Cheap dinner ideas!

[MrsWineasaurus]

Hiya (posting here for traffic)

So...it's a bit of a tough month moneywise this month, so need some cheap dinner ideas to help money go that bit further.

There's me, DH and DS (6yo) DCat and DDog and roughly £200 for the month for everything.

Hit me with your meal ideas please

Shop at supermarkets at closing time or later on in the night if you can. Batch cook if possible- big pot of spaghetti Bol or chilli that will freeze. Cheaper loaves for lunches? A bag of potatoes- boiled one night, baked the next, then roasted and then chipped! Have with reduced priced meat/veg picked up from the supermarket. Soups are easy and cheap to make (and great in this weather!) The dog can eat the leftover meat! Not sure about what cats like to eat!

Hi, our budget is £50 a week and I do a two-weekly meal plan:

Spag bol
Chicken korma
Linguine pasta with cheese/tomato sauce
Sausage mash and peas
Chicken nuggets and chips (after work on Friday! Don't judge me!)
Shepherd's pie and veg
Beef burgers, sweet potato wedges and coleslaw
Fish chips and peas
Fajitas and nachos
Chicken pie
Homemade pizzas
Roast chicken dinner
Sausage dinner
(Not in that order just thinking them through!)

This includes lunches for the week which are: tuna mayo, bbq chicken and bacon, ham and cheese, cheese and coleslaw and sausage and egg. Oh and it includes baby formula and fruit pouches!

We do a 50/50 shop between Tesco and Aldi to get the best/cheapest deals. I handmake absolutey everything except bread and sauces which makes it so cheap. Things like pastry and Yorkshire puds are easier to make than people realise. And on a Sunday I bake a huge tray of brownies/flapjack etc for lunch boxes the following week! Way cheaper than mars bars 😂

Aldi is your friend. Think about doing some more veggie meals with beans, lentils, pasta, potatoes etc as they tend to be cheaper and can easily make extra to freeze for later or for lunches.

paperdoll you've just reminded me! Beans on toast is one of our meals that I left off!

Perfect for those done-in days when you just need instant food!

Sausage, mash, carrots and peas - you can feed the whole family for £3.

Spag bol with home made sauce. %00g of pasta sells in Lidl for as little as 10p a packet sometimes.

Save half the sauce, add a tin of kidney beans and some chilli to make chill con carne with rice or baked spuds. Again, about £3 per meal.

Eggs, beans and chips.

Spanish tortilla: omlette with onions, potatoes, peppers, peas and cheese cooked in. Add bread and some salad.

Fish pie or kedgeree made with frozen white fish pieces - much cheaper than fresh

Fishcakes using tinned fish and mashed potatoes.

Spaghetti carbonara: couple of pieces of chopped bacon, friedn with onions, stirred into pasta with a dollop of cream cheese, beaten egg and steamed peas.

The famous mumsnet chicken. Buy one for about £3.50. Roast with veg for day 1. Add to rice for paella or risotto on day 2. Boil up carcass, peel off finally shreds of meat, add veg and noodles for Chicken noodle soup day 3. Then ask here for recipes for the next 100 days

Plan your meals and make a list. Cook things that can do multiple meals. Cut down on meat, dried pulses and beans are really cheap and can make delicious meals. Only buy seasonal veg, cheap, and not fancy stuff flown in.

It sounds nice, apart from the peas, but it is not carbonara

Pork shoulder is excellent for going far and is cheap too. A £5/£6 shoulder will spread over 3-4 meals here (DH, DS who is 5 and me).

I sear it and then slow cook it in a casserole dish with veg stock and spices to make pulled pork. First night we have it in rolls with homemade coleslaw (white cabbage, carrots and onion mixed with a bit of mayo and a splash of vinegar). Then use the meat and leftover stock/water in pasta sauce, risotto and as a jacket potato filling. The coleslaw is great for lunches too.

Most of our meals are cheap. We regularly eat the following:

Vegi spaghetti bolognese.
Toad in the hole made with vegetarian sausages, with roast potatoes and veg.
Spring rolls with egg fried rice and garlic broccoli.

Homemade soup with toasted sandwiches.

Paneer curry with vegetable fried rice.

Macaroni cheese baked with tomatoes and broccoli.
Pizza, french fries and salad.
Homemade jacket wedges with quiche and veg.
Cauliflower cheese baked with pasta mixed in and kale on the top.
Noodle stir fry.
Tortillas baked with vegetarian chilli.
Fish, chips and mushy peas.

I'm vegetarian, DD is mostly vegetarian - she eats fish and ham.

Can you forget meat for a bit and focus on beans, pulses, potatoes etc to go with lots of veg?

If not, my way would be to buy a couple of pieces of decent cheaper cuts that you can cook slowly and let go a long way - a free range pork shoulder for example, rather than lots of 'value' meat; a tub of cream to give lots of dishes a touch of luxury; strong, mature cheddar to flavour things so you need less of it.

Buy bags of strong bread flour to make food processor fresh bread, if that's do-able time wise.

Vegetable soup - onions, leeks, garlic, potatoes, carrots - and buy vegetarian suet to make dumplings with SR Flour. Lovely, tasty, filling and you can also add the soup mixes (barley, lentils etc) to make it thicker.

Vegetarian mince stores well and is usually cheaper than store mince.