Extreme budget meals

[thepoormidwife1]

We have £50 to last us till payday which is 2.5 weeks away.

Just 2 adults and I have a kitchen full of staples, herbs, spices, oils etc so I think it's very doable.

We only eat lunch and an evening meal so don't need breakfast stuff.

Have red lentils to use up so will be doing a dhaal and bulking up soups and casseroles etc with them.

Any ideas for very cheap meals welcome!

Jacket potatoes with various fillings
Bean / lentil / chickpea based soups or stews
Omelette

I came to say lentil soup/Dahl but I think you have that covered.

Pasta with a home made sauce. Filling and a bag of penne pasta is cheap as chips.

if you want some protein then a bag of asda frozen sausages is less than £2 - can get some decent casseroles out of that and make toad in the hole if you have flour to make a batter.

big bag of frozen veg can last ages.

Bean chilli
Pesto pasta
Caponata
Homemade falafels

A chickpea stew or curry

Cooking bacon in most supermarkets is about £1 per K , it can be a bit fatty but if your lucky you can get some lovely big chunks of bacon .
Chop it up fry it with a big of onion and what ever other veg you have in the fridge. Add a tin of chopped up tomatoes and simmer for a few mins.
You can add different hearbs or spices to improve the flavor , serve it with pasta or a jacket spud.

Tins of tuna if you’re not veggie. Pasta bake or in pans, with tinned tomatoes, or for a white sauce, fry onion in some oil /butter/spread, add flour, let it cook a bit, slowly add milk (milk and water or milk powder and water might be cheaper). Pasta carbonara with bit of tuna. Can add any veg or frozen or tinned veg you have to any of the above. Quiche can be quite cheap (although now eggs cost more not quite as much) pastry is cheap and I find quite satisfying to make , if you have mayo but not many eggs you can substitute some mayo for eggs, works really well, I just do roughly a heaped tablespoon or two of mayo per egg. Info on Hellman’s website . Can add onion, any veg, herbs, bits of ham or tuna, scraps of grated cheese to this. I find it’s a good way of using up different kinds of flours mixed together, I just use the type in the pastry recipe as the main one. The bbc food recipes website has a search function where you can put in ingredients you have and get suggestions. Also budget recipes on there.

Pan haggerty - one of my favourites from hairy bikers

Parsley and onion and chopped streaky bacon fried- layered up with thin sliced carrots and potatoes - covered in chicken stock , cooked on stove and a bit of grated cheese melted on top- I make it in a wok -

Way way nicer than it sounds

Also stir fried noodles with a bag of reduced stir fry veg- and one cheap chopped chicken breast - add soy sauce for flavour

Hey. Me and my husband are on a £30 weekly food challenge. If you have a Aldi near by then see attached our food menu planner for the week ( all ingredients items are from Aldi and all come to under £30, of course we get the basic / cheapest version of everything. Iknow you have 2.5 weeks but you might get some ideas from it.

Have you got any brown/green lentils?

In my student cookbook there was a chapter 'when you are really broke '

One of the recipes was fry a chopped apple, add cooked lentils and a spoon of honey.

I really liked it.

Pasta & tinned tomatoes
Egg & chips
Risotto with ends of veg
Scrambled egg & beans
Fishfingers (box of 10 for 80p at Aldi) & jacket
A cheap whole chicken for 4 meals- roast, legs with jacket, risotto, soup

Also, hit the supermarkets at yellow sticker time, usually 7pm or so & see what you can get reduced.

Meat is often the most expensive part of a meal, but chicken legs (anything on the bone) is a very cheap source. Sainsburys do a kilo (4-5 portions) for £2.19. Pork can be inexpensive too.

Pasta with various sauces always good value.

Tuna pasta bake. Bulked with frozen vegetables.

Carribbean style rice and beans.

Any kind of chilli (frozen mince works well). This can be stretched further by eating some days with potatoes and others with plain rice.

This website was my go to for a long time, it's American so the costs are in dollars but it might be good for some inspiration www.budgetbytes.com/

Yes this is a great one! I've done it before and it has worked really well so thanks for the reminder.

There is a couple of good YouTube channels with ideas. Frugalfitmom and seemindymom I like. Food prices obviously are American and I'm always surprised at the cost of food but some of the recipes and hints and tips are useful.

Pasta, mince & home made sauce (tinned tomatoes based)
As above with tuna
As above but omit the mince/fish and add grated cheese or philadelphia
Home made chilli (some supermarkets do value tinned kidney beans
Eggs (omelettes, scrambled eggs etc)