How much does your average family meal cost and what do you consider a cheap meal??

[Wozzzzzaa]

I used to be able to feed 6 of us (2 adults and 4 kids) for £4 per meal at the very cheapest, and probably £6-7 per meal on average but with the cost of groceries increasing, it's impossible to hit the £5 target.

Just curious about everyone else's average spend, and what price you would consider to be a cheap meal?

It varies, mainly just me and Dh now until Ds is back from uni or Dd visiting.
Really cheap meal is a bean chilli, 2 cans of mixed beans (Lidls), tinned toms, some tomato purée, spices and often a red pepper.
Serve with rice or basic tortilla chips, bit of Greek yogurt, shredded lettuce and a bit of grated cheese if you wish.

When did you manage to do a meal for £4? Your kids are growing so eating more and basic food prices are up massively in the last couple of years.

Pasta price doubles to 95p as cost of basics rises www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64732404

Can you afford to bulk buy to get the biggest available sizes or take advantage of offers? It depends how old your kids are but I think £5 for a meal for six is not achievable on a regular basis. Even beans on toast with a fried egg on top is prob £1 for an adult and £0.50 to £0.75 for a child or teen. Quick, tasty but probably not the type of thing you'd want to serve seven days a week.

Years ago we used to budget £5 per evening meal and our shopping budget was £70 a week but now we have a large family and food restrictions I'd say £10 is a cheap meal and realistically it's more like £15-20 per evening meal ☹️ our food bill is £1000 a month!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/1_dinners

Wow £1000 per month is a lot! The special diet food is so expensive isn't it 🙈

Yes I agree that the kids were smaller when we managed £4 meals so have to factor in that too. I imagine we'd probably be doing well at £1 per head per portion now.

Will check out those £1 dinners thanks 👍

We're not on an extreme budget and thankfully not overly strapped for cash but I do like to try and keep the food budget down. Having said that, it's not at the expense of our diet, so we do eat enough meat and veg etc

We spend a minimum of £220 a week on 6 of us, that includes treats right enough as life's too fucking short.

we could easily feed us all on less than £4 before. This week ordered stuff for a meal that we've not had for ages (I'm ill and dh isn't a good cook from scratch cook), cost £9.70.

even packed lunches cost a fortune now.

To be fair £7.50 a day is school dinners but my time and head space is worth it than making packed lunches!

Cheapest meal would be jacket potatoes, beans and cheese. I also do a good lentil Bolognese, mushroom risotto, vegetable curries etc. but as I already have spices/stock cubes, big bags of pasta and rice these are harder to cost up.

6/7 evening meals are vegetarian in our house which helps. Everyone has packed lunches too.
Our food bill is £100-£110 per week 2 adults, 2 teens. Money is tight so needs must.

We have our allotment and a couple of times a week we have veggie meals such as a vegetable curry or casserole. Even without the allotment a veggie dish could be fairly cheap.

Cheap meals would be
Pasta pesto and garlic bread
Jacket potato
Egg & chips
Sausage & mash
Lentil dhal

We are a family of 4 it just depends on what we’re eating eg if it’s salmon well that’s about £15 for the salmon alone (but then I’d serve it with egg fried rice and veg) other times a chicken curry I guess that’s about £6.50 for the meat maybe £2 on top for everything else then rice and yogurt on the side.

Beef chilli I buy a kilo of organic beef will last usually about two meals then and that’s £5.50 a packet of beef.

another day could be a chickpea curry but I do get the organic chickpeas £1.05 a tin.

we have treats and eat out once a week.

Miguel Barclays one pound meal books are really good for this.

Cheapeat meals:

Omelette, bread and butter and salad
Macaroni cheese and salad
Cottage pie
Bean casserole
Stuffed pepper with rice and left over bolognaise
Roast chicken

My dc favourite meal is pasta 45p a bag , grated cheese approx 50p, half a packet of ham chopped up £1, half a cucumber 40p and black pepper negligible so less than £2.50 for 6 children and a baby.
I am often shocked by the amount many posters spend on a weekly shop.

