Our local market is closed on a Monday, so on a Sunday late afternoon, I go down there with my bags and get tonnes of fruit and veg for £1 a basket. It’s usually £1 a little bowl, which is still good. Then Sunday evening I’ll wash/chop/freeze or do a bit of batch cooking to save it all. Also, our local co-op always has organic milk for 30p in the evenings. I put it in the freezer.
Some of my favourite recipes are budget ones.
A whole uncooked ham is about £3. I boil it to make a stock, add to stock veg cubes and half a bag of peas, as many potatoes as you’ve got, fry off some onions or leeks if I have them, then whizz it all into the stock and shred the ham into it. That will be a very tasty soup for a family of 5.
For smaller and cheaper cuts of meat, say a chicken leg (with thigh), a Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, and dollop of Bisto can be a nice and comforting meal. Home made Yorkshire’s cost pennies.
Chili con carne is a favourite in our house, and over the years has become more bean and less meat. More for meat and environmental reasons, but the changes have been made and nobody is complaining. The key of any good chili is the herbs and spices, and cooking low and slow, so expensive meat really isn’t of any benefit to it. Mixed beans, cheap red peppers from the market, corn and onions.
Another add to soups etc that I use a lot is Orzo pasta. They’re like little grains of rice that cook in minutes and absorb all the flavour in the way that risotto does. I chuck them in everything.
Cous Cous, stock cube, boiling water and knob of butter. Goes with anything! Also bulgar wheat is lovely as a staple but alternative to pasta and rice and bread. Obviously when you’re on a budget the cheap staples get a bit wearing so if you can mix them with alternatives that don’t break the bank then everyone is less likely to feel like it’s all grim.