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.

Cheap meats are ham hock and Turkey leg (like a drumstick).

-Red lentil Dahl as already mentioned but I'd chunks of potato, carrot and onion to make it into a vegetable curry, it's a bit more satisfying.
-Tomato risotto, an onion, a garlic clove,tinned tomatoes, mixed herbs, stock, butter beans and some cheese for protein. Can use this basic recipe and add some chilli flakes and kidney beans instead of butter beans and make chilli rice, really good with chicken thighs cooked with it for chilli chicken rice.
-Vegetable chilli, carrots, onions, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, and any veg that's reduced or cheap could be cauliflower, parsnips, potatoes, frozen mixed veg serve with rice as that's cheap.
-Irish stew an onion some carrots in thin slices and potatoes in a big saucepan barely cover with water boil.when par cooked add beef mince you don't need much 300g is more than enough for 4 portions and you could use less, stir about to break up. Once potatoes cooked add instant gravy powder. It's delicious with brown sauce. It's like a mushed up cottage pie but no need to turn on oven. Quick and easy.
Hope that helps

Check if there are any community fridges near you.
WW2 recipes are very economical.

So was a book called grub on a grant. Thanks autumn, your ww2 reference reminded me of it.

I'd be thinking toast for snacks. Just butter, with jam or cream cheese if you fancy savoury.

Check out the reduced sections for veg for soup, or even making a pasta dish mushrooms always last past the date on the packet - if you like them. Would also make Dahl, I use an onion and a few tomatoes in the one I make, (this really only works cheap if you have the right spices in). I usually like it with naan bread but you can get 6 pitta breads for 50p I prefer the wholemeal ones. They last and freeze very well too, and are nice for lunch with various fillings.

I think it will be possible long term but needs planning to avoid wasting anything. So you could buy a jar of pesto and make a large amount of pasta with veg & bacon maybe, the have a portion for dinner, portion for lunch or dinner the next day then two or three portions for the freezer.

I have however never found our market or veg shops cheaper than the supermarkets. The quality is often better overall but they are always much more expensive.

I make a cottage pie with baked beans. So mince, onions, tinned tomatoes and beans. Loads of potatoes and some grated cheese on top.

Frittata - eggs, onions and tinned potatoes. Then a bit of chorizo which gives it loads of flavour.

Waitrose chicken legs are weirdly cheap for some protein. About £1.60 for two decent size ones which you can eat whole, or cook and use the meat spread out in risotto or soup for example. And, you get the bones to use to make stock - we make it in the microwave, 20 minutes on simmer.

Carrots are cheap and make lovely snacks as sticks.

I'm on a tight budget (single parent on disability benefits) spend about £7 a day for 1 adult, 2 teens.
I buy in bulk, cook from scratch, batch cook and have some days of very cheap meals.
I try to batch cook one meal a week eg a curry, bolognaise, chilli, shepherd's pie etc and freeze lots of portions so we have meals for several weeks. I also bulk out these meals with cheap veg etc.
I scrambled egg, beans, tinned tomatoes on toast can be very cheap. Eg tinned tomatoes (35p a tin is two portions, two slices of toast 17.5p and a poached egg 13p if you buy a big pack equals 44.5p a portion) means you can afford meat another day.
I've found frozen vegetables cheaper.
Buy a big bag of onions, peppers and freeze to use as required.
We eat lots of potatoes, rice and pasta. If you buy the biggest pack of potatoes you can afford and any that you need to use up boil, mash and freeze.
With fruit often cheaper to buy what's on offer or I buy a pineapple for 99p it lasts several days, bananas and clementines are cheaper than apples presently but watch out as prices change (kiwis were cheaper not now).
Meal plan every meal (includingsnacks).
Buy things when on offer.
Not always advisable but I do intermittent fasting because it saves one meal and I find I want to eat more if I eat breakfast, so I snack less.

Oh yes, Asian food and shops are the way forward.