Cheapest meals- free- olio food sharing app. If I’m paying baked potatoes cooked in the remoska with cheese and beans, noodles with broccoli and veggie hot dogs, Mac n cheese, Dahl and rice.

I don't mean to nitpick but where can you buy pasta to feed 6 for 45p? And how many grammes of cheese is that each? 10?

There are five of us, and that meal would cost me £1.20 for 100g pasta each, £2 for the cheese, 80p for the cucumber, and £1 for the ham.

I'd have to add peas to make a complete protein with the pasta, use a whole cucumber, and add cherry tomatoes and black olives to bump up the veg a bit. (We'd skip the ham though)

I think my kids must be older than yours cos mine would have to be restrained from going for a second handful of grated cheese and adding another £2 to the cost.

I’m struggling to keep my weekly shop for three adults all meals (including cleaning and toiletries) under €150 a week. Cheap meals around £4 are:

Vegetable soup
Pulses
pasta of all kinds
chili and rice, stews and curry
egg dishes like egg fried rice, shakshuka, carbonara, omelette.
Cabbage and bacon (love it!)
Bread with whatever
Mumsnet chicken
Pork and turkey are proving to be cheaper meats nowadays.
Apples, bananas and seasonal fruit. Frozen vegetables, fresh carrots and peppers, onions and potatoes.

Making smaller portions and not forcing people to finish leftovers which could be used another time can only be good for our health.

Cheapest meal here is a very substantial multi-veg soup (not puréed) seasonal veg inc. cut-and-come-again swede, celeriac, etc., and any one or two of pearl barley/red lentils/orzo pasta. Served with grated cheese and bread or naan bread if anyone wants it.
I can get 10 or 11 plant items into one of these soups. Any green veg go in for just the last few minutes.

Tonights dinner for 4 cost £2.50

£1.50 reduced vegetable and cheese bake
50p sweetcorn
50p carrots
Free - Hunters Chicken
Free - baby potatoes

I'm a volunteer on the Olio app, so the two free items were my 10% tythe for the collection I did on Thursday

@verdantverdure not the poster but Asda pasta is 41p or so for 500g
Their essentials cheese is £2.80 for 500g too

Trying to estimate a few days meals for cost...

Tonight.... sausage roast
2 packs of sausages £5
Roast potatoes £2.50 (DC will only eat certain brands)
Gravy maybe £1?
Carrots 40p
Yorkshire's £1.50
Veggie DC instead of sausage £1.50
So total is approx £12?

Above could be done with chicken for a similar price as a whole chicken is £6 but we could use the leftover chicken for something like fried rice the next day

Tomorrow...
Chicken curry...
Chicken thighs £4
Korma pasta maybe £1?
Coconut milk £1?
Frozen veg already had in maybe 30p worth
Rice is £1.85 a bag and we use half so say £1
Naan £1?
Wraps £1.50 (again for veggie DC)
Chicken nuggets for DC with Arfid who worn eat curry £4
Total approx £13

Another typical meal.... chilli
Mince maybe £4?
Chilli seasoning 50p?
Rice £1
Kidney beans 60p
Tin tomatoes 60p
Soffrito mix £1
Wraps £1.50
Chicken nuggets (Arfid again!) £4
Total approx £13

Yeah food restrictions are expensive. Basically we are at £4 a night most nights for one child before we even start on the rest of us!

Really? Amazing. Next time we move I'm going to make sure we've got an Asda.

Cheaper meal here is jacket potato, beans and/or cheese. About £3 for 4 of us. Not very exciting though. Tonight’s dinner was £7 for “fresh” soup and bakery bread. Yesterday was about £8 for a roast dinner with very little meat as I am veggie. I’d say most meals are £5-6 per night. We eat mostly vegetarian

@verdantverdure yeah the essentials range
Aldi is the same price too for their value pasta