How much does your dinner cost?

[Theblackdogagain]

Just thought I would start a thread where people try and cost out their dinner in case other people need ideas.
I'm doing veggie chilli con carne, for one adult and 2 teenage boys
Bag of soya mince about £2.50
Tin of Tom's, get in bulk from costco so about 50p
tin of kidney beans asda essentials about 35p
Mushrooms aldi essentials about £1
Onions asda essentials about 80p
Packet chilli mix 50p
End of rice tub no idea
Packet microwave rice 80p

I guess this shows I shop everywhere :-)

Only DH and I tonight, Chicken/bacon casserole (total about £6 but easily enough for 4 adults - I’m putting half in the freezer).
A ready made serving of root mash - £1.20 from Aldi
Cabbage/broccoli - about 50p in total.

So per head tonight was £4.70 in total. Tbf, that’s quite an expensive night for us, I can normally do four of us for £5.

Gammon fried rice
£1.50 worth of gammon
40p rice approx
89p mushrooms
80p 4 eggs
20p handful of frozen peas
20p (estimate) Soy sauce and sesame oil
Serves 6

Posting purely to follow and get ideas...

We have our HelloFresh delivery on Mondays so it was chicken, mash & peas with sauce. Works out to £4.20pp, since the box is £33 and that's two meals. We have 5 in our family so technically we stretch to 5 but one is a toddler so doesn't exactly eat much!

The BBC website has some very good dinners on it where the meals for 4 or 6 are designed to £1 per head. Lots of them look really good.

Mushroom or ham and cheese omelette or cold roast chicken, wedges and salad tonight. Probably about £6.

Crispy chicken wraps with chips

Chicken breasts £3
Crushed doritoes and an egg for "Breadcrumbs" 50p
Tortilla wraps 80p
Sauce 20p
Salad 50p
Potatoes made into chips £0

Total £5 served 4 so £1.25 each

Tomorrow- sausage and mash

Sausages £1.50
Stuffing balls 25p
Half bag value Yorkshire puds 25p
Carrots and green beans 50p
Half bag frozen onions 50p
Mashed potato £0
Gravy 25p

Total cost £3.25 serves 4 so 80p each

For 3
3 chicken breasts £4
1/2 a boursin £1
1/2 pack streaky bacon £0.80
Brocolli £0.30
New pots £0.50

Guessing the price of the chicken because it was a large pack in the big shop delivery.

So £6.60. That seems good for a nice meal.

Xmas pudding and custard after 😀

About £4 for homemade pizza for 2 adults and 2 children. Price slightly higher than it otherwise would have been because one of the children has gluten free flour.
Dough and sauce being homemade really decreases the price.

I bought a piece of pork shoulder reduced from £8 to £2, it will do x3 dinners and 2 lunches, 8 portions.

Baked spuds , bag reduced to £1 green beans and carrots. Carrots were reduced to 35p used 4, beans were misshapes used half a packet plus gravy.

So each dinner was about 50p which was very good value.

Tonight we had sweet peppers (4 for72p) stuffed with 500g of cheap supermarket pork sausage meat (£1.75) and baked, served with garlic baguette (32p)

So £2.79 for two of us.

Braised lamb chops, mashed potatoes and peas. For 2 of us the chops were £1.50, potatoes about 50p, peas 40p and then butter and stock cubes probably 30p so £2.70 to feed two.

Teriyaki chicken
Chicken thighs £3
T stem broccoli £1.50
Red onion .40
Teriyaki sauce £1.45
Boil in the bag rice .50

I'm looking at some of your dinners and converting to $CDN. I hear some of you complain about the cost of food, but ours seems much more expensive!

For instance from MintJulia:
Tonight we had sweet peppers (4 for72p) stuffed with 500g of cheap supermarket pork sausage meat (£1.75) and baked, served with garlic baguette (32p)
So £2.79 for two of us.

I price out from on line shop here and converted to British Pounds:
4 x peppers = 3.82
500 gr sausage meat = 4.93
baguette = 2.24
total 7.17 pounds sterling compared to 2.79 from MintJulia.

Made some spinach, potatoes and fenugreek leave bhaji with fresh chapattis.

Frozen spinach (half pack) 70p
Frozen fenugreek leaves (1/3) 50p
4 medium yellow potatoes 50p

Needed few fresh garlic cloves with salt and chilli flakes.

