Help I need cheap ideas for tea

[whowantssmore]

Ok I need some ideas to add to this weeks meal plan. Things are extremely tight this week so i have to pull off some kind of miracle to make sure the kids are fed & full. So far I have
Dippy eggs & toast
beans/ scrambled eggs on toast
naan bread pizza
pasta bake
chicken drumsticks with teriyaki sauce & fried rice.
kids are 6,8 & 14. They are not to fussy, no allergies or anything. I would love if anyone has some suggestions.

Do you have TikTok?

It’s amazing for cheap recipes.

Oh good shout I will check it out

Home made soup, jacket potato cheese & beans, sausage & bean casserole with crusty bread (slice the sausages to make them go further), sausage & pasta bake topped with breadcrumbs & cheese.

Supermarket own brand fish fingers
Vegi mince to make bolognese / chilli

Lunches- how about soup (even if it is tomato out of a can!)... mine love it with grated cheese on top and white bread!

Jacket potatoes with humous and roasted veg?

Ham, eggs & chips (extra bonus for pineapple rings!)

Roast dinner but with sausages? (Again, bonus for stuffing balls & yorkies).

Bean and winter vegetable casserole with dumplings or cobbler (scone) topping.

Cheese on toast with tinned soup.

Spanish omelette or egg & chips

Spaghetti with a tomato sauce, use tinned tomatoes.

Is there anything you have in that you could add to to make a meal?
Any allergies or dislikes?
What facilities do you have -can you afford to use your oven?

Tesco had started selling potatoes 2 kg at 19p a bag, other veg will follow this week.

Yes I think all supermarkets are following suit this week so that makes a perfect starting point. And a lot of it is root veg so really filling

Also have a look on the BBC News website at the food section (use the drop down menu from the banner headline). It has a lot of budget meal recipes and ideas for families.

If your family will eat it get some tinned fish (I tend to use tuna but whatever you fancy), and some of the 19p potatoes and make some fishcakes. If fish wouldn't go down so well cheese and onion cakes work just as well and make a filling dinner with some baked beans on the side.

Thank you all some great ideas. I do have a few things in. pasta, lots of chicken drumsticks for some reason, rice, some frozen veg, some tinned soup. Yep I can use my oven by some miracle I am massively in credit with my energy supplier. I can save money by biking to work this week.

Macaroni cheese.

Egg and chips.

Sausage casserole (pk of sausages, tin of tomatoes, onion, carrot) serve with rice.

Chicken burger from the meat counters very cheap.
Serve with own brand Spicy Wedges (again very cheap) just cook them for longer than it says to get them crispy.

Chick pea curry
Potato and mushroom curry
Tuna pasta
Baked tattie and tuna mayo
Very chunky minestrone - tinned toms, celery, onion, potato chunks, pasta, kidney beans and stock or seasoning.

Risotto if you have any suitable rice in cupboard - simple base with onion, rice, butter and stock cube then whack in any odds and sods you might have lurking in the fridge: left over cooked chicken/few rashers of bacon chopped/handful of frozen peas/grated parmesan/peppers/mushrooms/sausage etc

Macaroni cheese - pasta, butter, flour/cornflour, milk, cheese; throw in any green veg you have on side.

Carbonara - spaghetti, egg yolks, parmesan, bacon

Tomato sauce for pasta - tinned toms, chopped onion, garlic, pinch of sugar, dried herbs - can throw in small amount of any other veggies/meat/fish you have and top with grated cheese

Corned beef hash - boiled potatoes, onion, tin of corned beef

Eggy bread +/- bacon/sausage/grilled toms

Cauliflower cheese and rice

Veggie chilli - tinned toms, tinned beans (kidney/chickpeas/baked beans etc), onion +/- chopped pepper, chilli powder/paprika
-serve with rice/cous cous/ jacket spud/sweet potato/wraps

Google Jack Monroe recipes for inspiration.

