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I have no idea how to live
Oboro
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Okay. Respiration and that, I got that -- my body is not eating itself. That part of "living," okay. I got it.
For the first time in my life, I am renting a room. I imagine that the specifics of these arrangements vary lease-by-lease, but are there any general and quick guidelines you could tell me? What does it actually mean that I am renting (as one of two people renting a 2BR apartment)? What do I own, if anything, in any sense of the word? Do I have a protected space? The other roommate was originally living in both bedrooms, so there's a lot of really shitty shit in it right now that belongs to him. Can I just move it out of the room and move my own stuff in, once I acquire said stuff?
I've never been in control of my own diet while also having the resources to, well, have a diet. I've read Wikipedia articles on nutrition and healthy eating and stuff, but I have no idea what it actually means. How many meals should I be eating daily? What should a meal consist of? What are some very easy things I can cook to ease me into the idea? I've just not been eating or been eating out of cans currently, as this is what I'm used to, but now I'm getting okay with the fact I can do other, more ambitious things.
I'm going to be getting a job through a "temp agency." I understand vaguely what a temp agency is. How many changes of clothes do I need for a five-day working week? How often should I do laundry, if the answer isn't just "whenever your clothes are mucky, you twit?"
I've never shopped for most things without the shopping being a do-or-die situation. What stores should I buy things in? I need soap. I've seen soap at grocery stores, at the corner druggers', in stores like Target and Walmart ... what is a reasonable price for soap? Are low-cost soaps ineffectual? I know it's a stupid question, and using a big word like "ineffectual" makes it seem more stupid, but I want to convey my level of batshit confused right now -- this is all new to me.
How much money should I set aside for food weekly? How much food is in a portion? How much do I have to buy to be able to eat comfortably for a week (I don't have easy access to transportation at the minute), if I do all of that shopping at once?
I don't think working with a temp agency gets me any sort of insurance. I need health insurance, but I'm remarkably unhealthy and don't think I can afford it. What local office do I contact to get information about social services? Should I look up the county seat (I don't even know what county I live in, actually) and expect there'll be a social services building in the directory in that city? Is that even a good idea?
I have I think around $2000, and my rent+utilities totals about $500/mo due on the 1st. Is it even looking into a doctor/psych. doctor at this point, or would the costs be too prohibitive until I have more money? I guess a lot of this is regional and all, but ... I have no idea. Any resources or help at all would be appreciated. Sorry to come off as a bumbling retard, but that's sort of how I feel at the moment. <.<
For the first time in my life, I am renting a room. I imagine that the specifics of these arrangements vary lease-by-lease, but are there any general and quick guidelines you could tell me? What does it actually mean that I am renting (as one of two people renting a 2BR apartment)? What do I own, if anything, in any sense of the word? Do I have a protected space? The other roommate was originally living in both bedrooms, so there's a lot of really shitty shit in it right now that belongs to him. Can I just move it out of the room and move my own stuff in, once I acquire said stuff?
I've never been in control of my own diet while also having the resources to, well, have a diet. I've read Wikipedia articles on nutrition and healthy eating and stuff, but I have no idea what it actually means. How many meals should I be eating daily? What should a meal consist of? What are some very easy things I can cook to ease me into the idea? I've just not been eating or been eating out of cans currently, as this is what I'm used to, but now I'm getting okay with the fact I can do other, more ambitious things.
I'm going to be getting a job through a "temp agency." I understand vaguely what a temp agency is. How many changes of clothes do I need for a five-day working week? How often should I do laundry, if the answer isn't just "whenever your clothes are mucky, you twit?"
I've never shopped for most things without the shopping being a do-or-die situation. What stores should I buy things in? I need soap. I've seen soap at grocery stores, at the corner druggers', in stores like Target and Walmart ... what is a reasonable price for soap? Are low-cost soaps ineffectual? I know it's a stupid question, and using a big word like "ineffectual" makes it seem more stupid, but I want to convey my level of batshit confused right now -- this is all new to me.
How much money should I set aside for food weekly? How much food is in a portion? How much do I have to buy to be able to eat comfortably for a week (I don't have easy access to transportation at the minute), if I do all of that shopping at once?
I don't think working with a temp agency gets me any sort of insurance. I need health insurance, but I'm remarkably unhealthy and don't think I can afford it. What local office do I contact to get information about social services? Should I look up the county seat (I don't even know what county I live in, actually) and expect there'll be a social services building in the directory in that city? Is that even a good idea?
I have I think around $2000, and my rent+utilities totals about $500/mo due on the 1st. Is it even looking into a doctor/psych. doctor at this point, or would the costs be too prohibitive until I have more money? I guess a lot of this is regional and all, but ... I have no idea. Any resources or help at all would be appreciated. Sorry to come off as a bumbling retard, but that's sort of how I feel at the moment. <.<
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rawwwrrrr I don't have all of the details, I don't even really know how to answer a call for details ... my location is accurate per the location to the left of this post, I can say that much.
edit:but if it is, from seeing Ob's posts in the chat thread, his names not on the lease, so he owns nothing/has no rights
Direct question: how did you get your current room? Craigslist? Friend referral? Did you sign anything that says, "I hereby agree to stay here for x months and pay $X till I'm done"? If you're due on the 1st, I assume so.
