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Paying your keep at home

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  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    nah i dont have to pay my keep when im back home. .. im sure when i finish uni and go back home for a while before getting job, place etc ill have to tho!! .. at my mums' house anyway. my dad just doesnt give one!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well - I'm about to go shopping now.

    Unfortunately 99.9% of the time I don't have time to be trapesing to the local butchers (it's a good mile or two away from my house) as I tend to work a distance from home and work long hours when I do work. I've just done a 5 week contract which should see me right to take maybe up until after Christmas off work (just bought another apartment too, and so had a lot of outlay for that). The super market is the only option for the most part. Even that was a struggle to get to during the job I just finished.

    I don't go overboard, rarely buy snacks (not exactly healthy), and the end figure I post on here will not include any alcohol bought.

    What I may try and do, is taking into account I have some time off and am working my life in a Hugh Grant from About A Boy kind of thing, I will price up the meat from the supermarket, but pop to the butchers to actually buy it.

    I *did* use the butchers for my meat in the past, and just freeze most of it, but it's just not that straight forward to get to a lot of the time.

    Also - I pretty much HAVE to have meat of some sort with every meal. I have a super-high metabolism, especially when training, and unless I have something high in protein with the meal, I am hungry within about 30 minutes. Vegetarian stuff just never fills me up. I vary between chicken/turkey, red meats (usually steak) and various kinds of fish (large trout, salmon and a white fish - although am avoiding cod at the moment due to over-fishing concerns).

    It's a nightmare, but I rarely eat less than 4 or 5 meals a day. 6 if I can/have time.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru

    Also there is quite often nothing wrong with economy labels - sure, I wouldn't get value loo roll, but we buy value beans and value digestive biscuits and they are absolutely fine.


    I never said there was! ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    go_away wrote:
    As GWST said, look at what money is being spent on. My partner and I both live in London, and we use our local supermarket to shop. We don't buy economy brands unless it's for household items like bleach/tins of food etc, most of our cooking is done from scratch, the bulk of our shop is fruit and veg and our shopping bill for some of September and the whole of October came to £40 each, including laundry detergent, so it can be done.


    WTF!? What on earth did you buy for so little??????????????? :shocking: :eek:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    g_angel007 wrote:
    WTF!? What on earth did you buy for so little??????????????? :shocking: :eek:
    i think she means they spent £80 in total for october and part of september
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    g_angel007 wrote:
    WTF!? What on earth did you buy for so little??????????????? :shocking: :eek:

    Meat, fish, fruit and veg mainly. I buy staples such as rice/potatoes/chickpeas/pasta etc in bulk, so it's mainly buying things to cook with those items. We've got a farmers market a bus ride away which helps. I also tend to buy cheaper cuts of meat on the bone to make stews with, I find it tastes better than more expensive choice cuts, and you can throw in all sorts of veg. I throw the leftovers in the fridge, so a shoulder of lamb can normally feed us for 2 days. I do the same with soups, handheld blenders come in very handy, and you can just throw in whatever veg is going spare, and refridgerate the rest for later days.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yup, it's much cheaper to feed one person when you can pretend you're cooking for four. It's hard to buy and eat cheaply when you have to cook one person meals the whole time.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    lipsy wrote:
    i think she means they spent £80 in total for october and part of september


    That's STILL very little!

    So, I just got back from shopping. I bought almost zero meat and practically no treats. Minus the red wine the bill came to £47.

    I'll type it out when/if I can be bothered.

    The only treats I bought are 2 x Carte Dor (£3) - Ice cream is a vice of mine, and some giant gherkins (£1.88).

    I bought a small thing of lean steak mince (£1.10), and that was the only meat I bought.

    I didn't buy any ready meals, nor any pre-prepared foods apart from 4 tins of soup. The rest was a standard shopping trip. No toiletries, no breakfast cereals this time though.

    If I'd have bought meat, the bill would have come to closer to £60. ... and I doubt that will last me a week.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    g_angel007 wrote:
    Also - I pretty much HAVE to have meat of some sort with every meal. I have a super-high metabolism, especially when training, and unless I have something high in protein with the meal, I am hungry within about 30 minutes.
    Tins of tuna and other fish. Under £1 a tin and good for one meal.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Tins of tuna and other fish. Under £1 a tin and good for one meal.



    Yeah - it sucks donkey balls that I can't stand tinned fish... especially tuna :( That would make life a lot easier if I did!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i could never buy economy brands of meat! or tuna.

    maybe these people spend so little because as go_away says she cooks her meals from scratch. think about making spag bol for instance. 1 jar of sauce compared to a tin of tomatoes and you see a big difference right there.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    g_angel007 wrote:
    That's STILL very little!

