It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Datchet

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful ‘ Pack-Up’ support and advice! I am pretty thick-skinned about it and it was just their attitude that surprising. In future I shall state firmly “ TITTER YE NOT!  I am both healthy & frugal”!  ( although I doubt the youngsters will get the Frankie Howerd ref…)

It is rare I buy lunch when working out of regular office. In the ‘ before time’ pre-COVID I had a box of cereal, disposable salt & pepper grinder, HM seed & nut mix and a bottle of Tabasco in my desk / locker! Now WFH is more more normal- I don’t have stuff permanently at work. I will have to be present now for 2 fixed days a week, so the cereal will return at least.

I also make & freeze a load of single portion HG rhubarb /apple/ gooseberry compotes & take in for breakfast- with cereal or porridge. 

I’ve posted before, and I realise I’m not inventing the wheel here…I make lunch portions of “DoD soup”, freeze and zap in the office. That’s Dead or Dying veg soup! Uses up anything past its best. Handful of lentils, tin of toms, veg stock- yum. This is accompanied by another invention; the “Crustini” single crust of bread, hasty filling, fold & pack. The combination takes 1 minute to throw together pre-work.

My halo slips however when I fail to label the frozen bounty… one lunch was a mistake of ham crust sarny with soup that turned out to be applesauce…

Cheap and nutritious food while working away is difficult. Sometimes I’m in The Smoke, sometimes on 2-3 day road trips and there’s only so much you can carry/ take with. I can buy and claim back some cost but it’s frowned upon. Overnight oats and a non-leak lunch box on the train can be done. At least one days supplies in the car- but difficult in summer when your freezer packs defrost.

I’m usually in budget chain hotels and avoid the breakfasts owing to cost & waistline! However, when it’s an inclusive or freebie I will eat one - and if I can get away with it make a sandwich for later or nick yogurt & fruit for lunch. In fact I have a ziplock plastic bag permanently in travel bag. If staff challenge I say ‘ It’s for Ron’   Ie Later-Ron.

Spendless

Something a colleague told me in the job I had before the first lockdown hit and I got finished was the way he'd got out of debt when his second marriage failed was to 'never let coming to work cost you money'  I *think* he could walk to work but if not it was for a bus company that gave free travel to their employees, I was on the brink of receiving it for myself and my then 16yop daughter who was commuting to college and would have saved a fair amount on the bus part of it, when I lost my job.  He wouldn't spend a penny at work, read the free paper and fetched his drinks/snacks/meals from home. He stopped going out but if he wanted a treat would buy something more expensive for home consumption. 

My last job I had an hour's lunch was the only one on that time so alone and was next to a B & M and a small shopping outlet. After I realised I was spending money for 'something to do'. I thought about the above advice, made sure I took in a lunch every day that I looked forward to having (I bought different salads etc) and read on my phone.

Flugelhorn

ragz_2 said:

Most of my workplace (GP surgery) take packed lunches, but some do pop down the shops.
One of our GPs is super frugal/hates waste and often has some very odd combinations of lunches (random leftovers cobbled together). She also has a cast iron stomach as she was gleefully telling me she was eating chili that had been in her fridge for 3 weeks! Another GP only ever seems to eat (free) biscuits for lunch (I suggested we adopt a healthy workplace strategy and provide fruit instead of endless biscuits, but I was shot down!). 

LOL sounds like where I worked - TBH there was never enough time to notice what you were eating and the main aim was to get something that didn't clog up the keyboard if you dropped bits

[Deleted User]

I hope everyone is doing well and managing to keep going with smiles on our faces 😊😊

I was in Lidl yesterday near closing time, no reductions to be had at all and it was absolutely heaving. I wanted some of their version of Lurpak spreadable, there want any own brand just actual lurpak which was £5.19! We will manage without for now. 

Bluegreen143

You’d need to Google for quantities, but you can apparently make your own spreadable butter by blending butter with oil, block butter isn’t cheap either now but may be cheaper than buying spreadable? (Not sure if that’s definitely the case as I don’t buy spreadable, just block butter and keep out of the fridge in a butter dish - but thought I’d mention in case it does save money!).

EssexHebridean

Block butter kept in an insulated butter dish stays spreadable all year round - the butter dishes aren't cheap in the first place but ours has certainly been worth the cost I'd say as it definitely extends the life of the butter and means it's possible to put just the amount you need on bread without ripping holes in every slice. I just pop ours into the fridge if we're going to be away for a few days for any reason.  

London_1

EssexHebridean said:

Block butter kept in an insulated butter dish stays spreadable all year round - the butter dishes aren't cheap in the first place but ours has certainly been worth the cost I'd say as it definitely extends the life of the butter and means it's possible to put just the amount you need on bread without ripping holes in every slice. I just pop ours into the fridge if we're going to be away for a few days for any reason.  

out of interest where did you buy it ?
JackieO xx

Wednesday2000

I have been recording the channel 4 show about spending/saving money. It made me laugh that the husband of one of the women kept buying bed linen if he couldn't find any in the house. They said he was spending £100 a month on bed covers! They showed it near the end and he had stacks of them all in their original packaging.

Bluegreen143

Oh I didn’t know that was a thing @EssexHebridean! I just use a glass butter dish and works great in summer, but in winter we usually need to give the butter a blast in the microwave to make it spreadable 😅 which is a bit annoying.

Alas we seem to use a fair bit of butter so no need to worry about it keeping here 😂

EssexHebridean

London_1 said:

EssexHebridean said:

Block butter kept in an insulated butter dish stays spreadable all year round - the butter dishes aren't cheap in the first place but ours has certainly been worth the cost I'd say as it definitely extends the life of the butter and means it's possible to put just the amount you need on bread without ripping holes in every slice. I just pop ours into the fridge if we're going to be away for a few days for any reason.  

out of interest where did you buy it ?
JackieO xx

Lakeland Jackie - they've done them in various types for years - we had a plastic one before the current stainless steel version.