PLEASE, please...some seriously cheap meal ideas needed. Totally skint, but don't want to starve

[CrockoDuck]

This week I have £25 to feed me and bottomless pit teenage son for a week. I'm hoping there's people here who only ever spend that on their weekly shop, so can give me some big tips.

Thanks.

I did toad in the hole last night. Supermarket own brand sausages, 1 egg for the 7p batter mix from supermarket. About £3 enough to feed 6

Use supermarket cheap mince, spice how you like, add onions, and again an egg or two and make my own burgers. 2 bags of mince makes at least 8 and the cost is about £2.20

Madamemessy: sexy toast is just my name for crostini or a thick slab of real bread, toasted, drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with a raw clove of garlic/herbs, then topped with various things that need using up!

Also parmesan is good (get a 1.99 block from Lidl, keeps for months!) as you only need a little grating to give a strong cheesy flavour. Learnt this one when I did WeightWatchers ;) saves loads on calories too!

Lots of supermarkets do price reductions at 7 or 7.30 and I often pick up bread for 25p or less. Fill the freezer with it and it reduces freezer running costs too. A cheap jar of chocolate spread can make for lots of indulgent-seeming but inexpensive and filling snacks (obviously the healthier the bread the better and more satisfying).

I've seen increasing numbers of people loitering around the aisles at this sort of time (I recognise them because I'm one of them ) so you have to wait around sometimes to be prompt before someone else gets there, but it's worth it to fill fridge/cupboards cheaply.

Seriously cheap meals:

Buy:
2 onions
1 head garlic
1 packet cheap pasta
1 bag dried chick peas
veg stock cubes
baguette

Soak and cook chick peas according to pack. Divide into 3 equal lots.

Pasta and chick peas:

Cook half the pasta, Meanwhile gently fry half the garlic (chopped) in a good splash of oil. Add the chick peas and cook until heated. Drain pasta, pour chick peas, garlic and oil into hot pasta. Add a bit more oil if needed. Serve hot with half the baguette, you can sprinkle a little bit of grated cheese on top if you like.

Chick pea and pasta soup:

Chop the onions and the remaining garlic. Fry until softened, Add chick peas and about 3 of pints veg stock. Simmer for about 20 minutes or so. Stick in a hand blender and whizz until about half the stuff is blended, You still want there to be chunks of chick pea in it. Add a couple of good handfuls of pasta and cook for another 15 minutes. You might want to add a little bit more veg stock, depending on how thick you like your soup. Serve with the rest of the bread.

You still have 1/3 of the chick peas left. So buy :
1 tin tomatoes
an onion
bag frozen green beans
curry powder
bag potatoes
cheese
tin condensed cream of mushroom soup
baguette

Chick pea curry

remaining chick peas
1 onion, chopped
1 tin tomatoes
about 1/3 of a bag of frozen green beans
curry powder to taste
salt and pepper
2 tins mixed beans

Soften onion in oil, add curry powder and cook a couple of minutes. Add everything else and mix well. Simmer for about 30 minutes until everything is cooked and flavours blended. Serve with jacket potatoes

green beans and potatoes

Chop about 2lbs of potatoes into bite sized pieces and boil until just tender. Cook the rest of the green beans. Mix together with anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2lb of grated cheese (save a bit for sprinkling on top) and the soup. Pour into a baking dish, sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake at 180 for about 30 minutes until hot, bubbly and browned. Serve with half the baguette.

cheesy toasts and beans

Slice the remaining baguette and toast one side of slices. Turn over and scatter the slices with any grated cheese that you have left over. Toast until cheese is melted. Heat up the mixed beans, you can add a bit of chilli powder if you have it, and serve over the cheesy toasts.

5 meals, most of which should give leftovers for around £13 or so. They're not fancy and not very varied but they will fill up tummies and provide decent nutrition

If you have flour in the house you can buy another onion and use the rest of your potatoes (grated), a finely chopped onion and some flour to make potato pancakes which are good at breakfast or lunch, either with baked beans or just with ketchup to dip them in.

1 good sized potato per person (grated)
1 onion, chopped
2tblspns flour per potato
plenty salt and pepper

Mix well and fry by tablespoons until both sides are browned and crisp. You can, if you have them, add 2 beaten eggs to the batter, but that's not necessary.

Porridge or toast for breakfast are cheap, a homemade yoghurt loaf makes cheap snacks, just use the carton for measuring. Supermarket value sparkling water is about 17p for a 2l bottle. I use it all the time to mix with cheap squash as a fizzy drink.

