How much is your evening meal costing tonight, per person?

[JuneOsborne]

We're having filled pasta.

Pasta £2.50
Spinach £1
Pesto£1
Peas 50p
Tomatoes 50p
Garlic bread £1
Handful of grated cheese, 50p

£7 ÷ 4 = £1.75 pp. There may be a portion leftover for a lunch for one of the kids....

You?

Vegetarian meatball and borlotti bean pasta bake.

2 large onions 15p
Garlic approx 10p
600g mushrooms £1.20
2 small orange peppers 60p
Tin of cherry tomatoes 69p (Lidl)
Tin borlotti beans 55p
Vegetarian meatballs £2
250g penne 50p
Tomato puree 10p
Herbs and spices 20p
Grated cheese £1.50

Total £7.59 for 8 generous portions so 95p per portion for the pasta bake, plus extra for salad which always depends on what's in the fridge. I try to bulk up with veg to reduce the amount of pasta and get extra carbs from the beans which also have fibre and protein.
I've put six portions in the freezer to eat at a later date.

About 1.50 all in as making homemade soup and the veg was £1.30 and I already had potatoes, broth mix and stock pots

Tin of potato curry. £1
With a tomato and half an onion in. About 30p
Dal. All in already, but pennies.
Ditto rice.
Dh had a nan. 75p
Energy to cook it. £100. Probably.

We had pea soup and quesadillas plus lemon cheesecake

So maybe a fiver each? Altho if I hadn't made cheesecake maybe only £2 each! Was worth it tho

Salmon fishcakes
new potatoes
sweetcorn
peas
broccoli

Between 3 of us, I think it works out about £1.70 ish each.

@NoSquirrels

A proper biryani is as far removed from what you’d get in a jar as it’s possible to be and shouldn’t be used as a guide to what a made from scratch one would cost

I wasn’t using it as a guide @Biscoffee - I’m well aware of how a proper biryani is made but it still sounds very expensive.

I guess wherever you are in the world your food costs are higher than average UK food costs? Because I think I’d struggle to find yoghurt @ £5 a tub and the vegetables you’ve listed for the salad £6 for 6 peppers is much more expensive as typical here, even if I was buying big ones from the organic grocer.

I grow all of my own vegetables in the winter and share them with my large family. For eg I think I had about 240 kgs of various tomato’s last year and it’s only today I started this years planting.

I can save a fortune in the winter. I grow organically and it’s delicious.

@MouseholeCat

Hello Mowzer! Love that story 😊

Really interesting thread!

Curry here:
tin of chickpeas - 55p
2 onions - 10p?
handful of spinach - 30p?
tin of tomatoes - 30p
paneer - £1.50
plus spices and oil

so £2.75 for 4 portions. Less than 80p a portion even when you add the rice. Hadn't realised this was such a bargain meal!

Sausage,chips and beans for four adults and it was scrumptious.

Sausages £3
Chips £2.25
Beans £1

I was intrigued by the Tater Tots recipe - looked them up and they seem to be small potato croquettes?

Our Hello Fresh box meal was beef chilli and rice with lettuce and tomato salad and sour cream. Really good quality for £2 each on the introductory half price offer, though at the full price of £4 each we could buy our own ingredients and make it cheaper in a bigger batch instead.

This thread is making me hungry again 😂

We had burritos tonight

Half a 750g pack of beef & pork mince - £1.40
Wraps x3 - 43p
Tin tomatoes - 37p
Various "hidden" veg in sauce - approx 80p
Few slices chorizo - approx 20p
Half a cup of rice - approx 10p
Cheese - approx 30p

£3.60/3 = £1.20 each (2 adults one child)

(There was one generous portion left over of the rice and chilli mix so if you divided by 4 instead and added a few more pence for another wrap and a bit of cheese it would come out at around £1.05 per serving)

veg pasta per portion:

75g pasta from a huge bag = 9p
half a red pepper from reduced pack 15p
2 balls of frozen spinach, 7p
2 tomatoes from a punnet of weirdy-shaped value ones, about 12p
clove of garlic, homegrown basil, teaspoon of chilli 2p
cheese grated over 20p
oil for frying 1p

cost per portion 66p

I am also amazed that posters know down to the last penny how much their evening meal cost.

I used up some left over mash, the tin of tuna was in my cupboard already, The salad ingredients were already in my fridge. I wouldn't know how to calculate how much oil and vinegar we used on the salad or how much a spoonful of mayonnaise on the plate to go with the fish cakes cost.

If it had been a ready meal or a takeaway I would know.

I cook mostly from scratch and use a lot of store cupboard ingredients, so calculating the cost of herbs, spices and other bits and pieces would make it impossible.

Pass. Couple of handfuls of grapes and a handful of wasabi peanuts. Nutritious(!)

I am also amazed that posters know down to the last penny how much their evening meal cost.

Took me a couple of minutes on the tesco website to work it out.

Yes I am that bored this evening.

Home made chicken tikka and naan bread.
Chicken thighs £1.69
Tikka paste 69p
onion 25p
Chicken stock free made from chicken bones
Half tin of tomatoes 22p
Fresh ginger 15p
Garlic 5p
Coconut yoghurt 25p (used a third of a large pot)
naan bread £1.15 for 2

£4.45 total ingredients, serves 3, £1.48 per portion

Meatballs £2.40
Pappardelle £2.95
Passata £1.65
Cheese £0.62
For two, so £3.81 each

I must say I’m pretty impressed at how many people cook from scratch and make what sound like such delicious and healthy meals! Yum ❤️

@MajorCarolDanvers

I am also amazed that posters know down to the last penny how much their evening meal cost.

Took me a couple of minutes on the tesco website to work it out.

Yes I am that bored this evening.

Yes, I would have to google it as well.

Way too much!
Had nothing in so bought stuff on way home from gym, it came to £12.75. Pork loin steaks, new potatoes in herb butter, tenderstem brocolli, babycorn and creme fraiche. Thought we had some cider at home and I was going to chuck half a can in with the pork and creme fraiche but we didn't so I had to use the only thing I did have which was cava. So now we're obviously drinking the rest of the bottle. So if I add the cava that's another £9.

No idea. Baked potato with butter, green salad, tomatoes and yellow pepper, tuna mayo with spring onion, lemon and black pepper. We buy tuna steak in olive oil but that's still only £1.35 between two of us. I'm going to say £2 to £2.50 pp.

If I just count the amount of cava that went into the food that was probably £2 so added to the £12.75 = £14.75/ 4 = £3.69 each.

Squash - £1.50
Chicken thighs 1/2 pack £1.95
Olive oil - few pence
Garlic paste - few pence
Ginger puree - few pence
Soy - few pence
Honey - few pence
Garlic cloves - 7p
Red onions - 30p
Thyme - from garden
Feta - 10p
Brown rice - 15p

Served 3 so total approx £5 total or £1.66 per head.

I enjoyed our meal this evening but I’m really looking forward to the next time I’m in the UK and I can have the thinly sliced corn beef from the supermarket served up with baked beans, Swede and potato.

I also like a tea of porridge and boiled or poached eggs on toast.

6 Sausages £2.60 plus three potatoes for mash 75p plus one onion 10p. 86p per person.