Have you asked your parents any of this?
I met this person over World of Warcraft, I had two falling-outs in rapid succession and this room was the only thing I could find on short notice. I moved in on New Year's Day, and he said he couldn't get a copy of the lease right away so I had him itemize a bill, sign it, and then I wrote a check (stupid bank doesn't have any locations in the northwest, which is why I need a new one) noting it as rent for 01/08 in the memo. I'll be on the actual lease for February ... hopefully. Or I'll be gone, probably, of my own accord.
EDIT: rawr for the record I'm not a he but I don't think that is altogether too relevant haha just a nitpick because I am going to refresh this thread very frequently and I don't need that staring at me :S
The lease entitles you to live in the apartment. Unless it says otherwise, the arrangement of WHERE you live within the apartment is made (usually informally) between you and your roommates. If you agreed to rent a room, then the previous occupant should probably vacate his/her stuff out of said room by the time you move in, unless you agree otherwise. If you can't make a simple agreement with your roommates, you've got bigger problems.
Three meals is standard, but some people will tell you that you should eat 5-6 small meals and not snack. Some of us skip breakfast and/or lunch. As a general guideline, a simple breakfast (maybe a bowl of not-sugary cereal) plus two other meals that aren't heavy on the fat and add up to a total of 1200-1500 calories would be fine. Learning how to cook things is never a bad idea and there are many free recipes for things available on the Internet. Of course, looking at recipes is only about half the battle. You're at something of a disadvantage if you didn't hang around the kitchen growing up. For example, I can tell when most foods are done cooking by look and feel, but that's only because of experience. You'll probably screw up a lot, but if you don't try to be too ambitious and you don't get frustrated the first few times you'll start to get the hang of it.
It's nice to have between 3-5 work outfits in any given week, and you can do laundry however often you want. It's sort of a neverending battle. To save time, money, and energy, it's usually best to do full loads, I guess.
Grocery stores are good places to shop for general things. Watch for sales on your favorite items that you buy repeatedly. For example, I like Knott's Seedless Boysenberry Jam. This product, when left in the jar in the fridge, doesn't go bad for weeks or months, so it's not like I have to eat it as soon as I buy it. When Knott's Seedless Jam is not on sale, it goes for about $4.50 a jar. When it DOES go on sale, which is about once a month, it's available for $2.50 a jar. So, when I go to the store I will run down the jam aisle and see what it's selling for today. If it's $4.50, I don't buy it. When it's $2.50, I buy two. You have to watch prices yourself. You can also find coupons for items that can be substantial, but more often than not coupons are used to entice people to buy new items. So, whereas you might not find a coupon for Cheerios (because General Mills knows that people will buy plain Cheerios no matter how much they cost), you may find a $2.00 off coupon for new Papaya Mint Cheerios.
Sometimes cheaper products don't work as well. For example, I don't buy the cheapest toilet paper, since I don't like to sandpaper my ass. I try a few different brands and find the cheapest one that's adequate. I think it's Marathon. My ass and my pocketbook are thus in agreement. You can also seemingly save money by going to the 99 cent store, but at the cost of quality. Once I got some dish-soap (brand "Rinso!") at the 99 cent store, thinking it was a good deal. However, it was watery and wholly inadequate, and so I just buy a big thing of antibacterial Palmolive when it goes on sale (again, this is a product that doesn't go bad).
As a general rule, bigger stores that sell a lot of something are going to sell it cheaper than smaller stores or stores that sell something else. For example, a 2L of Coke at the grocery store is probably going to be like $1 or $1.20, but it's going to be $1.75 at Target and $2.25 at the 7-11. Likewise, a Kit Kat at the grocery store is going to be $0.60 or $0.75, but it's $1.20 at Petco (yes, you can buy candy bars at Petco).
Depends on what you're eating. Things made from ingredients are generally cheaper than things that are pre-made. Living alone is tough in this regard since many food items do get cheaper in bulk. An option, if you get along with your roommates, is for all of you to go in together and buy a Costco membership which will let you buy very large quantities of things at a discount at Costco.
In the U.S., I had a one-hour doctor's appointment that involved a blood test. Cost without insurance: about $600.
When I first moved out, I made the mistake of thinking I could manage my money in my head. This resulted in me being short a few hundred here and there and had to choose between paying rent and eating a few times. So, long story short, make a budget.
Go out grocery shopping and buy a modest amount of food to last a week. Then go home and start a spreadsheet -- take your monthly income, subtract rent, subtract roughly what your grocery cost you four times (for every week of the month), subtract travel expenses, utilities (water, power, phone, cable, Internet, etc.). With the remainder, give yourself a teensy bit to enjoy (I used to save enough to go to a movie, eat out once a week, and buy the odd book) and save the rest for rainy days and visits to the doctor.