Hope things get a bit easier money wise soon x

Bacon and cabbage
Pot pie (you can stretch any meat a long way with mixed veg, onions and gravy)
Bangers and mash
Stew and dumplings
Mince and cobbler
Cottage pie
Pasta bake
Lentil and bacon soup
Stovies, or basically any other regional 'peasant food' stewed dish

If you have flour and some kind of fat like butter, margarine, lard, suet or cheese that's usually a great way to bulk things out by doing pastry/dumplings etc. or if not potatoes are always a winner, or serve everything with cheap bread and butter.

Can you make yourself a list of what you already have in fridge/freezer/cupboards? Finding a way to use mainly what you've already got in will make a huge difference.

If you're shopping for the list above you should have enough pasta left to make a second pasta meal. Does the chicken meal leave any drumsticks from the pack not used? If so something like chicken and sweetcorn pasta could be a good shout. Or if not a tomatoe sauce from a tin of tomatoes and any veg you already have in?

Do you celebrate xmas and if so do you already have a plan for what you're cooking that day? Would it be worth thinking along the lines of "I'll need potatoes on xmas day so I'll buy a bag now, serve jackets on night and save the rest for xmas day" etc.

Roast dinner using the chicken drumsticks, add Yorkshire puddings to pad it out.

Toad in the hole.

Chicken casserole with the drumsticks and frozen veg.

Pasta bake with the frozen veg.

Chicken or vegetable curry with generous helpings of rice.

If you already have chicken legs you could do a traybake. Buy the 19pence veg, most supers are doing this for Christmas so cube potatoes, sliced carrots, parsnips and onions. Toss in some oil and season with salt, pepper, garlic granules or some dried herbs if you have them, roast for 15 mins at about 180 degrees and then rub oil on the chicken legs and season, lay on top of the veg and roast for another 30 mins. We do this dinner with chicken pieces regularly and excluding the cost of having the oven on its less than a pound a portion.

Pasta sauce is cheap to make. Onions and garlic whatever veg you have really with tinned tomatoes. Add a little bit sugar makes all the difference.

Pancakes. Kids love pancakes, why not have them for tea in December (pancakes aren’t just for Feb 🤣🤣).

Sorry - cross posted with your message. Thats a pretty reasonable stock in, and I think you can probably do 4 meals without spending more than £1.

If you've got chicken drumsticks and frozen veg I would buy some potatoes and do a mini roast. One drumstick each, whatever frozen veg you've got, lots of roast potatoes to fill up on.

I'd also do a curry. You've got rice, chicken (cook a couple of extra drumsticks when you do the roast and strip the meat off to use for the curry) and use up any last bits of frozen veg. Have you got spices / sauce you could use for this already in?

Then a tomato pasta one night which will just need a tin of tomatoes plus any onion/garlic/pepper etc you've got leftover in the fridge. And soup + bread for another meal.

Any help?

Download the super cook website.
You put what ingredients you already have in and say what meal it's for any diet requirements and it will suggest meals to make.

Tinned fish and tinned beans (of all types) are your friends

When I was gowing up in the 70s, things on toast were dinner, sardines, cheese, eggs, bacon and beans, beans on their own

Make chillis or currys with tinned lentils or tinned beans, therefore not too much cooking needed saving on heat fuel.

You can stock up on carby cheap veg as other have said but dont forget your protiens as they will fill you up

Thanks all again. I'm going to run through all the options with the kids & go shopping tonight when the youngest are in bed. I'm actually very organized for Christmas this year. Gifts all all wrapped & I have a turkey in the freezer. We have a birthday between now & Christmas so I planned some really nice things to do & I worked a lot of overtime to cover it. Unfortunately my boss didn't enter my hours on time so instead of getting overtime on Fridays pay I now wont get it until Dec 30th. I would rather drastically cut back on this weeks food shop so i can still cover everything else. I really appreciate the replies.