What do you consider a "cheap everyday meal"?

[FloopyZebra]

Just made a pasta bake for 4 and decided to cost it out as I like to keep a keen eye on my shopping costs, we spend on average £100 per week for 3 adults and 1 teen (that's for everything including beer and wine)
It was a veggie meal tonight wholemeal pasta with a creamy tomato sauce, onions, courgette and mushrooms topped with grated cheese. The total cost was £4.50.
Tomorrow we are having pulled pork with spicy rice and salad, which will be a bit more at £10.00 but there will be meat leftover.
An ulta cheap meal for us is a thick homemade veg soup served with warm bread.

Oh something I've just remembered from when DS was 1, I had given up work because he was ill all the time (asthma), we had bought a very expensive house and DH, at the beginning of his career, was suffering from late payers. We had a nail bitey 10 days, stretching very few pounds.

Potato pie: thinly sliced potato and onion in a casserole, tiny bit of bacon, add cheese sauce, not too thick. Bake for about 90 minutes. Serve with cabbage and Carrots (did two nights)

Tomato sauce: onion, tin of tomatoes, bay leaves, oregano, tomato puree with pasta and grated cheese. With Chinese leaves, tomato and cucumber.

Baked potatoes and beans with a side salad.

Baked apples for pudding.

And then thank fuck about four clients paid all at once.

That’s not pizza then. That’s a toasted wrap with some toppings. Still very nice, definitely not a pizza though.

I’m sorry but 10 meals out of 500g mince?! I don’t mean to be rude but I would never be able to achieve that! I get 5 meals max out of that
Its the padding it out that makes it possible. I use more than half the Bol the first day, and put in extra tomatoes the next. Doing day 2 as a bake means the pasta absorbs the juices, and I top it with grated cheese, or sometimes feta. It really does work, but day 2 is definitely more tomato than meat!

10 meals out of 500g of mince??? I'm sorry but your family must be starving .

50g of mince a meal? Lmao this place!

Beans on toast.

Omelette
Quiche
Butternut squash/sage/parmesan (or sharp cheddar as a sub) risotto.
Veg curry
Cheese and onion pie.
Corned beef hash.
Panacalty

Beans on toast surely ? Maxing it out you could have cheesy beans on toast ?

I'm definitely going to try some of these meals! The dhal especially.

Lovely to see people cooking from scratch, it's so much cheaper!

you’re lucky not to get gas and bloating I do a lot and yes I have diabetes and coeliac disease and these cheap meals would have me on the floor.

So I eat meat and yes it’s restrictive but it’s what I have to do to live and I don’t eat a lot of dairy either god I miss cheese. I miss the cheap meals flung together

oh and I tried building up the fibre that didn’t end well for me either.

Probably non-veggie is homemade Tuna Napolitana which is large tin of tuna, tomato puree, pasta, onion and pot of cream. Ideally some dried oregano, basil and a few olives with a drizzle of parmesan but I'd be surprised if this cost more than £2 (considering we bulk buy onions, tomato puree and tuna) and feeds 4.

Veggie would be Thai carrot soup or beans on toast.

These are meals we actually enjoy though, when I've needed to in the past I have really slashed spending to the absolute bare minimum but those weren't meals we would choose if that makes sense.

Yep 50g a tin tomatoes and a dusting of mixed herbs for 12 people 🤣

The easiest I find is french bread pizza cos I dont have to mess around with dough or pizza bases.

Cut your baguette into equally sized pieces, a demi baggette makes 4 and a full baggette 8 pizza bases.

Spread tomato puree on the bases, add a layer of grated mozzarella or preferred cheese. Add your toppings followed by a smaller sprinkling of grated cheese. Pop under a grill until cheese is melted.

Serve with a good portion of salad or garlic bread.

If you need to, make the salad heartier by adding a can of mixed beans and/or sweetcorn or bulk it out using a can of potatoes (sliced or diced).

The last time I made this, I bought the bagette freshly made from Spar and I think together with a bagged salad and all ingredients, it cost about £2.50 and fed 4 of us.

We never buy low welfare meat or dairy produce, so a cheap meal for us would be a vegetarian pasta dish.

It must be incredibly difficult for you. I have a relative who has to eat low fibre due to a medical condition and without meat and fish would really struggle. Its very expensive. She eats a lot of eggs and goes for the yellow sticker fish and meat, basically just buying whatever is a bargain that day.
She also gets some good deals using the too good to go ap. The supermarket bags often include cooked meats.

Why? A lot of these meals on the thread are pasta with no meat at all - are those families starving too?

Think of it as tomato pasta with added protein. And think that maybe 50g of mince per person is all some people (I don't know about the PP) can afford. But this is a thread for cheap meals.

We have got used to the idea of eating a lot of meat, more than we need. A lot of cheap recipes suggest adding only a little meat for flavour, not making it the centre of the meal.

That ^^
I often do a veg based pasta bake and add any scraps of left over chicken, bacon etc just for flavouring. A tiny bit of chopped up bacon makes a big difference

So the first dish the poster has made is a spag bol as people usually would, then the second is a pasta bake which could have been a veg one but she's added the leftover meat bits for flavour

It's like the difference between eating a chicken breast on its own or shredding it and adding other stuff to make a bigger meal

Me either but I am finding it difficult to source good high welfare meat recently

I'm trying to stick to higher protein/lower carb meals while being pescatarian, so my cheapest regular meal is probably an Asian-inspired veg stir fry with boiled egg, tofu and/or cashews thrown in for protein.

Tinned tuna and tinned kidney beans or chickpeas over a mixed salad is another cheap and lazy one!

@Gymnopedie
I get what you mean but it's not healthy to eat tons of pasta and bread. Pasta is empty calories and wreaks havoc on the whole body. No wonder so many have intolerances, diabetes etc our bodies aren't supposed to be consuming all these nutrient lacking wheat shapes.
Much better to use things like sweet potato, potato, and other vegetables and root vegetables as the filler part of the meal.

How do you get to 17 pence a portion? I cannot even get a portion of rice for 17 pence - but then maybe we have different ideas of portion sizes

@fullbloom87 If that's your point, why not make it about all the other carb heavy suggestions, rather than you (and other PPs) singling out one poster who uses 50g of meat (which is per person, not the whole meal shared between them)?

I'm sure there are a lot of people who would like to eat better. But pasta is very cheap and very filling, and also cheap to cook rather than something that might need the oven. Healthy eating is a noble aim, but sometimes unattainable. Plus there's one thing you're overlooking. Maybe these ideas are things that people cook sometimes to make the budget go further. It doesn't mean that's how they eat every meal.

Finally, have you not heard of Nigella's marmite pasta, or the Italian cacio e pepe? They'd give you conniptions.

I know it was per person.
I get pasta is cheap and that's why people eat a lot of it. But suggesting it's healthier to lesson the lean protein and bulk it up with wheat instead is silly. A sweet potato jacket takes about 40 mins to bake, 20 mins in microwave or same if boiled about the same amount of time as it takes to make a quick bolognaise. You can can also spiralise courgette and butter nut squash instead of using spaghetti.
I've heard of nigella pasta yes. Seems like a nice side dish but again no nutrients.

Eggs and beans on toast , usually have it once a fortnight on tidy up Monday before the cleaner comes and both really enjoy it

One thing I tried to do is buy the uncooked kilograms of beans, pulses etc, dried. Obviously if you cook that way rather than use a tin of pre-prepared lentils, chickpeas etc, it'd be loads cheaper. But I haven't done it much really.