What are your cheap meals?

[DragonsAndDaffs]

I love reading food and grocery threads, one family's cheap meal is another family's weekly treat! Even the cost of the same meal can vary massively - take spaghetti bolognese for example: one could cost 4 times as much as the other, depending on the ingredients used - organic grass-fed mince, Mutti tomatoes, and fancy Italian pasta, or cheap mince, basic tomatoes, and value pasta.

I'm a frugal cook!
I feed 4 adults for less than £100 a week. We eat well, have 30 different plants a week, mostly cook from scratch and try to limit UPF. A cheap main meal for me would probably be a hearty minestrone soup served with homemade cheesy bread (costing around £1 a head). Our average main meals are around £2 a head. Last night I made sweet-and-sour pork with basmati rice, and tonight we are having chicken curry with flatbreads.
An expensive meal to me would be anything costing over £5 per person - we rarely have a takeaway due to cost.

What are your cheap/average/expensive meals?
How much do you spend on groceries?

For £100 pw for four adults I think you’re doing amazing, I spend on around £60-£70 a week and that’s just for me. To be fair though that’s for everything including toiletries, cleaning products and pet food, and very very rarely do I ever do any top ups doing during the week. I shop online weekly which I find less tempting than going into a shop (and less stressful).Sainsbury’s nectar savings are often very good. This week for example chicken thighs were £2.15 instead of £2.99. Curries, stews, pasta sauces are my go to bulking out with pulses and potato for example. chickpea potato and cauliflower curry is cheap and delicious meal. Fish stew, using any cheap white fish (I wouldn’t recommend frozen though I’m not keen myself) bulked out with potatoes and beans. Lentil Bolognaise type sauce. I would highly recommend buying the frozen soffritto mix which I find good value at £2/3 and time/saving too.

Roast chicken legs with potatoes and veg. Best chicken to use and very cheap 4 legs for £2.25 can use with other marinades to to make other meals.
Cottage pie with veg
Veg Stew with dumplings or add chicken thighs.
Chilli and rice.
Home made chicken and leek pie with potatoes and veg
Pasta bakes

Chicken fried rice
Home-made baked beans on home-made bread
Normal beans on normal bread :)
Omelettes
Singapore noodles using leftover bits of chicken, ham etc.
Tarka dal
Dal Makhani
Pasta carbonara
Vegetable soup (made from tired vegetables in the fridge - usually leeks, celery, carrots, onions and potato) and a roll
Chicken curry using boneless chicken leg meat (cheap in Tesco)
Burgers (€10 for 12, Tesco) and salad
Chicken, leek and mushroom pie using ready-made puff pastry
Baked chicken thighs with a medley (oo, posh!) of sweet potato, butternut squash, and potato chunks, tossed in oil and spices, and baked.
Minestrone soup with garlic bread (sometimes cheesy)
Sausage, egg and chips

For me, the cheapest meals are those where I use up odds and ends from the fridge.

Risotto using the last scraps of chicken
Soup or vegetable curry using up vegetables that are just past their "best by" date
Macaroni cheese using up bits of cheese and adding vegetables and/or ham

@HoorayHattie
I love getting creative with leftovers.
I like to cook more potato, pasta, rice than needed for a meal so that it can be used for lunches.

Anyone got a good minestrone soup recipe? Yes I could Google, but interested in what people are putting into theirs

My tip for anyone needing cheap recipes is to get hold of a student recipe book

When I first lived by myself and had a mortgage, the student recipe books were lifesavers.

They tend to have cheaper recipes using standard storecupboard ingredients and don't require fancy gadgets

My cheap, easy meals are egg, and chips. Omelette, and chips, white fish, chips, and peas. I like chips😁. Those really are my cannot be bothered to cook meals.

I tend to throw mine together depending on what is to hand.
The last one had a few rashers of diced smoked bacon (from a big pack of cooking bacon)
Veg stock
Passata
Tomato puree
Garlic
Onion
Celery
Leek
Broccoli
Swede
Peas
Sweetcorn
2 x cans of mixed beans
Red lentils
Some small pasta shapes chucked in at the end
Fresh basil

I made about 10 pints😁

If you have not already found them I recommend Pinch of Nom recipes. They have cook books but can also be found on line . Easy healthy and good value

Corned beef bubble and squeak, with a fried egg on top and some baked beans.

Op, there are two of us and we do much the same as you. Home made bread, few UPFs, cook from scratch, lots of veg.
A less expensive meal for us is pork shoulder steak, pan fried with apple and sage, served with herby wholemeal coucous, and steamed veg. If ds is extra hungry, I put a fried egg on top.

We spend around £50 a week for 2 adults. Lasagna is great for me - costs about £7-8 for meat or vegetarian version but lasts 3 meals as 6 portions. Rice and dal is stupidly cheap and easy, around 70p a head even using shallots, fresh ginger and fresh chilli (use an onion and dried spices to save)

Cheap meals for us are jacket potatoes, omelettes, vegetarian lasagna, egg fried rice, pasta bakes, vegetable stir fries, generally anything vegetarian is cheaper and more expensive meals include meat or fish. We’re low UPF and no processed meat. I spend approximately £150 most weeks for three to four people (DH is usually away 3 days a week) including lunches. That’s including quite a lot of organic stuff and not often a lot of meat and fish.

Jacket potato with beans and cheese, macaroni cheese, lasagne, spaghetti bolognese, pasta bakes, sausage and mash, toad in the hole. A basic roast chicken dinner is also quite cheap using supermarket whole chicken, homemade yorkshires, roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips and stuffing.

That sounds good. I'm going to give that a go.

Oooohhh egg nd chips…..you beauty 😉x

Tonight I made vegetable waffles with the leftover veg in the box - sweet potato, carrot broccoli and served with fried eggs and chopped tomatoes.

£100 a week for 4 is good, I live on my own and over a year average about £25/week, i meal plan, minimise wastage and eat vegetarian 60% of the time. Luckily I have enough money to bulk buy and fill the freezer with special offers. I certainly couldn't do it if I only had £25 to spend every week.

Pasta e fagoli is delicious. I add more pasta so it's a pasta dish as opposed to a soup with pasta in it.
I'm sure the original version is delicious it's just that adding more pasta makes it less messy for the kids.

Lentil spag bol.
Bean Chilli
Jacket pots, beans and cheese 🧀

cheese and onion and potato pie with mashed potato on the top is a lovely meal. Tuna and pasta is another tasty meal. Corned beef hash is fairly cheap.

Also worthwhile is the feed your family for £20 a week website, Lorna who runs it has a lot of good ideas.

Looks yummy

I've been making a lot of meals using the boxed shan curry spices this winter (a throwback to my student days)! I think they're a decent alternative to sauces in a jar if you're looking to cut down on processed foods. Good for days where I can't be bothered to measure out lots of spices. Most of them just need a protein, yogurt and rice adding to make them a meal. I just bulk out with whatever suitable veg I have in the fridge or freezer.