farway said:

... maybe splash out for a fishcake or suchlike it they sell them of course

It's a tough one.  Being awwww-tistic I have to go through many rounds of familiarisations.  Getting to this point is always a milestone.  I did think of taking a photo of his price list, but daren't/didn't, for fear of my motives being questioned.... I did spot though "homemade fishcakes £1.90" and I'd already decided "No thank you".  There are no deals posters, or specials.  It's a simple chip shop with a menu and that's it.... so, depending on who else is about next time I might take some snaps.  

But, as a portion of chips is more than sufficient it'd be an utter waste of money to buy a 2nd item   

Brambling

It's handy the chippy is open PN as least some hot food 

As it's Friday we actually finished on time tonight   admittedly with a long list of thing for us to do Monday    so maybe a G & T with dinner or one in the garden before hand seeing as it is so nice out there.  Just wish I had room in my freezer for a ice cube tray 

I popped out for my compost lunchtime all very 'safe' she spoke to me through the glass door and then he dropped the trolley about 10 meters away and I had to wait until he entered the building to collect it 

I made a salad nicoise for lunch using the fresh tuna i discovered in the freezer (only a little piece brought reduced from the fish counter) which i coated in black sesame seeds and quickly panned fried, with a boiled egg, new potatoes and LO asparagus rather than french beans (i forgot to add the olives) I had some watercress left from the weekend but considering it was a bunch i brought last Saturday it was still very green with no yellow leaves, definitely better than watercress brought in bags from the SM and a lot more taste.  

For dinner i plan to make lamb meatballs with fennel and have with either rice or noodles and some LO runner beans followed if required by fresh pineapple, it's a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi which i enjoy but haven't made for a while.  It's the last of the lean lamb mince from the freezer so the next few mince meals will all be beef unless i decide to go to Sainsbobs as they seem to be the only SM who sell lean lamb mince and currently i CBA 

PasturesNew

Mentally my weekly food budget is about £10.  I've seen heaps of local places spring up delivering groceries... they're tended to be pricier places. e.g. £8 for a handmade artisan loaf .... with tons of people gushing, with photos, of their "beautiful veg box we've just had delivered, just £35-40, we'll definitely be ordering again next week.".  Plenty of places to have food delivered from if your budget's bigger.  I've "stalked" these people.... as they've also posted photos of their street clapping and people've asked "which road..." and I've looked them up, they tend to live in the roads where the houses cost £500-700k 3-4 years ago, so a bit more now. 

There are indian, chinese, chippy deliveries, if you download/use an app and have a minimum £12 order. 

... all I've wanted in life is to wander into a cheap shop and get a cheap loaf of bread, a couple of cheap pots of paste, maybe some cheap samosas (4/99p) or a cheap quiche (400g/£1.19) and to wander into a chip shop and part with about £2 for a bag of chips.  Sadly ... these lower cost lifestyles are not catered for unless you're determined to dig them out and hunt them down  

Re queues: if you rock up to a shop and all you want is 4 items... you get there and see people wheeling away vast trolleys laden with plants and small trees, household goods and wine galore... and you eye up the 20 people in the queue with vast trolleys and think "b4lls to that".  

For those shopping for 2-3-4-5 people, with a weekly spend of, say, £80-100 or more .... waiting 45 minutes to get in is a nuisance, but it's worth while for the haul they'll be leaving with.  For those who just want <5 small items, it's offputting. 

caronc

Good morning everyone,
My son and sister report that queuing to get into shops seems to have died down here or if there is one it's only for a few minutes. Locally the SM is better stocked and folk seem not to be lingering when in store. Frustrating to have to wait for ages if you only want a couple of items PN .
It's sunny again this morning, I'm having a lazy start before I get myself organised. The burgers last night were gorgeous and the chicken and griddled veg are cooked ready for tonight. We'll have them in wraps with other salad bits for dinner. Forecast wise it looks as though today will be the last properly warm day for a bit so I intend to make the most of the garden while it lasts. 

Farway

Cooler & less sun. Like Caron it could be last decent garden day, my main garden tasks lately seems to be stomping on lily beetles

PasturesNew said:

There are indian, chinese, chippy deliveries, if you download/use an app and have a minimum £12 order. 

... all I've wanted in life is to wander into a cheap shop and get a cheap loaf of bread, a couple of cheap pots of paste, maybe some cheap samosas (4/99p) or a cheap quiche (400g/£1.19) and to wander into a chip shop and part with about £2 for a bag of chips.  Sadly ... these lower cost lifestyles are not catered for unless you're determined to dig them out and hunt them down  

Re queues: if you rock up to a shop and all you want is 4 items... you get there and see people wheeling away vast trolleys laden with plants and small trees, household goods and wine galore... and you eye up the 20 people in the queue with vast trolleys and think "b4lls to that".  

