£150 food budget for March

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£150 is our budget for March and we really can't go over that. There is 2 of us - DH doesn't like any fruit and little veg, I will eat anything!

Please share your cheap meal ideas or any saving tips.

What have you already got in?

How many meals? I mean - are there packed lunches or do you eat at home?

I think the life saver here is the lack of fruit and veg you have to buy as its £££!
I assume your meat eaters, if you do a mince dish only use 1/2 of what you normally would, bulk out with lentils (cheap) and grated (insert veg dp would tolerate here) we use carrot. Cook for a long time and it becomes a lovely thick sauce and you really don't notice that there is less meat!!

Also, a great cheap meal we do is chicken wings (I got 14 for £3 odd at Tesco) in bbq sauce with wedges and sweet corn, yum, we have it as 'sofa and film' food!

£150 for 2 of you is doable. I won't say easily doable, but it's close.

Sorry rubbishly curtailed post there.

Where do you shop? Go to Lidl / Aldi
Add lentils to casseroles, spag bol, curry, etc etc. Make 2 days' dinners worth and freeze some.
Cheap cuts of meat - use your butcher, ask him what's good value.
Eat veggie 1/2 times per week. We regularly have veggy / chickpea curry with homemade chapatis. Cheap as the proverbial, filling and yum.
Lots of spuds: baked, wedges, mashed, steamed...
I could go on..

First things first, look in all your cupboards, freezer and fridge and write down what you have in.

We did this last week. It turned out we had tons of stuff in that we could use as the basis for this weeks meals.

Tell us what you've got and we can help you plan round it.

I think it is totally do-able by the way, and without too much misery though your DH may have to eat his veggies.

We were having frugal meals most of January.

Make a big vat of homemade tomato sauce to eat with pasta, on homemade pizza, etc

Lentil or chickpea dal is easy and delicious, and can be revved up with peppers/lemon and spinach/aubergine. Make a huge pot and freeze

If your DH won't eat veg but you like it, use just frozen veg this month. I don't understand why it's so much cheaper, but it is.
Shop during the evenings when the supermarkets have reduced all the fresh stuff.
If you like fish, try using tinned sardines / pilchards instead of fresh. We only did this recently and were really surprised by how tasty the result was. It was a pasta thing I just threw together. But get the ones in tomato sauce - the ones in brine can be a bit bland!

Don't you buy veg anyway? Surely being a grown up he just eats his veg knowing its good for him?

The cheapest meal I know is Dahl. One packet of red lentils (£1.19) can feed my whole family (6 of us) for two main evening meals.

Cottage pie, spag bol can both be made with the meaty dark French lentils instead of mince.

Bean chilli can be made with mixed beans and no meat.

Soups and stews are cheap to make depending on the veg used.

Risotto, toad in the hole, grilled cheap fish

£150 is our monthly food budget anyway (DP and I). We do a lot of batch cooking of curry, chilli, soup, cottage pie, meatballs, etc. Pasta and sauce features heavily but mostly we have stir fry although not much good to you. Will your DH not even eat veg in a lovely spicy stir fry sauce? DP makes bread for sandwiches although it's so nice it goes a lot faster than shop bought!

For cheap, tasty, nutritious and filling, imo you can't beat sweet potatoes. You get 8 - 10 decent sized ones prepacked for around £1.30. They make delicious baked potatoes with cheese, beans and tomatoes.

There's a really good Facebook page called Feed Your Family For £20 A Week. They post recipes and helpful stuff a few times a day.

£150 a month is easily doable. We allow £200 a month but that's 2 adults a 3 year old that eats like a bottomless pit and nappies and all cleaning stuff etc come out of it too. I advise take that money out in cash. Put your cards away for the month when it comes to the food shop cos it's easier to go over.

I know it's not for everyone but I've swapped from shopping at Asda to aldi. Made huge savings as a one of shop in Asda the other week showed.

If you aren't up for swapping where you shop how about the brand. If you get a premium brand try the next one down. Tesco finest to tesco bog standard. Tesco to white label. It is hit and miss and something's you just can't scrimp on but some things there are no difference

Meal plan,do the shopping list and stick to it. Don't go off. Do you need those crisps/biscuits you fancy?

What have you already got in. Can meals be made out of those
Cook in bulk. Biiiig spag Bol, freeze some so u can make lasagna or pasta bake at a later date. Can u bulk meals out with lentils or chickpeas to make it go further?

A roast will do us a good few meals. A chicken will do a roast, sandwiches, chicken soup one day and spicy egg fried rice the next. A gammon joint will do a roast, ham egg n chips and again a stir fry rice/noodle dish

Got to say veg is a biggie though cos a 1/3 to 1/2 ur plate of that will fill you up. But I guess once blitzed soups are always good.

Will DH jacket potatoes, or is it no veg at all. We had jacket potatoes with value baked beans and small amount of grated cheese the other night. Not exactly healthy, but chips and a fried egg won't do any harm for a couple of meals. I add sweetcorn, peppers, onion (whatever I have) to a can of value baked beans, then add some pepper and chilli, and serve with rice. We think it tastes nice. You could give DH the option of having what veg you can put in it, if he refuses then gently fry them for you and add to your half of the chilli beans. If you're not cooking for DH one night, then you could some a good amount of veggies, add grated cheese over to them and grill. Omelette, and of course, you can add tomatoes to your half or have salad. A slice of bread will add carbohydrate.

