Cheap meal ideas

[Chepstowmonkey]

I've worked out that on our monthly spend we have no extra money to go on holiday this year - boo! So, I thought it was worth a try to save some money now in the hope that it'll all add up by the summer. There have been a number of treads on here about reducing weekly shopping bills and some of them had very useful tips - e.g. eating beans on toast/baked potatoes 1 night a week (although the idea didn't go down very well with DH).

I was wondering if any of you people - many of whom seems to be far more organised than myself - have worked out which meals you eat are cheaper than others and could possibly pass on some of your cheaper meal ideas/recipes?

When I was single and childless I was quite good at eating well and cheaply but I seem to be struggling now with a hungry DH and a 16 month old DD. Any ideas/recipes/tips greatly appreciated.

Based on a 1Kg packet of porridge oats costing about £1.50, a 50g per person serving came to about about 7p. Even if you add a little milk and sugar it's well under 10p a portion!

My favourite cheapie meal is Frittata or Spanish Omelette made with 8 eggs, cooked potato, grated cheese, diced tomatoes and spring onions. All goes in the frying pan together, allowed to set and then finished under the grill. A large one that serves 4 costs about £3.00 - £3.50.

Next favourite would be something like a Green Lentil Dahl served with rice. Very cheap ingredients - green lentils, spices, chopped tomatoes, ginger, garlic, onions - healthy as they come and really tasty. Under £3 for 4 servings.

What sort of things do you eat now and about how much do spend per meal and on the weekly shop?

This is a cheap favourite in our house.

But if you are committed carnivores, it might not be up your street....

Twice baked potatoes make a more interesting meal than regular jackets.

Bake the potatoes, cut in half and scoop out into a bowl, then mix with other ingredients, if you want to rub the skin with some oil and salt, refill the skins and put back in the oven for 20 mins.

Cheese and finely chopped onion. Serve with beans.
Mozzarella, (parma)ham and tomatoes. Serve with salad.

Good questions from TotemPole. Another one: where do you currently shop?

Aldi and Lidl will consistently be cheaper than Tesco/Sainsbury's and offer better quality than Asda, so if you do not shop there already, you may want to try them out.

Second the aldi suggestion- also eggs are good meals for dc's - boiled egg, beams and sweet corn a firm fave.

If you buy fruit you will save £££££ shopping at aldi.

I am also a sucker for supernoodles as a work lunch- or pasta and a sauce.

Oh you're are all asking me difficult questions now!! Part of the problem is that I don't know how much I spend on each meal and am trying to put off the v boring task of going through my old receipts to find out! Obviously I know much my weekly shop is but it seems to vary widely dependant on what household/ toiletry things we need, how much wine we buy, whether I am cooking a big batch of something for the freezer etc. So basically I have no idea which of my meals is more expensive than another.

But to answer some of those tricky questions - I currently shop online in sainsburys and am not sure that I can work out how I'd do some of the shop in an Aldi/Lidl as the cost of petrol to drive to it may out way the savings. I'll have a think about though and talk to DH as we may drive past one and haven't even noticed!

Here is a link to the Aldi store locator.

Seriously, if you are in a position to shop at Aldi on a regular basis rather than Sainsbury's, you will find your shopping bill drop by a sizeable amount without even changing what you normally eat.

Their fruit and vegetables are good and cheap (avoid the mangos and bananas!).

I am less convinced about their meat but plenty of people on here will recommend it. I like their lardons and include them in quiches.

Their cheese is very good.

They are fab for general household stuff (washing up liquid, washing powder, bleach, etc.).

You won't find any three for two offers but you will find products which are consistently at a good value and of excellent quality.

badly phrased my last sentence but you know what I mean...

Limit you meat and fish consumption maybe?

How much is the delivery charge for your online shop vs. what petrol would cost (Google maps' directions have a fuel cost estimate)?