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?

Roast potatoes £2.50 (DC will only eat certain brands)

Eh? £2.50 for some roasted spuds?

I used to be a real food snob and cook with the best ingredients, and did produce really delicious meals. Then we had too many DC and they wouldn't eat some of the more strongly flavoured ingredients, so I toned dishes down, and found you could still get 90% of the taste for 20% of the price. Pork is the way to go for real bargains, or chicken thighs.

Carbonara is really cheap. We buy one pack of cooking bacon (£2) and you can get about 5 meals worth of lardons chopped out of it (so 40p). Add teaspoon of lazy garlic (10p?) Third of a bag of grated parmesan (60p), half saved to sprinkle at the end, half mixed in with 4 eggs - one whole, three yolks only (£1) and then half a pack of tagliatelle (£1) and we've fed all 5 of us in under 15mins, for £3.10 if I've just added that up correctly.

Sausage egg and chips? Frozen Richmond's are actually pretty edible, and the bag is usually on offer somewhere for £1.80. Tesco fresh sausages are £1.50 for 6 or 8. Chips, are less than £2 a bag and it's about half a bag to feed us 5. Eggs 20-30p each.

Sausage plait. One sheet pre rolled pastry. Buy a lump of sausage meat, or squeeze out a pack of sausages from their skins. Chop half and apple and two shallots, finely. Some dried sage, good handful of breadcrumbs. Mix, roll into large sausage, form plait with pastry. Delicious, and we always have some left over for me and DH lunch the next day.

Jackets are super cheap. Tinned tuna, sweetcorn and mayo. Tin of chili, sour cream and grated cheese.

Only adults here but quantity varies (university, working late, boyfriends...) I have several dishes I can produce at £1 a head but I'm a pretty competent cook and nearly everything is from scratch, also 2 of my DD's are vegetarian. I bulk buy spices, herbs, chapatti flour, rice etc. every few weeks from the large Asda then shop every 2-3 days from Lidl. Our shopping is around £300 a month averaging 3-4 mouths per night.

@Decafflatteplease

Brands of potato? Who buys brands they are just supermarket unless you mean Maris piper?

Potatoes are suitable for everyone thankfully, never met anyone allergic, unlike pasta, gluten free is £££

I had this last night it now costs me £8 to put a balanced meal on the table for 5 people I just can't do it for less.

I am always fascinated by how people shop.
In my Sainsbury’s it’s 50p a kilo for potatoes (versus pp spending £2.50 for one meal), 52p a kilo for rice (versus another pp £1.85 a bag/£1 a meal), 56p a kilo of pasta… I don’t buy chicken nuggets but Birds Eye ones are £5 a kilo (pp one DC eats £4 worth a meal).
We used to average £1-2 a head per dinner. This has crept up a bit now. Ones that still fall under £1 a head include home made pizza, macaroni cheese, egg fried rice, vegetable curry, Dahl, soup, jacket potatoes etc.

I imagine frozen roasts (ie aunt Bessie's) the pp does explain she has a dc with ARFID

Due to shift work (2 of us) and many other factors - including one gluten free person, a meal might vary from less than a £1 per person to £4-£5
per person.

I cook a lot of naturally gf food - thought it might be helpful to post this, apart from the yorkies and garlic bread everything is gf:

Sainsbury’s basic gf pasta is 500g for 75p - similar price to ‘normal’ pasta. I top it with any of the following: pesto, cheese grated from a big block of extra mature (goes further) Philadelphia equivalent, whatever tomato based sauce is on offer…

Omelettes or egg based meal.

jacket potatoes - cook one or two extra for the shift workers/to use for lunches. Toppings could be: tuna, beans, cheese, sausages.

someone on here recommended sausage roast - basically a roast dinner but with sausages instead of meat. (Yorkies for the gluten eating people 44p for 15 frozen ones in Sainsbury’s). Most of main supermarkets have a good range of gf sausages not just in the special free from range.

When economising we have more of the seasonal cheaper veg like carrots. broccoli has shot up! We eat a lot of peas always have a bag in the freezer.

I make a cheese sauce with cornflour, milk and strong cheddar it can be used for various things.

if it’s a lighter dinner my dh likes dairy based puddings such as rice pudding, custard, yogurt. Big tub of full fat plain yogurt is £1 or less, tin of value rice of custard is still reasonable. Obviously if you start buying ambrosia you might need a bank loan! Or of course you can make your own rice pudding.

or for gluten eating people a garlic baguette is around 35p.

Oh forgot stir fry.
Not the pre prepped bags but carefully choosing more value for money veggies.
Finely sliced carrot, peppers etc.
buy 4 chicken breasts and slice 2 thinly
(roast the other two another day and used for quite a lot of sandwiches)

Cheap meal? Probably chilli? £12 to make, does 6 portions.

Average? £10-12pp. Eat a lot of good quality meat, fish and veg (monkfish, steak, swordfish, venison etc). Lots of salads.

