How much will your main meal cost today (per serving).

[Petitmum]

I'm curious, do you cost out your meals and balance out low / higher cost meals through the week. Reading threads on here I am always shocked by the variation in spending on food, a cheap meal for some is an expensive meal for others.
We are a family of 4 with two teens, all home at the moment so our food bill covers all meals ........I cook from scratch and waste very little. Currently shop in Morrisons and Lidl and on average we spend £80 per week including toiletries and wine (no pets). This time of year we eat a lot of stews/curries / soups / pasta dishes / homemade pizza and roast dinners.
I have just made a huge pot of chicken chilli and decided to cost it out per serving. There must be at least 8 generous portions there which will work out @ £1.05 per serving (plus about 20p each for rice).

(1 kg chicken thigh fillets, onions, frozen peppers, red kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, garlic, chilli and spices = £8.40)

DH is making pasta bolognese variation dish today and the price of it is about 0.70 per portion.

£10 ish. It's takeaway night!

No idea. Sometimes we'll have roast chicken, stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry, roasties, chantenay carrots, brocoli, lovely gravy, nice bottle of white: £20 for four so a fiver a head. We do often say "gosh that would have been £28 at the Toby! No booze and the food would have been mediocre.

At our favourite restaurant - almost as good but £30 a head with wine at least.

4 adults here, 3 meals a day, £200 a week including beers, gin, toiletries and cleaning stuffs. We eat well but not luxuriously imo.

Tonight was pretty cheap - a butternut squash, rice, a courgette, a tin of coconut milk, a lime and some spices. Fed 3 of us for I guess about £4.

Tomorrow it’s a roast which will be expensive. The chicken was £11, then some veg.

I know I spend about £700 a month on food and at that moment that does 3 of us 3 meals a day (2 adults and a 6 year old) so that’s about £2.80 a meal very roughly.

Pea & ham soup. Homemade. Massive ham hock was £2.99 from the butcher. 2 packs of dried peas, 65p each. An onion, 3 big carrots, 2 sticks of celery, about 40p. Homegrown bay leaf. Made at least 8 bowlfuls. About 55p per serving.

Rye sourdough toast, about 20p per slice, & 1/4 pot of pork paté from the farm shop, £1. An apple, 30p. The toast & paté tonight is a luxury as I don't feel well. Dinner £1.55.

3x boxes of fresh tortellini @ £2.50 each
Garlic butter £1.40
Crusty bread £2.50
The rest of the ingredients were already in the cupboard

Total £11.40 for two adults and two children

about 35p, for an egg, part of a tin of beans, and some mash from a bag of morrisons wonky potatoes £1 for 2.5kg. Big spender, me.

Today for dinner I made butternut squash soup, lasagne with garlic bread and a pumpkin pie with some whipped cream. There are 3 of us; the ingredients work out at around £4 per person for the 3 courses.

Lunch was chicken, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. I dont know how much that cost us each because I cant be bothered working it out!

Breakfast was melon and toast so about 50p each.

£8.93 (Chinese delivery.) I'm having veggie dumplings with prawn crispy noodles. 😋

£2.50 braised beef and dumplings, mash and vegetables.

Today was very cheap. Pasta and pesto from aldi and garlic bread.

Tomorrow we are having a nice joint of beef. I budget very well I think. So we have trout or fillet steak some nights and then a cheap pasta dish some nights. We never get a takeaway and very little alcohol. So we can do a family of four for about 90. I bulk buy potatoes and shop in aldi or lidl or local shops for fish and meat on special offer. Two of us two small dc

About £1 per portion
Corned beef hash with pickled red cabbage

DH and DD's BF had M & S breaded chicken fillets (x4) with steamed rice, katsu curry sauce (made with paste and coconut milk), baby broccoli, greens beans and garlic bread.

DD and I had quorn chicken pieces in creamy mushroom and tarragon sauce (homemade) with the same rice, veg and garlic bread.

Probably around £15? 4 adults and we spend around £200 to £220 a week on Ocado/M & S.

Spag bol: 1kg mince £6, two tins toms £1, mini bottle red £2.50, sofrito 50p, puree 25p, parmesan £1, herbs 20p. £11.45 - probably get 12-14 portions. Add pasta and I like di cecco - so probably £3. We also usually have a mixed salad with it - so I reckon £5 for 12-14 meals. Total £19.45/13 = £1.50 per head.

Most expensive dinners are probably steak and a smoked salmon and prawns platter.

We almost never have a takeaway and think they are very overpriced for what they are.

Wow I’m inspired by the cheap but tasty sounding meals. When I do a meal plan and a big online shop if I get to £5 per person for a main meal on average I consider that acceptable, but I know it varies wildly and I’d expect leftovers on that. We eat our money though.

Sounds perfect to me @Reachersloveinterest

I need to make more soups for meals, it feels like we (as in my family) are eating far too much right now. Especially meat! Love leek and potato soup!

4 of us tonight
Sea bass from Waitrose £12.00 for 4 fish.
Salad with olives & artichokes etc
Parmentier potatoes.

Baked Camembert for a starter
around £6-7pp
Then we add the wine

I’m using leftover chicken & vegetables so I’ll count that as £1.75
Half jar of paste = 90p
100ml yoghurt = 38p
Micro rice = £1

Total = £4.03
Serves 2 = £2 a portion

£8.50 each tonight - chinese takeaway. Plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow too.

Usually it's about £2 a head for whatever protein and the veg we have with it.

1.70 pp Sweet potato and Halloumi curry with roti.(c. £5.00 in total between 3 of us could have fed 4 at £1.25)

I've just made a vegetable curry and rice, and it works out to £1.21 per portion (5-6 portions).

Usually spend £90-100/week. Two preteens, two adults. We all take pack ups for lunch. I cook sort of from scratch 5 nights out of 7 (1 freezer night, 1 Tesco takeaway night per week).
I could shop at Aldi etc and save a bit, but it's easier to get it delivered.

Butternut squash and lentil coconut curry and brown rice. Probably about 50p a serving.

We have no budget for food, shop in the local greengrocers and farm shop and Ocado, but we're vegetarian and teetotal and cook almost everything from scratch, so it's hard to spend that much money. We have two big dogs and two cats and they cost more to feed!

@Chickydoo can I come to yours to dinner?

Haven't a clue, we're having spicy beans and pork, DH has cooked enough for 10, a hangover from the days he cooked for 5, one meal today and a repeat on Monday but now there's only 2 of us it seems to last for ever.If there's room we'll freeze some