Cooking for one (Mark Three)

pineapple

wort wrote: »

I've not eaten out on my own . Though on the cruise when my hubby became ill I was eating alone as the rest of the people at our table for 8 never turned up!!
The problem I have is I feel embarrassed, I'm not sure why, I suppose not having anyone to speak to, and thinking people are watching you.

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I'm a bit like that too. Eating at my local village pub where I knew everyone was no problem, but solo holidays are a different matter.

When I used to visit a friend in Rotterdam, I was introduced to a great restaurant where diners sit at long trestle tables so you have no choice but to interact. Plus you aren't sat alone like Billy no Mates - usually at the table by the toilet that no one wants. . We could do with more like that here.

wort

pineapple wrote: »

I'm a bit like that too. Eating at my local village pub where I knew everyone was no problem, but solo holidays are a different matter.

When I used to visit a friend in Rotterdam, I was introduced to a great restaurant where diners sit at long trestle tables so you have no choice but to interact. Plus you aren't sat alone like Billy no Mates - usually at the table by the toilet that no one wants. . We could do with more like that here.

At lunchtime on the ship I used to go mainly to the main restaurant, as I had pre ordered my gfree meal, when I arrived they would ask if you wanted to sit with others or alone. I did both
It was nice not to be sat alone but making conversation with complete strangers was difficult for me, luckily the people on the table were very nice especially when they found out the reason I was eating alone,was my husband being ill, they were very reassuring.
When I sat alone I was put very very close to a man also alone, but both facing the same way ,I. E. = couldn't see his face, the tables were so close I felt like I was sat with him but couldn't converse, plus he'd asked for a table alone so probably didn't want to talk.

I've been keeping note of what I've spent this month on food and household items, and I'm surprised how much it was. I did have a big bill 1 week but I did get a lot of non food items, toilet rolls 18 pack ,shampoo which will last month's etc. So I've decided to carry on for the next 2 months and then see how it pans out. I didn't think I'd spent a lot!! As I've not shopped each week but held out until I've had to go, I always make a list, only adding things as I run out/down to last one with tins etc.
I know everyone's budget is different but what is the average spend for 1 person / sometime dgson per month??:o

caronc

Wort - I cook mainly for me, my son visits a couple of weekends a month and I'll cook for others a couple of times a month to. My budget is £30 per week for groceries and household/personal items. I don't count Christmas,alcohol or eating out in this. January was a very low spend month for me as I was well stocked post Christmas. The £30 is very much an average though as if there is a good special offer I do stock up but over the year it generally covers what I like to eat. I could do cheaper but choose not to and thankfully I don't need to. I eat very well and don't scrimp on ingredients or food choices. This year I'm trying to only shop every 8/9 days instead of rigidly every week so in theory every so often I should have a "free" week IFYSWIM. I'll see how it goes but so far it is making me plan my meals more carefully. At the end of the day it is whatever you need to spend/can afford that will work for you. I'm trying to reduce my mortgage as much as I can before my fixed rate ends in 2020 so that hopefully after that I can reduce the remaining term a good bit if I choose to so that's a good driver for me not to overspend on food etc.

pineapple

Gosh I think £30 is amazing - especially if you include cleaning products, toiletries etc. I dare not think how much I spend but I'm trying (honest).
The problem is I like things like fresh organic coffee, organic milk, decent olive oil, good breads etc. Plus once in a while I stock up on meat from a superb award winning butchers in a nearby market town. Much of it is from their own farm and I feel a lot more comfortable eating that than some supermarket stuff. Plus it tastes better. Unfortunate it also costs more. In my defence I eat out maybe once a year and I don't go to cafes or pubs. Plus I try to be economical with cooking seeing as I am on E7 - therefore hiked day time leccy rates. Either I'm up at dawn cooking or in the winter I cook a lot on top of the multifuel stove.

caronc

pineapple wrote: »

Gosh I think £30 is amazing - especially if you include cleaning products, toiletries etc. I dare not think how much I spend but I'm trying (honest).
The problem is I like things like fresh organic coffee, organic milk, decent olive oil, good breads etc. Plus once in a while I stock up on meat from a superb award winning butchers in a nearby market town. Much of it is from their own farm and I feel a lot more comfortable eating that than some supermarket stuff. Plus it tastes better. Unfortunate it also costs more. In my defence I eat out maybe once a year and I don't go to cafes or pubs. Plus I try to be economical with cooking seeing as I am on E7 - therefore hiked day time leccy rates. Either I'm up at dawn cooking or in the winter I cook a lot on top of the multifuel stove.

