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)

God no. We shop at Aldi or Lidl & I do cook most meals from scratch. But I’ve never worked out a per person cost in my life.

I think it’s totally normal & obvious that pasta bake night is going to be cheaper than steak night etc. We spend around £100 a week for 4 adults, 1 child & 2 cats.

I don’t see the merit of wasting time working out specific costs per meal.

Meal for 2 (DS &DH)
Bag of stir fry veg £1
Noodles 13p per portion
Hoisin sauce 40p
2 x chicken breasts £1 each
Me
Rice crispies 16p
Milk 27p
Freddo x2 (from multipack) 33p
£3.42

Chicken curry- about £2 pp (2 teens and I)

I’ve not thought about the cost per meal before. This evening for 3 DC
Shakshuka - passata, £1, onion, 30p, 2 carrots, 20p, spinach, 50p, 3 eggs, 40p, a little Parmesan, 20p
New potatoes, 60p
Tenderstem Broccoli, £1
£1.40 per child

DH and I are getting Thai takeaway costing £25 so that’s pushes the cost up quite a bit!

@CoffeeRunner

God no. We shop at Aldi or Lidl & I do cook most meals from scratch. But I’ve never worked out a per person cost in my life.

I think it’s totally normal & obvious that pasta bake night is going to be cheaper than steak night etc. We spend around £100 a week for 4 adults, 1 child & 2 cats.

I don’t see the merit of wasting time working out specific costs per meal.

No do I or probably most of us but I could work out in my head what the ingredients cost. It’s not hard or exact but an estimate. £2 Halloumi £1 coconut milk £1 rest of veg sweet pots, onion, pepper herbs etc. £1 Roti.

And yes obviously some nights ie when we have fish is more expensive.

I read the question as what are you having tonight and what did it cost, nothing more than that. No one is judging.

It did make me think though as we were going to get a Greek takeaway which would have cost £40.00 but no one wanted to go out in cold and dark to collect so I have saved myself a fortune tonight ! :)

Pushed the boat out tonight and had sea bass as a treat so prob about 3.50 to 4 quid a head by the time you add in the veg.

About a £1?

Peas, carrot, roast potatoes and some beef shin

I don't usually cost it up but tonight's was ~£1.15 per portion not including olive oil or salt.

Chorizo, green pepper, frozen sliced onion, baby plum tomatoes, potatoes and a fried egg each.

Today was veg and bean chilli and rice. “Whoops”
Veg, tinned beans and toms, cheap meal, no more than £1/head I imagine. We are always this frugal.

Hmm, homemade fish cakes and mixed salad for 4 adults. It's a tricky one to work out, but I like a challenge! I reckon £1.75/head as the fish was obviously the most expensive ingredient: 4 fish fillets for £4, but the other ingredients were cheap as chips: potato, sweet potato, onion, Creamfields cheddar, parsley from the garden, lemon, salad veg. Breadcrumbs made by sticking a wholemeal crust in the coffee grinder. DS4 made sriracha mayo which gave it a bit of pizzazz. There's 1 fish cake left & lots of salad for lunch tomorrow.

Tonight was homemade corned beef pie... maybes £2.50 as I bought the corned beef on offer. Homemade chips £1 and frozen garden peas maybe 30p worth. So between 4 of us 95p each.

Tomorrow we are having roast beef, veg etc. That's probably about £5 each.

Mushroom risotto 4 portions so will do another meal for the two of us.
Rissotto rice 250g £1.00
Reduced chestnut mushrooms 40p
1/2 large onion 20p
2 stock pots 50p
Dash of white wine 50p
Wild rocket 1/2 bag 50p
Dried Porcini mushrooms £3.00
Total £6.10 divided by 4 generous portions so £1.52 portion. For two of us tonight £3.04. We had 4 children at home previously and I was a SAHM so used to batch cooking and making meals stretch. Everything except the fresh mushrooms I already had in my well stocked pantry/fridge so not bought specially.

How does a family of two spend £200 a week. I spend 50-60 on a family of 4. I honestly couldn't spend £200 if I tried. What do you even buy for that much? I am shocked.

Wow..........I went away for a bit and can't believe the number of replies!

Really interesting to see the variety of meals being eaten tonight and I've picked up a few ideas of meals to try!

