Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

Well, to the dentist.... and he said some stuff that isn't "totally scarey", but I do have to go back for work next week.... in the long run my teeth are "terminal" and, at some point, they will all come out ... over a few years... starting .... at a time of their choosing (current problem seems to be their bid for freedom).

I wasn't far from Home Bargains, so popped in .... bit of a crisis moment in there. I used to buy "my favourite chocs" from there; they stopped selling those but sold similars, which became "my new favourite chocs". They also sell biscuits "my favourite biscuits".

Usually I'll go in and come out with one. Two or three of those products aren't ever on the shelves at the same time, so I go in for one thing, find what IS there ... and have it.

DISASTER: Today they had ALL THREE.... so I left the shop with three bags of chocs AND a bag of chocolate biscuits

Lunch was a bit of mashed spud leftovers, added a bit of grated cheese, served with the last 1/4 of a tin of beans.

Chocs later

Wednesday2000

I just had a sandwich for lunch and a cup of green tea.

Brambling wrote: »

No rash Wednesday its an inner ear thing I think and the headache and neck ache are probably due to the way I was holding my head yesterday :cool:

Ah, okay, maybe a hot bath would help.:)

caronc

Good evening everyone,
Glad you got on okay at the dentist PN- hopefully they'll be able to curb losing them:).
Hope you enjoyed your cold lamb Farway - I'd of happily taken the rare stuff off your hands.

My "wonky donkey" has come out in sympathy with Brambling, I think being out in the stormy weather upset it:(. It's not too bad and will hopefully settle overnight as I'm back to the dentist tomorrow.
I liberated a tub of leek & potato soup to have with my egg mayo sarnie for lunch. I've made enough egg to do tomorrow as I'll be looking for a soft eat after getting a filling replaced.:)
Just some veg to chop for dinner so an easy CFO tonight.

candygirl

Evening all:j
PN Morrison's have got Fray Bentos pies for £1 at the mo:eek:
Had HM curry for tea tonight, was hot but lush

kev2009

Hi all, Only just seen this thread.

I'm wondering, is it still cheaper to cook for 1 vs eating out n terms of dinner i mean? I'm thinking by the time you bought the food, cooked it, washed up, wouldn't it be cheaper to eat out and be waited on ? Such as a cafe? I have a cafe that does really nice steak & kidney pie and chips & veg for about £5 - 6.. seems good value as plate is full.

Just wondering...

Kev

caronc

Hi Kev - while that's good value for eating out yes even for CFO it's cheaper to make for yourself even factoring in "service" costs such as buying, serving, clearing, washing up etc.- for most folks they cost nothing or very little. In most places the food costs per dish will be a smallish amount of the charge. As with everything else "value for money" depends on your budget, time constraints etc. Personally my budget for food & household products is £30 per week and believe me I live well on that.:) Even allowing for fuel costs for cooking which for me come in at around £2-3 per week I'd be hungry if I ate out all the time.;):)

But if eating out suits you and you can afford it - enjoy!:)

kev2009

Thanks caronc. It was just a question i thought i'd ask. If i could afford to, i certainly would but don't eat out every day. In that Cafe, i maybe go once every 1 or 2 months and I usually see the same 2 or 3 people in there, along with other people so i suspect they are regulars. Looks like the tend to go there after work, have a meal and then off they go.

It's something i'm hoping to be able to do come retirement as don't think i wanna be messing around cooking every night. Currently thinking maybe cooking 1 or 2 nights per week or if the weather gets really bad then cooking etc but would like to eat out more, not in restaurants every night but somewhere that does reasonable food for not an arm and a leg

Recently went to a pub for a meal one night, main,desert & a drink came to over £20. Costly meal out that was. was nice food, but not sure the price warranted it but at least was good food.

I've just renewed my energy tariffs as my tariffs came to an end so i see elec. has shot up compared to 2 years ago. for me its a good £50+ a year more. Gas isn't too bad, on my usage, my DD is just under £2 cheaper a month. So hence got me thinking, maybe its cheaper eating out:)

Kev

Brambling

Hi Kev

Like many of us who CFO I often bulk cook as not only does it keep cooking cost down but ingredient cost as well, I have a stock of HM ready meals in my freezer for when I don't want to cook. Slow cookers or instant pots save putting an oven on and I try to fill up my oven if I use it. I tend to cook enough veg for a couple of days at a time and when freezing I don't just freeze the protein part of the meal but i add the carbs and veg for example chilli and rice, steak and kidney with mash potatoes and a couple of veg. It helps that I like to cook

By menu planning I can eat well for a lot less than £5 a night if I work to a monthly budget i can budget for steak one night and eat lentils or pulses another to balance it out, a roast chicken for example can feed me four meals and then I can make stock for four portions of soup.

I very rarely eat out on my own it's not something I enjoy also if I eat out and don't want to walk a four miles round trip I would have to factor in parking costs as well as the food.

PasturesNew

kev2009 wrote: »

I'm wondering, is it still cheaper to cook for 1 vs eating out n terms of dinner i mean? I'm thinking by the time you bought the food, cooked it, washed up, wouldn't it be cheaper to eat out and be waited on ? Such as a cafe? I have a cafe that does really nice steak & kidney pie and chips & veg for about £5 - 6.. seems good value as plate is full.

Yes Unless you're cooking "really special food".

And, eating out does add up really. As a rule my weekly food budget (including all my sweeties and treats) is £10/week.

Even when I think "fish and chips from the chippy", which'd be £5-6 if found on some meal deal, my next thought is "or £2 for a pack of four fish in batter + £1 for 1Kg of oven chips = 4 meals for £3". A family-sized pie can be bought for £2, with that 1Kg of chips at £1 that's £3 for four meals.

Even 2 sausage rolls on a plate in a cheap cafe would probably be £5 ... whereas I can buy a pack of four large ones, or 6 medium ones, for £1.... and reheat them myself (without having to also pay another £2 for a drink).

If I could afford to eat out any time I wanted to, then I'd do that... but even if you manage to find some £5 deals ... you still have to buy a drink on top. And, dressing up (as opposed to a T shirt/thong) and getting in there and ordering and waiting isn't pleasant when you're alone. And if you "find a friend" to go with then there's additional costs as you'd feel obliged to have more than one drink... so now you're buying 2-3 drinks you're only buying as you're there for a "cheap meal".

Even if you found somewhere that did food for, say, £6, that's only the one meal/day - you still need "other food/nibbles" - and £6/day is £42/week, £180/month. Then add on those extra drinks costs .....

The sort of person who can afford £180/month on eating out has greater expectations of life than eating in a cheap meal deal place too to have the sort of wealth/income that allows you such a budget means you're used to "the better things" than the grubby pub at the end of the road that's got a meal deal plastered on a blackboard outside.

SunnyGirl

Kev I also make meals for the freezer so I don't cook as often. I still make more or less the same amounts as when I was cooking for 5 people so a lot of the meals I make feed me multiple times. Today I am making corned beef pasties and it makes sense to use the whole tin of corned beef, some potatoes, carrots and onions and make one batch of pastry which makes 8 pasties. I'll eat one tonight and freeze the other 7 for future meals I got into the habit of cooking once and eating twice when working full time and have just carried it on really.

In a perfect world I'd love to eat out a couple of times a week but all too often I find the quality isn't as good as I'd make. Like Brambling I love cooking which probably helps :rotfl: