Your tight budget meal plans please!

[mrsoutnumbered]

I had a large bill to pay a few weeks ago and it has left us tight for the next two weeks. I'm writing a meal plan and am wondering - what are your extreme budget meals that you do when you're penny pinching? I am more than happy to eat veggie as we're trying to cut down on meat anyway.

So far I've got:

Toad in the hole
Lentil Bolognese
Freezer Lucky Dip (Chips, fish fingers, whatever is in there)

Sorry if this topic had been done to death.

Veggie sausages in baked beans, mashed potatoes on top, then grated cheddar. Bake until it turns brown.

Jacket potatoes filled with whatever you've got, cheese on top.

Fries onions and garlic, tin of white beans, some green veg, and whatever other veg youhavr like mushrooms and tomatoes, top with grated parmesan.

Pasta topped with a little butter, grated cheese, and salt and peppers surprisingly nice.

Pasta with tomato sauce, olives, grated cheese.

Basically, grate a bunch of cheese over whatever you've got! 😁

Homemade pizza is also very cheap, it's easy to make the dough from scratch.

First of all make a list of absolutely everything in your store cupboard/freezer and use those ingredients up first.
Post a list of them here for ideas on what to make with what you've got.

Have a look at Thrifty Lesley. Lots of recipes & meal plans.
Also, if you're on Facebook, there are some groups, like feed yourself for £1, eating on a shoestring, etc.

What have you in the cupboards?

Dried pulses are cheap but do require soaking or a pressure cooker. A bean chilli with cheese and rice is cheap and tasty.

Vegetarian curry is also a good one. Cheap shops like home bargains often do the pastes if you don't have a stick of spices.

Thank you everyone!!! Going to write a list now

@Isthereeveranexcuse Not much. Lentils and pasta. I don't stock up on things really, I only buy as I need.

@Whatsnewwithyou cheese makes everything taste good

Veggie chilli
Beans on toast
BBC good food Somerset stew
BBC good food lentil Dahl with baked potato

I recently made a chow mein with a whole packet of egg noodles some spring onions and a whole packet of bean sprouts and it was lush.

Eggs, cheese, pasta, potatoes, onions as basics.
Bacon lardons (Lidl do a double pack that is good) for some meat.

Baked potatoes with baked beans.

Frittata/Spanish omelette things with cheese, onion, whatever veg on hand (pepper, frozen peas, mushrooms etc), diced potatoes and some meat if you have it - bacon bits or bits of Cooked chicken are good. Or veggie version.

Mac n cheese, if you get mushrooms and bacon bits it works well (I also add onion, garlic, peppers, courgette and frozen peas). Make a large batch, freeze leftovers and reheat that as pasta bake during 2nd week.

Nasi Goreng. Leftover cold cooked rice stir fry dish. Using the oil from a tin of tuna (or regular cooking oil), fry diced onion, garlic, whatever veg you have (mushrooms, peppers, small florets of broccoli or cauliflower l, sliced carrots, frozen peas etc), sweet corn from a tin, the tuna, couple tablespoons mild curry powder and your cold rice. Can add leftover cooked chicken or cooked prawns/white fish if you have any. A great dish to use up ends of things.

Elastic chicken - making 1 chicken last a few meals by roasting, using leftovers in reheated in gravy or smaller amounts adding to risotto, nasi goreng, pasta dishes, sandwiches, HM soup etc.

Presuming you have tea bags,sugar and spices- this is my absolute basic plan for under £15 in Lidl's

Lentils- £0.89p
Pasta £0.29p
Rice £0.45p
Eggs 10 £1.17
Cooking bacon £1.59 per kg
Milk £1
Bread £0.45
Flour £0.45p
Marge £0.79
Tinned tomatoes x2 £0.33p
Cheddar £1.59
Stock cubes £0.60p
Carrots £0.45p
Swede £0.48p
Potatoes £1.39
Frozen peas £0.85
Frozen broccoli £.0.85p
Tomato purée - £0.40p
Mozzarella £0.45p

Lentil dhal with flatbreads
(Use half the bag of lentils, tomatoes, cumin, coriander etc and make basic flour (500g of 1.4kg bag) water salt flatbreads)

Broccoli, bacon (300g) and cheese pasta bake

Winter vegetable pie ( cube some carrots, half the swede and a few potatos, fry the cubes until starting to colour, add a tablespoon of flour and 500ml stock. Make pastry with 500g of flour, the large and some water. Serve with peas or broccoli

Egg and bacon(300g) fried rice (with peas or broccoli stirred through)

Pan haggerty (last of the carrots and bacon , some potatoes and stock)

Lentil and vegetable soup (last of the lentils and any other veg left)

Pizza - make the base with the flour left (about 400g) and mozzerella cheese and tomato purée to top

When I do this I have enough to feed the four of us (2 adults 2 kids) but I need to buy fruit/ more eggs / cereal etc to cover breakfasts.