Iceland do free delivery over £40 and they often send £8 off email vouchers as well. there is an online app "Honey' which is good for finding vouchers it adds them at checkout.

Too Good to go app is worth a look for e.g. Greggs, can get a bag of food for under £3. Olio app also meant o be good too but I have never tried it.

Have a bag of frozen spinach, a bag of frozen peas, a bag of carrots and a bag of red lentils and one of pasta on standby. These can be used for most cheap meals in one form or another. If possible get to know when the different supermarkets do their 'yellow label' reductions each day. That is the time you should shop! You will have a more varied diet and bag some bargains too.
Jack Munroe has a recipe for budget carrot, cumin and kidney bean burgers I make regularly (google!!) and just make substitutions with whatever you have to hand.
You will get through this tough time, and look back knowing you can deal with anything life throws at you.
Good Luck!

I rate the essentials range for Waitrose, their online delivery is also cheap at £2 for a 'saver' slot

If I was you I would try and buy stuff that all goes together and can be used in different conjunctions. So £3 a day is £21 a week. I would go to the cheapest supermarket you can, Aldi or Lidl if possible, but you should be able to get by with Tesco or Asda too if you stick to their essentials/ budget ranges.

I've been in this position and it's true that if you want to be full and comforted, IMO you need to slightly sacrifice health for satisfaction and satiety. It's only temporary.

I would buy roughly the following for 1 week:

4 pints of milk x 2 = £3
4 cans of value beans = £1.20
2 loaves of value bread = £1.30
1 huge block of value cheese (900g) - £4.50
12 eggs - £2.30
500g bag of cheap dry pasta - 30p
2 jars of cheap pasta sauce - £1.20
Box of own brand rice crispies cereal - 60p
Box of own brand flavoured porridge oats - £1
Bag of essentials rice - 50p
Spring onions bundle x 2 - 70p
Salad tomatoes - 60p
Bananas - 70p
2 x value packs of biscuits like custard creams - 70p
Sugar - 60p
Lemon - 40p

The block of cheese is massive and will add flavour, caloric density, nutrition and comfort to basic things like pasta and tomato sauce, and omelettes. There is a lot of milk there for one person, but it will allow you to have porridge and cereal and plenty of tea.

I'd be making egg fried rice with spring onions, omelettes with cheese and tomato, Cheese and tomato pasta, crepes with sugar and lemon and beans on toast for dinners. Porridge or cereal and a banana for breakfast. Cheese and tomato sandwiches, or egg, beans or cheese (or any combination) on toast for lunch.

This is also assuming you have almost nothing in any stock cupboards already. The only thing you would need are tea bags and some oil or butter type spread, which can be picked up in a 500g tub for around £1.

So many brilliant ideas on here op, and also please consider a food bank - they are for anyone in need.
My suggestions might be repeats but anyway… pulled pork in pittas/wraps with coleslaw. Shoulder is best and can be found really reasonably, spices (presuming you’ve got them), mustard powder, some brown sugar, cayenne, paprika etc marinaded overnight then slow cooked the next day in a tin with a cup of water in the bottom, well wrapped with foil. Slaw made with a cabbage and some onion and a carrot, all stuffed into the pitta. Expensive outlay but you can have it for loads of meals as it makes lots. It also freezes well apparently, dd is at uni and makes it a lot for herself and housemates and freezes leftovers.
She’s also got into making miso soup which she said is very very cheap and really tasty. Can bung in any kind of veg once the base is made.
I really want to try making a lentil soup myself after reading this thread.
best of luck, you sound absolutely lovely and if you were my friend I’d like to think you’d let me know and you’d have a free invite to dinner any night you wanted 💐

Go to your cheapest supermarket to start- lidl is generally good for veg
Veg is much cheaper way of getting your 5 a day than fruit usually.
Frozen or tinned veg is often better value than fresh and still perfectly nutritious, if not always as nice.
Fresh veg- cabbage and root veg (carrots, swede) are probably your best value at this time of year.
Potatoes are a good cheap carb.