Also, don't ever ever EVER EVER EVER not pay the full balance on your credit card. And I second Aoi Tsuki -- talk to your parents for suggestions. No need to feel embarrassed.
Good luck, but you'll be fine
EDIT: Okay, a full of tips today. On the topic of doctor visits -- I'd been self-employed most of my life, so never had any insurance. Sometimes I'd ask my doctor if they could give me a break on price, and turns out many of them actually can knock a little off the bill. Can't hurt to ask.
The doctor thing just isn't going to happen without insurance -- when last our intrepid heroine ventured into the GP's office, she got scrips for diagnostic work (X-Ray/MRI). That's ... just not affordable. Unfortunately, she was also told it's not pressing so just something to table for now.
Parents are really right out. Stop mentioning them. They quite literally have washed their hands clean of the situation. They are born-again southern Baptists. They are not affiliated with me in any way, sorry.
Thanks for the tips and all of the info on what temp agencies really are ... I found some dietary sites that give info on what a meal should consist of, so I'm a bit better grounded there too. It's still just sort of intimidating, but I'll see what I can do, I guess. It just blows my mind out because I need to get everything all at once and it's not the sort of thing I currently have foresight programmed for. <.<
Oh, and no worries, I don't have any credit cards and I just refinanced my student loans so I have a five month grace period before I need to start making payments (graduated ones, starting at $125/mo or so).
Edit: Also, pizza dough is time consuming to make (~3 hours) but is extremely cheap and makes for some really good food.
Health Insurance - your temp agency may be able to offer something. Otherwise, check http://www.ehealthinsurance.com.
Groceries - Plan on eating 3x a day at least, depending on how much you're awake. Drink lots of water, it'll keep you less hungry too. Hopefully you're not addicted to caffeine, if so, tea is the cheapest way to get a fix.
These are my staples when I was living on my own, but it depends on what your kitchen situation is:
Breakfast: Instant Oatmeal, Cereal, Milk, Apples, Oranges.
Lunch: Bread, mustard/mayo, lunchmeat, cheese (blocks are cheaper than pre-sliced), peanut butter, jelly, tortilla chips, salsa. Tortillas, leftover chicken from your dinner. I like having lettuce on my sandwiches, so I usually had a head of lettuce in the house.
Dinner: Buy a bag of frozen chicken breasts (you can defrost chicken in a microwave or by putting a single breast in a plastic bag and submerging it in warm water for a while). Get some spices - garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, chili powder, Italian seasoning are what I use most often. I also cooked chicken in salsa, pasta sauce (top chicken with a slice of cheese for a poorman's chicken parmesana), and Italian salad dressing. Get some instant rice or couscous. Vegetables, I'm happy with frozen or canned. Steam or microwave until hot. Also, pasta is good. You can buy jars of pasta sauce, or make your own with canned tomato products.
Dire circumstances grocery: My friend is doing a "Spend $20, Cook Once, Eat for a Week" blog experiment: http://eat-for-a-week.blogspot.com/
And do work off of a budget. I just made one in Google Spreadsheets, listing my expenses, how often I pay them, what the monthly cost is, and what my monthly income is. This might be more than you need, but Crazy Aunt Purl has her budget spreadsheet available for all to use: http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/budget.xls.
For instance, you can buy soap in a lot of places. It's cheapest at Target. So's Campbell's chunky soup, as well as most cereals. Seriously, it's weird -- you'd think a major grocery store would sell foods for cheap, but around here Target has them beat on pretty much everything.
Now, target's selection is weak, as they focus on dry foods, but it's something to keep in mind. You've obviously been living/existing since the new year -- there's really no trick to it. You can certainly get by with some google-fu to figure out the details of existence, as well as asking people (both here and in real life). Honestly, one of the best ways to learn how to get by is by simply doing it for a month or two, and then looking back at how you did it. What would you change? what would you spend more money on, or less money? etc.
Oh, and if you save the bones and any leftover scraps of chicken, you can make chicken soup the next day. Boil the bones in water, add garlic, chopped veggies (carrots and celery are good), and about a cup of rice and you'll get a big pot of warming, filling soup. The trick with cooking rice is to stir it a lot and, if the water gets too low before the rice is soft, add more water.
One of the best things you can do for yourself is to get a couple freezer-safe plastic containers and have some "emergency" food for when you just don't feel like cooking. Spaghetti sauce is good this way; so is chili and most soups. This will keep you from coming home tired and grumpy and then spending $15 on a pizza just so you don't have to cook; instead, upend a little container of chili (or something) into a pot and let it heat up. You'll eat before you would've with the pizza and won't spend huge amounts of money on convenience food.
Clothes: Wash undergarments after every wearing. Pants can be worn two or three times, same goes for shirts if you aren’t messy or sweaty. Try to have at least a different shirt for every day of the week, you can get good cotton shirts at H&M at low prices. Don’t buy clothes with weird buttons or accessories that can’t be replaced when they fall off.
Buy food at grocery stores, get soap and other personal care products at Target or Wal-Mart. Don’t buy anything at drug stores like CVS or Walgreens, they’re expensive.
