Paul_B =:o} ([info]pbristow) wrote,
@ 2008-04-19 04:38:00
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Current mood: amused

Awwww......
It's impossible to feel stressed with a kitty kiss. =:o}

In other good news from the last couple of days:

1. My colleagues have pretty much unanimously declared me King of Windows. =:o} (And that has nothing to do with Microsoft.)

2. I haz a payday! I haz fud! =:o} (N.B. must be careful with the fud. Chipshop fud is nice-now-but-hungry-for-three-days-afterwards fud. Bottled fud is only calories and then "wheeeee!!!" and then hangovers, and is not proper fud.)

OK, I triez sleep again. Is it can be nap time nao?

[LOOKS AT PIKCHUR] OK, I iz a dog. I still talks like a cat.


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Being careful with the fud
[info]catsittingstill
2008-04-19 02:38 pm UTC (link)
FWIW, I'm having to be more careful with food purchases too.

I'd suggest trying to buy food the 1st week after the way you'd have bought food the 4th week if you'd had a bit more cash--not eating out (goodness, that's expensive--at least it is over here; it costs at least twice as much to eat out as it would have cost to cook the same meal at home) but buying those soups you recommended and staples like potatoes or rice. Eggs, frowned on by heart specialists, are cheap protein over here, and can easily be stirred into soup, though I don't know what prices would be like where you are.

If you have a crockpot/slowcooker, cooking lentils and beans is easy and they're pretty inexpensive. I usually mix the lentils with a can of corn (not too expensive here) to add interest. If you don't have a crockpot, I'm not sure whether it's worth buying one--it would depend on what's available in the second hand shops and whether they'll let you test it.

A crockpot is also good for stewing cheap cuts of meat if you want to go that route.

For noon meals, or meals away from home, sandwiches are good (I use a lot of peanut butter, which is cheap over here--that might not work for you, though.)

If I think of any other ideas, I'll be happy to pass them along, but this is most of what I've been doing to try and keep my food purchases under control.

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Re: Being careful with the fud
[info]pbristow
2008-04-19 06:21 pm UTC (link)
[NODS] I rarely "eat out", as such, but because lunchtimes are strictly one hour and I often have other things to squeeze into them, I used to grab takeaway of some sort half the time (costing around £2.50 on average), and the rest it would be a microwavable frozen meal for one at home (costing £1). Those days are now gone...

I've got a routine worked out now for dashing home, getting the ring warmed up, quickly frying some mince and then adding the soup on top to make a really satisfying lunch which I can sit and sip while doing stuff with papers and 'phones. I plan to keep a few tins of soup at work for when the "stuff to do" needs to be there rather than here. This will keep lunch costs down to just under £1 per day. (And I can still have the odd microwave meal for variety.)

Preparing sandwiches in advance is something I consistently fail at, alas... =:o\ But they're great for snacks when at home.

For evening meals, practical issues with the kitchen space (like, no actual *cupboards* except the one under the sink where cleaning stuff is stored, and only one small shelf near where all the cooking's done!) make storing lots of ingredients a problem, but in any case I find if I store lots of varied stuff I just settle into cooking the same few combinations again and again anyway, and the rest all gets wasted. At the moment, it's mostly frozen mince, peas, and either some pasta or some tinned potatoes.

Living on 2 quid a day, average, should be no problem. What I need to do is get other things sorted out (rebates and allowances and what have you) so that it's no longer strictly necessary, and I actually have some reserves for dealing with other things that come along (and the occasional treat!).

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Re: Being careful with the fud
[info]catsittingstill
2008-04-19 07:35 pm UTC (link)
Boy, your kitchen sounds really cramped.

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Re: Being careful with the fud
[info]pbristow
2008-04-19 08:28 pm UTC (link)
Only because I moved half my posessions into it. =:o} I moved from a 4 bedroom house (the first home I'd had in over a decade with "enough space") into a one bedroom flat, via a year with everything in storage. Even having already ditched half the stuff I used to have (everything I could find a buyer for or could bear to just scrap), basically *many* crates and boxes of stuff came in, filled up half each of the available two rooms (kitchen and bed/living room), and barring one or two slight shuffles have stayed put since then.

Most of it is materially worthless, but personally valuable. And of course, it's nearly all just as inaccessible to me now as it was when it was in a storage room 90 miles from where I lived, because of all the *other* stuff I'd have to move to get to it.

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Re: Being careful with the fud
[info]aunty_marion
2008-04-19 08:56 pm UTC (link)
You might want to try disciplining yourself into spending half an hour at the weekend making a loaf-full of sandwiches, and freezing them, individually wrapped. (N.B. Tomatoes in sandwiches do not freeze well!) Then you can just grab one out of the freezer in the morning, and by lunchtime it'll be defrosted enough to eat. Make a variety, if you can afford the fillings - cheese, meat, whatever (and if you really want tomato in one, then make them on Sunday, and put the tomato one in the fridge instead and eat it on Monday!). It works quite well, and it's a lot cheaper than a take-away sarnie.

If you care which filling you have, then label the bags or greaseproof or whatever you wrap them in; otherwise, just pack them all in and take one out at random and enjoy ringing the changes! Friends of mine who used to do this for the whole family packed them, wrapped in greaseproof, back into the loaf bags to put into the freezer. It depends on how much space you've got, of course.

And doing that would mean you get the nicer meals in the evening when you can relax a bit over them, instead of stressing out over cooking at lunchtime.

And my food shop for this coming week was £9.50, plus I'll add in bits from the stores - today I had frozen (thawed!) beefburgers from when Tesco were doing two packs of their finest burgers with sun-dried tomatoes for £3 - I bought two, and froze them in pairs. I've also been known to buy bulk cheap packs of mince and freeze that in handful-size portions, and the local Co-op does a large-ish tray of ham off-cuts for £3.49, which freezes in about 10 or 11 portions, suitable for eating with pasta or omelettes, or even in sandwiches! (If I remember to defrost it first, of course...)

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[info]bunrab
2008-04-27 02:31 pm UTC (link)
Would you like a medium-small box filled with noodles, rice mixes, & similar compact sources of carbohydrates? I have mailed such to the UK before, as gift for another LJ friend, and the expense is not prohibitive for me, and I always have too many such things as I order low-sodium food in bulk; I need to clear some of this extra food away before we pack and move.

Anyway, if so, email me your snail mail addy and I'll get the box off to you within the week.

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[info]pbristow
2008-04-27 03:15 pm UTC (link)
Ooh! That would be an amazingly kind and useful thing indeed.

Hang on... [CLICKETY CLICK] ...Snailmail addy is on its way to you.

[THANKYOU HUGS]

In the meantime, I've found this useful little place about half a mile away that buys second hand books. So far, I've achieved an exchange rate of about one meal per 1.8 books. =:o}

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