Cheapest ever meals for 4 days

[Firemansamagain]

Please?!

Huge bills this month and I have to try to do a food shop today for the week (until
Friday) on a small amount.
Two adults and one small child, plus enough from each dinner for lunch the next day for dh

Cheap pasta and tomato passata
Eggs
Bananas are cheap, good for you and nutritious
Tuna
Cheap carrots
Whole chicken to eat all week

I would probably get some lentils and make a big batch of lentil bolognese.

Can you share your recipe for lentil stew please @HorribleHerstory ?

@Firemansamagain do you have a CrockPot, or a pressure cooker? We're on a budget just now (unexpected £300 for a vet's bill), so yesterday we made a big batch of French Onion soup, then dhal, then rice pudding in it. It's the first time I've made any of those in the Crockpot and I was surprised at how quickly everything was made. That's a good start to our food this week. Also made flatbreads to have with the dhal, and we had mango chutney etc in the fridge already.

They were all delicious, just made from stuff we had in the fridge/cupboard, and you could easily scale up the recipes to make 6 portions instead of 4 so you have some extras to freeze.

We're also going to make pizzas one night, and another night DH will have an omelette with any leftover veg and things that are in the fridge while I have "freezer surprise" as I'm vegan. Finally, I bought some reduced cherry tomatoes and we'll have tomato and orzo bake one night too. It's amazing what's lurking in the cupboards, I might make a Middle Eastern thing (to my own recipe, depends on what we have), that's nice cold too as it's couscous based.

Good luck!

Thank you everyone, these are great 💜

It's difficult to comment without knowing where you are because cheap ingredients in one country can be expensive in another.

I'd suggest being as mindful as possible of 'filling' when planning 'cheap', or you'll be tempted to eat the food for the next day, which won't do you any good. Any beans/pulses are usually cheap and can be used to bulk out more cheap meals whilst filling a hole.

If, for example, you're making soup - carrot soup may be tasty, but it's not necessarily filling. Add some red lentils, and it's suddenly a meal in its own right rather than a starter.

Spaghetti isn't actually that filling (which is why people have ridiculous size portions when eating out), so bulk out that pasta sauce. Again, lentils added to passata are much more filling than passata on its own.

All the best.

Omelette
Baked potatoes
Beans on toast with grated cheese
Mince (bolognese, chilli con carne)
Sausages and mash
Ham and cheese toasties
Soup
Fishfingers and chips
A couple of cheap pizzas.

Cheese and potato pie is mega cheap - it's just mash and grated cheese, put into a baking dish and baked in the oven. Serve with beans if it needs to go further.

You could buy a couple of large packets of minced beef (Asda's cheaper range, which I get), make shepherd's pie, chilli con Carne, spaghetti bolognese, some beef and potato pasties. Or chicken breast fillets, make a curry, casserole, stir-fry, fajitas

Pizzas made from pitta bread
Nachos.

Rice and daal. Chuck in some frozen spinach or serve with a raita. Complete meal. If your kids will eat it.

Lentil dahl (just need lentils for around £1, an onion and spices you probably already have)
www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/kale-bacon-pearl-barley-risotto (Cheap bacon bits, a bag of Kale and a bag of pearl barley come to £2.50 and would do it 3 times over! And you’re already buying cheese for the pizzas)
spaghetti carbonara- sauce from a couple of egg yolks and pasta water so just garlic, cheese which you’re buying anyway, bacon bits left from the risotto and mushrooms/ frozen peas if you want)
jacket potatoes with beans (about £1.20)
the pizzas
Egg fried rice- rice, egg, spring onion, soy sauce (£ 4.20 if you have none of these in already)
Thats 6-8 meals for £13 so plenty left for bread, milk, fruit, yoghurt and maybe a treat or 2?

I love banana on toast with salted butter delicious, filling and you get fruit as well.

Dont know if they sell it where you are, but you can get tinned chicken in white sauce for 60p here. Add garlic, garam masala and cumin, plus frozen peas and onion and it actually makes a really tasty curry.

That's quite a healthy budget to feed 2 adults and a small child for 4 days, even in London (where I am). You could buy and roast a small/medium chicken, which would give a couple of meals at least, plus sandwiches.