    So, I just got back from shopping. I bought almost zero meat and practically no treats. Minus the red wine the bill came to £47.

    I'll type it out when/if I can be bothered.

    The only treats I bought are 2 x Carte Dor (£3) - Ice cream is a vice of mine, and some giant gherkins (£1.88).

    I bought a small thing of lean steak mince (£1.10), and that was the only meat I bought.

    I didn't buy any ready meals, nor any pre-prepared foods apart from 4 tins of soup. The rest was a standard shopping trip. No toiletries, no breakfast cereals this time though.

    If I'd have bought meat, the bill would have come to closer to £60. ... and I doubt that will last me a week.


    So what did you buy? I budget and try not to spend more than £30 a week, for 2 of us, cooking mainly from scratch...and it's very do-able, you've just got to be strict :yes:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Trust me, it seems so little, but we don't eat in small amounts, I have a South African boyfriend to feed :p

    I tend to plan our meals in advance, which helps a bit, as then I know exactly what I'm going to get rather than, "Ooh we could have this on Thursday," plus neither of us snack on snacks like biscuits etc, we tend to nibble on fruit, nuts etc.

    Where we can, we'll buy basic things for breakfast, like Sainsbury's own porridge oats, and adding to it, rather than brand bought items which are more expensive, and have more sugar added. Another thing which cuts the bill as that we don't buy alcohol. I don't drink anyway, if my boyfriend drinks, it's normally in bars/clubs.

    But yeah, making things from scratch really helps. If I'm doing a meatball sauce, I'll make the meatballs myself at the weekend. Then I pack them into those foil boxes and stick them in the freezer for weekday nights. As the crocodile says, you have to be strict, and my boyfriend and I will normally eat out once/twice a fortnight, but there are loads of ways to cut a shopping bill.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    So what did you buy? I budget and try not to spend more than £30 a week, for 2 of us, cooking mainly from scratch...and it's very do-able, you've just got to be strict :yes:

    I think that's the difference - I'm not trying to be strict.

    Just cooking up some stuff but the thing reads like this:

    Fresh milk: £1.40
    Branston beans: £1.78
    Tomatoes: £1.37
    Ice cream x 2: £3.00
    Blueberries x 2: £3.98
    Finest raspberries: £2.99
    Giant gherkins: £1.88
    Loose oranges x 6 (18p each): £1.08
    Organic yoghurt: £1.28
    Broccoli: £0.45
    Org spinach: £1.19
    Steak mince: £1.10
    Salmon fillet: £2.40
    Satsumas: £1.28
    Innocent smoothie: £3.25
    Innocent smoothie: £1.97
    Soup £0.57
    Soup £0.57
    Courgettes: £1.64
    Spring onions: £0.62
    Organic carrots: £0.68
    Pasta quills: £0.62
    Bananas loose: £0.48
    Jersey tomatoes: £1.29
    Chicken broth: £0.69
    Chicken broth: £0.69
    Loose onions: £0.52
    Large kiwi loose: £1.40
    Mature cheddar: £1.69
    Mushrooms: £0.32
    Cashews: £3.49
    Granny smiths: £1.26


    £47.81


    I avoided buying anything "fancy" in this shop, keeping to only what I "needed" (bar the couple of things mentioned previously. This was a much smaller shop than usual.

    Yeah - I think the difference is I'm not trying to stick to a budget and just buy what I want. After today's little "experiment" I can see that it is possible to live for less, by cooking in bulk, buying in bulk etc... Buying the stuff *I* usually buy though, it certainly isn't possible though as many of the things in the list were on special offer and so I probably saved a tenner there.

    Good that I know that it CAN be done. So, the experiment had some success :)
    lipsy wrote:
    think about making spag bol for instance. 1 jar of sauce compared to a tin of tomatoes and you see a big difference right there.

    I make my own sauces - I tend to find the jar sauces a little "lacking", unless making a stir-fry where I find the Blue Dragon sauces to be a winner.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I also tend to eat out a lot - which makes planning meals difficult as many of these are spur of the moment things...

    My food bill throughout the week, when you take into account food when at work easily tops £100 a week. A true figure would probably be closer to £120-150 a week... More if I go out for a fancy dinner.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    go_away wrote:

    Where we can, we'll buy basic things for breakfast, like Sainsbury's own porridge oats, and adding to it, rather than brand bought items which are more expensive, and have more sugar added. Another thing which cuts the bill as that we don't buy alcohol. I don't drink anyway, if my boyfriend drinks, it's normally in bars/clubs.