As far as diet, try to eat lots of vegetables and smaller portions of carbs and meat, if you want to be balanced. Daily meals are based entirely on how hungry you get (I usually eat twice a day). Easy things to cook: anything with chicken, as has been mentioned. It's also pretty easy to make your own pizza. Trader Joe's (they have those in WA, right?) or Whole Foods will sell pizza dough pre-made, and it's still pretty cheap. I've bought it at home in CA for about $2, and it will make a fairly large pizza...also you can make varying types of pasta, mac and cheese, stews, soups, etc.
As a girl, I usually have 5 different changes of clothes for the work week. However, my work is pretty casual. You could probably get away with wearing 2 or 3 pairs of dress pants or skirts for the week, and it's doubtful anyone would notice. Just wear different shirts (sweaters or button downs or whatever the office vibe is) every day.
I usually end up with about two loads of laundry a week. I can wait three weeks and do it all in one day, though. The laundry thing really depends on how clean you like certain things to be (I can go a week without washing my jeans, but my sheets HAVE to be laundered weekly, as well)
I personally wouldn't pay more than $5 for body wash. You can get hand soap for like, $1.50 here in Texas, but I know it's probably more expensive there in WA. Usually Target and Wal-Mart will have the cheapest things of this sort. Target's prices are usually within a few cents of Wal-Mart's, and they are usually cleaner inside (in my experience), so if there's a Target nearby, I'd shop there.
I only spend $20/week on food, but I don't eat much and I buy generic brands. At home in CA, eating whatever I wanted, I'd probably spend around $35/week. I'd say set aside $50, not intending to spend all of it. That should more than cover you. Good luck!
I got 2x frozen brussel's sprouts (my favorite vegetable), a thing of instant oatmeal ($2.29 amg and the box is as big as my thigh), and frozen fish because it was on sale (42.8% off!) and I'm used to eating fish instead of the chicken. I found the really-cheap boneless/skinless chicken breasts (it was like, $10 for a dozen or so of them but they were sort of smallish) but the fish was 20oz of fillets for $4 so I got almost three pounds of fillets for $8.
also uhh I bought some tater chips because shut up
I only got things I really like right now so that I can be sure I'll eat them because I have a hard time motivating myself to get out of old habits of, uh, well, not eating. But I loves me my sprouts and also fish.
Is there really an advantage to chicken or other meat over fish/eggs? I'm pretty much completely unexposed to meat, sort of used to poultry, but definitely well-versed in fish and eggs. An egg on a piece of dry toast? I'm into that!.. and then I won't eat anything for the rest of the day. So uh. Obviously still have a lot of progress to make!
On a more sober note, uh ... will I likely have to take a drug test if I work for the temp agency? If so, how long do I have to have been "clean" for that to work out?
As a stop gap, buy what you need in small quantities and make do with them now. Once you're set, go through flyers like crazy. I live in a condo, they have a package of flyers (no frills, future shop, bestbuy, loblaws, food basic, etc) available every week and I try to pick it up for my mom as often as I can remember. The more often you look through the flyers and make note of the prices, the better idea you'll have on what is expensive, normal and cheap. For example, I know the sale prices of a few items (not sure this'll help, I live in toronto):
1L carton of choco milk - $1
4L bag of 2% milk - $3.99 @ shoppers, $4.59 everywhere else
1L jar of Ragu Pasta Sauce - $1 (they go fast at this price)
1L can of Allen's Apple Juice - $1
3 heads of garlic - $1
Small container of button mushrooms - $1
If they're more expensive than this, I won't buy them unless there's a dire need for them. You get used to the prices after a while, it's all about exposure. The more often you consider the numbers, the easier it'll be to compare prices and figure out what's the best deal.
Bulk isn't ALWAYS the best deal though, so either bring a calculator or be prepared to do some simple arithmetic at the grocery store. Also do your grocery shopping with a physical list. This way, you get in and out with minimal time wasted.
Asian super markets used to be a lot cheaper than places like Loblaws, Dominion, No Frills and Food Basic but recently, no frills has really started to make up the ground between the two (oddly enough, by incoporating Asian elements into their stores). Still, Asian super markets can have some really good deals so if you've got one nearby, stop in from time to time to consider their prices.
I'm sorry, I can't really help with much else, still living at home. Good luck!
Edit: I have no idea about the ethnic makeup of Kirkland but if there is a good sized Asian population, then keep your eye out for an Asian bakery. They've got a good variety of buns (sweet and savoury) for usually less than a dollar each. The biggest deal though is that after 6pm, around where I live, a lot of the bakeries put their daily baked goods 50-60% off in an effort to clear their stock for the next day's fresh batch of goods. Easy to stock up on some buns for cheap (they make nice snacks or quick breakfasts).
BTW: With the big packs of chicken breasts you probably want to freeze most of them. They only last a few days tops even in the fridge.
Also, just noticed you are in Kirkland. Check out the metro site here http://transit.metrokc.gov/
With the "trip planner" thing you put in your address and where / when you are going and it figures out which busses to take. It's been a couple years since I lived on the eastside but there is a Costco in Kirkland (it's up the hill from the main drag down by the community center) and if you catch the 540 bus that goes to redmond near the QFC (big market) and Target.
