What’s your favourite cheapest meals to make?

[Namexchange05]

Hey, so I’m really really skint. As in, not just that I can’t go out for a meal this month, as in I’ve just made spaghetti with my last can of tuna and my last onion for dinner. I usually eat microwave rice with frozen vegetables with an oxo cube and gravy granules made into a sauce and mixed in, or instant noodles. I want to eat healthier because I feel faint every time I stand up, I bruise easily, I’m constantly tired and always have headaches, and after eating like this for almost a year since I moved out, I think it’s finally catching up with me. Can you please tell me your favourite cheapest meals? I’m only cooking for myself.

If you have

Bread
Eggs
Cheese
Potatoes
Beans

You can make lots of variations...cheese/beans/egg on toast, jacket potatoes, omlettes

Dal and brown rice

Chickpea and spinach curry, with tinned chickpeas and frozen spinach.

Sweet potatoes are often cheap and cook more quickly than jacket potatoes- usual fillings

Make a big bean chilli and have with rice, then a wrap, then a jacket pitato

Noodles with peanut butter stirred in and a fried egg on top

Cuban rice- I had that when staying with a Spanish lady in Valencia. It sounds vile but it’s rice, with tomato sauce (tinned toms and onion on top), then a fried egg on top of that. You can fry banana coins and put at the side. It really is nice.

My gran used to make tuna and sweetcorn in white sauce and have with rice or mash. You could also turn into a toastie.

Dahl , chopped salad type side with it ?

Fried bacon, cabbage & potatoes
Egg fried rice - you can add any meat or veg in to bulk it out

Veg really isn't too expensive, so you could do veggie curries, stews, soups etc then bulked out with lentils/chickpeas

Pork mince is a cheap source protein and fat too. You could use it to make meatballs, burgers, bolognese

BBC good food website had a good section on cheap dinners, as well as Tesco online recipes

Tin of potatoes, tin of salmon (or any other fish). Mash up to make fishcakes. Fry in a pan. Add breadcrumbs, dried herbs, mustard, chilli flakes or any other flavourings you might have.

Tin sweetcorn, flour/water/egg batter to make fritters. Again add dried herbs or flavourings if you have some.

Lentil and bacon soup
Sausage casserole
Brocoli and Stilton soup
Jacket potatoes
Veg curry/Dahl

Also minestrone soup

My favourite cheap meal is beans on toast. It's miserable when you can't afford much else though.
When I was very skint I bought:
Cheap tinned tomatoes
Onions
Pasta
Frozen sliced peppers
Bread
Potatoes
Cheap baked beans
Then one 'luxury' extra like butter, oil, cheese, pesto.
From that you can make a lot of things easily.
I'd also occasionally get something like a pack of six jam tarts which were really cheap in Aldi at the time.

Can you buy rice & cook it yourself? That would save money.

I also think that Jack Munroe's recipes are really good for a budget when you want something a bit different and nice.

I think you're feeling the effects of lack of protein and fat in your diet. Eggs, cheese, tinned fish, pork mince, gammon, chicken are all good cost effective ways of getting inexpensive protein and fat.

I appreciate even chicken may not be as affordable for some anymore though.

Tin of cooked lentils, bacon if you can afford it. 2 eggs. Onion

Fry the onion (& bacon)
add the lentils,
push to one side and fry the eggs.

cheap and filling and tasty and a bit different.

Leftover veg reheated with own brand baked beans and cheese in a wrap.
Variation: add chilli sauce, spring onions, or mushrooms, or all of them.

Pasta and Pesto

Sorry you're going through this. Do you have any money to buy veg?

Pasta with butter or olive oil stored in with black pepper.

Spanish omlette - onion & diced potatoes with egg on top fried in pan.

Roasted or fried cherry tomatoes and poached egg.

Curry made with lots of veg.

Morrisons sell cooking bacon for 85p. Nice with pasta or in a quiche.

I would really advise getting yourself to a gp. It sounds like you could do with some blood tests.

Frozen mixed veg is super cheap
eggs
rice/noodles/lentils
dahl
tinned tomatoes
tinned ham/hot dogs
beans

multivitamins

Can you get a referral to a food bank to tide you over?

When you buy milk make sure it's full fat as it will keep you full for longer and give you more calories.

Hard boiled eggs are filling and don't require fat for cooking. You can also use them with stale bread to make eggy bread.

Porridge with water or milk is good.

As others have said, beans and lentils are good value and filling.

If you can stretch to tinned sardines they are good on toast and will give you some protein.

Are you confident in the kitchen? What appliances do you have? Air fryer, sandwich toaster, microwave, slowcooker etc? Are you limited by energy costs for oven etc? Any dietary restrictions? What do you have in at the moment.

Thank you everyone for the ideas! I have a microwave, oven and hob and a toaster. Don’t have extra energy costs as the place I live in it’s included in the rent. Only dietary restriction is pineapple 🤣 but I hate mushrooms, I’m fine with pretty much everything other than that. I’m confident in the kitchen, I might not be amazing but I don’t mind giving anything a go. I definitely need to get a blood test soon as someone said.

I think not dound as if u r not having enough protein. Are you able to.access a food bank? The cost of living crisis is grim. Take care

No need to waste money on meat.

You need protein, so bag of red lentils from Tesco (look in the world food aisle, generally around £1) they cook in 20 mins. Alternatively tins of chickpeas (or dried but they'll need soaking overnight), nuts of any kind (whole nut peanut butter from Aldi is great), sweet potato, eggs, or for a little extra bags of frozen prawns/fish.

Again in world food section, get big bags of spices like garam masala, cumin, black pepper grinder.

Big bag of brown rice (so much cheaper than microwave), brown pasta, wonky potatoes. All very cheap and filling.

For sauces tinned chopped tomatoes, cooked long and low with cheap chopped onions and a mix of your spices. I actually like dry curries, look up"dry carrot and cabbage curry" on BBC. We have it with carrots and cauliflower rather than cabbage.

Hard boil eggs, peel them, then fry in the spices too. That's lovely!

Also have a look at Spanish "chickpeas with spinach". Very simple but so good.

Batch cook and freeze, or if no room at least do enough for two/three nights and keep in the fridge.

All of this can be turned into soup very easily, just add stock.

Also make easy bread by moving plain yoghurt with same amount of flour. Best dry fried for flatbread/naan bread.

Fried rice. Chuck some frozen mixed veggies in a pan, fry for a bit. Add in an egg. Add cooked rice and cook for a bit longer. Soy sauce. Pretty good.

Spaghetti agility olio. Very simple and cheap. Boil spaghetti, gently warm through some olive oil, 3/4 sliced garlic cloves in a pan with some dried chilli flakes. Drain spaghetti, plonk into oil, and season. Very easy, very tasty.