budget cooking ideas needed urgently!!

[Lisajane2810]

hi am really skint after christmas and need to feed 2 adults 1 teen and 2 cats for 10 days as cheaply as possible! going to lidl on friday and am off saturday so can do some batch cooking if needed.
looking for cheapest meals and recipes anyone can think of please

Go to supermarkets around closing time, or in the evening if it's a 24-hour supermarket (my nearest Tesco is 24 hours & does final reductions at 7pm). You may be able to get fresh produce reduced very cheap. I went the day before NYE & got food for 9 of us that night (party buffet) & then enough to freeze which should last us another week yet. I spent about £30, this does lunches & dinners (cereal & toast for breakfast). They reduced things to 10% of the original price so lots of things cost 20p-30p. There seems to be more about now as places are selling off 'Christmas' food eg buffet packs etc.

Smoked mackerel is a tasty quite cheap protein, we have it flaked with rice, boiled eggs, peas and curry spices as a kind of kedgeree.
Lentils are cheap, tasty and filling.
Make things like cake r flapjack for lunches, much cheaper than pre packaged stuff.

When I was a broke student, “Venetian Liver” went down well even with friends who thought they didn’t like offal. You need a pound of onions and a pound of lamb’s liver (cheap as chips off a supermarket meat counter). Slice the onion and sweat in oil or butter, covered, on a low heat until soft and translucent. Slice the liver as thinly as you can, then whack the heat up high, bung the liver in, and fry uncovered for just a couple of minutes, keeping it moving around so it cooks evenly and the onion doesn’t catch. Serve with bread and butter. Somewhere around 50p a head.

I have stocked my freezer with pasta sauces - turkey, veg, tomato sauce, herbs, garlic
Turkey curry (all
Labelled chicken so dd will eat it)
Turkey soup
Beef lasagne
Chicken, bacon and mushroom lasagne (all portioned)
Chilli
Tons to get us through Jan! All frozen in individual freezer bags along with rice also frozen on portions. Means dc can make chilli and rice from the freezer without spending money or eating all the expensive stuff! All my sauces are bulked out with lentils too and blitzed up extra veg as they are teens and don't do veg!

hi thankyou so much for your help. went to lidls which was packed! got some chicken and mince. lots of herbs,passatta ,beans. ging to make some jam tarts seemed to buy loads for £25 will neded to top up later in week but got enough money just about! got lentils and rice to bulk things out with too xx

We had pasta and broccoli in cheese sauce with grain mustard and lots of pepper tonight. Very tasty.

Risotto rice is always a great staple to keep in and then make a risotto with leftovers at the end of the week, left over ham, peas, chicken etc

Lots of suggestions , so I'll just add one more: spicy veg fried rice with a fried egg on top.

joinourclub that sounds amazing!

It might sound odd, but I sometimes fry onion, whatever we have of a pepper or mushrooms, add a tomato or two if we have them, then value frozen sweetcorn, baked beans and add pepper and chilli. I serve this with the value rice. One can with cooked veggies make up two portions, obviously you'd need to double this up for more people. DH made the comment the other day it was a really nice meal to have for a change.

Glad you got a nice load of shopping, you seem more positive now 👍

That’s a really good idea jocktamsonsbairn