Edit: I've lived in Seattle and Redmond for about 8 years now and have never owned a car. Once you get used to the bus system you can get around wherever you need. Sometimes takes a little while so just bring a book along and chill.
Your state government should have a website with the local rental laws available for perusal, and most jurisdictions also have a rental tenants' association that can advise you on these things.
If you're not actually on the lease, you have no rights per se, but you also have no responsibilities. You can be booted at any time, but you don't have to pay to fix things, etc. and you can bail any time you want without having to find a replacement roomie. That said, if you do break a fixture the right thing to do is of course to pay, and if he needs someone to help with the rent, its the right thing to do to advertise the room and find him someone. Otherwise your roomie (who I gather is definitely on the lease from what you've said in DD chat) will be stuck with the bill, and that's not cool.
I think that given that you've only just moved in with him, you'd want to wait a while before raising the issue of moving his shit out of your room. Its probably not reasonable to ask if there's nowhere else to store it, like a garage. These are issues you'll have to work out together, there's no legislation or rights covering that kind of thing. I'd go easy given your situation.
Three squares will keep you going and healthy. People who work out for fitness often go for five or six smaller meals, but that schedule doesn't coincide well with a normal workday. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus a couple of snacks in morning and afternoon, is the norm.
A meal... is flexible :P Aim for something that has some veggies or fruit, some protein, and some carbs. The sandwich is the platonic ideal of food! Bread for carbs, salad and meat in between. And you don't even need a knife and fork. There's a bunch of recipes for cheap and healthy (and easy) food in one of the AFK threads as I recall. Things like stir fry and pasta are hard to screw up. Oftentimes, my dinner will consist of:
PROTEIN:
* dice a chicken thigh fillet (trim off most of the fat as you go) and sautee it with some spices in a small frypan until cooked through (no pink! chicken must be well done!) OR
* scrambled eggs: break 3 eggs into a bowl, add a splash of milk, stir the hell out of them with a fork. oil and heat a frypan, pour the egg mix in, stir it slowly over medium-high heat (turn the stove dial to 9 o'clock) until it goes, you know, scrambledy.
VEGGIES
* steam a big handful of chopped up broccolli or boil some string beans, dress them with a little garlic and oil. maybe some pine nuts too, mmmm OR
* make a little bit of salad out of some salad mix leaves, a tomato diced up, a bit of diced up cucumber, maybe some olives and bell pepper. Aim to fill half your plate with salad.
CARBS
* a slice or two of toast later on OR
*wash a couple of potatoes, dice them into bits that are about a half inch on a side, and boil them. you can mash them with a bit of milk and maybe some nutmeg. Or, you can just boil them for 1 or 2 minutes, take them out when they're half cooked, and then sautee them with some spices or herbs in a pan.
don't worry about having a meal or three that's heavy in just one component, though. Its totally fine to just have a bowl of cereal for breakfast or a pasta dish with no salad or whatever. If you think back and realise that you haven't had any protein that day, or any veggies, just aim to have some in the next meal or two.
depends how much you give a crap what other people think. I'd go five, and ideally shop for things that you can mix and match, and maybe jazz up with accessories. Wash on weekends. Enough stuff should build up by then to justify a full load.
Be careful about washing white clothes with everything else, sometimes they can absorb loose bits of dye and go wrong-coloured :P also, I for one have to wash my bath towels separate from my clothes, otherwise they leave lint all over everything.
Supermarket is fine for soap. Ideally (and this is a rule of thumb for, like, everything), look at the range of prices on the shelf and buy something that's towards the middle. Everything will get you clean, but some soaps will make your skin dry, and some smell like ass. Don't buy more than 2 cakes at a time unless you know you like the one you're buying, because they last a long time and you don't want to be stuck with something you hate. a) depends on local prices. I spend about AU$60 a week, that's about US$...45-50ish I think. that includes once-in-a-while stuff like sauces, as well as toiletries and dishwashing liquid and such.
b) an official portion? not much, like a tablespoonful. A meal should be like, four fists big or so. But if you're way full or way hungry soon after, adjust the size to suit you.
c) depends what you want to eat. I shop twice a week or more because I don't have a car, but start with something like: a loaf of bread, a packet of pasta (500g), 2 litres of milk, a tray of chicken (500g, like 6-8 thigh fillets or 4-6 breasts), a dozen eggs (large size), 7 tomatoes, 2 small cucumbers, half a lettuce or a bag of packaged loose leaves, a packet of italian herbs, a small bottle of olive oil, some jam or something for the bread, 250g block of cheddar, 2 jars of pasta sauce. Maybe some nice things like chocolate, or more spices for the meat. That ought to cover you for most of your meals in a week, although you'll be bored by the end of it :P it gets easier once you've started shopping, because you can just notice what's missing and top up as needed. Its a good idea to gradually build up a stock of things like spices and sauces, because they're the things that really distinguish one variation on 'chop meat and veg, cook meat and veg' from another.
