Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Irenadler

spirit wrote: »

Well DD finally gave birth to grandson - 2 weeks late and had to be induced. He is 10 days old today. He's a wee poppet.

Hey Spirit

Congratulations on the grandson, how lovely, you must be so happy with him. So sorry that the DD isn't appreciative, or the SiL....

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,
Spirit - Congratulations on the new grandchild, shame the joy is being marred a bit by been taken for granted
Irene - with your fares that sounds horribly tight but doable for a short period. Do you do any surveys? Out of boredom more than anything I joined a few sites YouGov (slow but steady but took me a year to get £50, Prolific Academy - joined at the end of November have banked £45.00 since then and OnePoll - joined at the beginning of the year £21 so far). There are loads more, have a look at the "Debt Free Wannabe" part of the MSE site. It's not huge rewards but every little helps as they say.
MTSTM - not that anyone's counting but my Dad is now coming for lunch tomorrow :rotfl:

Out of interest 'cos I had little else to do this afternoon I sat and costed as accurately as I could what my food spend for today will be (fuel not included). I reckon today is a fairly typical "on the high side of average" spend for me. I shop in Tesco mainly so prices reflect what I paid, Aldi/Lidl are probably cheaper. I haven't always had the cheapest option from Tesco either but equally some things were on SO. I've said "high side of average" as lunch today was an "expensive for me" day , I often just have soup & toast or a cheaper sarnie/roll.
As I've said I've done it out of interest rather than to spark a huge debate and it reflects my choices and budget but I did find it interesting.:)

Breakfast
2 slices toast (Tesco Medium sliced loaf @ 55p for 800g each slice is 40g) 6p
Dairy Lea cheese spread (180g bought on SO @ £1 about 1/6 of the pack) 17p
2 dried figs (these were a gift so free, but I usually would have an apple or an orange or a couple of satsumas at approx 30p)
Total for breakfast 23p

Lunch

Portuguese Green Bean Soup Total Cost £1.66 for 4 (poss 5) portions (I was a bit out on my estimation of around £1.20 for this , but still reckon my Dad is worth it :rotfl:)
Costed as follows:-

• small onion (about 75g @ 49p per kg) 4p
• 2 large carrots (about 250g @ 60p per kg) 15p
• 2 spuds (Tesco finest about 200g @ £1.15 per kg) 23p
• green beans (100g @ 89p for 220g) 41p
• chorizo (50g Tesco Finest @ £2 for 200g) 50p
• garlic (about 1/3 of a small bulb) 10p
• chicken stock (sort of free as homemade but 20p allowed for pot veg added to the carcass) 20p
• 1 tbsp olive oil ( free as a gift but could be left out or costed in)
• salt & pepper 3p (estimate)
• Total cost for soup £1.66 - 42p per portion

Ham and coleslaw roll

• crusty roll (4 for £1) 25p
• Ayrshire Ham (from the deli counter @ 92p for 2 slices) 46p
• coleslaw (Tesco Finest @ 85p for 180g about 1/4 of the tub) 22p
• scrape of Flora (Bought on SO @ £2 for 1kg) 5p (or less)
• Total for roll - 98p

Total cost for lunch - £1.40

Dinner
Mash from the freezer(weighed and it's 115g so 11p for spuds plus milk(1p)& butter (6p)) 18p
Savoy cabbage (Cost 69p reckon I'll use around 1/6th) 12p

Butter for cabbage 10p

Liver and bacon costed as follows for 3 portions:-

• Lamb's liver 200g (400g bought from Tesco @ £2.40 per kg, remainder getting frozen) 48p
• Ayrshire Streaky Bacon (100g bought from local butcher @ £7.70 per kg) 77p
• 2 onions 15p
• Stalk of celery 5p
• Small carrot 5p
• Chestnut Mushrooms (about 100g @ £3.61 per kg) 36p
• Oxo cube (12 for £1 on SO) 8p
• Salt, pepper, dried thyme, paprika, flour 10p (estimate)
• Total cost for 3 portions = £2.04 so £0.68 per portion

Total cost for dinner £1.08


On top of my meals I've also had a decaff instant coffee (5p), about 6 mugs of tea (8p) and used a 1/2 pint of milk (14p) Total for drinks 32p


Total food spends £3.03

Irenadler

PasturesNew wrote: »

This is the trouble. Years ago you'd get a Tue/Wed job and a Thu-Sat job ... knowing the days. Nowadays they say "flexible" and they mean "we want a list of people willing to call at short notice at any time of the day and any day of the week ... on call". So even if you just suck it up and pretend at the interview and get onto the list, then find something else you've lied to get ...not only do you live "in fear" of making a mistake in conversation and/or being seen/caught out - but once they've phoned you a few times and you've said "no" your name's at the bottom of their list and there's a new ad in the papers.

