£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!

Sorry, food! Also olio app.

Can you get to a point where you can keep one meal over to the following week ever?

then whatever you cook this week you do the same so eventually your get to eat something slightly different each week perhaps.

I can’t get my head around if finances would allow you to do that, it’s something I do because I batch cook because every month I have a week where I don’t have time to make meals from scratch so in the other three weeks I make extra for that fourth week.

when I cook a roast I do a few extra veg and freeze, sometimes I add to this bag of frozen veg with veg bought on offer at the supermarket, (last week at Aldi I got two large bags of fresh chopped mixed veg reduced to 50p a bag, I stir fried the both bags immediately and froze in useful amounts).

I take an amount from this bag and make bubble and squeak. The other day I found a soup recipe for left over Christmas dinner veg so I made soup with what was left in the bag.

I’d look at which veggies are in season as they generally are the cheapest. I also buy a lot of frozen veg as often they are cheaper too but don’t know if that would work for you.

Lots of people have given loads of great suggestions but I just wanted to add my low cost ideas as I would struggle without something sweet/a treat to look forward to, I know I did when I was on a similar budget. My family has a restricted diet due to my youngest having severe allergies so we eat a lot of eggless pancakes, and really it’s the egg that is the most expensive ingredient. I also always have a packet of chia or ground flax seeds in my cupboard (I store opened ground seeds in the freezer) as they are an excellent egg replacer and keep for a long time, and work out much much cheaper per ‘egg’. So if you have flour, sugar, some kind of oil/fat (or brown banana/applesauce) and milk or milk alternative (you can make one with oats) you can make pancakes, muffins etc and the seeds give a protein boost. The seeds don’t always make the finest cakes, but if you’re doing pancakes, mug cake, cookies or just breading something they are great. Also tinned chickpeas are great as you can blend them into dips, even make cookies with them, and you can reserve the liquid as an egg substitute as well.

Nosh For Students and Vegetarian Nosh For Students are two great cookbooks for nourishing, affordable foods. Loads of simple ideas.

Olio stuff is from Tesco (mainly) altho they also do collections from Pret a Manger, Booker and other outlets.

Mouth is watering just reading some of the suggestions in this thread!

My favourite curries are lentil curry and egg curry. Omlette. Bean stew ( with chorizo if you can stretch to that) Use the chorizo in omlette too. Microwave rice is expensive, if you are able to spend the money cooking it, a bag of normal rice is better value. Some value oats for porridge. Peperonata I think it's called - we call it pepper thing! Basically tinned tomatoes, onions and peppers cooked for as long as you can. Add cumin/ paprika coriander if you have it. Serve with feta or a poached egg on top. Your best value is going to be cook a tasty meal and have it four times.

Well you will save money with days 5 and 6 on the toilet unable to eat.

Lentil daal will stretch to lunch! With rice, with home made flatbreads (plain flour, yogurt, salt and a little oil).

Make a large amount of bologese with the cheapest ingredients you can find.

Then vary it over the 8 days by having it with different things - pasta on 4 days, then either with a baked potato or bread roll on the in-between days.

Our chicken bulked out with peppers, mushrooms and spices/seasoning. Again mix with rice, baked potato, wrap or rolls.

Can do the same with chilli/curry etc.
One base meal and vary with the rest.

@Dacadactyl It must vary from area to area - here we've got Spar, Costcutter, Budgens and the Coop, along with Harvester, Dobbies, Costa etc for TooGoodToGo.

Pasta is cheap.

Soups? Look at the supermarket's reduced prices- plenty of reduced veggies there.

Do you have peanut butter? That can make a nice addition to add some protein to a veggie curry e.g. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/satay-cauliflower-chickpea-curry-storecupboard-flatbreads

We often do enough bolognaise sauce for 3 nights, have pasta the first night then divide the remainder into 2. Freeze half for spaghetti bol another week, and add kidney beans and Mexican seasoning, either as chilli with rice, or with Tortilla wraps. If you have any yoghurt or cheese or salad have that on top.

On £15 weeks a chicken goes really far. Make stock with the carcass and some carrots/onions/celery, even if the veg is looking a bit past its best it's good for stock. Then you have a really good base for soup or risotto.

I would cook a huge vat of lentils (and/or mince), various beans/finely chopped veg split and do half with chilli spices and half with Italian spices.

Chilli and rice
Bolognase and pasta
Either on a jacket potato
Either in a wrap with cheese on top like an enchilada.
Chilli on top of tortilla chips with jalapeños and cheese to make epic nachos.
Bolognase into a lasagne with a basic cheese sauce.
Either topped with mashed/finely sliced potato as an alternative shepherds pie.

You could have variations for lunch if you had extras.

All warming and filling meals 😊

I agree that chicken is very good idea- chop it up, roast the meat- you can have the legs and wings with potatoes mash and gravy and peas, from the bones and some meat make a nice chicken broth.
And from the breast can be risotto or chicken curry with rice.
Chicken is very versatile.

Big vat of chunky veg soup and some bread / rolls with butter

Have you looked into whether you have a food pantry or community larder near you?

www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk/what-is-a-pantry/

They sell very discounted food, you don't have the same choice as a supermarket but should end up with a lot more food.

A big pot of stew is tasty, nourishing and comforting and lasts days in the fridge.

Homemade cottage pie, Tuscan bean soup or butternut squash risotto

Frittatas/Spanish omlette.

My current cheap dinner is Aldi chicken garlic and herb sausages. £1.89 for 8. Tin of potatoes - 40p. Carrots 50p (ish) makes 4 portions of sausage casserole. I use cup a soups as sauce with a few gravy granules to thicken.

I've worked out it's about £1 per meal.

Also pasta bake. Pasta is 90p and pasta bake sauce around £1. I then add ham or the ready cooked frozen chicken. Again works out just over £1 per portion.

Tbh I don't do it because of finances as such but due to rising cost of food I just have deliberately made an effort to make cheap meals!

Cauliflower cheese
Dhal
Carbonara, I buy the supermarket own brand cooking bacon, it's about £1 for 500g pack.

Bag of baking potatoes. A bag of rice and cheap soy sauce (I’d probably have fried rice every day). Loaf of bread, cheap spread. Will probably be a bland week but good luck op

I see you are already sorted now OP but I’ve started making daal after seeing it recommended on here, it’s so cheap to make, filling and tasty, I love it. I used this recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/9109/recipe/red-lentil-dahl

Pork ragu and spaghetti
Egg fried rice
Marmite and cheese spaghetti
Spicy rice
Omelette
Spanish Omelette
Dahl
Red lentil pancakes with spicy potatoes
Gnocchi (you can make this with any root vegetable and flour, I like pumpkin but you can make it with swede, parsnip, potato etc).
Patatas Bravas - roasted potatoes with spicy tomato sauce)
pork mince stir fry

Buy a tub of natural yoghurt (39p on Tescos), assuming you have store cupboard items- you can make lots from yoghurt and elevate otherwise dull dishes. I would make some of the following:

• a yoghurt cake
• flatbreads and spicy yoghurt dip (just add SR flour to yoghurt for the bread and some curry powder to the yoghurt for the dip)
• Eggs on left over flatbread with chilli yoghurt
• Soda bread (use half yoghurt/milk instead of buttermilk in any soda bread recipe)
• coronation chickpeas (add yoghurt and curry powder to a tin of chickpeas)
• Top shashuka with yoghurt and chilli flakes
• Stir into tomato pasta (off the heat) to make it creamier