Don't waste any food - if you cook too much have it the following day for lunch or on the side with your dinner. Only buy what you really need and do try foods at Lidl and Aldi, but obviously make sure the price is cheaper than your useful supermarket. Put extra rice and pasta with meals to save using so much meat or sauce - both can be purchased in Tescos value, We eat Tescos value biscuits all the time, obviously you can buy basics and esentials ranges in other stores.

So, 31 days of food for 2, Does that include breakfast, lunch and dinner?

What do you have in already? Does it have to include tea, coffee, loo rolls, and cleaning stuff? Do you have those already?

One of my favourite frugal 'hidden vegetable' meals is bolognaise/chilli. (Basically the same recipe).

400g decent beef mince, low fat if you can get it. Try checking for special offers or at the end of the day on the reduced section.
200g brown/green lentils, soaked in plenty of boiling water & drained.
1 courgette, coarsely grated
1 carrot, finely grated
About 8 large mushrooms, finely chopped, or sliced, as you prefer
2 medium onions, finely sliced
2 tins basic chopped tomatoes
1/2 beef stock cube
3 cloves garlic, crushed, or 2 tsp garlic puree
1 tbsp oil for frying
2 heaped tbsp mixed italian herbs & a bayleaf (if making bologaise)
1 tsp thyme & 2x 400g tins kidney beans (if making chilli)
Splash of red wine if you have any around. (ha!)

You can leave out or change the veg but they are there to bulk it out & this does go a lot further if you use them. If you do leave them out you need to reduce the herbs.

Fry onions in the oil in a big, lidded pan till starting to soften, then add the mince, make sure you break it up. When it's browned, stir in the garlic, courgette, carrot & mushrooms. Fry, stirring occasionally, till the liquid comes out of the mushrooms.
Add the tinned tomatoes, stock cube, herbs, pre-soaked & drained lentils and, if using, the drained & rinsed kidney beans and/or wine. Add enough water to cover. Stir in & leave to simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
This will be ready when the excess liquid is mostly gone & the sauce is thickened. Check for seasoning at the end of cooking at the sauce can thicken a lot.

The bolognaise is good for pasta sauce, pizza topping, to go with baked potatoes. It freezes well and the quantities here will make several generous servings.

I'd say £150 for 2 people is easily doable- that's over£30 a week!

Meal plan for your evening meals. Write your shopping list based on this. Consider what you will need to buy - if you will use half of an item in one meal, make sure you plan to use the other half before it goes off.

Put less on your plates. Only go back for more if you are still hungry. Quite often you will find you don't want any more. The rest can be served up another night or be converted into lunches etc.

I plan most of our evening meals round their ability to provide lunchbox-suitable leftovers for the next day. For example:
Cold pasta - add cut up tomatoes & cucumber, & a handful of nuts after.
Pizza - wrap a slice in clingfilm. Perfectly good cold.
Leftover cold rice - add some salad leaves, a tomato & a boiled egg.
Pasta bake - perfectly good cold
Cook a couple of sausages or some bacon when you have the oven/grill on, make a BLT or sausage sandwich when they have cooled & put in the fridge.

Arse. I just realised I forgot to mention that you need to use some chillies/chilli paste, flakes etc, if you make my recipe into chilli. Ahem.

Do a cook to nothing. We do this when we are really broke all the time. It means using some imagination, but take stock of everything in freezer/cupboard and make meals. We've had some strange meals but it can save a fortune. We are going to have to have one this month I think as we have about £60 for food left after a £55 aldi shop today!

Hi everyone have just checked back and you have great advice.

DH unfortunately will not eat most vegetables and would probably refuse to eat a vegetable based meal eg veg curry. I pile my plate high with veggies and salad though. He doesn't mind peppers and onion added to things. I will try to bulk things out and see if he notices.

I'm terrible at making soup though and strangely he absolutely loves a thick veg soup!

Will lookup the mentioned Facebook page

I feed me and teenage dustbin for under £200 a month,every month,and that's with me at every day,no pasta meals (except for me!) and no bulking in site. Starting to think I must be missing something

Meat every day,not me at!!!

I feed myself, dh and 16 month dd for around £200 per month but this also includes nappies, toiletries etc. I shop at aldi or asda and find it quite easy to stick to mostly, especially on a 4 week month. We eat a lot of pasta meals, curries, stews, fish etc. We make homemade pizzas once a week which are so cheap and fun to make and once a week we have a freezer tea, so something like fish fingers, chips and peas. Breakfast is porridge, supermarkets own weetabix or toast, lunches are sandwiches and fruit and/or yoghurt. I buy value biscuits for a treat and a weekly pudding too.

Also I do things like make a big beef stew in the slow cooker which will give the 3 of us 2 days of dinners, so we'll either freeze half or sometimes eat the same dinner 2 days in a row.