how much did tonight's tea/dinner/supper cost?

[mwff]

not a "budget meals" type thread, more a question for anyone, foodies included, who'd care to answer.

what would you consider a reasonable budget for a main meal for (say) 2 adults, 2 children? "feed your family for a fiver" - is that ludicrous extravagance in your book or would it barely cover the starter?

i think i've totally lost touch with what food actually costs and whilst i feel i'm cooking reasonably thrifty meals (mostly home cooked cheap cuts bulked out with lots of veg) our food costs seem to have spiralled through the roof.

i'm not looking for budgeting/shopping tips there are many threads with that info that i've been reading keenly, but i was curious to find out what the average family meal actually costs these days.

how much did tonight's cost?

Nothing for me - rice was bought for me by SIL 2 weeks ago, and chicken stew brought round by my best friend (I shan't tell her that actually the pot that was "plenty for all of us" was barely enough for DS1 and 2 together - they're big eaters lol)

On a normal basis for 5 of us (2 adults, 2 children that eat bigger portions than one of the adults, and one toddler) I would spend approx

£3-5 on a vegetarian meal
£5-10 on a meat meal (depending on what meat we get).

Well there are five of us. Tonight was spaghetti with meatballs in tomato sauce. So, packet spaghetti = 56p, 500ml passata - 41p, 500gr beef mince £2.50ish, onions, peppers, 60p (ish), 1/4 jar pesto 50p = roughly £4.50 or just under £1 per person.

Do you know, I was just thinking how expensive our veggie meal cost tonight.

Tin of cannelini beans, tin of black beans, 7 mushrooms, a pepper, drop of passata, garlic clove,all into tortilla wraps, with a tub of guacomole.
That tots upto over a fiver.

i like to spend less that that on all 5 of us.

potato wedges tomorrow and cheese soouffle. Will make up the balance I hope.

We spent about a tenner tonight - smoked haddock for us, chicken goujons for the kids, baked potatoes and spinach.

Chicken fried rice for 2 - about £3

Leftover roast chicken - £1
Rice - 15p
2 eggs - 35p
1/2 pack beansprouts - 30p
1 carrot - 10p
1/3 can sweetcorn - 20p
1/2 pepper - 35p
Few peas, a spring onion, garlic, spices, oil, soy sauce - 50p?

Difficult to cost as one meal tends to roll into another with leftovers!

We had home made pizzas. Not completely home made - bought base and then added toppings. So approx 4 quid I'd guess, but only two of us as DD's had eaten out.

Oh, forgot about the wine, that bumped it up

We spend about 8-10 pounds on an evening meal for 4 - including yoghurts or fruit for pud. I don't budget on food really, I buy more expensive meat and if something looks nice but is expensive, I tend to buy it. I'd rather cut back on takeaways and eating out and have good food at home.

So a roast dinner will be £15-20, spag bol nearer £8-10 but that will do leftovers for the kids the next day, too.

Pork tenderloin fillet (unbelievably cheap, from Sainsbury £3.75) mixed with paprika, stock, 1/2 pot of creme fraiche; served with cabbage, broccoli, mashed potatoes. I reckon £5-6 for 4 of us, adult sized portions each.

£5 for 2 adults

ours was an emergency fix meal: supermarket steak pie £3.40, green beans £1.30, new pots 85p = £5.35

wasn't really enough (2 adults, 1 medium child, 1 hungry toddler) dd1 was asking for pudding and me&dp are hungry again now. i just costed out our spag bol, including the cheese on top at £5.25 which is massively more filling, but haven't had time for proper cooking recently.

interesting distinction alfa, veg vs non-veg. i often base meals around the veg (get a box), but i rarely make actual veggie meals, there's usually a bit of bacon or something in there, and that definitely pushes the cost up.

Me, DH, 7y DD: linguine with spinach and mushrooms, garlic bread

mushrooms (1/2 pack) = 65p
linguine = (1/2 pack) = 65p
spinach (1/2 bag)= 50p
leek (1/2 pack) = 80p
garlic cloves = 10p
garlic bread = £2.10
thyme (1/2 pack) = 40p

So: £4.84 or £1.61 per person

Fab tagine made by DH - probably on the expensive side for us as we don't eat much meat. Hard to cost some of it as we buy a lot in bulk, but roughly
500g stewing steak £3.18
Veg - say £1, some was from our veg box, rest from the garden
Couscous - not sure, but under 50p (buy 3kg packs)
Hot green sauce - maybe another 50p for spices, oil & tahini, plus a lot of parsley from the garden.
I'd guess about £5.50, and it'll do 2 meals for 3 of us with extra couscous tomorrow.

Meatballs with pasta and tomato sauce. About £3.00 for all of us.

we are officially greedy fuckers i've been looking at your ingredients thinking half a pepper? half a pack of pasta?

Liver & bacon, greens, mash and gravy - my favourite dinner of all time, lovingly cooked for me by my dad! Very cheap especially as I bought a 5kg bag of spuds in Aldi for 75p this week and liver is very cheap.

My dad calls it "wartime food"!! Still best dinner ever and I put a special request in once in a while!

How many of you Georgimama? Have I been too extravagant with my £4.50 for five?

i do have a rule for meat - i buy mostly from our farmer's market and for a weekday meal i won't buy a pack that costs over £3, be it sausages, mince, livers etc. i will pay more for a chicken but that will do more than one meal.

how do you manage meatballs for £3 gm? for me it's pretty much the same ingredients as spag bol which is over a fiver.

Homemade pizza

half bag bread flour = about 50p
plus yeast, small amount of sugar and olive oil - another 50p at most
left over ham - about £1
fresh pineapple, reduced to 69p
cheese - about £2.50 worth I estimate
pepper - 40p

So adds up to about £5.50. Not bad for three adults and two children

No - for two plus 2 small portions for DS for freezer. I didn't make the meatballs and they were half price in Sainsbury's.

Chicken wraps and rhubarb crumble for 5 (2 adults, 2 4yr olds and a 7yrold)
Chicken - £3.80 - not much as free range, but it stretched
tortillas - £1
spinach leaves 1/4 pack-25p
grated carrot 2 -20p
grated cheese - 50p
sesame seeds and 1 egg and flour on chicken -30p
crumble - flour -30p
butter 25p
rhubarb 50p -school veg sale
sugar -25p
custard-59p

Total £7.80?ish?
I'm happy with that I think -Tesco feed family for a fiver is cheaper and is what my lot will have tomorrow when I am out all day and night -pasta meatballs, veg and apple pie.

mwff - I thought the same about the 1/2 a pepper - more like 3 peppers, half a pack of mushrooms, 2 onions, tin of beans chucked in to bulk it out a bit more

my lot won't eat liver kbear. am cos i love the stuff, but to be fair they try it every time and just aren't keen (even my toddler who eats anything without question).

Had meat casserole thing for 4 people...about £4..lots of veggies
And a veggie dish..around £1,50 I guess.

So, £5,50 for 5 people?