Your best money saving meals to last through the week

[Gigis]

DH and I are trying to make drastic changes to our lifestyle to save money. Were used to quick ready meals, takeaway type stuff in the week as we both work long hours. Often we eat separately.

Please throw me your cheapest, tastiest meals that dont take an age to make and either have ingredients that can be used in another dish in the week or can be added to bulk out food midweek too. I am getting stuck beyond pasta and tinned tomatoes...

Cheesy pasta with chopped up spring onion and salad cream. Yum yum

JAcket potatoes
EGg fried rice
BEans on toast

Cut up a couple of baking potatoes into wedges, bake in the oven. 5 mins or so mins before finishing time add a few eggs. Add in some Rosemary with the wedges if feeling fancy. Serve with peas.

Vegetable casserole with herby dumplings. Not quick, but easily reheated for a second person/frozen
Any vegetarian chilli bean type thing can be eaten with eggs and toast or rice or potatoes or diluted for a soup.
Noodles - can be eaten with a myriad of vegetables and very quick.

Sausages, mash and peas
Chicken thigh/chorizo/potato/red pepper traybake
Butternut squash macaroni cheese
Turkey curry and rice
Dhal and rice
Kedgeree

Chill

Chilli sorry

I can make a spaghetti bolognase for four in 20 mins. Use domino sauce and a few pans. Freeze half.

These all sound fantastic, thank you. Any more suggestions gratefully received!

Chicken fajitas (freeze the leftovers for another day)

What do you cook at weekends OP?

Quick hearty soup - tin of tomatoes, tin of butter beans, garlic, oregano or basil, stock cube, simmer for 30 mins, mash a few beans into the sauce and serve with crusty bread and parmesan cheese.

Lots of other soups take 10 mins max to get going and then just need to simmer.

Salmon fillets cooked in foil for 20 mins served with a nest of egg noodles, soy sauce and frozen green beans.

Smoked cod loin cooked in the bag it comes in (I buy in either Morrisons or Booths) with new potatoes and vegetables - when I really cba I shove the veg in the same pan that the potatoes are cooking in at the end.

Cook a few extra new potatoes one night and use them in a Spanish omelette with chorizo, onions and oregano the next day.

Cook a big pan of ragu and freeze in portions. I also make and freeze pasta bake when my ragu is cooked.

Pan fry chicken with Barts Chicken seasoning, add onions and peppers to the pan once the chicken is cooked. Serve on tortillas with avacado, cheese, salad.

No effort at all - avocado mashed on toast with poached eggs, baked potato with cheese, cottage cheese and salad.

I never buy ready meals, emergency only type job, but I never spend much time cooking dinner.

Tonight was cauliflower, cheese and wholegrain mustard soup - 25 mins from start to finish.

Pilaf - just discovered this and it's a revelation!
Any risotto with anything you have spare chucked in
Curry made with meat:veg, spices and coconut milk
Omelettes
Croque Madame
Egg and chips
Burgers
Roast chicken which can then be used for another meal then lunches

You need a slow cooker! Put it all in, go to work, come home and eat

Chicken, chorizo and potato all in one roasting tin
Pasta with sun dried tomato pesto and cream or soft cheese

Turkey mince meatballs (we like ours slightly spicy) with 20p spaghetti and homemade tomato sauce! Dirt cheap and our kids love it.

Jacket potatoes with cheese/beans/ratatouille/corned beef hash, or leftover curry/chilli from the day before

Homemade chicken and mushroom soup. We buy a big pack of frozen chicken portions, coat half in spicy breadcrumbs to have with wedges/sweetcorn for one meal, then roast and strip the other half and make a huge soup that does a dinner and several lunches.

Toad in the hole with mash, peas and gravy. Batter is very cheap to make and makes sausages go further - it's a hearty dinner for a lot less than the cost of a joint of meat

Braised beef stew with dumplings
Lasagne
Spaghetti Bolognese
Soups and crusty bread
Curries with nan bread and rice
Chilli and rice
Jacket potatoes and left over chilli or other fillings.
All of these can be made in big batches and frozen or reheated the next day.