Those who haven't been at the "grunt end of life" have no idea how tough it is to get the simplest of lives pulled together.


I plough my own furrow because I don't "eat that way", the way many people these days eat...and a lot of these "look we live on thruppence a day" blogs do it by only eating oats and lentils, which I don't eat

Hey PN

I am finding that out more now. My own fault I am struggling as I was used to OH f/t wage coming in plus my 25 hours, and couldn't get my head round adjusting to just 25 hrs income for ages... As well as forgetting I was CFO/BFO. Doh!

Need to kick myself up the wotsit and face reality. The world of work is a lot different now. Mother tells me she could walk out of one job in the morning and straight into another one in the afternoon, as a youngster. Nothing like now.

Everything has to be done on-line, CV's viewable by employers like you are goods on display in the supermarket, and you have to dot every i and cross every t. Account for every job, have references up to date, and ID. I am lucky my passport is still in date, and my photocard driving licence (even though I have no car) else I would be well snookered. I have even taken tests on-line (as well as job applications) before I even set eyes on an employer.... Out of over 100 applications had 6 interviews.... Sigh.... Must be too old for them.

[Deleted User]

I feel blessed not be a modern day job hunter, it was pretty well word of mouth when I was young. No wonder so many people are ill through stress

The pies are lovely, very light pastry and the cornflour dusting made the filling stay put when I cut them in 1/2 for the freezer. Still tangy and mouth satisfying, not leaving me wanting more, no glucose/fructose deadly syrup in them, just the fruit and pastry

My bread, I am making a small 1 lb loaf and leaving it overnight before I cut it, it tastes much better and lasts longer kept unwrapped in my little JL breadbin. It also makes much better toast because it hasn`t been frozen or wrapped in plastic, less damp

Irenadler

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I do recall being shocked some years back when one of the cleaners at work explained to me that she really intended to have a full-time job (or thereabouts) but was having to cobble together a full-time amount of hours from doing that cleaning job AND part-time job 2 AND part-time job 3 AND part-time job 4 and so on. I worked it out at the time that she'd be spending a lot of her free time on getting to and from all these mini-jobs (compared to where I got myself to work once a day and then got myself back from work once a day). Her response to my "How do you have A Life with all that to fit together then?" was "You don't - as you spend so much time doing all that".

I thought that was terrible at the time and was so glad that, if the worst had happened to my job (and gawdknows I had to "fight" my employer more than once to make sure it didn't:cool:) that I didn't have a mortgage any longer and could hold out on the Dole Queue for however-long-it-took to get a Normal Job again (ie 9-5 Monday to Friday or thereabouts) and was under no illusions whatsoever as to just how low my chances were of ever coming off the Dole Queue before I got to retirement age and could give up applying for jobs (as I had a list of "things to put employers off" a mile long if any of them had ever tried to give me a job that wasn't a Normal Job - as I had made up my mind I wasn't going to go there....).

I do read about a noticeable number of people that are perfectly capable of having a job imo now having the even worse situation of these "on call" set-ups and struggle to get my mind around how they're supposed to earn any extra income on top of their Main Income if they decide to - if employers are going to take that "Be available - or else" attitude. Plus, of course, the "How are they ever going to be able to study to try and get better qualifications and get out of that situation? How are they going to Have A Life? Get a mortgage etc?". At that point it does my head in and I can't think of how they're supposed to do so....and try and have a normal life.

Tell me about it.... Trying not to be too low about it. Went for one job which only offered 11 hours per week, yet, expected me to be 'flexible' Monday to Friday. I was honest and said I couldn't do mornings, and yes, I did not get offered the job.....

One thing I am forever grateful for, is that we paid off the mortgage early, after finding this MSE site. OH f/t, me working 2 jobs and over-time when I wasn't expected to be quite so 'flexible'. We worked bloody hard too. So at least I know I have a roof over my head, but, I despair for younger ones out there that can't even get a toe-hold on the property ladder.

I guess I have to think of the positive, even if I have to turn down the heating, layer up, drink lotsa tea/soup to keep warmed up, there are many out there worse off than me, that don't have a secure roof over their heads.....

Hey, at least I have my health!

