How to eat as cheaply as possible!

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Impotence, May 20, 2007.

  1. Impotence

    Impotence May the source be with u!

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    lol,

    stay away from tesco too... i think most of them compact there rubbish (the one i work in does anyway, and those machines are f'kin dangerous to be in!)
     
  2. Egaladeist

    Egaladeist I am the Eg Man

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    Well...nobody's said it yet so I will...

    unless you're abused...Stay Home...save your money and move out when you can afford to.

    Obviously if you are thinking of ways to eat cheaply you can't really afford to move out...have you even considered the other costs...rent, gas, electric, television cable, phone, internet costs, laundry costs, transportation costs ( you have to get to the laundry, shopping, etc...)...how about clothes, shoes, etc...how about shampoo, toilet paper ( there's more than just food to buy... )...

    and gawd forbid you got a girlfriend who wants to be taken out...regularly...there's a large chunk of salary gone...

    if your parents are just regular folks...my advice would be to put up with the ' rules ' the ' annoyances ' the regular parent stuff for a couple years and sock away some money first.

    Don't be one of those kids who leaves home because he's tired of the rules, taking out the trash, cutting the grass, shoveling the walk...then 6 months later comes crawling back home because the big bad world was worse than he thought...

    be smart...stay home...save your money.
     
  3. Impotence

    Impotence May the source be with u!

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    "How to eat as cheaply as possible" aka how to increase your booze budget :p

    Soup

    You can make soup with just about anything once you have got some stock cubes / tub of powdered stock.

    My favorite: In a big pot,

    - 4 fist sized potato's
    - 2 normal sized carrots
    - one onion
    - some oil (or butter, margarine etc)
    - two stock cubes
    - have a jug / pint glass** of water handy
    - big pot
    - hand blender (not needed, but i like thick soup)

    **can be obtained from any pub or bar on a night out

    Remember, the above is very approximate (vary it to your task, add things, remove things, use more potato's etc).

    Method

    - Cut you onion up finely
    - Cut your potato into small cubes
    - Cut your carrots into small pieces
    - get your stock cubes ready

    1. put enough oil in the pot to cover the bottom and fry the onions in it
    2. when onions start burning, move the pot onto a cold ring and add all your vegetables, powder the stock cubes and sprinkle them over the vegetables.
    3. add enough water to cover the contents of the pot (you can add more later if you want a thiner soup)
    4. boil until the vegetables are cooked (get a fork and eat some every so often, but cool it down first!)
    5. turn off the heat and move the pot to a cold ring
    6. blend the soup (but be careful, its still hot and thick soup will burn worse than hot water)
    7. Eat
    8. Repeat (but change the ingredients, hell, try adding noodles to make it more meal like!)
     
  4. Egaladeist

    Egaladeist I am the Eg Man

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    Ok :D
     
  5. megamaced

    megamaced Geek Geek Geek!

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    Damn yes
     
  6. grow14me2

    grow14me2 Goat Trainee

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    When I moved out of my parent's house, I lived almost entirely on Ramen Noodles. Cheap and delicious
     
  7. Impotence

    Impotence May the source be with u!

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    I think its worth pointing out that you really do have to vary the foods you are eating, especially if your trying to eat very cheaply.

    I find that when i spend a few days eating noodles (broke or lazy) i start to feel tired all the time... and if your at uni/college this is not going to help you at all!
     
  8. PureChance

    PureChance Geek Trainee

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    I would say, its pretty much always going to be cheaper to make your own food from scratch. Soup is dirt cheap, and you can put pretty much anything in it, cheapest rice I've found is Tesco Value Long grain rice, 1KG for 49p. Lentils are also a cheap source of protein, but i tend to find dall a little bland on its own. Potato curry with finely chopped onions, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, ~4 teaspoons turmeric, 6 birdseyes, ~2teaspoons ground coriander, ~2 teaspoons cumin, couple of black cardamoms, 3/4 cloves of garlic, maybe some whole cloves, and some chilli powder to taste is a good starting point. After you make a couple of curries from one region you'll get an idea about how much to put in and what to put in, and be able to make it up as you go along. We discovered that if you want the curries to end up like they do in curry houses, fry your onions in lots of ghee, chop your onions really really fine (as fine as you'd chop your garlic almost), and cook for ages. We also found we needed to double all the spices in the given curry recipes.

    If you are making curry or chinese etc., go to a chinese/indian supermarket - there will be one in the centre of the city, and the spices etc. will be hugely much cheaper. For example I bought a litre of soy sauce for the same price as 100ml in tesco, and my kilo of turmeric came in at £4.50 a kilo as opposed to tesco's £18 a kilo if you buy the little 45g pots.

    You'll also be able to eat much better if you cook and split the costs between a group of you. My flatmates and I do this, and the week when one of us was away, it cost us pretty much the same as it usually does, hence cooking for 3 costs about the same as cooking for 2. Plus you wont have to cook every night.

    Never buy take-away unless its special occasion. It is obscenely expensive. At the very least, if you aren't cooking from scratch try super-market ready meals first. It's all equally unhealthy. For instance, Domino's XL Pizza is £8.00, I could instead buy 4 Tesco Pepperoni extra thin poiza's at £1.75 each. No way Domino's is coming out of this better off.
     
  9. sb_techG33K

    sb_techG33K Geek Trainee

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    what is really important is to not spend a whole lot of money eating out. its bad for health and bad for pocket. make anything from scratch, or get a girlfriend,(or boyfriend whoever you prefer) not being sexist but having a partner who completes you because you cant cook but they can, is a huge bonus. I learned that when going to school and work full time, cooking was a pain in my arse, so when i cooked i made a ton of leftovers to have over the week. and i cant stop eating
     
  10. allisonsmith

    allisonsmith Geek

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    hey thats my diet schedule. way to go man :)
     
  11. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    I have a recipe for mac and cheese that will take time off your life.

    -1 stick butter
    -1 pint half and half
    -1 pound bag of cheese
    -1 1/2 pound bag of cheese
    -1 pound macaroni/shells----whatever pasta you want
    -Ground chipotle pepper as desired (recommend at least 1 tsp)


    Prepare pasta as directed. In sauce pan, melt butter and then add half and half---bring to boil. Progressively add 1lb bag of cheese until melted.
    Drain pasta and the put in 13"x9". Pour cheese sauce over pasta and cover with 1/2 pound of cheese. Bake at 350 Degrees for 30 minutes.
     

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