Mince is an easy meat to stretch.
Chilli's or bolognese or cottage pie, add vegetables and tinned pulses to pad out the meat. All the above are great to batch cook, so will be several meals cooked st once that you can reheat quickly.

Check the price per kg on the shelf of things you usual buy. Especially for things like rice and pasta, there are so many different ones but there is a surprising price difference, and tbh I always buy the cheap pasta anyway as I can't tell the difference!

Tinned tomatoes (again, good source of f &v) the cheapest ones are very good value.
Definitely home made soups, hot and filling.
For breakfast- eggs are great and protein makes you feel fuller.
I've done a kind of quesadilla thing if you can get a pack of big tortillas for not too much.
Beaten eggs in pan, on their own or with precooked veg, spread it out flat, put the tortilla on top the egg and let it cook, then flip it out and fold it up. Cheese isn't exactly cheap, but a packet of the cheaper ham would add a lot of flavour and do several breakfasts.

If it were me I would rather eat 2 good meals a day than 3 poor ones.

Good luck and don't be afraid to look around for help, a lot of areas have a community larder to reduce food waste, which might be easier for you to access than the food bank initially.

I teared up a bit at this. Thank you so much.

Presumably you have some money now, so you can buy a week's worth of food for £21 or a fortnight's for £42 rather than literally £3 each day? This is your key to making this work.

I'd buy the following:

1kg mince £6.30
Yoghurt £0.85
Eggs £1.99
Cheese £2.99
Milk £1.45
Own brand "flora" buttery £1.90

Apples £0.89
Bananas £0.79
Satsumas £0.79
2 large bag baking potatoes £3.40
Onions £2.00
Carrots £0.69
Celery £0.79
Cucumber £0.89
Peppers £1.87
Spinach £1.00
Sweet potatoes £1.10

Chickpeas £0.49
4 x chopped tomatoes £1.80
2 x Baked beans £0.80
Kidney beans £0.49
Rice £1.25
Pasta £1.29
Lentils £2.00
Oats £0.90
Coconut milk £0.85
Caster sugar £1.49
Plain flour £0.80
Sausages £2.00
Garlic bread £0.37
Bread £0.75
A frozen veg e.g. peas or broc. £1.40

That's about £45 and I reckon it would do you 2 weeks.

Breakfast: Overnight oats using cheap oats and cheap yoghurt, with chopped up cheap fruit e.g. banana or apple. A 1kg bag oats and big pot of yoghurt will do 2 weeks, switch to porridge towards the end if running out of yoghurt!

Lunches:
Jacket potatoes, salad (spinach, lettuce, tomato, pepper) and cheese x 4
Baked beans on toast x 4
Scrambled egg on toast x 4
Pasta with cheese x 4

Dinners:
Toad in the hole or just sausages, with mash and carrots or frozen veg. 4 times.
Big pan of bolgonese to do 4 meals. Mince, lentils, onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped up veg - celery, peppers etc to bulk it out. Serve with salad and garlic bread.
Big pan of veg curry to do 4 meals. Spinach, sweet potatoes, peppers, chickpeas etc in a sauce made from chopped tomatoes, coconut milk and spices. Make an approximation of naan breads with yoghurt and flour.
Cottage pie: 4 portions. rest of the mince/lentils/onions etc. Leftover mash on top. Serve with carrots or frozen veg on the side.

Sugar, flour, marg and rest of the eggs to bake biscuits/basic cake for snacks to go alongside the rest of the fruit. Could probably buy cheap biscuits for less tbh.

To echo the poster above who mentioned using the higher fat mince. As you already have oats in, incorporate a handful of those into your shep pie, ragu, whatever and it will expand and stretch magnificently, especially if cooked with a carrot, onion, garlic and stick of celery. The oats soak up the fat and flavours and taste delicious. Great nutrition as well to keep you bouncing while you sort it all out. Add extra stock cube / liquid / granules to keep it saucy.