    Hehehe - aye, those Saffa's tend to be big lumps... :yes: :lol: I'm 5' 8" and eat like an absolute horse! It's annoying, expensive (especially when eating at work in the city) and takes up a lot of time! Hahahah

    I don't include my drinking bills in my totals - those are another thing altogether ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    lipsy wrote:
    how?? do you buy lots of economy stuff?

    urgh no never!

    one day say i might have a jacket potato with tuna and mayo or cheese and beans. that's fairly cheap. another i might have something like pie and veg which is fairly inexpensive..then another day i could have pasta and pesto with a variation of things. stuff like that. :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    g_angel007 wrote:
    I avoided buying anything "fancy" in this shop, keeping to only what I "needed"

    A couple of tips for cutting down your food bill:
    Avoid buying fruit out of season except for a treat - you spent £7 on berries in this shop, which is a pretty hefty amount. If you want to make sure you get your 5 a day, stock up while they're in season and freeze them.
    Buy a blender and make your own smoothies - your money will go much further than if you buy Innocent ones.
    Cashews are pretty pricy nuts - if you want to eat nuts on a regular basis, there are other types that are cheaper for everyday eating, and save the cashews for a treat.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    :)

    Thanks for that, but I'm not looking to cut down my food bill... The things I buy I simply don't class as luxuries... I sometimes make my own smoothies, but as is often case, I simply don't have the luxury of time (one of life's most precious commodities). I actually own a smoothie maker :)

    Also, if you buy enough berries etc etc to make smoothies, I actually don't think it works out that much cheaper to produce a litre than buying Innocent (or any alternative brand). Think about it and how much you would need to put into a smoothie to get a decent amount out.

    The blue berries I bought were already down from £2.99 to £1.99 a punnet on special offer, and I do actually avoid buying them when at full price. ;) Berries are never much cheaper than what I paid for them - the raspberries being a possible exception simply because I find the "Finest" range tend to keep that little bit longer than the standard ones. Also - there's only so much storage in the freezer when sharing with 3 other people!!

    I also bought apples, bananas and oranges, which combined with my berries and numerous vegetables bought will more than provide me with my 5 a day. I'm a good boy when it comes to that! ;)

    Cashews are nice, as are pistachios, but they're a pain to eat just due to having to dispose of the shells. I like a few types of nut, but there isn't THAT much difference in price in the end and so it's just down to buying what I want.

    :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    No, it means it was my wife's birthday and I've had better things to do.

    1. People on the dole don't get their rent paid for them. They get allowance towards rent but if your flat is expensive you won't get the full lot, and the DSS definition of expensive is lower than ours. Also most private landlords will evict DSS tenants at the end of the tenancy. Usually DSS people end up in council accomodation. For a single male this would be in a hostel and then in a small flat in one of the town's less salubrious areas. It certainly isn't market rate. I wouldn't fancy living in a council flat on the top floor of some manky 60s tower block.

    2. For a single person in our city the council tax at band A would be about £65-70 a month over 10 months. It makes a difference, sure, but not that much.

    3. Out of that £43 a week you have to feed and clothe yourself and heat your house, and buy transport. When a bus pass for a week is a tenner, that's a tiny amount of money. If you think the dole is something you can live on then you're an idiot; I presume you haven't been on the dole.

    If you earn £11,000pa, which is about minimum wage and is something a call centre operator would earn as a bare minimum, you come out with about £750 after tax. Rent for a good studio apartment in a desirable area of this city is £375pcm, plus council tax makes £450 a month. Guideline spending amounts at the supermarket is about £40 a week for a single person, including basic toiletries, and that's generous. Our shop now is about £55 a week, and that's for two of us and includes wine and expensive orange juice. Adding £30 for a bus card (which you wouldn't need if you live and work close to the city) and £20 for the utilities still leaves about £100 for the month to be spent on what you want after your bills have been paid.

    It's hardly breadline, is it?

    I have quite a few friends who are on the dole, they are all single males and they all get their rent paid in full and only one has spent time in a hostel and atleast one of them lives in private accomodation, he has yet to be threatened with eviction.
    Admittedly the accomodation itself is a small flat in a "less salubrious" area of town (which also happens to be my area of town) but it isn't exactly the "manky 1960's tower block" that you have described, it really isn't bad and it is certainly no worse than what I would be able to afford on my current wage, the few properties I could find in my area for £400 or less (using google) wern't actually that much better than the places that my friends live.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    dude, your fruits are all wrong and how can you justify spending £3 on a smoothie drink and not call it a luxury? Of course it's a luxury!

