How often are you having this sort of thing for your evening meal?

[Bemyclementine]

Scrambled eggs/beans on toast
Baked potato
Soup and roll.

I'm trying hard to cut my shopping costs but neither me or the DC like the cheaper options if some things. I'd eat them, but they won't abd then it's waste. (Such as sausages, or breaded chicken) They dont like pasta bake from a jar.

I just feel like something on toast/potato/soup aren't really options. Or are more like lunch options again, happy to eat them myself but want the dc to have proper food abd a good variety. I think I'm probably making life hard for myself

What about you have that sort of cheap meal then do seperate for the DC? That would cut coat maybe?

@Coconutter24 I often make pasta dishes but they're def not cheaper than a jar of sauce!

Love all those for dinner. Tonight I'm having jacket potato with tuna - but the tuna is mixed with sweetcorn, olives, capers and cornichons. 5 more minutes for the potatoes to be ready and my mouth is watering!

Had spaghetti bolognaise yesterday with plenty of sauce left over so tomorrow night will be jacket potatoes and bolognaise. Always cook double the amount of potatoes so they can be eaten 2 nights running. Can't wait for tomorrow nights dinner as well 😀

We have jacket potatoes once a week and soup once a week.

But we do have salad with the potatoes and we will sometimes have more elaborate toppings that aren't just bog standard cheese and beans.

We also make our own soup (when there's time) and get nice bread from the bakery. It wouldn't be a tin of Heinz with a slice of Hovis. So it's not really cost saving - although I suppose it's still overall cheaper than eating meat every day.

What ingredients do you use? Just a basic tomato pasta I find to be cheaper than jars

Nah those are lunches to me, not evening meals.

Soup and roll - at least once a week, maybe more. Home-made, though, not from a tin or carton.

Jacket potato- maybe every two weeks. With a decent filling.

Not scrambled eggs on toast, because we don’t eat eggs. But it could be baked beans on toast. Every two weeks.

Mine don't eat lunch really, they go from breakfast to dinner unless they eat out in town (but teenagers).
They kind of have a snack like a toastie or avocado at about 4.30 and then dinner is usually:

Veggie toad in the hole with gravy
Tofu stir fry (broccoli, frozen edmame, peas) and noodles with tahini sauce
Jackets and veggie chilli
Curry - make at weekend, keep in fridge for anyone starving (very cheap)

Eggs probably a breakfast meal (or lunch if they ate it)

I'm really trying to cut costs so am using a budget vegan cook book and just adding dairy for the kids.

Jacket potato once or twice a month perhaps. DC will have beans on toast with cheese occasionally, and everyone loves when the toastie machine comes out once or twice a year for a week at a time until it’s forgotten about again.

They have hot lunches at school, so no issue with smaller dinners now and then. Also saves time.

We often have things like toasted sandwiches for dinner. Tonight we had chicken and veg soup, leftover from a batch I made a couple of days ago. Yesterday we had jacket potatoes, but only because I'd put the oven on to cook a joint and a big dish of macaroni cheese - I won't put the oven on for an hour just for potatoes, and it is no more efficient to do them in the microwave or air fryer for six people.

We have jacket potatoes weekly with cheese & beans or egg mayonnaise with salad.

Egg/beans on toast maybe every couple of weeks, usually if we're home late, lots to do etc. DC really enjoy it.

Vegetable & lentil stew with dumplings is weekly at this time of year.

If you can list what they do like, maybe people can suggest cheaper alternatives.
I like pasta, but a jar of sauce is nowhere near as nice as a homemade. You can make a homemade sauce cheap, if you make it veggie.
If you want super cheap and easy, a pesto pasta is fab and you can buy a good one from Aldi for 99p. Add in some roasted tomatoes ❤️.If you serve it with garlic bread or bruschetta. You can turn it into a very satisfying meal.
I think cheap cooking involves a rounded approach so a small bowl of rice pudding with jam for dessert.
Bulking meals out with nice bread. Making bread is super cheap, I can make amazing breads for less than 50p.

Also cheap salad, grated carrots, onions, iceberg lettuce served as a side, makes a cheap meal feel more decadent.

Never. If I did it would be for lunch. Our evening meals tends to be things like casseroles, tagines or curries where we can get more than one meal out of it and bulk it out with pulses.

I love toast with soup. I use to get remarks about it being strange until I pointed out they preferred their bread fried (croutons) rather than toasted 😂

I eat a lot of jacket potato's for tea, usually with left over chilli or bolognaise

Tonight we had chicken breast wraps and salad. I guess that’s not really a typical dinner but we have it pretty often.

So this is the problem , dc2 had 2 slices toast, 2 eggs scrambled. Had granola for breakfast followed by cinnamon swirl. Banana at break. School dinner - curry, rice, veg plus dessert.

Since the eggs has eaten- large bowl greek yogurt, chocolate reindeer came, packet of crisps, handful of almonds and is still hungry.

These are lunches for us , I do serve up a jacket with a topping and salad for dinner quite regularly though .

I wouldn't fancy any of them for an evening meal. Lunch maybe.

Baked potatoes, a salad and cheese and coleslaw is a lovely evening meal.

I don't use jars for sauces. Just use tinned tomatoes, garlic and basil. Delicious and cheaper than a jar.

Or toss your spaghetti in olive oil, black pepper and garlic.

Plenty of cheap ways to make a meal that are still filling and tasty.

@bonzaitree they love a chicken wrap, I either use thighs or Southern fried pieces, let them build their own with lettuce, cucumber, peppers etc, sweetcorn or corn on the cob.

School dinners are tiny OP - I would treat it as a lunch and feed a proper dinner - sorry I know that doesn’t help

None of us keen on a basic tomato sauce for pasta.

@Timetogosouth theirs aren't thankfully, tiny school with school cook who serves seconds!

Cheese sauce can be made with flour and butter, milk, cheddar and pepper. Would they prefer that? Macaroni cheese always a winner in this house.