I second the mumsnet chicken- I know people will judge, but I often but the Lidl's whole chicken £2.65 and make it stretch three meals and a stock. I roast the chicken- breasts are sliced and form part of a roast, one leg goes toward a risotto, the other into a pie or stew with lots of veg. Then I make chicken noodle soup with the carcass. Yes it's not much meat per meal, but it's there to flavour and my family have never complained

Some fantastic ideas here, thank you to everyone for taking the time to reply. I appreciate each and every post

If you have some spices a bean chilli always goes down well.

Chicken or vegetable fried rice
Homemade Gnocchi and tomato sauce (onions garlic plus tin of tomatoes)
Fridge/Freezer surprise soup (or stew if I find some meat)
Lentil cottage pie
Penny wraps rather than bread for sandwiches
Pasta rather than sandwiches for kids for lunches (if you need them)

If you are nearby to any allotments or countryside location you often find people selling surplus really cheap. We get local free range eggs for £1 a dozen or half dozen depending on how much they have. Were giving away courgettes recently, now it is large butternut squash for 15p

Macaroni cheese? Homemade soups, just an idea.

I really have quite bare cupboards!

I have a stash of herbs and spices
Pasta
Rice
Red lentils
Green lentils
Ground almonds
Flour
Sugar
Oats
Beans

That's basically it!

So a few lentil-y pasta type dishes would work well I think. I'll only have to buy Passata for that. I've tried making dhal a few times and no ones really enjoyed it so I shan't bother with that.

Maybe some lentil soup for lunches

In the freezer I have

Peas
Sweet corn
Spinach
Butternut squash

Plus some beige good like chips, fish fingers, burgers, waffles

I use freezer stuff to make a 'leftover lasagne', so chop the burgers or whatever meat and add to the tomato based bit. Or burger pasta is a hit with my kids 🤷🏼‍♀️

A few ideas to use up stores ~
Porridge or waffles for breakfast
Burgers served with green lentils
Frittata with the peas/spinach
Sweetcorn fritters or use in a chowder style soup
Flatbreads made with the flour, serve to fill everyone up!
Soup with BNS and red lentils
Get some cheap sausages or use the burgers with the beans in a casserole
Fish finger sandwiches

You've only got to get through a couple of weeks, so meals like beans on toast, sardines on toast, scrambled egg on toast will be fine in the short term.
Once you are back to normal financially start to build up a good store cupboard of supplies to see you through future difficult times.

I just managed to snag loads of reduced meat in m&s, £6.20 enough for 3/4 dinners for the 5 of us!

Thanks I will read through your recommendations when I'm home xxx

@AdaColeman thank you

Yes I definitely need to fill the cupboards a bit more.

That bill screwed us but I'm glad it's paid now I just have Christmas to deal with

Well done with your M&S bargains!
Your local supermarkets will all have set times when they put out their yellow sticker reduced items. So you could find out the those times and if possible shop then.

A slimmed down Christmas can still be fun in its own way!

@AdaColeman I never seem to find good reduced items so I was pretty amazed today!

Yes Christmas will be fine, I'm not worried.

Baked bean curry. 1onion (15p), 1 tin baked beans (30p), 1 tin chopped tomatoes (35p) a couple of teaspoons of curry powder (depending on taste). Fry off the onion, add curry powder, fry a bit more then add all the contents of the 2 tins. Cook for a few more minutes. Should make 4 servings with rice, about 25p a serving.
Orange lentils, a sweet potato, carrots, and whatever spices you have (I use garlic, paprika and cumin) and 1-2 stock cubes. Makes a filling soup for around £1.
Potato wedges, baked beans, fried egg/sausages/bacon.
Pasta, cream cheese, broccoli and peas. I bung some mixed herbs into the pan and cook the veg and pasta together, then add a bit of the pasta water to the the cream cheese to make it into a sauce.
A jar of Sainsbury medium chilli sauce (95p) cooked with extra water and rice, topped with a bit of grated cheese (serves 4). You can add in some cooked mincemeat or extra beans if you want or add some extras like cheap doritos, sour cream/yoghurt or a few avocado slices.
We ate all these things last year when my budget dropped dramatically, it was fine, even lost a bit of weight.