Other very cheap meals:
cooked pasta mixed with a chopped onion, some thawed frozen peas and a couple of spoonfuls of mayo,
cooked pasta mixed with hot caramelised onions and sprinkled with a tiny bit of finely grated parmesan. (Use a good sized onion per person, cook in a mixture of butter and oil. when soft, season and add a bit of sugar and cook for another 10minutes or so)
hot cooked pasta mixed into natural yoghurt with some curry powder, a chopped onion and a couple of chopped tomatoes
spicy split pea soup - split peas, chopped onion, a couple of chopped carrots and a couple of chopped potatoes. Add veg stock and curry powder and simmer until peas have broken down and all veg is very tender. Eat with bread

Thanks everybody for taking the time to help me out :)

So, here's how we've managed this week:

Bought a huge bag of porridge oats and had that for brekkie every morning - which is good 'cos we both love that (dunno why we don't have it more often actually).

I never bother with lunch anyway, but DS has had beans on toast, scrambled eggs, soup & bread, poached eggs etc for his (large tray of value eggs from ASDA).

For dinner I have been more creative. Bought a large bag of value frozen mince from ASDA (nicer than expected) and we've had bolognese & cottage pie twice each - thankfully already had pasta & various herbs etc in the cupboard. Mega bag of spuds means we've had chips, roasties & mash with things like frozen sausages and burgers etc. Have also bought value frozen veg (will ALWAYS buy now, because cannot tell the difference between these and "normal" brands).

Next week we have slightly more to spend, but not much, so I am going to make use of some of the recipes you've all supplied, which I've copied down.

There's something deeply, deeply satisfying about producing a meal out of not much - far more satisfying than buying something expensive and shoving it in the oven. I have definitely been bitten by the economy cooking bug.

Again, thanks v. v. much all of you :)

Glad to hear it has gone so well. Can I make a suggestion? Of you feel you have done so well this week then don't increase your spending next week. You can alter things to become different meals ie shepherds pie become chilli and wedges. Plus do not waste anything before you go to tge shops again half an end of week sale and even if you all end up with something different or have a strange combo the mission is not to waste anything.

Glad to hear that you had a successfully frugal week and still ate well. Don't stint on feeding yourself though!

One chicken breast - cook it first in some boiling water, one egg, two thick slices of stale-ish bread.

Blend bread into breadcrumbs. Slice chicken breast into strips, dip in beaten egg, coat in bread crumbs and lightly fry until crisp and pale golden brown. You get a huge pile of chicken goujons from one breast. (If you have some dried herbs or spices you can mix them in with the breadcrumbs to make spicy. Serve with potato wedges.

Or you can do the same with Sainsbo's basic white fish frozen, which is about £2 a packet, to make fish goujons. Serve with potato wedges or with rice cooked in with mixed veg.

make a big pot of sauce with tinned tomatoes or fresh, lots of garlic and herbs, then transfer to containers and freeze,this sauce is very versatile, you can add meat of your choice, make spag bol, or sheperds pie, add frozen mixed veg for a cottage pie, even a curry ,for a curry just add ginger and garam masala and chilli powder to sauce then add the meat, cook on a sizzle till done, this sauce is lovely with prawns and springonions added to it add a little chillies for heat

I see that dal has been mentioned, but I thought I'd post my favourite recipe for it here. Loads of great ideas on this thread, I feel inspired.

Lentil Soup

Fry onion(s), garlic, and curry spices (chilli, cumin, coriander) with chopped carrots (quantity of everything is whatever you have available - carrots are often reduced at end of day in supermarket and you can use Basics/Value ones).

Add cup of red lentils, stock cube and water. Boil for about 30 minutes until lentils soft. Blend (the hand blenders you stick in the pan are the easiest).

It's really tasty. You can cook ordinary suet dumplings in it once you've blended to stretch it out and you can get a lot of servings out of it (I used to find it 50 to 75p a portion on average).

Bacon and potato hotpot

If you can get some potatoes reduced, they are a bit more costly these days. Peel and slice potatoes, chop onions, cut up bacon into pieces. Layer in casserole dish potatoes salt/pepper onion bacon potatoes salt/pepper onion bacon until you reach the top (potatoes). If less money use less bacon. Pour white sauce over top and bake about 2 hours (you want very brown on top).

goes to read rest of thread