For those shopping for 2-3-4-5 people, with a weekly spend of, say, £80-100 or more .... waiting 45 minutes to get in is a nuisance, but it's worth while for the haul they'll be leaving with.  For those who just want <5 small items, it's offputting. 

I'm with you on this PN, including the £12 minimum delivery. Although not experiencing it personally given my more favoured situation with a kind ND plus mega [for me] delivery from Ice£and last week

I'm led to believe smaller shops are easier, but of course costs comes into play. It's all a juggle, costs versus convenience.

I read some use garage forecourt shops, not SM attached ones, dearer but in & out "toot sweet" if you catch it with no cars filling up

A fishy meals day today, not deliberately it just happens to be this way

Lunch will be the LO tuna / mayo combo from yesterday's dinner. The baked spud was OK in the end, no black gunge inside & thoroughly enjoyable

Dinner, YS & then frozen L's Chunky cod F fingers, HM AF chips & nuked frozen peas.

The F Fs are defrosting, best cooked from chilled it says so RTFI for best results

Wednesday2000

I had my Ocado delivered yesterday and two more slots booked for next Friday and the Friday afterwards.

I went to bed at 9 last night so I woke up at 3. I did get another hour of sleep but it feels like it should be lunchtime now.

I had toast for breakfast and just had a sandwich and crisps for lunch.

I'm going to do a kidney bean and rice bowl later as I bought salsa in the shopping.

PasturesNew

Wednesday2000 said:

.... next Friday and the Friday afterwards.

That second one is a bank holiday, might be worth just checking they don't pull it. Would they usually deliver on a bank holiday? It's that special VE Day one. 

PasturesNew

I had a jam sandwich for breakfast.  This loaf has thicker slices, so you don't get so many meals/loaf.  I've still got a pot of chicken paste, so will probably knock up a chicken paste/stuffing sandwich in a bit.   I've tomatoes and cucumber that might/might not make it into that. 

Later I'll probably have a noodle pot.  I've still got a box of 12 in the car of "my favourite flavour", saving those for last as they're best.  When I've got some I am not keen on and some I love of anything I try to chomp through those I don't like that much first, saving the favourites as a planned treat, or for last.  I think I've 12 pots still here (3 flavours) and 2 Pot Rices (from memory).   Loads and loads of cup a soups galore still... probably nigh on 30-40 of those, gathered at an assortment of shops (L1dl, 4ldi, Mr T). 

DireEmblem

Glad I found this thread - I've just had a look at what I've been spending on food the past few weeks for 1.  I thought it would be less working from home, but turns out its much more!!!  Between the 15th March to the 14th April, I spent £57.99 on takeaways, and £158.98 in Tesco and Lidl.  And to think my cupboards are hardly full to say the least!

So for today, I plan to come up with an all new 'food planner'.   I think I need to downgrade a few things and be smarter how I shop.  Yes the Chicago town takeaway pizzas are pretty darn good, but so are the Dr Oetker ones that regularly come in at half that price!

I think I have also discovered where my costs are coming from as well.  Its trying to eat a healthier balance of foods and I'm trying to simplify things.  For example, one of my favourite smoothies is this best green smoothie, and it seems to be one of my more expensive items.  I have broken down costs below:

100g Frozen pineapple chunks (45p)
50g Frozen Mango chunks(20p)
0.5 Medium Avocado (30p)
25g Ginger (10p)
50g Spinach(30p)
200ml Almond Milk (20p)

All in all, this costs me £1.55 to make, but since I use fresh Spinach, then I tend to have it over 2 days, so £3.1 a day.  If I did that over 7 days, then instantly accounts for £21 a week just for two drinks a day!

I'm going to cost out some of my other more regular items as well, just to see if they're the same, and if I can find savings/alternatives!

Nelski

DireEmblem my costs have gone up too which is multifactorial, I have too much time on my hands so wander round the online supermarket sites being tempted, I have had some panic at the start of this as most things went to out of of stock so to get £50 of shopping you needed to order £90s worth, I am somewhat unrealistic about just how much food I really eat so buy for 3 meals when I will only really eat one and a bit oh and I like wine so no spend outside means more spend inside. Anyway as things seem more available now I will do some planning too and eat what's here.

Asda delivery today so cupboards are full again. Today Ill have a lamb kofta later with a big salad, in the meantime I will pick at something probably unhealthy and do a more structured plan for the week