Paying parents rent.

[molesgallus]

I would very much like to know how you manage to spend £80 per week on food, on yourself! That is over £10 per day! Do you eat out all the time? Do you live on takeaway?!

How to spend £20 on a week's food, assuming you have a fairly good stock of 'staples' like tinned tomatoes, herbs & spices, pasta, oil, flour, oats. If not then go get some for about £10.

Day 1

Buy a decent sized chicken (£5)
Buy a pile of veg (£4)
Buy fruit for snacks (£3)
Perishables like milk (£2)
Buy kidney beans (£1)

Cook chicken by boiling it for 2 hours with some veg in a big pot. When it is done, keep the liquid and put in fridge. Take all meat off chicken and bones. You now have the base ingredients for at least 3 days of soup, stir fries, curry, pasta dishes and other things like sandwiches/salads for lunch. Make your own bread; dirt cheap, really easy and tastes soo good. Also impresses the ladies.

Day 4

Buy a large amount of beef mince (£5)

Ideas for using this: chili con carne, spag bol, meatballs, burgers, cottage pie.

Enjoy extra £60 per week (jealous...) to spend on booze, video games and hookers.

On a serious note, I really recommend the cookery book 'economy gastronomy' by Allegra McEverdy if you are looking for ways to save money on food. There are 2 sections: first like the recipes I described where you get one big ingredient and use it for several days' food, the second really good individual recipes she seems to make out of what others would call an 'empty fridge'.

Here's a quick breakdown. It varies a bit, but this is roughly how my food buying breaks down;

-I shop weekly at M&S for my dinners/puddings. I'll usually take advantage of any offers they have, and spend roughly 30-35 for a weeks worth of evening meals, and a reasonable amount of snacks,bread,etc.

-On top of that, I'll spend another 5 on onions, and other base vegetables/spices a week. I use these for breakfast, and the occasional home made meal.

-My friend is a fishmonger, and he secures me a lot of cheap sea-food. I spend about 5-10 on this a week, and almost exclusively eat it for breakfast, in various interesting ways.

-Lastly, and this is my greatest expense(relative to food eaten), I eat out for lunch regularly. Usually twice a week with friends at a moderately priced restaurant/cxafe(25 total) and the other 3-4 days I eat greggs/m&s/other fast cheap lunch place, to tune of 10-15.

I'm not really interested in saving on this. I enjoy the convenience, and taste of it all. I don't drink(no snobbery, etc. Just don't enjoy being drunk/taste of alcohol) And there isn't anything else I particularly want the money for. I've owned about 6 games in my entire life, and 3 were by valve. I'm extremely fussy game wise, and can never rid myself of that itchy 'I'm wasting my time' feeling. I know plenty of my friends spend 30-40 a week on alcohol, and plenty find other things to waste it on. I couldn't be more happy to have great food instead of the juices of decayed organic matter.

I should note, I have a successful job. I'm lucky, and already get a lot of money to do what I love. It's unrelated to University. I'm not living off daddy's money or anything. Not that it would matter.

 

[-Samurai-]

Well, no, it's not bullshit. This isn't your parents ringing up their kid going 'Hey, you owe me 100 bucks because I raised you all the time, put it in my back account, yeah?'

This guy's still living with his parents and complaining about paying them money. So no, that's not the case at all. But hey, you turn around to your parents and go 'No, you legally have to give me X amount of shit because the law says so!'

To my knowlage, if you want to get down to it, the law's there to make sure you have a roof over your head, fed, and aren't beaten. Other than that, suck it up sunshine, and pay your own damn way.

You might want to go back and read my first post in this thread. It should clear up what you seem to be misunderstanding.

And for future reference, you came on a little strong.

 

[Sparcrypt]

On one hand I want to say get the hell over it. 25 a week? Cheapest rent you're ever going to pay. My mortgage costs me 300 a week. I also payed my parents rent since they day I got my first job (at 14) - they didn't need the money in the slighest but they felt it gave me an important lesson in managing my money, which it did.

On the other, I do have some sympathy as it seems your parents aren't charging you for the same reasons mine did - they put every cent of it away and gave it back to me when I left home (they never said they were doing this, they just randomly went 'Hey! Have the money you gave us back!'). It really was a great way of teaching me to budget as well as giving me a surprise saving that went towards my house deposit. I'll be doing the same if I have kids.

So if your annoyance is your mother and step dad are just looking for another excuse not to work then yeah, that is kinda crappy. But hey.. that's their choice I guess and you do live in their home.

But to all the people saying things like "tell her you've paid 7 months upfront" or "demand a rental agreement" - get real guys. He's 18. Which means her response can be 'OK, so you're moving out next week then?'. At which point he will be paying more then 25 bucks a week...

TL;DR - if your parents ask you to pay rent then you pay it or move out.

 

[Richard Eis]

100 is nothing. It will be much more to rent elsewhere.

Also somehow i don't think that 700 quid she owes you covers your food, rent, gas, electricity, water, toys etc... for 18 years!!!