From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

rtandon27

It isn't just children who struggle with menus when eating out hun! Two short tales for you…

On the way back from the hospital yesterday we stopped off at a local cafe. OH wanted a breakfast bap - they did not do eggs so he was 'reduced' to a sausage bap. He then saw my toastie and slice of cake and asked where his dessert was. I had to point out that reading the chalkboard menu would have told him their was a meal deal - toastie, hot drink & sweet. We shared my cake in the end but he's still grumbling about the ridiculous menu more than 24 hours later!

While we were waiting to order an elderly gent came in with his daugter and announced to her he would have egg on toast. She pointed out that they did not do eggs - and the grumbling that ensued was over the top. He ended up ordering toast with butter and jam and then gave her grief when he saw the cake she was having. Again - he simply refused to look at the menu because he knew what he wanted rather than paying attention to what was on offer.

When I thought about this today, I realized that both OH & the other gent were very set in their ways, and uncomfortable with eating out. I gather it was a treat for both of them and not something they were used to doing on a regular basis, so please don't worry if little LG struggles, it's better to learn at a young age than feel akward (and grumbly) as an adult!

…and as for 50 pounds for a takeaway for three - WOW - that is dear! - by necessity we have been getting delivery far too often as of late, and I try to only spend 20 for both of us for any given meal. In my opinion that is still far to dear compared to home cooking, but needs must. We live in an area that is know for being expensive but it's still doable! I'd say 10 pounds a head per meal is reasonable for delivery, we usually try to get meal deals for two and there are always leftovers that we can add to from the home stores to make another meal or two! For example we get an extra large cod and large chips and split it - we both eat well, and there are chips left for OH to have at least one if not two chip butties for lunches. That usually works out to around 18 pounds and we put salad tomatoes, cucumber, celery and carrots on the plate to round off the meal. Nowhere near the under five pounds a head if we used our usual box fish and oven fries but these days I'm happy when OH just manages to keep down a meal!

Cheery_Daff

OOh RT that's a lot of cafe grumbling! 😬

Another takeaway idea for you Greying (should you need one!) The only time Mr C and I have a takeaway these days is when we're at the seaside (and then only in one particular place) - not because of any moral or financial decision, we just can't get a delivery out here and there's nowhere nice enough in the local town 😂 We found a nice place at the seaside though. We buy one portion of rice, and one portion of tofu in black bean sauce, and sit on the prom with our wooden forks, sharing and watching the sea, often in the dark 😂 under £10 between us (and no delivery charge, although we do have to fork out for a hotel at the seaside 😂) and a nice novel experience 😊 on average once a year so it always feels special 😊

Greying_Pilgrim

rt - there is obviously a reason why the cafe 'don't do eggs' - are they too expensive an ingredient? Or had they run out/not had a delivery. I suspect - taking your scenario, and plumping LG down in it - unless we were regulars (and currently, we aren't that anywhere), LG wouldn't ask for 'X on Toast' or 'a salmon bagel - hold the salmon', as a default request, BUT I can see how somebody can go into a cafe and say 'i don't want a meal/something sweet, I just want something light'. We have encountered a few chalkboards, and they are not always the simplest to understand - for example, we are usually looking for a green 'V', which sometimes gets lost in long descriptions, or multicoloured chalks. I appreciate you giving a cost guide to your takeaways. I think if we did - for example - have an indian takeaway, it probably would be less than £50 - but we wouldn't necessarily be able to get it to £10 a head, because of what I mentioned about the veggie curry options being very pedestrian - ie it was mixed veg in balti sauce, or madras sauce, or tikka sauce…. and this was the vibe at both places I've currently scoped out online. But if you started ordering a selection of veggie sides, you got variety, but the cost quickly started mounting. I could of course lessen costs if I have rice or naan prepped and ready at home - but that then starts to defeat the object of having a takeaway. For a £30-50 takeaway, I would expect some sort of left overs 😁

I have to say, as a framework/guideline, I'm not trying to MSE an existing takeaway habit to maintain it. Food out costs more, I get that. I'm after the 'experience' of either dining out and the social aspect of that, or having a takeaway and experiencing different flavours/exercising choice. This is a 'once in a blue moon' activity, which possibly adds to my nervousness about 'buyers remorse'.

cheery - the standard of takeaway/restaurant here isn't terribly high - but in theory, we could get delivery. But I would like to do a takeaway on holiday, but always get resistance from DH ☹️ Next time, I ought to just get something for LG and I, and let him prep his own blooming cheese sanger! 🤣 I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm still trying to get fish & chips at the seaside 🤣

I am aware that I put…… going to a cafe for a treat or for lunch - on the list of summer hols things to do, and for one reason or another, we didn't get around to doing it - well, not how I'd envisaged. I will put it on the list for HT - it needn't cost much money, but will start the process.

I think DH has pencilled in today for bike repairs, so we won't be going anywhere. Currently the weather is nice, but rain is supposed to be starting - as there isn't much breeze, it probably isn't worth putting a wash on - although I've school uniform to do now.

Lunch will be soup. Tea, I'm edging around to a curry plate - we've not had one for a while, despite me whanging on at length about curry! 🤣

Tea last night was pizza pasta plate. I used l/o sausage, and l/o mushroom pizza out of the freezer, and cooked up some pasta, and had it in HM tommie sauce. I haven't got enough cheese to make pizza from scratch, but thank goodness we'd accumulated quite a store.

First of the month. How is February going to roll out? We've half-term, half way through. DH hasn't any extra time off, so it'll be just me & LG adventurising. I've got some NT vouchers, and one of our chums has suggested combining an NT visit, so that the kiddos can play together, and another chum will be unable to do activities outdoors, but has suggested some playdates, so no reason for LG to be bored.

