Costed meals to help others budget 🙂

[Dumbndumber]

Hi all,

Following on from another thread, I thought I'd cost out the meals/recipes I'm cooking in the hope it helps others and gives ideas.

Everyone else is welcome to do the same. 🙂

Menu from the other week (mentioned in a previous thread).

This was for 2 adults and one older teen for the last week with a few extra portions:

Sunday
1 x turkey crown 1.6kg (paid £2, yellow sticker down from £22)..only 600g meat eaten at this meal (roughly), though:
with 5 medium potatoes 1kg (~80p), roasted,
and carrots and peas (~ 60p),
plus gravy from the juices (~20p)
and stuffing (32p).

Total cost £2.62 as we had 200g meat each, so say 70p for the meat used in this meal.

Monday

Homemade leftover turkey curry (4 portions... 3 dinner, one lunch) using:

~ 500-600g turkey meat fm the crown (~70p)
2 onions (14p)
2 large tbsp homemade curry paste (16p)
400g coconut milk (69p)
Stock cube (6p)
Served with 225g (raw weight) Thai rice (3 portions) (25p) as rice was on offer @5kg for £5.50

Total cost £1.29 for the dinner inc leftover sauce for lunch

Tuesday

Green bean risotto with pesto made using:

1 onion (7p)
2 cloves garlic (6p)
Stock cube (6p)
2 tsp Green pesto (10p)
125g green beans (15p)
125g peas (14p)
250g risotto rice (70p) But could use a cheaper rice

Total £1.28 for 4 portions

Weds

Turkey soup/stew made on Tuesday with:

leftover carcass/meat/stuffing (70p turkey + 15p stuffing)
150g pearl barley (29p)
1 sweet potato (15p)
6 potatoes 1.2kg (96p)
1 large carrot (7p)
1 onion (7p)
400g baked beans (28p)
1tbsp cornflour (5p)
Salt and pepper

Total cost £2.72 made 5 large portions

Thursday

400g chicken fillets (£2.90)
2 Bell peppers (50p)
1 onion (7p)
450g noodles (10p) yellow sticker
Homemade soy and ginger sauce (40p)

Total for 4 portions £3.97

Friday

Jacket potato with cottage cheese and tuna (serves 2) with 1 portion of filling left for lunch.

[Teen ate out]

2 × 250g potatoes (40p)
2 x 145g tins of tuna (£1.30)
2 x 300g tubs cottage cheese (£1.48)
1 tsp paprika (3p)
1 tsp curry powder (3p)
Salt and pepper

Total £3.24 for 2 dinner portions and 1 small leftover filling portion for lunch

Sat
Sourdough Pizza with goats cheese and beets

3 × 10" Homemade sourdough pizza bases (50p)
100g tomato puree (30p)
1 onion (7p)
½ red pepper (15p)
50g mushrooms (25p)
2 cooked beetroots, diced (40p)
100g goats cheese (£1.20)
100g cheddar (59p)

Total £3.46

So the total for that week, for all dinners plus a few lunch portions was £18.58 for 26 portions

I tend to buy good quality meat when it's on offer and freeze, so I'm able to keep my spending down. It also means we eat a variety of things, and some weeks less meat than others, which also keeps the costs down.

The other day we had Feta Tiganito, made using:

200g salad cheese (85p)
1 sliced aubergine, grilled (45p)
1½ onion, diced (10p)
400g tin chopped tomatoes (35p)
Herbs and spices/seasonings (2p)
3 cooking red/green peppers, diced (70p)
100g diced mushrooms (50p)
2 stale slices of crust (bread) (5p)

Served with:
3 x large wholemeal pita breads (15p as it had 30% off..normally 25p)

I made a tomato sauce using the herbs/spices peppers, mushrooms, tinned tomatoes and onion. I then layered this in a dish and topped with some sliced aubergine and then some feta. I then repeated the layers and finished with a layer of cheese, which I topped with some homemade breadcrumbs.

The sauce was enough for 4 portions, but there's only 3 of us, so 1 was kept for lunch the next day.

Today's dinner is pork stir fry with veggies, noodles and a satay sauce.

To serve 2 (as teen is eating something else with the pork).

2 pork loin steaks, cubed ~280g (from a kilo pack costing £3.99 on offer at aldi). (£1.12)
25g shredded spring greens (7p)
2 spring onions, shredded (8p)
1 medium carrot, (68g), thinly sliced (3p)
50g mushrooms (10p) offer price Aldi 79p/400g
½ red pepper (15p)
¼ courgette (30g), thinly sliced (8p) £1.29/500g
1 sachet satay sauce (39p)
200g konjac noodles (99p), but you could easily substitute egg noodles, which are cheaper.

Cook the seasoned pork, add the veg and noodles, season with salt and pepper to taste, and stir fry for 4-5mins until veg turns brighter, then add sauce, loosen to taste, if required, and serve.
Total cost for 2 adult portions £3.01

Edited as it removed all of my paragraphs and spaces.

No-one?

My portion sizes are based on recommended ones, or the recipe (if I've followed one). I realise a lot of people are used to eating larger portions, but we all find it enough, and there's nothing to stop you adapting it for your own family.. you'd just need to adjust the costings accordingly. 🙂

You can always add fruit, yogurt, etc, for afters if you have people with bigger appetites/manual jobs.

Although it took some getting used to, we find it's nice to be full rather than stuffed.

I'm not sure how useful this is to others, as you're using yellow stickered meat that others won't be able to get. Plus, you're costings are a bit misleading, as generally you can't buy 25g kale, 50g mushrooms, 1/4 of a courgette etc. Plus, not sure where you're getting your peppers from they're about 60p each round here (all supermarkets, not significantly cheaper in a multipack )- yet you seem to be costing them at less than 25p each!

Conceptually, I like the idea of what you are trying to do, and we eat fairly similarly, but I don't think it's really helpful to others as it's not giving a true representation of what they'd need to spend to replicate your recipes.

Ok. Although only 2 are.

And that changes from day to day and week to week.
I've bought a bag of greens to use over several meals and have just given the price for the amount used in each recipe, which I demonstrated with the pork steaks, as I used 280g from a kilo pack. Aldi often has some meat on offer each week, so I tend to buy whatever that is. I also buy in bulk (eg, half lamb) from a local butcher, who raise and slaughter their own meat, which I know not everyone can do.

If it's more helpful, I can put the shop I've done with the meal plan alongside it.

Thanks.
I buy cooking/wonky peppers which are cheaper and freeze, if needed. I have just bought more, and they've gone up to £1.55 per pack, but there are between 5 and 6 in a pack, so that's still not bad. They are obviously not massive, but it's generally enough in a meal.