Tin of pilchards in tomato
Tin chopped tomatoes
Rice
Seasoning

I batch make a big pot of my own version based on a ragu sauce. This then acts as the base sauce for various meals. It freezes really well and as a smooth sauce can be microwaved to hot in a few minutes.

I tend to do it in a pressure cooker but it'd do just as well on the hob, a couple of onions lightly fried, 4 or 5 carrots, a couple of stems celery, a couple of boxes passatta or a tin tomatoes and box passatta, a few crushed cloves garlic, generous amounts of Worcestershire sauce, cook it all up until everything goes soft then blitz smooth.

Then it can be served with pasta as is or with a bit of bacon/ ham/ mushrooms/ roast leftovers chucked in for variation. Or for spag bol add mince.

Add a can of mixed beans and a half teaspoon of chilli powder and some mince for a rich chilli.

Add mince, peas and diced carrot for the base of a cottage pie.

For a curry dry fry the spices add meat to brown and we like to add green beans add the base sauce.

I make a basis for a big bolognese - mince, onions, tinned tomatoes, garlic. Before I add the herbs I divide it up.

One third bolognese
One third I add chilli and kidney beans (or baked beans - our DS loves it with baked beans)
Final third I add carrots or peas, bung some mash on it for a cottage pie or put a ready made puff pastry lid on it for a normal pie.

Three meals, one base.

I do the same with sausages. If we're having them I cook extra, chop the spare up (divide one sausage into three), put in a can of tomatoes, some stock, Freeze it until you're ready or keep in the fridge for a day. When you're ready to re-heat add potatoes (bite size, they cook quicker) and some veg. If it seems a bit thin add some cornflour. Serve with chunky bread or garlic bread.

I do the same with most things actually - I'll cook extra chicken then make a curry or casserole or add it to a pasta bake.

Gammon gets into a carbonara sauce if there are left overs.

Oh, forgot the onions in the sausage casserole - you can't have a sausage casserole without onions!

Dhal with rice - really cheap store cupboard ingredients

Risotto - again store cupboard plus you can chuck whatever you have kicking around in and it feels a little fancier than most budget meals

Jacket potatoes with cheese/beans/sweet corn or whatever you've got in. Also makes leftover chilli/bolognese etc go further

Soup - really quick and easy to make and uses up whatever veg you've got lying around. Adding chickpeas and blending gives a lovely creaminess.

Omelette/frittata

Using pulses instead of meat in chilli, casseroles etc. Also makes them quicker to cook.

Make good use of leftovers. Freeze leftover casserole to turn into a steak pie etc.

When we were on a stricter budget, stir fry was good and v quick (supermarket prepped bags) quiche and salad, jackets, veggie curries.

Quickest and cheapest meal I do
Tin tomatoes, chorizo, tin cannellini beans.
Fry chorizo til the oil starts to run, add the tin of tomatoes and drained tin of beans, simmer for however long you like. Sprinkle with parsley if you have it, eat with chunks of bread.
If you have more money and time, add onions first, add paprika if you like it and have it, try different beans or add cooked chicken or sprinkle cheese on top and put under grill til bubbling etc etc.
From start to end I can do it in 6 minutes. However it does taste better if simmered longer.

Amazing thank you! Think my husband is going to be delighted with this list too - we were trying to get excited last night about saving money but both of us just struggled with anything much for food.

For the poster asking what we eat at weekends - we tend to graze over the days. Its terrible but we just sort of grab bits while we're out and about or one of us will nip to the shop for some biscuits. Truly awful diet, truly expensive way to waste money.

I don't know if it's budget enough but I love aldi's cajun pork steaks with Couscous or rice and whatever veg. The steaks are 2.50 or so for 4 and they take less than 15 mins on grill. Flavoured Couscous from aldi is about 40p.

If you are near a home bargains, they have an Indian spiced microwavable rice with peas and potatoes in it, it's delicious.

Not sure if still open to pasta but I love it cold with tuna mayo, spring onion, lemon and chilli.
Cottage pie is a good one to do on a Sunday then there's leftover for Monday and it doesnt have to be expensive.

Salmon and cous cous (10 mins) noodles and stir fry (10 mins) are my speedy offerings. Cheaper though is batch cooking chilli, lasagna, stews and freezing into portions