£8 budget

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So I want your best ideas for cheap meals that aren’t miserable. £8 budget for 6 days worth of food (just for me). I have been slowly building up more seasonings and spices over the past few months adding one on each food shop so I should be ok there. I would rather have a better meal at tea time than have to factor in lunch. So skip breakfast and lunch!

This cold weather means comfort food suggestions only, I should be able to do 2 meals and split each across 3 days easily enough. So roughly £4 each meal, please share your ideas!

If you buy baking potatoes one day you can chop them into wedges and with seasoning they would create a different meal.

I think you could just about buy:
eggs,
tin of lentils,
an onion,
tinned tomatoes,
bacon,
small block of cheese
jacket potatoes
porridge oats
from Aldi/Lidl and have just about enough for 3 meals a day with quite a few different options.
Eg lentil soup, jacket pot & cheese, jacket & lentil chilli, porridge, cheese omelette, bacon & eggs. It’s not ideal, but if you have any extra veg in freezer it’s doable.
Good luck.

Download the Olio app first and see if anyone is collecting in your area. All free food with the added bonus of saving it from landfill.

I get all our bread off there, every single week.

In the past I've had mince, pork loin, salmon fillets, sausages and chicken from there too. All for free.

In your shoes, I'd buy some sausages, a can of mixed beans, chopped tomatoes and whatever veg is going cheap. Throw it all in slow cooker with a stock cube, mixed herbs, garlic and a tiny bit of sugar.

I'd make a huge stew with lots of frozen veg and rather than beef I'd put sausages in it and make it big enough for a few days

The same with chilli or shepherds pie, make it big and use for a few days.

Pasta and sauce with sausages is cheap

There's a lady on TikTok that does Aldi £5 meals but she cooks for 4/6 people.

You may find a bigger bag of normal white potatoes will stretch further than jackets for maybe £1.20. Then you can have small jackets, roasties, wedges with protein (chili, mince and veg etc) on top.

I think you'll find a cheese and beans toastie is far superior.

Got breakfast for you! I’d work it out meal by meal like this;

Cheese and onion frittata (6 portions) 1 tub Aldi essentials Cottage cheese 0.79p 6 Eggs £1.17 (12 for £2.35) X2 Spring onion 0.18p (6 for 0.55p) 200g Spinach 0.19p (95p for 1kg)

£2.33

Then work out your next meal with things like the spinach and spring onion so you can make sure they’re not getting wasted. I’ll have a little think and try keep prices low but here’s a start x

Lentil dahl
carrot and lentil soup
apple and cinnamon porridge
egg / vegetable fried rice
jacket potato / potato skins
tomato sauce for pasta and then can have with cheese / bacon / sausage mince etc

Big pot of daal! You can get a bag of dried red lentil for under £2, £1 for some garlic and another £1 for some onions. Fry your onions with cumin, garam masala, salt, pepper, coriander, add chilli flakes/curry powder if you like heat. You can add in any other veg you've got kicking around. Add the lentils and a tin of chopped tomatoes (50p), top up with stock or water. Serve with rice, bombay potatoes, naan, whatever you have in but my secret is to add a fried egg on top 😋 I generally can't eat the same meal twice in a row but can make an exception for daal, so can happily get 2 lunches and 2 teas for that £4.50 pot

Dahl..huge pot of dahl then portion up.. every day you can add yellow sticker veg to ring the changes.. just steam, stir fry or micro them... brocclli, tomatoes, chick peas... a handful of spinach or make a tarka.. fry onions and spices til crisp then use to top the dahl... make naan or chapatti for pennies or buy own brand..
A splash of cream or coconut milk changes the textute too!
Porridge or own brand muesli, again with yellow sticker fruit or dried fruit you might have in the cupboard, also any seeds to make a change..

I don't use stock, I used tinned tomatoes instead. I also add mushrooms (makes a big difference to the taste) and dried mixed herbs instead of spices.

You’re an absolute trouper and I wish you all the best going forward.

