Cooking for one (Mark Three)

flubberyzing wrote: »

Yesterdays cinema trip was unusual for me. I can't recall what I saw last... I perhaps only go 2 or 3 times a year. I'm more likely to go and see those 'National Theatre Live' screenings of plays and musicals. They are a little more expensive, but more of an "event". And it sounds awful, but also a higher class of clientele. Generally less of the "popcorn crunching, fizz slurper, kick your chair" crowd. There are also very rarely any under 18s. Mostly I'm guessing because of the content, and they are usually school-nights, and don't even start until 7:30/8pm.

Tea tonight is a frozen chicken kiev, a jacket potato and some fried mushrooms. Not posh, but fills a hole!

PasturesNew wrote: »

Post me your gruel leftovers.... I won't be affording to buy the gruel in the first instance.

I'd booked MoT/service for later this week (£440 required) .... and today I got the tax disc letter (£150) ... which means it's insurance next (£?????) and in 2 weeks' time it'll be Council Tax on the mat (~£1300 after discount I think, trying not to think about it!).

That's pretty much a year's income just gone in a month

Today I headed for those easy chips again .... chips, beans and the last 3 fish fingers in the packet.

pineapple wrote: »

It does irk me somewhat that I only pay 25% less than a house full of people. Singletons lose out everywhere. Used to live in a little hamlet where the residents had shared responsibility for maintenance of the access lane, the communal septic tank etc. Unfortunately for me, liability was calculated on a property basis and not per person. It was the only way it could be I guess, but it cost me dearly. Don't even get me started on those bumper packs of cheap potatoes etc. If you see someone scratching her head at a fruit and veg counter, that would be me trying to work out if it is worth it (or even possible) to cook and freeze, or which is cheaper - getting the cheap bulk pack and throwing some away or going for broke and getting the expensive small pack, which I am however, likely to use in it's entirety.
'Buy loose!,' I hear you cry - unfortunately the Co-op in town doesn't seem to have got the plastics message and has taken to packaging just about everything.

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

This is indeed one of our bugbears as we know Pineapple.

I sat down and worked out how much extra I am paying on my bills the other day with having to cover them on my own. So added one-third on to the CT bill/the TV licence bill and insurance bill would be the same/doubt there'd be much more on the broadband & phone bill (as I've got an all-inclusive type tariff) and came to a conclusion of over £1,000 extra on the bills pa for a single person, as opposed to a "half of a couple" person iyswim.

Overall - I can't complain about around £250 per month for bills all told. But it would leave more money for spending if the bills were, say, £300 per month and my share was £150.

Though I would say the main thing I notice is the whole of the house cost falls on me (hence the move to Wales) and all the cost of the work on the house falls to me (that was tens of thousands of £s that flew out the window over the last few years then...:().

*******

Oh well...and I think my food bill is about to go up marginally (but will be only peanuts imo #shrugs) - as negotiations are in progress in the town about things that need doing for the town to be "Plastic Free". Since my principles have cost me "I don't really like to think just how much:eek:" over the course of my lifetime - then what's a few more pennies in the grand scheme of things imo?:cool:

*****

Sun shining (ohlawdbepraised:rotfl:) and trip for garden supplies looks like it's on then - and lunch out (no cooking today:)).

EDIT; Pineapple - Re that hamlet situation you were in was that downside of the paying-out being done per property (rather than per person) = on the other hand the upside is that the "votes" as to how things should be run was also per property (rather than per person). Whether that "voting" happened or some ********(lets delete word for old-fashioned/unfair-minded person) tried to take all the "votes" for themselves = nevertheless, the moral position was that a family couldn't "out-vote" a single person (as it would be 1 house v. another house - regardless of number of occupants in that house).

So, to me, families are on a very sticky wicket if they think they can use "weight of numbers" to try and make out they have more power than me. They don't. They have one house and I have one house - that makes us with equal "voting rights" imo.

PasturesNew wrote: »

There is an easier way ...
Just scrape them clean with one of those kitchen scourers, snip off the two ends, toss into a takeaway box with ¼" of water, pop the lid on with vent space and nuke for 3 minutes, turning them after each minute.... THEN chop them as they're soft.

This is how I usually cook carrots.... I cut them into shape after they've cooked.

I find cutting raw carrots a real bind ... but then I don't have any "proper knives" and do everything with a tiny old 65p paring knife.