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.

thanks everyone for all the replies it's been really enlightening (particularly on the issue of how much we rely on veg rather than carbs to fill up on, and correspondingly how much more that costs).

the next step for me is to cost out all our regular meals and do a bit of juggling so we have the cheaper ones more often. also a price comparison box vs supermarket vs market for the veg to see how much difference that actually makes.

Most of my veg comes from the garden: MUCH cheaper.

I also buy lamb wholesale.

Am making spaghetti for four of us. Will cost about 8 quid I think.

if i had a garden that wasn't 3ft square and full of slugs OR a freezer that fit more than a bag of chips and a packet of fishfingers i'd do that too marsbars

our chili was just under £7.50 tonight (i can't have chili without fresh salsa [rolleyes] which bumps it up). but tbh i could have skipped the meat and it would have been pretty much as good and come in under a fiver. i'll do that next time.

About £15 from chippy tonight,luckily rather cheap for 6

Usually about £8 £10 I would guess for us all- comlpicated thopugh by GF and cf diets so pasta and things are not so cheap, and I try to buy decent quality meat etc and I do prioritise that over most things

Maybe £2 for the three of us (Me, DH and DS(1)).

Jacket potatoes
cheese
veg

a couple of nectarines

One of our cheaper and simpler meals because it is our swimming lesson day so we get home rather late to be doing much cooking!

A kilo of fresh spinach and ricotta ravioli that DH brought back from Milan last Friday = 20 euros

Cream and cheese for sauce = about 5 euros

Cherry vine tomatoes = 8 euros

Fruit for pudding = about 8 euros

1/3 of a bottle of wine = 4 euros

yum Bonsoir!

DP goes to Milan once a month and always brings back 4 x 1 kg of delicious pasta from the shop next to his Milan HQ. Different flavours depending on the season! Can't wait for December and truffle season...

We had pasta with chicken, peppers, olives and tomato sauce, then yoghurt.

So about £1.60 for 1 chicken breast plus 40p for the olives, 60p for the pepper, a few pence for the onion (say 20p), 59p for the tinned tomatoes, roughly 42p for DD's yoghurt, £1.25 for mine and DH's. I think pasta is about 70p for 500g and we used about 200g, so 28p

So £5.34 altogether, eek, that seems like a lot

shedloads

maccy ds for 2 dcs

other dc was at friends

sainsburys indian bits and bobs for me and dh which is so not normally how we eat but today was no fun and i ca't be arsed

how do you feed 3 on 200g of pasta and a single chicken breast tabitha? i do 400g for 4 of us and the kids are only 6 and 2. do you have supper later?

Fish lasagne for me and ds2
Sardines on toast for ds1

(dh away)

Approx £8 (plus wine)

As we have no kitchen tonight (at last the insurers have pulled their fingers out and it is getting sorted), dinner this evening will be take away Indian, so £15.

I recko that a evening meal for 3 adults and 3 hardly eating children for a fiver is well expensive

Ours was about £12 today,

We had jacket potatoes, chicken (or veggie kiev), bean salad, coleslaw, tomatoes and spinach, rocket and watercress salad.

I am feeling rubbish today so I whizzed round marks earlier and got things I didn't need to do much to.

am also impressed at £2 minimarmite - where do you shop? you couldn't get that lot at sainsbos for less than £3-4 (although i'm realising my definition of "some veg" isn't quite the same as normal people's )

beans and cheese on toast so about 50 per person

Basmati for 4 - about 90p;
'posh' Stir fry vege - 2.00
bit of Thai paste - about 80p
coconut cream - 89p
Cashews - about 60p
Coriander - about 40p
Fresh chilli - grown by dp

Dp actually commented as he ate how good it was for something so reasonably priced!

Macaroni cheese. for 2 adults and 2 children with leftovers for tomorrow lunch.
50p macaroni
£1.50 cheese
£1.00 bacon
20p onion
68p tin of sweetcorn
tablespoon flour
tablespoon butter
40p pint of milk

£4.28

runnerbeans from the garden

mashed potatoes 60p for huge bag in Aldi so guess 20p?

carrots- 5 carrots out of bag, which was about 70p, so maybe 20p.

broccoli - 49p in Aldi, had whole head.

sweetcorn - 40p a tin

peas - frozen, guess about 30p.

fishfingers (dds)- £1 (they had 5 between them)

quorn fillet thing (me)- £1 for 2,so 50p.

Pears and nectarines, and a yoghurt each.
£1 for yoghurts?
50p for fruit?

Comes in at less than £5.
So pretty good

Pork escalopes £2 for 4
Rice 1/3 packet 45p
peppers x2 £1
onions x2 50p

Aero mousse yoghurts 50p for 4

So less than £5 for 5 of us!!

we had chilli con carne last night and leftovers for lunch today

mince 800g £2.90
chopped toms 2 cans 80p
kidney beans 1 can 35p
chilli spices 75p
baked beans 43p
rice about 20p
garlic bread £1

three adults ate it for dinner and then a light lunch

£6.50 ish........ shite that spensive