I'd buy a small pack of mince, baking potatoes, pasta, onions, carrots, red lentils, pitta bread tin baked beans, a tin of tuna and a carton of own brand passata. Then I'd make a bolognese sauce with lots of grated carrot and some lentils to bulk it out. Half in the freezer (two separate portions). Two thirds of the rest with pasta one night. Take the remainder add peas, boil and mash a baking potato and make into a cottage pie for another night.

With some of the rest of the lentils and onions I'd make a daal and eat half with rice (an extra 50p) or toasted pitta bread (cheaper than naan). I'd take the remainder and add some grated carrot and any other veg odds and ends you have and boil up with some water and a stock cube to make a curried lentil soup. Have it with some more of the pitta bread toasted and cut into fingers Should do you two nights (it will keep in the fridge so don't have to be consecutive).

Then a jacket potato with beans and tuna for the final night.

I costed this on Sainsburys website and assuming you need to buy all ingredients except oil seasonings and the peas you mentioned you already have it came to £8.40 (or £8.90 with rice) so slightly over but you do end up with 2 portions of bolognese in the freezer for another week.

Make homemade beans then use in different ways eg wraps with cheese, with couscous, and yes on toast - chop up 1/2 celery head, 2 onions, 1/2 lbs carrots and sauté, add garlic, mixed herbs (herbs de Provence if you have it) and paprika. Add a can chopped tomatoes, stick cube, 2 cans of mixed beans and cook for 20 minutes adding water if needed.

Leftover veg from the packets can then be used as a base for mince (£1.79 today in Lidl for 500g), brown mince, add the sautéed veg (same quantities as above) add chopped tomatoes, stock cube and herbs, cook 20 mins. Can then be topped with mashed or sliced potatoes for a shepherds pie, add garlic and some extra tomato (eg paste, even ketchup works) and serve with pasta, add chilli for well chilli ... really versatile and 500g makes 4 generous portions.

Costs vary by supermarket by roughly:
Onions 80p (will have leftover)
Carrots 50p (will have leftover)
Celery 80p
Beans 60p can
Chopped tomatoes 35p a can
Mince, paid £1.79 today but that was reduced to clear so £2.60.
Potatoes £1.25 today

I bought a bag of frozen cauliflower cheese from Sainsbury's the other day. 68p.

People suggesting parmesan are having a laugh, surely?

Don't forget that beans, canned tomatoes and things like sweet chilli sauce are significantly cheaper in the world food aisle.

Frozen veg are just as nutritious and often work out cheaper, because you will have some left over to use up next time.

Oh, yes! I love their microwave pouch rice. Especially the Basmati and also the Coconut rice one. ❤️

I admire your attitude to your circumstances.

So you have no disposable income each week and only have £15 for food?

And that’s with working? Do you have any pleasures or are you content with the way things are?

Do you have any flour OP? Could you mix up a portion of left over cottage pie and make a small meat and potato pie to slice for lunches or for a different evening meal (with tinned mushy peas?)

More cost effective to buy a bag of rice rather than pouches i'd have thought.

It's awful that you have so little for food. Is there anyone near you that you can reach out to? Or even a food bank? As for suggestions, I lived like that for a few years, but my budget was a bit more generous. Generally, eggs/omelettes with frozen veg, pastas with frozen mince and veg, chilli with any rice.
Frozen veg, mince, chicken, and quorn were what I structured my meals around generally.
Best of luck to you x

Another thing to consider OP is a food pantry. Google your Councils name and food pantries and there'll be a list.

Some round here offer 35 quid worth of food for 3.50 although I've never used one so don't know what the choice is like.

I'd buy a chicken and make a casserole type thing (potatoes, leeks, sweetcorn) and a few other meals. Then some lentils and a big pot of dhaal.

I know you are putting a really brave face on it but I'm worried you aren't eating enough, especially in this cold weather. Skipping breakfast and lunch sounds really miserable. Are you not eligible for any kind of help from anywhere? It sounds like you are really struggling, everyone deserves a bit of joy in their lives, please don't deprive yourself.

I love your approach to life OP, glass half full and making most of what you have. You sound very resilient and resourceful x

Lots of good suggestions here. I'd download the 'Too Good To Go' app which gives good from known outlets at knockdown prices. Can be from shops or restaurants.