Medium flour from big bag

Made for 2 adults, but I have one portion leftover.

£2.50 altogether, so 84p per portion

Beef stew for 4 people with cheesy mash and tenderstem broccoli approx £15 total ingredients, add extra £2 for oven and hob energy use.

1kg Casserole steaks £10
3 carrots 21p
Onion 11p
3 sticks of celery 25p
Tomato puree 10p
Worcestershire sauce 10p
2 knorr stock pots 80p
Thyme from garden
Bay leaf 5p
Mashed potato 75p
Butter 30p
Cheese 50p
Broccoli tendestem £1.60

Mac and cheese for 4, 3 portions tonight plus leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Pasta half pack 30p
Half a tub low fat cream cheese 60p
Stock pot 40p
cooking bacon 1/2 pack 60p
Frozen peas 50p
Cheese £1
Splash of milk 30p
Tiger baton 80p
£1.25 per portion

Tomorrow sausages and mash
Sausages £2.50 pack and counting £2 as there will be some left over for a sandwich
Lazy mash from Tesco £1.20
frozen veg 50p
Gravy 20p
$liced half onion 20p
£1.40 per portion.

I don't know the cost of the individual ingredients but we eat as cheaply as possible: we have things like pasta packets that are meant to be made in a mug with boiling water but I put it in an oven dish with the milk, water, some extra cheese and some Worcester sauce or we might have chips because a massive bag of frozen chips can go a long way.

Our food comes from the stuff we've managed to grow and from the reduced sections of the supermarkets as well as from charities such as action against food waste (or something) where we pay £10 and get a box of food - a mix of fresh and non-perishable stuff.

I didn't eat tonight other than some crisps and a sandwich. Our children had a frozen pizza.

DH and I didn't want supper last night because we were still full from lunch so £0! 😆We went out and had tapas at lunchtime, so six tapas, bread, a tonic water, two glasses of wine and water was about £22. (Currently in Spain).

Normally I do big batch cooks as much as possible. Large batches of chilli I can get down to about 60p a portion nowadays using plenty of veg and tinned tomatoes (used to be 50p), and a microwave sachet of rice for 35p from Tesco or Aldi = c78 p a meal.

What we've started doing is, on those days when there are two of you and enough for over generous portions, freezing the extra in a special corner of the freezer ( eg slices of pizza). Then every so often we have a pot luck night and see what's in there - a free extra meal. We're not on our uppers, but it saves waste or mindless overeating, which is so easy to do. DH says they are some of his favourite nights! Slices of pizza are always useful for a picnic, eg if we go to the beach.

@WombatChocolate I often freeze baked potatoes. I'll do a big batch, either in the halogen oven or when the big oven is on for something else. I'll keep some in the fridge for a couple of days for lunches and freeze the rest. Not quite as lovely as fresh out the oven but still scrumptious! Microwave to reheat.

That tapas, wine and water is amazing value! How do they even make a profit!

Burgers and potato wedges
Burgers £1.79 (used 3/4)
Buns 69p (used 3/4)
Coleslaw 89p (used half)
Salad 79p (used half)
Onion 10p
Potatoes £1.39 (used 1/4)

So under £1 per head

Pasta bake last night so very cheap but not as cheap as it used to be. 1/2 bag of pasta, jar of sauce, cheese, I added a little chorizo.aswell. Came to about 60p per person and we had a garlic baguette too.

Ooh this is really interesting!
Sausage pasta, 4 portions (me and DH dinner last night, and one portion each for lunch today)

All ingredients from Aldi:
6 sausages (£1.12)
2 onions (9p)
Tin of chopped tomatoes (32p)
Pack of spaghetti (29p)
2 carrots (8p)

48p per serving!

That tapas, wine and water is amazing value! How do they even make a profit!

@Paris2023 It is, the cost of living here is amazingly cheap to people living in the UK, though prices are rising here like everywhere. If you like that, let me tell you about the wonder that is the Menu del Dia served at lunchtime. 😊 Salad, bread, starter, main course, sweet, coffee and often a drink (including beer or wine), for between €9 and €13 euros. We are in the region of Murcia, but surrounding provinces would be similar.

Temperatures are currently still early thirties moving into late twenties, with overnight temperatures around 18 degrees, so no heating bills, just a smidge of late night aircon. Still a few cheap properties being sold off by the banks on various golf resorts...😆