However, food is my big pleasure. I enjoy cooking and eating good food. I get sick if I don’t eat lots of fruit and veg (literally every meal needs fruit or veg). I skimp on a lot of other things to ensure I can eat good quality food. I am v. lucky in that respect now, as there was a time where my family did have to budget a lot more for food.

Dont know if this helps.

This was for 2 adults and one older teen for the last week with a few extra portions:

Sunday
1 x turkey crown 1.6kg (paid £2, yellow sticker down from £22)..only 600g meat eaten roughly, though,
with 5 medium potatoes 1kg (~80p), roasted,
and carrots and peas (~ 60p),
plus gravy from the juices (~20p)
and stuffing (32p).

Total cost £2.62 as we had 200g meat each, so say 70p for the meat used in this meal.

Monday

Homemade leftover turkey curry (4 portions... 3 dinner, one lunch) using:

~ 500-600g turkey meat fm the crown (~70p)
2 onions (14p)
2 large tbsp homemade curry paste (16p)
400g coconut milk (69p)
Stock cube (6p)
Served with 225g (raw weight) Thai rice (3 portions) (25p) as rice was on offer @5kg for £5.50

Total cost £1.29 for the dinner inc leftover sauce for lunch

Tuesday

Green bean risotto with pesto made using:

1 onion (7p)
2 cloves garlic (6p)
Stock cube (6p)
2 tsp Green pesto (10p)
125g green beans (15p)
125g peas (14p)
250g risotto rice (70p) But could use a cheaper rice

Total £1.28 for 4 portions

Weds

Turkey soup/stew made on Tuesday with:

leftover carcass/meat/stuffing (70p turkey + 15p stuffing)
150g pearl barley (29p)
1 sweet potato (15p)
6 potatoes 1.2kg (96p)
1 large carrot (7p)
1 onion (7p)
400g baked beans (28p)
1tbsp cornflour (5p)
Salt and pepper

Total cost £2.72 made 5 large portions

Thursday

400g chicken fillets (£2.90)
2 Bell peppers (50p)
1 onion (7p)
450g noodles (10p) yellow sticker
Homemade soy and ginger sauce (40p)

Total for 4 portions £3.97

Friday

Jacket potato with cottage cheese and tuna (serves 2) with 1 portion of filling left for lunch.

[Teen ate out]

2 × 250g potatoes (40p)
2 x 145g tins of tuna (£1.30)
2 x 300g tubs cottage cheese (£1.48)
1 tsp paprika (3p)
1 tsp curry powder (3p)
Salt and pepper

Total £3.24 for 2 dinner portions and 1 small leftover filling portion for lunch

Sat
Sourdough Pizza with goats cheese and beets

3 × 10" Homemade sourdough pizza bases (50p)
100g tomato puree (30p)
1 onion (7p)
½ red pepper (15p)
50g mushrooms (25p)
2 cooked beetroots, diced (40p)
100g goats cheese (£1.20)
100g cheddar (59p)

Total £3.46

So the total for that week, for all dinners plus a few lunch portions was £18.58 for 26 portions

I tend to buy good quality meat when it's on offer and freeze, so I'm able to keep my spending down. It also means we eat a variety of things, and some weeks less meat than others, which also keeps the costs down.

We spend between £100 and £120 a week for 4 adults. I used to be able to do it for half that but I now have post Covid diabetes and hypertension 🙄 so everything has to be wholegrain, low sugar, low salt etc. I'm veggie and all our evening meals are veggie. I buy a smoked gammon joint most weeks to cook and slice because ds4 is addicted to ham salad wraps and eats them every day he's not at college.
Cheapest meals would probably be
Soup of some kind with crusty bread
Bean chilli and rice
Mexican rice with beans
Pasta bake and salad
Crispy tofu with kale and tomatoes
Roasted cherry tomato pasta
Baked potatoes with beans and cheese or tuna and sweetcorn for ds4
Cauliflower and chick pea curry with rice
Butternut squash pasta
Chilli dogs
Refried bean quesadillas with salad
Lentil Dahl with rice
Pasties made with leftover curry/chilli/ whatever with roasted root veg
Pasta with caramelised onions (costs pennies) with a wee bit of grated cheese on top

I would say that most of my meals work out around 40p per head to a maximum of £8 per head (if we have steak or something, which is probably 1x month), but the average is around £1 per head normally.

We eat a lot of stews, casseroles, dahl, etc, and I pretty much always cook from scratch.

When husband is here, he only eats expensive food so £15-20 per night for the 3 of us. Is ridiculous.

When husband is away with work, I prefer baked potatoes with cheese and peas or a bit of pasta.

I eat much less meat than I used to, because our vegan daughter is currently back at home and its easier most nights for us to eat the same thing.