If you tell us what you normally cook we might be able to suggest good alternatives that are to your taste

Great suggestions here. For cheap snacks I would go for pate on toast and humous with carrots or pita bread.

Make bruschetta which I'd have more as a dinner. It's even fine just with regular bread toasted. Although the more expensive the tomatoes the better they taste but I've done it before with cheap salad tomatoes. I just use a bit of garlic puree and tomatoes and a little onion chopped up.

If you have a Farmfoods their frozen offers (often on branded items) are really good. If sign up for emails get coupons and can use multiple coupons for same transaction.

Also Iceland has good offers (if over 60 10% discount on a Tuesday). Also can get some cheap groceries in Home Bargains and B&M. Generally find all of these cheaper than any of the main supermarkets including Aldi and Lidl.
Don't be loyal to one place and know your prices.
Wishing you the best of luck in getting a job soon

you need to keep overall costs down as well as food - so no putting the oven on for hours and hours etc. SHop yellow sticker, sign up to Olio and to good to go. Consider using a foodbank, some of the more locally based ones don't need a referral etc but also some places run a cheap bag of groceries - I know here £5 for bag with milk, eggs, veg and enough for 3 meals of something - so tinned stuff, sometimes frozen,

Try and have a cook day each week when you put together several meals and either freeze or fridge them to use later

so Mince get 20% fat and skim it off - can be extended with veg and lentils but on a cook day you can do
a burger with some chopped onion and a bit of egg
bolognese
chilli
savoury mince - to eat with veg and potatoes and or as shep pie etc
I would also make a marinara sauce on the same day - can be used in bolognaise but also saved as just a tomatoe sauce for pasta or pizza etc can add tuna/cheese for proteins with standard spagetti or other pasta.

Roast chicken - look out for in yellow stickers. Roast it for a roast dinner then strip it down - chicken breast two portions, two drumsticks, two wings and then picked meat for noodles. You can use the carcass to make a stock.

• Stock noodles and veg is a good hot lunch soup
• stir fry
• Roast chicken dinner at least 4 portions if wanted
• couple of lunches with drummer and wing sets or pick the meat for sandwiches or salad for green veg
• stock use as a soup base for any soup, I only use onion and carrot as we dont like celery at all in our house

As others have said cook all 4 baked potatoes at the same time - then just microwave or pop in the oven if on to heat through

Snacks
Get some popping corn - the bag of corn makes ALOT of popcorn and it doesn't take very long to pop it for evening snacks and some can be kept in a resealable bag for lunches.

Roasted chick peas flavoured with hers or spices

Humous is easily made to a more simple recipe as is salsa to go with some toasted tortilla. Great as a snack or part of lunch.

So tortilla wraps for lunches, with peppers and onions and maybe some chicken for fajita, use some chilli for another variety. 8 snall ones are not too expensive and last ages longer than bread.

Peanut butter can be a good protein rich snack or part of lunch with fruit or carrots

Cheese sauce is a good basic if you learn to make yourself so goes with pasta, cauliflower, fish etc - basic roux mix for sauce then add cheese and a dash of mustard. Frozen fish is the cheapest.

eggs are amazing and can be used for all sorts.

I like to keep a soup mix in the cupboard as well - mostly pearl barley and lentils, but means you can make a hearty soup out of chunky veg and root veg is coming up to cheap season

keep an eye as to who has the best veg offers as there is quite a bit of competition between supermarkets for this

On another note take the opportunity to have a sort through your belongings in rotation and sell off things you dont want of need - plenty of people will be shopping for gifts and ebay now free to list I understand.

Can you rent a room out under the room scheme ie non taxed income from a spare room, for a while? Can you advertise to friends and rellies as a baby sitter for the mad office party season? Can you do other types of work like cleaning/gardening/organising etc

I should have said that you should add the tinned kidney beans after the soup has cooked or they will go mushy.

Not RTFT but Olio is your friend! ..... get most of my food for free from it....