'fraid I can't help you on the medical stuff, the US system is just too different from ours. Definitely look into low-income support programs, but be wary of their requirements. Some will boot you off the books if you manage to save 'too much', since that proves you 'don't really need them', which effectively forces people with low incomes and ongoing health issues to stay poor - there's no leg up to get you into an actual good position where you can afford decent care on the free market.
a $1 packet of little plastic bags will last ages and make life oh so much easier.
for grilling in that top part of the oven, lay a bit of tinfoil on the grill plate so you don't have to clean it later - all you'll have to do is lift the foil off after and chuck it in the bin. Paint the fish with some sauce or a spice mix and stick it in there for a couple of minutes on each side - you want it to go slightly coloured/black, but not too much or it will dry out. If you want to plan ahead, you can put it in a marinade - good fish marinades involve something like: splash of oil, splash of lemon juice, handful of chopped up fresh basil leaves. mix that in a tray or bowl, put fish in bowl, swish it around a bit so its all covered, put some clingwrap or a lid on the container, stick in the fridge. Minimum one hour, but you can leave it up to a full day in there.
Otherwise, you can steam fish the way you'd steam veggies, but be aware you can stink out the house doing this :P
- I've worked for a temp agency for a few days short of a year now, and been at the same assignment the whole time. It's miles better than any retail or food job (I like office work, so for me anyways), although I don't get benefits or much chance for advancement. I went independently to get health insurance, I pay about $50 a month to Anthem, but I'm fairly healthy.
- I pay about $60 a week for food, although I could probably drop that to 40 if I went back to store brands and cup'a noodles. I skip breakfest on days I get to sleep in and just have lunch. I'm not going to give any more advice on food though seeing as I don't cook, at all (frozen foods and insta-prep stuff for me), and my only fitness concern is that I'm not hungry.
- I do one load of laundry a week, although I don't seperate whites, I just use cold water. Any more than 2 a week and you're probably wearing too many clothes for 7 days use.
If you're staying more than a month I'd definitly want to sign a real lease, those rights can be important if things go against you. At that point you have the right to say what goes in your room, although you can certainly just ask nicely for them to be taken out before.
...and put them into the same spot in your brain you've got your birthdate and name memorized. They are axioms of life, two simple truths that, no matter where you live and what your life is like, will keep you afloat.
Another axiom for food is this: if it takes more than twenty minutes to go from hungry -> eating, it's too much hassle. Don't expect to go "I'm hungry," and then whip out your kitchen supplies to create a meal, because all that prep and cooking time is more time to think "goddamnit I'm starving, why does this take so long, this is pointless." You will get discouraged.
(Things change once you're feeding a family. Twenty minutes per person being served is fine, I suppose. And if you're cooking for a date then it takes as long as it has to take. But for living on your own, 20 minutes. Aim for 15 and you'll always feel comfortable.)
Going to spoiler the rest for length. It's long, but it's some extremely simple stuff about buying and cooking food that I had to figure out and wish I'd been taught. I had the same sort of "this should be so easy but it isn't oh god why" crisis when I moved out on my own.
Your health is about more than just making you you get your recommended daily values of various vitamins and making sure your BMI stays below that of a state fair hog. For one you have to get enough calories to keep your body running. For two you need to make sure you don't feel like crap. Usually, satisfying those two conditions will keep you at a decent weight and without your teeth falling out from scurvy. But it's important to stay alive and feeling decent about it, first and foremost.
I'll outline how to make a salad with chicken breast, and in the process teach a thing or two about lazy cooking. Also some sandwich ideas. If you aren't here for advice this is probably TL;DR, because there is some basic shit about buying and prepping simple foods here. Some of this is stuff you can discover easily on your own through trial and error, which unfortuantely is what you're going to have to do a lot of. Maybe I can help you avoid some of that.
So.
The trick is to have things prepared ahead of time. Cook in batches rather than single servings: I always cook 4 chicken breasts at a time, ensuring that for the next 4 dinners all I need to do is microwave chicken + chop veggies = salad. Or cook enough spaghetti sauce for 3-4 dinners. Use store-brand Ziplocs (they're cheap), use reusable plastic containers (knockoff Tupperwares), or use your regular kitchen dishes + plastic wrap to store things. Just make sure it's airtight, or you get nasty odors and tastes. A batch of chiken takes exactly as much time to prep and cook as does one chicken breast. It takes about sixty seconds more to get the leftovers into a big ziploc in the fridge once I'm done eating. Economies of scale at work, bitches.
The ultimate focus of on-your-own-on-a-budget cooking is calories. You need these to live. Everything else is a secondary focus, and you can get a lot of that in a multivitamin. This isn't to say you should buy tub of lard and eat spoons of it at every meal, but you do need more than just carrot and celery sticks to live. Those are "health food"....if you're eating too many calories. For people eating too little "health food" is starvation.