I think there are lots of meals I do that cost less than £1 a head, such as chickpea curry, vegetable and bean casserole, sweet and sour tofu, mushroom and butternut squash risotto, or pasta with a vegetable sauce. Omelettes (obviously not for vegan daughter) and filled baked potatoes are also cheap options.

When I do buy meat, I like it to be good, and local, so I buy it from a butcher. It's more expensive than getting it from the supermarket, but we only have it once or twice a week. I also buy decent fish like wild Alaskan salmon rather than farmed.

Your meal might be cheap and filling but half a cucumber between 7 people isn't much in the way of fruit and veg, even if one is a baby. It's about 2 slices each.

My cheapest go to meal is egg, and chips cooked in the air fryer. For 3 of us half a dozen eggs and some frozen chips. Costs about £3.

I can make a meal for £4-6

Cheapest is probably if I make a chilli, and use half of the chilli for a pasta bake the next day.
Probably helps that I had a gastric sleeve so don't eat much more than my toddler, and only have two other people to feed so food goes further.

We have 4 kids 2 adults. Cheapest meals are best in bulk.
Lidls Huge bag potatoes £3 does several meals
Tesco Bag frozen sausages £1.20 for 20
Yorkshires 40p for 12
Large Bag carrots £40p
Large Bag mixed veg £1.10
Onions less than a pound big bag
3 jars lidls cheap Bolognese sauce
Cheap gravy granules
Cheap stock cubes
Bag Tesco frozen mince £3.49 does 2 meals
Out of just that I will make shepherds pie, fresh chips and sausages, Bolognese, soup and there will still be potatoes left to do roasts and other bits for the week

I’m really impressed at those of you who know how much meals cost, I genuinely have never tried to work it out.
We aren’t on a strict food budget, spend around £250 per week for 4/5 of us. Adult servings. Very rarely any leftovers.
One night last week though Dh had leftovers, the Dc had some bolognaise that mil randomly dropped round as she had made too much and I fancied something veggie so roasted a whole aubergine, sprinkled the inside with a harissa butter and dolloped on some lemon/garlic yoghurt, that must have been a very cheap meal. The cost of an aubergine (£2? I don’t know how much they cost exactly but they can’t be expensive?), spoon of harissa and a blob of butter, couple of tablespoons of yoghurt and a lemon and clove of garlic. It was so tasty.

Ds and dh love their meat. I like meat but not at the same level. Some of the ideas on this thread are great but I would be fine with a baked potato as i have a smaller appetite but one nearly adult male (ds) and dh wouldn't view a baked potato as a main meal. We view it as a side more

Today was probably the cheapest meal of the week, rice, veg curry, dahl and condiments, no drinks, with a few biscuits for pudding. Jackets and beans would be a cheap go to. But you still augment these things with a few condiments and whatnots. And although pasta and cheese will keep you from starving it's not that nutritional. It's probably akin to bread and cheese! If I'm thinking something like a tofu curry, it's going to have at a minimum pepper, tofu, coconut milk and rice. Still about £2 per head with no pudding or drinks. Burritos aren't bad value if you use pulses. Can augment with salads and sauces. I feel we have been priced out of some staples like olive oil at the moment. It's hard to cost those other staples into meals. But they add up. We always underestimate. I'm sure it's more than 30p per meal though!

A lot is about being flexible and shopping smart. I base my meals around what's on offer. I probably don't need to anymore as we are more comfortable now, but it was the way I was brought up and the way I had to shop for many years when things were tight.

This week, I bought 6 aubergines as they were on offer for 45p each. I also bought 9 yellow sticker avocados just as the store was closing for 15p each.
When I got home I diced up 3 aubergines and peeled and diced the 5 avocados and put them into bags to freeze. I then sliced up the last 3 aubergines and froze 2 (as the 3rd was used for dinner yesterday).
I peeled the last 4 avocados and halved them and froze them, too.

I often do this and find that aubergines free,e well, as do avocados. Courgettes not so well, as they become a bit watery, but if you're just making something like ratatouille then it doesn't really matter if the courgette is a bit watery, so I will freeze them rather than have them go past their best as they can become bitter.

Yesterday we had Feta Tiganito, made using:

200g salad cheese (85p)
1 sliced aubergine, grilled (45p)
1½ onion, diced (10p)
400g tin chopped tomatoes (35p)
Herbs and spices/seasonings. (2p)
3 large cooking red/green peppers (70p)
100g diced mushrooms (50p)
2 (slices) breadcrumbs (3p)
1 tbsp tomato puree (5p)
3 x large wholemeal pita breads (15p) bought when 30%off

Made a tomato sauce from the onion, tomatoes, mushrooms and herbs/seasonings. Then I layered this sauce with some of the sliced aubergine and topped with some feta style (salad) cheese. Did 2 layers finishing with the cheese and then sprinkled brradcrumbs over, made from 2 crust slices of stale bread. Baked and served with the pita bread.

Total £3.20 for 4 portions for dinner plus 1 portion of sauce leftover for lunch.