Really cheap meals and snacks

[Redundancyhell]

I'm going through redundancy and need to keep budgets to a minimum until I find another job. Can anyone recommend really cheap meals and snacks.

I'm hoping to stick to around £3 per day for food which will be challenging but I'm happy to not have too much meat and don't need too many snacks or treats each week. It's just me so if I have to occasionally be a bit hungry then I'll survive.

So far I'm thinking:
Homemade veg soup
Plain omelates
Beans on toast
Things from my freezer
Pasta and tuna/tomato veg pasta
Porridge

Ideas very welcome. I'm struggling to think of much, including for snacks. I bought an apple today and it cost 50p which seems nuts for 1 apple but I couldn't afford the £2.30 for 6 and I know I need some fruit to stay healthy 😓

I don't have much in my cupboards but do have a bit of pasta, some tins of kidney beans, oil, herbs, some tins of tuna, sugar, porridge oats and gravy.

Same! (Wondering if we’re colleagues)

Pack of 4 jacket potatoes. You can cook them all at once to save energy. or use some for mash & wedges.

My favourite dinner is rice and peas! Absolutely love it and so filling. add eggs for protein.

I made a cheats frittata today. I used a bag of baby potatoes, one courgette and 5 eggs. Just checked and that would come to £3 but would do more than one meal. I boiled the potatoes and fried of the sliced courgette. Added the potatoes in with the courgette in the pan just to get some colour on them and then addrd whisked eggs to the frying pan and cooked it for about 3 mins, then popped it in the oven for about 10 mins. It was really tasty and filling. My husband had it with beans but I just had it on its own.

Bananas are peetty cheap and filling for a healthy snack
apples- get the kids ones or whatever the cheapest multipack in the supermarket is they usually have 6 for about £1
Biscuits are very cheap and if you have tea bags etc in a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits is quite comforting to have.
big packs of fish fingers will do quite a few meals, fish finger sandwiches, fish fingers with oven chips etc all cheap and nice (not the healthiest but not awful!)
toast is a good cheap snack
the really cheap feta (think it's called salad cheese?) goes a really long way if you crumble a small bit on top of pasta and is about 80p a pack.

I make soup in my soup maker. I ususlly add red lentils. I read online about adding chick ipeas- they good source of protein too yet cheap for a tin. Hope u find work soon.

Market fruit and veg stalls after 3pm on Saturday afternoon. You'll fill your fridge for a fraction.

Oh, and Asian stores for staples like chickpeas, lentils etc.

These are great ideas. Thank you.

I'm one of my fave meals is Brussels sprouts or cabbage fried with onions, bacon and garlic and Parmesan (you could use cheap packaged stuff)

I also do it with sweet potato cubes, bacon, red onion and garlic.

Or make loaded potato skins with baked potato, cheese, onion and bacon

I'm sure you can get cheap bacon bits in the supermarket and basic cheese for this.

Tomato soup with tinned tomatoes is great - add paprika, garlic, stock and onions, celery and carrot - a big pot would last days.
Make cheese scones if you have flour in to go with it.

Onions caramelised with garlic in the oven then add a bit of coconut milk and pasta. This makes a lovely dish.

Sweet potato and chilli soup using the rest of the coconut milk? Add carrot and onions to this plus some chilli and garlic

Pork fillet is so cheap - about £4 and if you slice it thinly and do it with stir fry veg and noodles and make a sauce with soy, garlic and honey it's so good. Even just onions and carrot would do. A whole fillet would last a while.

Cheap mince and do bolognaise in the slow cooker - don't buy the sauce make it with tinned tomatoes, garlic, paprika, stock and tom puree. Would last a while with cheap pasta or baked potatoes

Same goes for chilli and a bag of rice. Slow cooker and make your own sauce.

Dahl. Big pasta bake. (Tuna or sausages or chorizo) then divided up and frozen into portions

Aldi do five cheap veg every week

Just eat those ones

Porridge
Eggs
Veggie Curries
Soups
Pasta

Make sure you buy full fat everything. It's more filling.

I second Dahl - big bag of red lentils will last ages and if you have some frozen peas or carrots/sweet potato you can add that in for extra vitamins. Chilli can be cheap too if made with tinned beans like black beans and kidney beans with tinned tomatoes and some spices. You can freeze portions of both of the above too

where do you shop @Redundancyhell

Batch cook.
Split a pack of mince into a bolognese and a cottage pie if that’s to your taste.
Cook meals that will get you a few extra portions.

Pasta with any kind of sauce but add in a tin of butter beans, which will help to keep you fuller for longer
Frozen peas, sweetcorn, spinach, raspberries.
Porridge, jacket potatoes, lentil curries. Home made wraps/flatbread are v cheap and easy to make. Try your local library for any Jack Monroe cookbooks as she has loads of brilliant recipes that are good if you're on a tight budget.

I live in a city that has most supermarkets reasonably close by so can shop most places. I tend to avoid my local Tescos though as the parking is terrible.

Egg and beans on toast
pasta with red pesto and cheese

Get the Olio app. Free food just past it best before date given away by volunteers in your area from local shops.

Realistically you can’t live on that much of a tight budget without going hungry for too long and it won’t be pleasant over winter.

Get help from a food bank. Sign up to any benefits your entitled to.

Also a big bag of potatoes will cost £1-£2 and you could make a huge load of mash/ roast potatoes / wedges

Eating fruit/veg that is in season is usually much cheaper. http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/

Join the olio app. It started as an app to prevent food waste where people give away for free, food they can't use. Some people are food champions and collect food from supermarkets and give that away for free. The site now gives away non-food items and has some borrowed and paid for goods on there too.

https://olioapp.com/en/

This site shows local restaurants/cafes/shops which sell unsold food/drink items at very reduced prices.
www.toogoodtogo.com/

I'd go for porridge for breakfast. Lentils are great cheap protein. You could bulk out a soup with them and also make dhal.

Aldi do packs of frozen white fish that are really cheap too. I use them in fish curries

Veg are cheaper than fruit generally, carrots will be cheaper than apples. Lentil and carrot soup, carrot sticks with cheap full fat cream cheese.

Tinned mackerel in olive oil is calorie and protein dense and cheap. Add to noodles or rice.

Main thing is no waste so plan things out.

Chicken drumsticks are still generally cheap, cook a big batch and then use for main meals and add to soup or sandwiches.

Frozen berries work out cheap per portion and good to add to porridge or with full fat plain yoghurt.

Higher fat minced beef is usually cheaper and will be higher calorie which is what you need.

Good luck with it OP, hope you get back on your feet quickly.

Farmfoods is well worth checking out for their fruit offers. I know that's not a meal or snack but you already got soup and porridge which I'd have suggested.

Supermarket basic peanuts are often better than the brand and again are calorie dense. Oatcakes with your full fat cream cheese are a good cheap snack.

I often eat half a roasted cauliflower for dinner!
Celery soup, I only use a stock cube and water
Caribbean Saturday soup, massive pot (4 chicken legs) lasts loads meals, I freeze it and it's SO tasty and nutritious, more like a stew than a soup.
Stir fry's