What do you class as a cheap meal in terms of cost?

[AlwaysCountYourPennies]

Lots of threads recently on cheap meals but what is a cheap meal???

I'm a frugal cook-from-scratch type (love a Mumsnet chicken, etc) I eat meat and don't buy organic. I buy a lot of own-brand items and shop mostly in Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons. Meals always have a lot of veg and we don't eat large amounts of meat.
(I spend on average £75 a week on food for 2 adults and two hungry teens))

Standard meals include roast dinner, spag bol, chilli, stir fry, curry, hearty soups, cottage pie, ham and parsley sauce, homemade faggots and peas, pulled pork, lasagne, casseroles, pasta bakes, risottos and homemade pizza.
Per serving these work out between £1 and £2 per person

An expensive meal for me would be roast lamb, steak, or fresh fish (or a takeaway)

Asian veggie meals here. They are the cheapest ever. Though that's not why we eat them. I don't know what per person cost is but it is pretty low.

I generally spend about £50 a week for an adult and a teen, which means £7 a day.

Breakfast is toast, butter, jam or marmite, and fruit £1 for two

Lunch is usually home made soup, leftovers or a sandwich, bag of crisps etc £2 for two

Supper is things like spaghetti and meatballs, cassoulet, stuffed peppers & garlic bread, chicken curry with coconut & brown rice. I cook from scratch because it's less expensive and tastes better £4 for two.

Sometime dessert as well, - upside down cake or apple pie etc

We have our five a day etc. DS eats more than me now, and never goes hungry.

Fresh meal from scratch, I make spicy tomato pasta dish with kidney beans (plus some pepper or sweetcorn depending on what I have) and grated cheese or crispy cheese topping if baked can do a £1.30-1.50, three portions. All Tesco basics or Lidl ingredients.

Something more expensive would be lidl salmon fillets £3.00 (from large pack) and roast potatoes, carrots and green veg, hollandaise sauce.

Weekly budget is £50 for two adults which I can easily manage on.

We don’t eat a lot of meat, mainly because my DD is a vegetarian and I used to be one, so we only eat it once a week or so because I can’t be bothered cooking separate dinners and my DS doesn’t mind. My favourite cheap go tos that everyone will eat are:

Lentil soup - an onion, a carrot, lentils, vegetable stock cube, seasoning. That’s about £1.20 for 4 portions. I’ll either put potatoes in it or serve it with a baked ciabatta.

Chickpea curry - onion, garlic, chickpeas, maybe a carrot. Curry powder, tin of tomatoes or coconut milk. Serve with rice. That’s about £2 - cheaper if you have prepared the chickpeas yourself.

Cannelloni bean ragu - onions, garlic, beans, fresh tomatoes, tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, olive oil, fresh or dried basil or other herbs to taste, pinch of sugar, seasoning. Cool for a long time on a low heat in the oven, hob or slow cooker. Serve with pasta, and some cheese if you have it. About £1.50 for 3 people (more with cheese).

I’ll often buy the 500g of dried pulses - cannellini beans , chickpeas, etc. soak and boil the whole bag and then portion them into 7-8 potions and freeze. They defrost really quickly and easily and you can chuck them into stews, salads, soups, etc. they’re about 25p a portion.

I don’t do all of these every week but they are good, healthy, nutritious, easy and cheap meals when you want to manage your costs.

i think your doing really well. we are a family of 7 ( home educate aswell ) with dogs cats ect. our shopping can average from £50 to £80 a week at the moment. but i do food preserving like canning when things are really cheap ect i keep 2 frezzers stocked with meat veg ect that i get locally and process. we do not buy much in the way of processed foods. we have found it is becoming harder and harder to budget and im so grateful for the fact i prepped for the price hikes last year x