I'd like to reiterate that I'm not suggesting you buy every meal at the McD's dollar menu. Just keep in mind when you're cooking: "does this have enough calories to make a meal?" Salads sans meat usually won't, for example. Pan-fry some chicken, that turns a side dish salad into a meal salad. If you don't get enough calories, you'll feel hungry. Feeling hungry all the time will make you miserable. It's also unhealthy.
You say you like fish, which is good if you can eat it all the time. You probably won't be able to do so for long without being bored. Also fish smells up the house when you cook it. You'll need to get around to buying, cooking, and eating chicken, because it's cheap, has plenty of healthy calories, and can work in many many many more dishes than fish.
There has been advice to buy bone-in chicken here, which is fine if you're competent enough to de-bone chicken, and don't mind the extra time it takes either pre-freeze or post-thaw to do so. I haven't figured out the de-boning thing, and the boneless stuff is about $.50-$1 more per pound, which I will gladly pay to not fumble with slimy chicken breasts for half an hour. I buy the boneless store brand stuff, unfrozen. Frozen brand-name stuff is too rich for my blood.
Once you have it home, do what Alton Brown taught me to do: wrap the chicken in aluminum foil (don't be afraid to use too much foil, too little is more of a pain), then seal in a freezer-grade plastic bag. It'll store for like 6 months without getting freezer burnt. I do "packets" of 2 chicken breasts, which is my bare minimum for cooking at one time, two packets per plastic bag. I usually thaw out two packets at a time.
This leads to a problem: meat needs to be cooked, which takes either time or money: you can buy pre-cooked meat, but it's way more expensive. Cooking chicken requires some forethought. You have to let it thaw (4-6 hours on the counter before cooking time), you have to let it get cooked through in the pan or on the grill. A grill is nice, but it's impractical for 99% of young people living on their own, and increases the prep/cooking/cleaning time by an uncomfortable number. Get a big non-stick frying pan. Follow The Cat's pricing advice here: too cheap, the non-stick coating will peel off the in the sink after a few washes. Check Target's Home section and aim for the middle. A frying pan is an investment, which is sort of silly to say about something that shouldn't run you more than $25 (I got a set of a big one + small one for $40), but it's one of those things that being too thrifty on will leave you regretting later. Also in that vein: trash bags (buy the brand name ones). But I digress.
Thawed chicken + preheated big frying pan + medium heat (5-6 out of 10) + 5-10 minutes per side (5 for thinner cuts of meat, ten for bigger) = cooked chicken. The cooking time will always vary, just cut into the thickest part of the thickest piece after the recommended 5-10 minutes. If it isn't pink, and there aren't pink juices flowing out of it, it's done. It might be a little overdone, but unless you've blackened it to charcoal it's perfectly edible. You're not a goddamn five star restaurant, you're just cooking for yourself. Go for the advanced stuff once you have the basics figured out. Build on what you learn.
There's an easy way to add flavor. When you get the chicken breasts out to thaw, get them into their own plastic bag (by the way, never thaw meat you won't cook immediately afterward. 99 times out of 100 it may not matter, but that 1 time might be life-threatening [or at least really fucking miserable] food poisoning, and it's not worth the risk). Into that plastic bag add some soy sauce, some garlic powder, and some ground black pepper. You'll figure the amounts out: enough soy sauce to coat the chicken but not so much that you're throwing away a quarter of the bottle when you discard the bag, maybe a tablespoon each of garlic and pepper. Eyeball it. This isn't rocket science, it's food. If you don't like how it tastes once, adjust the next time. So you have bag of frozen chicken + marinade, leave it to thaw in the marinade just as you let it thaw before. When cooking time comes, take the chicken out of the bag and discard the bag. Don't use the marinade for anything. There's plenty of flavor there.
You can figure out more flavors easy: you need some kind of liquid for the chicken to soak in. Soy sauce is easy, cheap, and works with anything. Italian salad dressing works too. Lemon juice is a bit more advanced and needs more flavors, but the garlic + pepper concept works great as a start for it. Storebought marinades are expensive and don't really add anything worthwhile. For other spices, you can do basil + oregano + crushed red pepper flakes for an Italian flavor, or add ginger into my suggestion for a more Asian theme. Experiment with it, the technique is easy enough and the worst thing that can happen is you have one crappy meal and never try it again.
You have your pan-friend chicken by this point. Once you've determined it's cooked, take it out of the pan and let it sit on a plat (under paper towels, keeps flies off) for 10-15 minutes. It needs to cool before you can slice it, and also this keeps the juices from getting all over the place when you cut into it.
For the next step you can buy prepackaged lettuce greens, but the prices are extortionate ($5 for a bag that gets me 2 servings!) and you won't learn how to chop vegetables if you never do it, will you?
While you let the chicken cook (or after, if you're paranoid like me about burning things on the stove) you need to chop some veggies for your salad. I use romaine lettuce + carrots + celery. Sometimes white mushrooms. I avoid tomatoes because I'm not a big fan of them raw, and also because slicing them is messy. At my local supermarket I can get a 3-pack of heads of romaine for about $4-5, depending on if they're on sale. One head of romaine is 3-4 salads. I look for stuff that isn't obviously brown in the bag, and has a "sell by" date of at least 5 days in the future (it ranges from 2-7 days in the store, typically). Iceberg lettuce works too, but I like romaine.
