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

I feed my Foster son a 2 egg ham omelette when we are in a hurry before he has a sports practice. He might have a jacket potato with cheese afterwards. I also give him a tin of meat balls in tomato sauce with tagliatelle as a fast meal too about once a fortnight. Will your DC eat an omelette?

Lentil dhal with naan bread is a cheap easy filling meal - with some spinach maybe

Would your DC eat a cheese and ham toastie?

Can you bulk up scrambled eggs. e.g with mushrooms or beans?

I often have baked potato, beans and cheese for dinner. Also like beans on toast.

I had soup & bread tonight but it was a really substantial lentil and bacon one that the spoon stood up in. I made it at the weekend and it was full of cheap veg.

@bonzaitree yes they love a homemade macaroni cheese . With gammon 🤣

I'd definitely have a baked potato as a main meal. With beans and/or cheese or home made coleslaw and some salad on the side.

And we often have soup as our main meal. We did tonight. It was Day 3 remnants of a MN everlasting chicken with peas, carrots, spring onions and egg noodles. Some left over for lunch tomorrow too.

Another cheap option is egg and oven chips or omelette and crusty bread.

You could do cheese and tomato toasties with peas and sweetcorn on the side.

Baked beans on toast with something like a banana smoothie (1 large banan chopped, topped with milk and blitzed will make 2 smoothies) - that would also be fine.

Home made chunky soup like red lentil with carrot and potato or green letil with fried onion and a bit of fried bacon and some granary bread would be good. I think tinned tomato soup would be a bit unsatisfying.

I have a very cheap chickpea and spinach curry recipe. Onion, garlic, ginger. Pan fry. spoonful of chilis paste (I use Mrs Pataks), can of tomatoes, 1/3rd bag of frozen spinach, 1 can of chickpeas simmer for 15 mins.

I serve with rice.

It's enough for 3 big adult portions.

I agree with the PP, school lunches are TINY, mine ate more as toddlers.
When it says two sausages and mash, it means two cocktail sausages. Pizza, a smattering of cheese.

My sister went into school at lunch time and was shocked at the crappy portions!

Mine always had packed lunch.

@caringcarer yes! I'd forgotten the toasties, thank you.

I had homemade spicy lentil soup for dinner today. The rest are things I'd have for lunch.

How about dahl @Bemyclementine? Loads of variety, cheap, tasty and left overs make a magnificent toastie with a dab of mango chutney.

I don’t differentiate between cooked lunch and light dinner. The content is interchangeable. We often have jackets, omelettes, beans on toast, salad, soup etc. for dinner. Especially as the kids generally like a fairly substantial snack after school and are not too hungry for dinner.

Baked potato - yes, with beans/cheese/salad/tuna mayo etc
The other 2 options - definitely in the realm of lunch here. Hungry teenagers (and Dh) would be horrified!
I could happily have something on toast or soup for dinner if it were just me, and often do if everyone else is out.

Have jacket potato with a range of toppings once a week.sometimes comes with salad too!
Soup/ toast usually a weekend lunch but once a fortnight for dinner if not too hungry.

They are hot and cheap and quite filling with a glass of milk and a banana afterwards.

We also often have jacket potatoes for tea/dinner, with tuna or cheese and coleslaw or beans and cheese etc. Also omelettes especially if we are in a rush. We don’t have soup for dinner but that’s because I nearly always have home made soup in the fridge which we have for lunches most days.

I made a bean chilli this week, dirt cheap and made enough for about 6 people so some in the freezer too. Cans of mixed beans, canned tomatoes, peppers, onions, spices. I used a bbc good food recipe on this occasion although I added some extras like some frozen sweetcorn.

Maybe a couple of times a month, other quick cheap meals are toasties with tomato soup, omelettes or pasta and pesto with peas.

This is what we used to have for teatime when I was a child in the 70s because we had our main meal at lunchtime. In those days I came home from the village school for lunch and my Dad cycled home from his work and back again after lunch.

Since DC went off to uni.
DH has just had cheese and crackers and I had bread and soup.

We have them fairly often and not because we are skint but because they're good easy meals! Anything you like can be dinner. Often when DH is away the kids and I will have porridge for dinner. Full tummies before bed is the aim in this house.

I had mushrooms with cheese on toast for tea, bit of salad on the side.

I sometimes do soup for dinner but it's very hearty eg lentils or beans included, or containing another protein source such as fish or chicken. Wholemeal bread. Thats a balanced meal.

We dont have jacket potatoes only because dc has them a few days a week at school for lunches.

But we do things like:
egg, chips and beans
homemade soup with bread
Tuna sweetcorn mayo pasta (or in part-cooked baguettes)

Once or twice a week.

We had these kind of meals for tea when I was a child and my friends did too as we used to eat them when we went round and we all survived our childhoods.

My mum would often have us 3 and 3 of our friends sat round the kitchen table and there would be a jug of beans, a bowl of scrambled egg and a jug of tinned tomatoes in the middle then a production line of buttered toast being added to plates which we topped with whichever topping we fancied.

I understand that, but the OP asked how often people ate them as a main meal and I replied. I am a greedy guts who would be hungry with that as a main meal.

When I’m skint I tend to rely on pulses, but some people’s children don’t like them.

Home made soup and cheese on toast here for dinner tonight. Soup made with leftover roast chicken, frozen casserole veg, potatoes with red lentils too.
uoi mention they’re not keen on pasta bake from a jar. Home made with onion, garlic,own brand tinned tomatoes and cream cheese is cheaper and tastier.