I haven't given any thought to grocery budget 🤔 January finished up quickly! I can't go super tight - I've plenty of things like lentils in the cupboard, but my choice is narrowing, and whilst I've still some tatties, I've not a great choice of veg, fresh or frozen. But January's 'modest' spend has inspired me, particularly as it didn't benefit from any green boxes, hardly any food waste boosts and not overly much YS'd stuff. Right, I can give some thought to all this, whilst I wrap myself around a second cup of coffee.

Ta for popping in, and having a conversation with me - it's greatly appreciated. Greying X

dreaming

Definitely a good idea to introduce LG (and possibly DH) to "dining out". Other than sitting in the Wimpy with my mates (1970 so no McD's) for as long as we could spin a coke and burger out I had never been to a restaurant until my first proper date in an Indian restaurant. I had never had Indian food before and had no idea of how to read the menu, or what to ask for to drink, and was totally uncomfortable with the waiter asking if everything was ok with our food, and serving and clearing the table. I also ended up in the gents' toilets in the dark as I couldn't find any light switches and was too shy to ask where the ladies' was😚. Not sure why but I didn't get a 2nd date. Would a pub lunch work as a gentle intro. - possibly during/after one of your walks? Many do quite a varied lunch menu (and meal deals) and you could also do this with your chums on a playdate. Don't give up on the idea of an Indian though (despite my traumatic experience). There must be one that does a nice chana masala/paneer tikka/saag aloo type of dish, although it definitely isn't cheap.

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks dreaming - the sit down, in a restaurant, ordering a few (interesting) dishes that we can eat kinda buffet-style is still very much on the agenda, and will happen at some point - it's just a case of whether we start out in Greying Town, or cast our nets further, and (for example) seek out a fully veggie Indian restaurant. I would have to double-check I've not missed something, but I'm pretty sure we don't have any locally.

Lunch has been munched. I made Makhluta, which is a recipe from Anissa Helou's 'Levant' cookbook. It is mixed grains and pulses soup - although I added in extra veg (swede and carrot) for colour/interest. Basically it is onion, stock, short grain rice, bulghar, brown lentils, cannellini beans (I used de-tomatoed haricots), and chickpeas, all cooked up with Lebanese 7 spice (made up from ground spices to Anissa's recipe), S&P, cinnamon and/or cumin. I did also add in some dried mint and parsley and a squirt of red wine vinegar, as I find it helps lentil base soups. Enough for 3 big bowlfuls, and just the job for DH and LG as they'd just returned from a bike ride, and it'd come to rain.

Greying X

badmemory

Check out the online menus for local restaurants as I am sure that a few local to me have veggie sections or quite clear v's on the menu. I am a little less choosy than most & my menu choices tend to be, first visit chef's choice no 1, then 2, etc & just skipping the ones where the main item is not something I like. Many foreign restaurant owners are actually veggie themselves, the one I go to they are, so the veggie choices should be good.

kayannie

All these tales of reading menus has triggered a memory I'd rather forget.

Many years ago, the bee bee cee took me to Belgium to take part in a documentary that they were making. After a long car journey to the ferry, followed by a drive across France, we arrived & went to a restaurant where the menu was in French. As I don't eat meat but will eat fish, instead of asking for help, I chose poisson as I knew this was fish.

I was horrified when I was presented with a plate of vile smelling things that looked like slugs! When I asked, I was told that I'd ordered eels!

I went to bed very hungry that night!

KA x

themadvix

Having spent many years as a pescatarian who doesn't eat mushrooms, I can sympathise with the indecisiveness of Mr GP - now restaurants cater so much better for veggies, I often find myself overwhelmed: whereas it used to be a choice between 2-3 options, now there's so much more!

If you're nearish to Manchester, Leeds or (I suspect more likely) Birmingham, I can recommend Bundobust - fully veggie, Indian street food restaurant where the idea is you get a variety of different dishes to share (they have sharing menus, which I suspect would work well for you - one for two would probably do all three, or you could add a couple of extras to top it up. It's not your average Indian restaurant food, though so it depends if you want to get LG familiar with those sort of options. It's really tasty!

I agree that the sides are the best standard Indian restaurant dishes for veggies - the mains are generally mixed veg with a different sauce, which is fine, but not terribly inspiring (ironic, really as most of India serves a much wider variety of vegetarian food than meat, but typically 'British' to make it all about the meat 🙄).

On takeaway, we'd definitely struggle to get a curry (or anything else) for less than £10/head round here. Even fish and chips (the cheap option) is the best part of £20 for two medium fish and a large chips. That said, with curry or Chinese, we'd probably have some leftovers too.

Jellytotts

As a child we never went out to eat, there wasn’t enough money for that an my parents had a very bland meat and 2 veg palate. I experienced my first burger in a wimpy when I was 14 and had a boyfriend who worked and could afford to treat me, then at 15 when I had a Saturday job I found I could treat myself to nuggets from McDonald’s! I was 17 before I tried my first Chinese takeaway and to this day (I’m 52 now) I’ve never ordered a curry or been to an Indian restaurant. I’ve had home made curry’s and make a cracking satay (if I do say so myself) but the curry spice palate just isn’t for me.

We made sure that our offspring ate out from an early age for the experience of different food and for the setting expectations of manners. They both love ordering for me now and showing me things that I’d not have tried before.

Watty1

I adore Indian food - please look for a vegetarian Indian place. The sides in most meat orientated places are often not that inspiring. And did someone mention dhosa - yumm…. the best Indian street food there is :) (and sadly have not found these outside of London or Birmingham).