About £12 because we've ordered pizza. In the week it depends what we're having. I always do meat free Monday which works out very cheap and I think £1 or so per head for a lot of our other meals, I use a lot of mince and lentils, but then sometimes we'll have steak or a good piece of fish.

I spend about £120 pw on food for the four of us which includes toiletries and cleaning products. Tonight's takeaway is actually a rare event and we're all eating at home all the time atm.

Homemade cheese and bacon burgers with chips and salad
Beef mince £2.60
Bacon (holly hog 1/2 a pack) £1.25
Cheese - a sprinkle so maybe 1/8 pack - £0.25
Rolls - £1.40
Potatoes - 1/4 bag - £0.30
Spices for burgers and chips £? Pence?
Salad - 1/2 bag £0.60
Tomatoes - 1/4 bag £0.25
Red pepper - £0.45
Mayo - £0.30

We were pigs and had 2 burgers each (only eat breakfast and dinner at weekends!) so about £3.70 each. It was delicious and a fraction of the cost of something like five guys which we’d have if we were out and about pre lockdown.

Most weekday dinners would be much cheaper, spend £70-80 a week for 2 people both WFH and eating all meals at home currently!

Today it was roast chicken sandwiches with side salad. Probably worked out about £3 each for the two of us. The chicken is a small one and under £4.

I’ve got chicken stripped and stock ready for a noodle soup tomorrow (£2 per person) and the rest will be shredded to do a ‘pulled chicken’ sandwich for lunch Monday. (£3 per person)

It varies here between £6 pp to pennies pp.

We spend around £70 a week here on food for two but I have a teen that eat 1.5x what I do. Most of it is fresh vegetables and some fruits. I eat blueberries daily and they’re not cheap but I’m not keen on apples that are much cheaper and oranges don’t work on porridge!

Roasted two chickens that cost £6 and baked a 2kg bag of red potatoes costing £1.50 and a head of broccoli, £1. Total £8.50.

Two platefuls of this used up 1/2 of the chicken (£3) and 1/6th of the potatoes (25p) and all the broccoli (£1) total £4.25, so one meal for one person cost £2.13 and was both abundant and delicious.

Tonight, around €1 each (three of us) a cheapie, simple pesto & pea spaghetti, toddler Dd loves it, us, not so much 😅other nights, it could be €4/5 per head. I try to balance a few nights of really lovely meals with a few, simple, cheaper ones. Our average weekly bill for food and toiletries and dog food is around €80 for two adults, one dc and a dog. I can do it for around €40 though with basic but healthy meals and no added extras.

Enchilada box 1.50
2 peppers 3 onions say 1.00
Cheese 1.00
Half pack very lean Mince 2.50 used with 6 enchiladas
Chicken bacon left over last night say 1.50 used with 2 enchiladas

7.50

Would feed 3 about £2.50 a portion! Did feed 2 as hubby had extras after opening a bottle of red and wanting munchies!

This is hard to work out.

For our tea we had 2 jacket potatoes each (2 of us so 4 in total) but the whole bag cost £2 for 3.5kg of potatoes...so 30p in potatoes? We had a quarter of a pack of cheese between us so 50p and then a tin of beans...50p? The whole evening meal costing £1.30.

We did have pudding which was an apple and blackberry crumble but the fruit was picked from our garden (apples) and fields (blackberries) so were free and the crumble itself was maybe 50p?

The crumble is enough for 6 single person portions in total so will have it for the next few nights.

£1.09 per person

We had Taco Pasta. Mince, pasta, tin of chopped tomatoes, a tub of cream cheese, a packet of taco seasoning, a squeeze of tomato purée and a bit of grated cheese on top.

Interesting thread! Based on my estimate tonight's dinner of chicken curry and naans (all homemade) came to £2.10 each. Bloomin' lovely it was too!

Really cheap today.

Toad in the hole with mash, veg and gravy.
-Yellow sticker sausages (65p)
-Flour, 3 eggs and milk (80p ish for the amounts used)
-Potatoes(about 50p for the bag)
-Frozen veg (about 1/2 a bag used so 50p)

Split 5 ways so roughly 50p per person,

Chicken thighs which I roasted served with pesto pasta & courgette so about £1.30 pp. Overall cost ruined though by DH deciding to make a huge cheesecake with fancy ingredients (he bought them), will last many days.