Frugal meals

[Poppins17]

Hi all,

My colleague was telling me today has and electricity could go up as much as £500 a month….. the only place we can cut our spending is our food shopping which is already pretty low.

We meal plan, shop in Aldi, cook from scratch, buy yellow sticker foods where we find them, and have meat free days, but I’m wanting to build a library of the cheapest (but still healthy ish) meals and perhaps rota them every couple of weeks as we head into autumn / winter. I like to try and make enough for DH to take leftovers for work lunch the next day.

Last night I made lasagna and only bought mince and sheets fresh everything else I had in, and that made our tea last night, a portion for DH lunch today, a second portion each in the freezer and I’ve saved the sauce for DH to make himself a pasta lunch for tomorrow.

Tonight we are keeping it super simple with cheese and potato pie. I’ll add a sausage each from the freezer and a spoonful of beans (using the rest for tomorrow‘s meal), and we have some bread we can have with butter if we need to bulk it out.

I have a small air fryer and I’m hoping to upgrade that to a two drawer one for my birthday next month to try and minimise the amount we use our cooker. I’m happy to cook all meals from scratch including pasta / white sauces etc… so please let me know which meals you find most frugal… thank you!

Sorry, should have added there’s just DH, the dog and I. If we can use some of the meat in the meal for the dog we do.

risotto is very cheap to make and there are lots of different flavours so it doesn't get boring.
homemade mixed bean chilli - very cheap and lots of different ways to have it (with rice, nachos, jacket potato, pasta, wraps, wedges etc) so it doesn't get boring.
curries and dahls - serve with rice / naan etc.
bulking out bolognese / shepherd's pie with lentils is a great way to make the meat go further.

Shepherds pie, macaroni cheese, baked potato, toad in the hole, risotto or pasta dishes. Recipes requiring mince can be made with lentils or beans. A good thick homemade vegetable soup is a good meal in winter.

Watching with interest!
I will have a think for any ideas, but we really dont eat much meat at all and find that makes a huge difference. Lentils are the cheapest, but even if you go for meat replacements (veggie mince instead of meat) you might see a good saving. And not sure if you buy sauces for lasagne, but always try and use pasata/chopped toms and make my own. Cheaper and much much healthier most of the time

Thanks all! We love risotto and have this probably once a week already.

And yes @ddeey I always make my own sauces, even for chicken and mushroom pie things like that - they taste better and are much cheaper.

We are veggie, apart from DS but he eats veggie at home because that's what's cooked. This keeps the cost down.

You can bulk everything up with lentils, pulses, beans etc. That makes meals stretch out.

Dhal is tasty, easy, and lasts ages.

A big chunky veggie soup can be made with a few vegetables and lots of pearl barley.

I have a really good supply of dried herbs and seasoning, so can add a depth of flavour to dishes really easily.

Homemade hummus is super simple and makes loads. Yes, you've to buy tahini, but one jar makes at least 5 huge batches.

Tortilla chips are easy to make with stale wraps. Old bread - freeze for breadcrumbs. Bag of onions and some spices - onion bhaji, stick in a burger bun and you've Bhaji Burgers.

Replace meat in a casserole for halloumi, not cheap, but cheaper than meat.

Pasta with oil, spices, chickpeas, squeeze of lemon and a little stock.

Lidl do huge rice bags. A huge bag of red lentils is cheap.

Ps - hummus makes a great pasta sauce with any old veg, roasted. Lovely cold too.

I don't think that figure is right. The cap is currently £1971 I think and predicted to possible go up 70%. Whilst that is high and a lot it's not £500 a month u less you are living in a very large property.

Mac and cheese, I add a spoonful of marmite and spoonful of mustard, yum.

Tuna pasta bake always a winner, works well with spaghetti pasta which is cheaper.

If you can get them, roasted marrows split in two, with roasted veggies in them.

I've started making pork ragu instead of beef - essentially I swap the packet of mince out for 6 sausages which are much cheaper (good sausages from local butcher ).

Slip them out of the casings, brown them, add onion, celery (finely diced), passata, oregano and a splash of white whine vinegar (instead of a glass of wine🤩). Season and simmer for an hour (you can also add a handful of lentils to bulk it out).

Turns out the family prefer this version...it's very good in lasagne and well as with other pasta.

Another one is fried rice.

I dice (fairly small) some pork that I've marinated in soy sauce for 30 mins (usually 2 loin steaks) and cook them in the wok. Then add garlic, ginger onion and (frozen peas or soya beans), and Cooked plain rice.

Sorry posted too soon...

Toss the lot around in the wok until the rice gets a bit crispy in places, then I add a couple off eggs and scramble the into the rice and finally the soy sauce I used as a marinade (more if needed).

Really tasty and requires very little meat as it's diced through the mixture (2 loin steaks is enough to feed 4 people).

Does anyone have any links to good risotto or soup recipes? I really enjoy cooking and cooking from scratch but three things I've never been able to master are soups (can do tomato for DC but I don't like it, risotto and bread

Remember that cooking mince for twenty minutes on the hob and then baking a lasagne for an hour is going to use a lot more energy than a quick omelette or something like that. It might be worth collating a list of quick/ low energy meals rather than just those made with cheaper ingredients if that makes sense?
I haven’t got as far as making a list but that’s what I plan on doing! Our electricity has already gone up to £458 a month and we live in a normal sized 4 bed house and we are not extravagant in any way, we were just out of contract so moved onto the standard tariff and there are no deals to be had now of course. It’s going to be such a stretch every month.

