Low Cost Meals

[storminabuttercup]

I'm trying to tighten my belt in regards to how much we spend on food shopping 2 adults and 1 baby and we can easily spend 100 on food and loads gets wasted.

Does anyone fancy sharing low cost but high taste meals? Especially stuff that can be made from store cupboard stuff so i'm not having to pop to the supermarket mid week.

Even if we just save the £7.50 a week that ed predicts we'll be spending extra it'll be worth it

cottage/shepherds pie, cut down on the amount of meat by packing it with carrots, peas, mushroom and onions

homemade pizza (aldi or supermaket mozzerrella for about 50p each (i use 2balls), toppings are tomatoe puree, mozzerrella, cheddar cheese, plus left over onions, mushrooms, prepacked ham, peppers etc

pasta bolognaise (pasta, pasta sauce, mince, oonions, mushrooms)

plan your weekly meals so that you know exactly what you need to buy. i have also started shopping around (there is a tesco, aldi, lidle iceland and asda close by within five mins drive of each) and i buy certain things from certain shops, eg tinned beans from Aldi are nicer than asda's own make and i prefer them to heinz and they are only 34p a tin! tinned spaghetti is only 19p and ds loves it.
are there some things you can buy non-branded? eg nikki toilet roll (farmfoods sell it) is just as good as andrex but is only about £2 for nine,

check out the thread called "can you feed a family on £10 pp pw" in chat, there are loads of money saving tips in there and some good recipes too. Its very inspiring to make your money go further!!

thanks CDL all added to my list, i do tend to bulk stuff out with veggies but i will deffo do that more.

a big thing with me is leftovers, i just dont use them, but today i made a pie from a beef casserole we had yesterday.

I'm wondering if MSE is a better site for this, but i kinda wanted to get a little 'gang together' on MN to share our recipes [secretly wants to end up with a huge legendary thread]

as for the toilet rolls, we tend to stock up on these when offers are on, i'm a loo roll snob!

ooh cheers i fancy...x posts there

oh yes, dont go to MSE, I think we should get a little clan together :)

Bolognaise using 'pasta sauce' is not a low cost way of making it! Using tinned toms, frsh onions, herbs etc is!

I think the 'casserole' i made was pretty cheap

500g Beef Cubes
1 Tin Toms
2 Carrots
2 Sticks of Celery
2 Onions
4 Bay Leaves
500 Ml red wine (i used cheap 3 quid stuff)
1/2 ltr beef stock made with a tesco value stock cube

and there was enough to make pie today

have also made with a can of guinness and was just as good (and loads cheaper)

agree blu, although some people do use the value stuff which is cheaper. i reckon if you are doing bolagnaise the cheaper way to do it is to do a huge batch!

Do you have a stock of spices already? If so, bean curry is totally delicious - I use a couple of cans of beans (though could keep costs down further by soaking some dried ones), onion, fresh ginger and garlic, then a bunch of spices and a can of tomato. I have it over a couple of days with naan (Sainsburys Basics naan surprisingly good) and yoghurt.

Other good options are homemade soup, from whatever you have kicking around the house, and meatballs for when you need an iron boost, which I now make myself and are both tastier and far cheaper than the ready made ones.

I just went out and spent £100 between tesco and asda to try and 'beat' the VAT rise, not sure if it will help as i only know what items attract VAT when we are in costco

That includes a slow cooker to try and save money too

My dh needs meat, and tbh whereas i used to eat it twice a week now its so cold i am always wanting to eat it too so i will be watching for ideas with interest

loving these tips

Long, i do have a pretty good stock, mighnt have to try this

and Hope, i am meal planning as we speak :-D

welcome littleducks

i'm going to take a step back watch the tips come in and keep my note book updated

The best recipe I've found for bean curry is here, if you prefer to follow a recipe (in fact, a lot of the recipes there are great, particularly the ones marked "budget"). But you could make it up as you go along...my top tip to make a curry more exciting is to buy a packet of poppadoms from an Indian grocer (you get loads for not very much money) then cook them one at a time in the microwave - the packet always says to fry them but they are better IMO (and healthier) in the microwave. It only takes about 20 seconds, and it's very satisfying to watch them crinkle up.

I've only just found it. But it's wonderful - I am inspired to go out and cook loads of things from it. I love her fixation with vegetables...

I buy a lot of veg from the 50p rack at our farm shop.
Last time I got a massive bag of carrots & onions.
I blanched the carrots whole (peeled) & then chopped them into portion bags & froze them.
I also chooped the onions & froze them in portions.
I do the same with peppers & cheese & if I end up with eggs near their sell by date I make batches of yorkie puds & freeze them.

I make a tomatoe based sauce using value items & again freeze in batches.

Saves money & time because if I am making a spag bol in the slow cooker I just brown my mince & then put in a batch of frozen sauce, carrots, onions & season.

Going to take a ook at the bean curry link now

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