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)

I never think about cost per meal, just the whole shop. This thread is interesting. Tonight we had chicken fajitas - just me and DP.

Chicken fillets - free -range organic reduced from £7 to £1 and stashed in the freezer!
Wraps - 80p
Onion and peppers - approx £1.50
Tex-Mex dip selection - £2.45
Fajita spice mix - 75p

About £2.50 each.

Tomorrow I’m doing a sausage and butterbean casserole, which will last two nights

Eight sausages
Carrots, onions, celery, garlic
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Spices - fennel and cumin
Tin of butter beans

Potatoes for mashing

I think that probably works out about £1.50 a portion, but only the butter beans were specifically bought for the meal

Most meals between £5 and £10 for 4, less on veggie or pasta days, more if its fish night.

Tonight Beef stew & potatoes + Mars ice cream. £7ish for the 4 of us.

beef £3.33 (3 for £10 meat deal in Waitrose) mushrooms 50p, carrots 20, onion, 20 + stock cube, herbs & Tom purée from the cupboard.
Ice creams £2.00 for 4

Tomorrow, chicken breasts, also £3.33 stuffed with mushrooms, served with roasties, carrots, broccoli, beans. Cherry pie and custard. Total again £7 ish.

Need to acknowledge that it's easier to spend less on food when the cupboard is stocked with herbs, spices and sauces.

We had Veal liver and DS had venison steak, so a dearer meal for us

Probably £3.50 each for the meat

Duck Dunbrori for 2
Worked out at £4.45 per portion

Maybe about 80p each. But kids don't eat much

That's include drink

I’m alone tonight (paramedic DP at work) and had a vegan ready meal from M&S, so £3.50 with a £2.50 side salad £2.50. Somewhat expensive as I’m still hungry!

I have no idea. I tend to use stuff up from the fridge.
We had cured salmon with beetroot from the garden, and left over goats cheese. But, it possibly costs more for me to cure it myself...
Then lamb chops (that were in the freezer), but with bloody expensive baby radicchio and olives (and a random bit of sweet potato too that needed eating up!)

About 60-70p I think (homemade pizzas)

I don’t cost it often but we do have a mix of cheap and expensive. It was very cheap today, DD’s favourite sausage pasta.
Wholewheat Pasta, good sausages and good Italian tinned tomatoes, garlic, onions. It is about £1 a portion. Could be super cheap with cheaper ingredients.

Yesterday was fillet steak though, no idea what the whole meal was but must have been over £10 a portion as the steaks were £7ish each. DD eats at nursery most days so we have the good stuff she doesn’t eat then, and on days she eats at home she prefers pasta, chilli, curry etc which is often cheaper.

We buy expensive meat though so our portions are never very cheap-eg we only buy free range etc

We spend about £125/week on all groceries inc cat food now we are WFH (that’s for 2 adults and a toddler that mostly eats at nursery). That excludes booze.

It was 8 per person. We had steak, salmon. Chips, salad, 2 deserts and wine. That is a birthday meal.

£3.40 each for dinner tonight. Flatbreads with a salad, smashed avocados, sriracha, halloumi and chicken (only two out of four eats meat).

Our cheapest days are probably Tuesdays. We always have soup on Tuesdays with sourdough bread from the market. Usually ends up at about £1-£1.5 per person.

a tenner each (without drinks )
'cause we got a takeaway tonight.

Monday we will have leftover roast beef in baguettes. I buy morrisons saver par backed baguettes. 2 for 40p. Use up the left over veg and roasties . So that's 20p each.

I'm starting to wonder how my weekly shop costs on average £70 🤔

£3.54 exactly

Pasta bake cost approx. £4.50 to make for 4. , so just over £1.- each.

70p
Chicken casserole (with lots of carrots, peas and sweetcorn), broccoli and mash.
It serves 8 so that's 2 meals for us.
I try to keep my shopping bill to £40-45 (including toilet rolls /cleaning products/hygiene products) per week, that's 1 adult, 16,11,11. One with a special diet which can be pricey. Some meals will be more than others and I have meals such as jacket potato and beans or scrambled egg and bacon on toast to push my budget to its limits.

Sausages, chilli Roasted veg Couscous 5.40
Lemon pancakes 1.00
=£1.60 a head

Spicy pork, chorizo, apple, potato and butternut squash casserole.

It was organic pork costing £4.80 so that upped the cost so much. Rest I would estimate brought it to £8. £2 per person. It was more veg than meat!

Tacos (beef mince, Sour cream, cheese, avocado, tortilla bowls, Plus all from Freezer/cupboard onion, garlic, herbs, spices, Tomato purée, cooking wine), with cucumber tomato and pepper salad.

About £4 per person.

chicken £4
Wraps £1
peppers £1?
Spice £1
Avocados £2 (with chill, lime and onion ?50p)
Tortillas £1
£3 each approx

I had a glass of wine £3 ish DH had a beer £1 and DC smoothies £1

We spend £200 a week - family of 4.

Asda create your own pizzas. 2 for a fiver with bottle of pop x2 for 4of us. So £2.50 a head.

Not much, DS wanted cheesy peasy pasta and I couldn't be bothered to cook separate meals so all had it.

Half bag dry pasta -30p
1/4 bag frozen veg - 40p
Half tub cream cheese- 50p
Sprinkle grated cheese on top - 30p

= £1.50 for 4, though dc are 4 & 1, so more like 3 portions. =50p/portion

(We do have 'proper' meals most night, but for some reason DS really loves this)

Not much. Homemade pizzas so 50p for flour, 50p for tomato sauce, probably £2.50 on mozzarella, and whatever leftover veg there was in the fridge to put on them. So £4 at the most for four of us.

Take away tonight, £60 for 4.

I don't have to budget meals per head but I am conscious that we won't eat steak every night and if we have an extravagant meal I try and balance it out.