@HattiesBackpack
Staples in our house are tinned tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, tuna; lots of fresh, cheap veg and fruit (mainly seasonal); basic range carbs like potatoes, rice, pasta and cous cous; and eggs.
For dinner today we ate chicken stirfry, but made with only one chicken breast between the 3 of us (I buy frozen packs of fresh chicken breast, and defrost as needed), masses and masses of veg and noodles. One chicken breast between 3 might sound really stingy to some, but I bulk small amounts of meat out with veg for health reasons as well as cost cutting. Some meals we have a larger portion of meat, other days we have a v. small portion and sometimes no meat. For breakfast we eat toast or porridge, for lunch either a sandwich, a baked potato or yesterday's left overs.
We also have a few meat free of very low-meat meals each week, (dhal, falafel/bean burgers, roast sweet potato and chickpea curry, omelette, quiche, etc) and shop at Aldi and Lidl. I enjoy cooking and eating which helps keep the cost down, because cooking nice, varied, healthy meals cheaply does often involve a bit more faffing about in the kitchen than the alternative. That said, there are some cheap meals which are very quick to prepare, but in general shortcuts cost money. I bake my own bread, which is probably more expensive than the cheapest cheap bread you can buy, but is cheaper than bread of an equivalent quality iyswim. Also means we don't run out as often - it is far easier to throw the ingredients into a breadmaker than pop out for a top up shop!
I also keep an eye out for bargains (especially good value meat) and make good use of my freezer. I'm not the world's most organised person, but I am fairly good at keeping track at what we actually have in the freezer and fridge, to avoid wasting anything.
I think we eat very well on less than £50 a week, but there are only 3 of us (and one is a 3 year old who has lunch at nursery twice a week).