    Tribal: thing about living on the dole is that if ANYTHING goes wrong, you're skrewed! If your bike needs a new tyre - there's no money for that and you can't exactly do dole overtime. Dole can tide you over in hard times but I can't imagine being able to live on it satisfactorily (sp? - whatever)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    katralla wrote:
    dude, your fruits are all wrong and how can you justify spending £3 on a smoothie drink and not call it a luxury? Of course it's a luxury!


    Erm... no.

    As I mentioned before, perhaps I'm not working to the same budget as other people because, well, I'm not working to a budget. At all... One of the things I mentioned was in reference to the point of making my own smoothies. Innocent SEEM expensive, but when you actually attempt to do some of the maths involved, they *aren't* such bad value.

    I think this one comes down to what people's definition of a luxury is. I would say a carton of smoothie at around £3 (usually less, when on offer, as one of the cartons I bought shows) is not a luxury - especially when, if you do the sums, to produce the same volume of product out of fresh produce, I believe there would be very little difference. Been there, done that... Just easier to buy a product where somebody has gone to the effort beforehand (breakfast, especially).

    So - If £3, which will last for 3 breakfasts in smoothie form, is a luxury... I am thinking it would take (going on my usual consumption) 2 x punnets of blueberries, 1 x punnet of raspberries and however many bananas etc etc to make the smoothie. Let's do the maths on the standard prices. £2.99 x 2 = £5.98 for the blueberries. £2.99 for the raspberries and however much for whatever next?! Either way - for 3 days worth of Innocent smoothie, my GOD, it would cost more in fresh produce. Dun dun dun.... Sorry if there was a trace of sarcasm there. It *was* intended.

    What exactly is "wrong with my fruits"? Elaborate please (with nutritional/economical detailing) and I shall respond appropriately. If you'd have said there was something wrong with my NUTS I may have been concerned. *guffaw* :D

    G.

    P.S. Also, small bottle of Innocent smoothie (150 or 200ml) is nearly £2. So, if buying the larger carton (750 or 1000ml) is £3, it is hardly a false economy!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    lmao. Ah ha ha ha ha. You're funny. I would have bought cheaper fruits that were in season but then I *AM* shopping on a budget lol.

    Smoothie is still a luxury, and a bit yucky too.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    katralla wrote:
    lmao. Ah ha ha ha ha. You're funny. I would have bought cheaper fruits that were in season but then I *AM* shopping on a budget lol.

    Smoothie is still a luxury, and a bit yucky too.

    No. Smoothie is YUMMY.

    Here's a big :razz: to say otherwise ;):D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    but it's all thick and goopy, and those innocent ones always seem like they've mixed 'em up half n half with gone off milk mixed with saliva broken down honey.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    katralla wrote:
    but it's all thick and goopy, and those innocent ones always seem like they've mixed 'em up half n half with gone off milk mixed with saliva broken down honey.


    I feel the need to be administering a swift boot to your behind ;)

    Smoothie *should* be thick! :yes:

    I also reckon you've been drinking a bad batch hahaha :eek2:

    Agree to disagree? :thumb: Can't rain all the time :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    g_angel007 wrote:
    I feel the need to be administering a swift boot to your behind ;)

    Ooh thank you :flirt: Just what I need.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Everybody needs something :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    why do i drink? :(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    g_angel, there's nothing wrong with splashing out if you have the money to do so, but to say that your shop is a basic shop is laughable. The Innocent Smoothies are not a necessity in life, nor are the premium fruit packs bought out of season. Which supermarket you go to makes a big difference though- for a week's shop the local Sainsbury's is about £7 more expensive than the local Asda.

    We don't buy value or economy brands, we buy very expensive orange juice, and we eat a lot of meat, but our weekly shop for both of us is never over £55-£60. And that's with us pushing the boat out because we have the joint income to do so (but we've just spent an obscene amount of money on a new fire so its value beans till we get paid:().

    Innocent smoothies are over-rated. I make a nicer smoothie with my crappy old blender;)

    Tribal, I think that either you are a liar or that your friends are incredibly lucky. I haven't decided which yet, but I know from family who've been on the dole and friends who work for the DWP that it is very hard to get full rentals paid on places. I know how hard it was for my sister to get her rent paid on a place that was £300pcm, and then they only agreed to do it until the end of the tenancy. Perhaps you should go and live on the dole for a while if you think its so fantastic- I expect that after a week of Jeremy Kyle and no money to leave the house you'll be glad to get a job.
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