It's a good point.

I use my pressure cooker for making soups/stews/ragu as it takes half the time on the hob.

Also, a small joint of ham, cooked, is much cheaper than buying sliced, and it's freezable. Remnants good for pea and ham soup using frozen peas.

Thanks all some great ideas here, I’m going to make some notes.

I found a half portion of a pork joint I’d forgotten about last week, so defrosted it and make pulled bbq pork in slow cooker with baps from the freezer.

I have a gammon joint in the fridge which will last a couple of days.

I want to get a bigger air fryer so I use my oven less to save on energy bills so if anyone has any good air fryer recipes or can recommend a good website / book I’d be grateful.

Don't forget good old corned beef hash (with a fried egg).

Blummin lovely.

Just onion, par-boiled diced potato, corned beef and seasoning (egg not optional).

Another one is chicken burritos.

Chicken thighs, rubbed with some chilli seasoning and a bit of oil (air fry them).

Chop them up and roll up with cheese, rice, beans (of your choice, I like the ones in chilli sauce as it adds flavour to the rice) in flour tortillas. Like a Mexican cannelloni.

Put in a dish (that will Fit in the air fryer and cover with passata (that I mix some chilli powder and S&P to). Some cheese on top.

You can make a few and they freeze well (I generally use a whole pack of 8 tortillas). One is enough for me with some salad but DH likes two...no salad rabbit food.

You can also play around with ingredients (pulled pork is really nice in it as are refried beans) and you can make it as spicy (or not) as you like.

My best soup recipe is for leek and potato soup, which I believe is nicer than anyone else's, ever. This may not be true!

3 biggish potatoes (not quite jacket size but nearly)
3-4 leeks
Knob of butter
Jug of stock - about 750ml
Salt and pepper

Cut the leek into rings and the potatoes into large dice and fry in the butter until all covered and leeks are bright green and glossy (or a bit of oil, but butter is nicer if you are not vegan).

Make up a jug of stock with whatever you have but if possible make it a bit stronger - I use those stock pots and put 2 in a 500ml jug, I used to use 2 chicken oxo cubes before I swapped. I like chicken stock more than veg stock for this as I'm not veggie but it's still fine with veg stock. Put the stock in and bring to the boil. If once it's boiling it goes below the tops of the veg, top up with water. Once boiling, go for about ten mins or until you can crush a potato with a fork against the edge of the pan.

Blend until smooth with a stick blender. I have never made it not blended so I don't know what it would be like if you don't have a blender. See how thick it is once blended. If it is too thin, keep it bubbling a bit longer; if too thick, just add some water. My mum used to stir in an egg yolk at the last minute but I can never get the knack of that.

I add salt and pepper at the end but taste first because the stock saltiness varies.

I can't believe I've made this such a long post out of a 'boil the veg in stock' recipe! I have also made this with leftover mash, so it is adaptable. My DP puts an onion and a carrot in his but mine is nicer. He doesn't agree.

Onion and carrot have no place in L&P soup!!!! Your DH is just wrong!

Re: the egg I do this and save a bit of warming (not boiling) stock which I whisk into the egg to make it thinner.

Then I add to the warm (again not hot/boiling) soup (with my hand blender running).

Marking my place. My two favourite frugal meals:

1. lentil stew- lentils, chopped fresh (or frozen) carrots, mushrooms, onion, peas, bell pepper, 1 passata. Spices: bay leaf, all spice, garlic, salt, pepper, some sweet and hot paprika. Boiled until veggies good and excess water evaporated. I think it's deadly easy to do in slowcooker. Lasts us 2 days, sometimes 3 if I stretch it with some more veggies or quorn minced "meat". We eat it with rice, fussili or buckweat ("kasza gryczana" in Polish shop). I think this is my favourite food, healthy and cheap too.
2. My vegetable soup- just throw everything you have in big pot and voila 😂Potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, Brussel sprout, red lentils or chickpeas. Spices: bay leaf, all spice, salt, pepper. Add some oil. In 5L pan lasts us 2 or 3 days, depends if we eat it solo or with some bread or (in case of my husband) fussili again. If you add lots of veggies, it's really hearty. I always have 2 bowls for one meal.

I'm vegetarian quorn is cheaper than meat.
I buy frozen veg as a rule as there is no waste.
The cheapest meal I do is toad in the hole with quorn sauages. I love it too. Gravy mix potatoes and some peas or other veg. Cheap and filling.
I make a batch of ratatouille and it can be used to make chilli with mince, put into baked potatoes, spread on bread or toast or used as a pasta sauce. Its very versatile and has a lot of healthy veg in it.

I’m crap at cooking but my cheapest meals are egg on toast or tuna Mayo on a potato. But now baking a potato is probably too expensive now 😫

Follow Cardiff mum on Instagram. She does five meals from Aldi for £25 and they always look delicious xxx jacket potatoes are good for the winter, big batch cooking, and coupons!

@Musomama1 going to try your mac and cheese hack! It sounds yummy