Once you have your lettuce home, you need to store it. If it's not pre-sealed in a plastic bag (the kind I buy is) put it in one of its own. If your fridge has a veggie drawer, use it. If not, don't worry about it. When time comes to make your salad. Retrieve a head of lettuce. Rinse it under cold water. Dry it with paper towels.
Here's where you need a cutting board and knife. I have a wooden board and a plastic board: wooden for veggies, palstic for meats. You're not supposed to use a wooden one for cutting meat, because it can absorb raw meat juice, which is unsanitary. You don't need a wooden one for veggies, but having one of each makes it easy for me to remember which one is for what. For knives, I can't help you there. I bought a $30 set of knives at Target (6 of them: bread, big chef's knife, small paring, large boning, two steak) and they're awful. Someone else needs to advise you. Cheap knives will work but you'll need to be really careful if they're too dull. Dull knives cause accidents, because you use more force, and then you slip, and then oh god there's blood everywhere and put it in a bag of ice and call 911. Sharp knives require less force and let you use more control.
Whether or not your knves are good, go slow. Don't try to chop like chefs on TV. They've been doing this for years and had training. Keep clearance between the fingers holding the food and the blade cutting it. Don't get distracted. Just chop your food, this part you can probably figure out. For the romaine lettuce I was talking about, you can just hold the whole head and chop perpendicular to the leaves in 1-2 inch intervals and it'll fall into nice bite-size pieces. Discard the 2-3 inches at the base. For iceberg, cut into halves, then chop into 1/2 to 1 inch intervals along it. It should fall apart nicely.
Do the same drill for the rest of your veggies: rinse, then chop into tiny bits. Then perform the same task on your chicken. toss enough pieces into a big bowl to make a serving and add your favorite salad dressing. I like bleu cheese. Sometimes I buy an Asian ginger dressing.
You now have a delicious, healthy, calorie-packed salad that makes for a fine dinner (or big lunch!). If you need to take your lunch somewhere, buy those Ziploc disposable containers at the supermarket (hint: use them a couple times before the "disposable" part, just wash them thoroughly between uses. You'll get 8-10 before they get nasty). Prepare your salad greens in a batch of 3-6 servings and store them in the fridge in a big bowl under plastic wrap, they'll keep for 3-5 days before going brown. Prepare your chicken in advance and have it stored, sliced, in a plastic bag (this'll keep about 3 days tops). Before you head out the door toss a serving of each into your plastic container, add a small amount of dressing (less than you'd usually use, it makes lettuce soggy) and take it to work/school in a grocery bag along with a plastic fork. This has helped me avoid spending $8 on lunch many a time when I was on campus and couldn't get home for lunch.
If you're still too lazy or clueless to cook meat and chop veggies (which is fine, sometimes I don't feel like doing it either) you can make a sandwich. I know it sounds retarded to give advice on sandwiches but there's a few ways to know if you've buying the right stuff. Also, doing the same sandwich every time will get old after not very long, so maybe I can help you with variety.
go to your local supermarket deli counter. Buy what you can afford. For some, that'll be the 2.99/lb bologna, which makes for the kind of sandwich that will encourage you to find a better job. For others, the 4.99 "on sale" price point will usually get you decent ham or turkey. Buy some cheese too, 1/4 a pound of cheese per pound of meat is about 2 slices per sandwich, and makes a big difference. You can buy Kraft singles for cheaper but deli cheeses taste better. A pound of lunch meat will get you about 4 sandwiches that are big enough to call "meals," stretch it any further and you'll want to find a side dish for more calories.
You have meat for a sandwich and some cheese. You need bread. If you're living on your own you need to know that if you buy bakery breads, they're probably going to go moldy before you've used the whole loaf. I get around this by buying the pre-packaged store-brand stuff that's in the same section as Wonderbread and all that. $2-3 for a loaf, depending on sale, and it'll usually last the week and a half it takes me to use the whole loaf. I prefer to buy whole wheat breads, as they're tasy and more healthy, but white bread is fine. I also toast my bread for sandwiches, just lightly. Personal preference.
Condiments make sandwiches better. Mayonnaise is fine if you like it. Mustard is good too, brown mustard works better than yellow mustard for me but it's up to you. Bleu cheese dressing is a favorite of mine, I've made it work on sandwiches too. Whatever you buy will end up lasting you longer than you expect, if you're the only one using it.
You can try more veggies on your sandwiches, tomatoes work well here. I don't usually do much other than the lettuce.
I subsisted on pretty much nothing but the above two things when I was broke for about four months, with the odd frozen Totinos pizza to break up the monotony (91 cents at the supermarket, can't go wrong).
That was a lot to write, but hopefully it teaches you something new. If you can figure out how to do the salad I outlined, you can cook many more ambitious things. I could preach for pages about the many wondrous things you can do with a slow cooker (the lazy home cook's best friend) but I think I've written enough for now.