Day 4

[purplejulie95]

Hey y'all!
I've just finished composing the final exam for my class.  Yay.  It actually didn't take that much work, but I was dreading it because I'm so bad at coming up with essay questions that have the right amount of specificity, but still allow them enough room to show what they know.  Let's hope I did it well.  I'll know by the moans and

Comments

[ah_betty]

Do you have charity shops in America? Cos then you still own the book, and it's proper cheap, I got several of my favourite books for like 50p each. :)
As for food, you could try preparing meals the day before and eating it with friends? I tend to food shop with my friends and we sit and eat it together at home/ in the park etc. and its cheaper than a restaurant but it still feels like you're eating out (Y).

Sorry for my horribly lame suggestions anyways,b but hooray for taking the time out to write! I'd love to read whatever you write, are you planning to do a novel and get it published? That would be epic :D
xxx

[purplejulie95]

We have goodwills but they rarely have books--at least decent books. LOL.

Great idea for eating with buddies in the park. I live very close to a lovely little park.

Thank you so much for your suggestions *huggles you close* Thank you also for your lovely compliment. Now I must write a novel just for you! You'll get the first copy.

[alisso]

A good way to save money with home-made food is to buy and cook a lot of things in bulk. It doesn't take much more time to cook a big batch of something than it does to cook a single serve, and then you can freeze the rest in single serve portions. Whenever we do a lasagna, we use a pan that makes six serves, and then only eat two of them. That gives us four meals for later, and it freezes really well.

This saves you money, cause bulk buys are almost always cheaper, time, cause you don't have to shop or cook as often, and stress, as it means you can just go to the freezer and see what you've got if you can't decide what you want for dinner!

And as for books, if you can stand reading from a screen, you could try looking around online for free ebooks? There's quite a lot of torrent files available at places like the Pirate Bay that have pdf or epub versions of books. Or, if you'd rather not pirate, Project Gutenberg has a HUGE amount of e-books available that are out of license, and therefore free to anyone. It's all older stuff, of

[purplejulie95]

I've got to look at bulk cooking more closely. I will actually be teaching in the same building as my home department, so I'll have access to the microwave and a place to sit. That should make things easier. Thanks!

I'm also going to need to learn to read on the screen. I've got a Blio account too.

Thank you so much for your tips and the time you took in responding.
*great big hugs*

[marginaliana]

Hey, you! *snugs*

I'm definitely seconding the bulk cooking. Especially because you can make a batch over the weekend and then during the week when you're most tired you have so much less to do to make a meal - just pop it in the microwave. The other thing you can do is buy a bunch of the basic things when they're on sale. Like, buy pasta when it's on sale, and buy a bunch, and then make different variations of pasta with different veggies or chicken or whatever over the weeks. The same with rice, which you can use to make a big meal out of a little bit of chicken/veggies/sauce and it's cheap.

[purplejulie95]

Hi ladybird!
How are you???

I really need to adjust my thinking about the microwave in order to do this. It's something I need to come to terms with. My mum hates cooking and when microwaves were fairly new she got one and made EVERYTHING in it, so I always associate them with underdone potatoes, rubbery tasteless chicken and overdone greens. Not surprisingly, then, the only things I ever make in the microwave are oatmeal and the occasional Healthy choice meal.

I really need to work on this! LOL.
Thanks so much for the tip--I need to expand my "thinking with rice" repertoire :)