I like the good things in life as well so don't deprive myself of the finer things:), meat I mainly buy online as the quality is so much better with only odd bits from the SM. I find if you track SOs/bulk buy the price is much the same as the SMs. I'm also quite happy to do a bit of butchery myself if need be. However, my expensive spends/meals are balanced by cheaper pulse or veg based meals, not having massive portions of meat/fish, trying not to waste anything and cooking mainly from scratch. It works for me:)

Farway

Thanks everyone for the Cheese & onion pie tips, I have printed off the dog's dangly bits one, itching to get cracking now, I bought some Cheshire cheese this morning just for this purpose, no Lancashire on the shelves. I also have odds & s0ds bits of cheese LO Xmas stuff

Lovely sunny day, but bitter wind, I nearly did some garden pruning, but nahhh, it'll keep

Breakfast was HM yoghurt + honey
Lunch last of the micro pork pies + piccalilli
Dinner was going to be thick meaty soup with some of my stew mixed in, however Asda provided a YS salmon fillet this morning so plans have changed.

Dinner will now be baked spud, YS salmon fillet, probably nuked or maybe fried in butter / olive oil, with salad

Just checked on average weekly spends, mine varies, and I do not budget, just buy what I find / want and sometimes buy the dearer options. It comes out in the mid £40 range, which includes things like loo rolls, TV mags, soap etc

I generally do not eat out, but did in the past when I was working
Probably different male / female attitude that I was not aware of. I never hesitated on just going in any where, cafe, restaurant or pub on my own and just plonking myself down.
I even used to walk into hotels and use the loo if needing one, big enough hotel, reasonably dressed, they have no idea you do not belong there. Trick is not to ask, act like you belong

Had funny result in a pub once, I was in jacket & tie, posh, to them, Southern accent, scallies assumed I was Old Bill and made a wide space for me

PasturesNew

I guess eating out alone does also depend where. I've never stepped foot inside a "fancy restaurant" and would tend to head for places offering pie/chips on a plate for £5.95, or a cheap pub.

For those saying they "like the finer things..." - I've never had that budget/choice/luxury

I did spend one whole Saturday evening about 20 years ago traipsing round a town to every indian restaurant trying to get a table for one to no avail until 11pm.... I started about 7pm on foot, the restaurants were empty. No table for one. I then took the car out, to go further afield (I was furious by this point and determined!).... and finally a restaurant that was full MADE me a table for one and popped me into a corner.

It seems that it can be a problem, in some areas, in some types of restaurants, for whatever reason they choose. Some don't like single diners because they don't want the place to look like a hooker bar or a pick up joint - and some just want to fill a table with two bums ordering meals/drinks to get the greater profit.

My usual budget mentally for food/week is £10. I'm prepared to go over if I have to, or if I choose to, but that's what I aim for and usually hit.

If going out .... I expect to have a meal and a drink and come home with change from £10. Last time I went out for a pub meal I parted with £5 and ate/had a drink.

PasturesNew

Yesterday I ate: hash browns, beans, 1 scrambled egg, sausages.
I also had some digestives and 4 of those little "scotch pancakes" you buy from next to the crumpets.

Today I've had 2 more of those pancakes (breakfast) - and just ate a cheese/onion toasted sandwich.

I've nothing exciting in and it's too cold to think about going out just to buy new food, when I'll freeze.

gt568

PasturesNew wrote: »

I did spend one whole Saturday evening about 20 years ago traipsing round a town to every indian restaurant trying to get a table for one to no avail until 11pm.... I started about 7pm on foot, the restaurants were empty. No table for one. I then took the car out, to go further afield (I was furious by this point and determined!).... and finally a restaurant that was full MADE me a table for one and popped me into a corner.

It seems that it can be a problem, in some areas, in some types of restaurants, for whatever reason they choose. Some don't like single diners because they don't want the place to look like a hooker bar or a pick up joint - and some just want to fill a table with two bums ordering meals/drinks to get the greater profit.

Never once had this problem in my entire life. Indeed never had this problem anywhere in the world!!

moneyistooshorttomention

PasturesNew wrote: »

It seems that it can be a problem, in some areas, in some types of restaurants, for whatever reason they choose. Some don't like single diners because they don't want the place to look like a hooker bar or a pick up joint - and some just want to fill a table with two bums ordering meals/drinks to get the greater profit.

Is this where I say I got conned into visiting a hooker bar one time by a woman I knew way back when - and sat there drinking my drink in blissful ignorance of what sort of place I'd been hauled into?

Daylight did dawn eventually - when it struck me that some of the men were sorta looking sideways at me and promptly looking away again when I spotted them doing so and I asked my companion why the place "has a funny atmosphere". Then she told me:cool:. I guess it must be obvious/have always been obvious that I'm not......and hence these guys looking away a bit embarrassed I'd spotted them looking (I guess they'd realised I was "out of place" before I did:cool::rotfl:).

Let's just say she didn't share the same sense of humour as I did.....:cool:..so I guess the moral of the tale is it's pretty easy to tell which places are (or aren't) as the case may be (except for naive young English girls who'd only just left home back in that generation:o).

But I've long since learnt that one of the first impressions anyone gets of me, it seems, is that I'm a bit "prim and proper":rotfl::rotfl:. So I'm guessing most restaurant/bar/etc owners can "tell the difference" - though there will always be the odd one I suppose. I've learnt the places I get "frozen out of by obvious stares etc" are rough type pubs....particularly if I open my mouth and my voice comes out (very standard...and it's been called posh more than once....).