Irenadler

caronc wrote: »

Good afternoon everyone,

Irene - with your fares that sounds horribly tight but doable for a short period. Do you do any surveys? Out of boredom more than anything I joined a few sites YouGov (slow but steady but took me a year to get £50, Prolific Academy - joined at the end of November have banked £45.00 since then and OnePoll - joined at the beginning of the year £21 so far). There are loads more, have a look at the "Debt Free Wannabe" part of the MSE site. It's not huge rewards but every little helps as they say.
[

Hey, thanks, maybe I will be able to boost the bank balance....:)


Breakfast
2 slices toast (Tesco Medium sliced loaf @ 55p for 800g each slice is 40g) 6p
Dairy Lea cheese spread (180g bought on SO @ £1 about 1/6 of the pack) 17p
2 dried figs (these were a gift so free, but I usually would have an apple or an orange or a couple of satsumas at approx 30p)
Total for breakfast 23p

Lunch

Portuguese Green Bean Soup Total Cost £1.66 for 4 (poss 5) portions (I was a bit out on my estimation of around £1.20 for this , but still reckon my Dad is worth it :rotfl:)
Costed as follows:-

• small onion (about 75g @ 49p per kg) 4p
• 2 large carrots (about 250g @ 60p per kg) 15p
• 2 spuds (Tesco finest about 200g @ £1.15 per kg) 23p
• green beans (100g @ 89p for 220g) 41p
• chorizo (50g Tesco Finest @ £2 for 200g) 50p
• garlic (about 1/3 of a small bulb) 10p
• chicken stock (sort of free as homemade but 20p allowed for pot veg added to the carcass) 20p
• 1 tbsp olive oil ( free as a gift but could be left out or costed in)
• salt & pepper 3p (estimate)
• Total cost for soup £1.66 - 42p per portion

Ham and coleslaw roll

• crusty roll (4 for £1) 25p
• Ayrshire Ham (from the deli counter @ 92p for 2 slices) 46p
• coleslaw (Tesco Finest @ 85p for 180g about 1/4 of the tub) 22p
• scrape of Flora (Bought on SO @ £2 for 1kg) 5p (or less)
• Total for roll - 98p

Total cost for lunch - £1.40

Dinner
Mash from the freezer(weighed and it's 115g so 11p for spuds plus milk(1p)& butter (6p)) 18p
Savoy cabbage (Cost 69p reckon I'll use around 1/6th) 12p

Butter for cabbage 10p

Liver and bacon costed as follows for 3 portions:-

• Lamb's liver 200g (400g bought from Tesco @ £2.40 per kg, remainder getting frozen) 48p
• Ayrshire Streaky Bacon (100g bought from local butcher @ £7.70 per kg) 77p
• 2 onions 15p
• Stalk of celery 5p
• Small carrot 5p
• Chestnut Mushrooms (about 100g @ £3.61 per kg) 36p
• Oxo cube (12 for £1 on SO) 8p
• Salt, pepper, dried thyme, paprika, flour 10p (estimate)
• Total cost for 2 portions = £2.04 so £0.68 per portion

Total cost for dinner £1.08


On top of my meals I've also had a decaff instant coffee (5p), about 6 mugs of tea (8p) and used a 1/2 pint of milk (14p) Total for drinks 32p


Total food spends £3.03

Thanks Caronc

I know you don't want a debate, but, well impressed with your full listing and pricing. Just shows that if I think carefully, don't have to freak out about it, and cook properly it will be tastier. I am going to really try to YS though, as much as I can of 'ingredients' rather than anything processed.

caronc

Irenadler wrote: »

Thanks Caronc

I know you don't want a debate, but, well impressed with your full listing and pricing. Just shows that if I think carefully, don't have to freak out about it, and cook properly it will be tastier. I am going to really try to YS though, as much as I can of 'ingredients' rather than anything processed.

Believe if I could handle SMs I'd be there at reducting time a lot...;)

moneyistooshorttomention

IreneA - have you got a garden you could grow at least a bit of food in? Even just growing a few lettuces and/or perpetual spinach or the like would help out...

There's a few foods that re-grow too - and I have a tendency to put the root section plus an inch or so of leek or spring onion in the garden (after having cut off most of it to use at that point) and then leave it to re-grow back into a full leek or spring onion for me again.

My sympathies at the Idiot Employer that thought he could tie up all 5 weekdays for the sake of just 11 hours!!!!! Cheeky ******

Farway

Irenadler wrote: »

Mother tells me she could walk out of one job in the morning and straight into another one in the afternoon, as a youngster. Nothing like now.

Now I feel I am old enough to be your father:) I used to do just that, leave in the morning, start new job following day. Factories always had big boards outside with jobs vacant. I really do feel for the young ones and anyone looking these days. Trouble is with the advent of AI I think there will be even fewer jobs around

Back to food, the PIE turned out very well. I followed recipe which was for 4, so 3/4 left. Had it with frozen chips & baked beans, with statutory brown sauce

I costed it out roughly to about £3.50, approx 88p a portion. If I made my own pastry I could cut that down

Here it is

moneyistooshorttomention

Farway - Pastures has just started on her way north at the mention of that meal:rotfl: