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.

but 5 pound for one of your meals every day is 150 a month

and thats just for one meal a day

It just cant be ok

its way too much

a cheaper meal we have is (hope it is cheaper, starts to panic)

pasta 500g 75p
jar of sauce 36p
cheese 80p
garlic bread £1

nearly 3 quid? ish
shite thats a bit shit for only one meal

I'm shocked now

Chicken tikka massala, ready made, from the most expensive local supermarket £3.00. Garlic Naan £1.49 that was a quick meal but not cheap at £4.49 just me and DD.

mwff DD is only 21 months so doesn't eat much. But maybe it was more pasta than that, I didn't actually weigh it, just shook it in.
I always used to use just one chicken breast for me and DH before DD was born, and bulk out with veg; I don't cook any more than I used to, just give DD some of what would have been mine. It should be good for my hips - but in fact I am just as fat as ever

sorry, didn't mean to grill you tabitha i'm just totally amazed by how little most people seem to eat

Am surprised at the number of meals that don't seem to involve vegetables.

We seem to eat sooooooo much food: dd2 is as skinny as a rake but eats as much as dp and HE eats as much as about four people, if he can get it!

Turkey breast steaks (£4)
fresh mushrooms (about £1)
tagliatelli (£1.50)
fresh green beans (£2)

So, £8.50 fed six of us (2 adults and 4 hungry children aged 7 to 13). I also used basic staples such as a bit of oil, some flour, s&p, parsley, cornflour and chicken stock.

I try not to spend even that much but they love this particular meal.

Something like spag bol:

£2.50 beef mince
tomatoes/herbs/onions/garlic/olive oil £1
third bottle of red wine £1.50
da cecco spaghetti - £1

so ~ £6

that would be a cheap meal. Not made cheaply, but cheaper than some of the other stuff we have.

We'd usually spend something around/over £10 I think, that would be e.g. a guinea fowl (£6), couscous (£1?), roasted vegetables (£2.50), passata (£1?), herbs, spices, tomatoes etc. Or paella would be about £1 for the rice, £3 on prawns, £2.50 on chicken, £3 on cooking chorizo, £1 on packet of chicken stock (might use two), £1 on onions, garlic, chili, paprika, saffron, and £2 on squid/mussels.

I often buy a relatively large but not too pricey cut of meat - e.g., lamb shoulder, these often seem to come out about £8.

For 2+2. Many of these meals would do for lunch as well.

Have been known to spend up to about £20 on a BBQ.

I use 200g pasta for two adults two children 6 and 4. But we usually have starter and dessert and there is bread on the table.

I should think you need more if you are only eating one course.

Completely with all you guys on the meatballs being on offer in Waitrose

So normally it would be cheap, but I had to be greedy...

£2 for meatballs
£1.50 for the nice twisty pasta
£1 garlic baguette
£2.75 for camembert melted in the oven as dip for garlic bread
£1 for jar of pasta sauce

so, £8 ish (I suck at math).

Half a bag of jacket wedges 50p
Pack of fishcakes £1
Peas 50p max
Sweetcorn 36p

Total £2.36
2 Adults, 2 hungry DC, less than 60p each!

oh yes we did two * Waitrose meatballs a couple of days ago too. But in a tomato sauce with spaghetti.

Lots of different meals here tonight.

Ds2 is having sausages from farm shop, mash, veg - approx £1
Ds1 is having pasta and pesto - approx 80p
Yoghurts for both dcs - 80p
I'm having pie, mash, veg - approx £4

approx £6.60 for 3 people

Very cheap meal for us tonight

200g lentils 0.48
400g pasta 0.40
1 pepper 0.23
1 cartonpassata 0.42
75 g olives 0.32
1 onion 0.09
2 cloves garlic 0.02
doughballs 1.00

so £2.96 plus pennies for salt, pepper, chilli, basil etc

Oh! except that doesn't include the cheese so probably another £1.50 on top of that. Not as cheap as I thought...

Tonight we are having veggie fajitas -

Quorn chunks - about 1.50
tortillas - 89p on offer
2 peppers - one pound
onion - about 10p
sweetcorn - about 30p
kidney beans - 19p
fajita spice - a pound-ish
soured cream - 89p
lettuce and cucumber and grated carrot - erm - about 80p?

Free meal for us as nothing fresh:

Chicken saag masala & rice for me and extra veggie meat spag bol for the DSs. Curry and bolognese from freezer.

I always put a lot of veg in our meals, but then probably 50% of each meal is carb - rice/pasta/couscous, which brings down the costs a lot.

I've also started using value long grain rice rather than branded basmati as rice prices seem to have gone up massively in the last year. No idea how much the meals cost, as I make 20 x 2 child portions of spag bol and 10 x 1 adult portions of curry at a time.

cheapo for us tonight - finally! - baked potatoes with beans and cheese (£2.80 inc. butter) and homemade tarte tatin (all organic ingredients, free apples from our tree £2.80 plus cream 30p).

that fed us plus an extra adult and there's half the tart left (so £4.50 for 5)

We had a chicken stew thing with rice. Only for one adult and one child, though.

About £1 for two (free range) chicken thighs, maybe another quid for some carrots, mushrooms and a leek to go in it. Spring onions from the garden, stock from the freezer, dried thyme from a jar and half a glass of wine, maybe another 50p. Served with rice - another 20p at a guess maximum, probably less. How much is a bag of rice, anyway? A pound? So £3ish or a bit less. But I have a big leftover portion of the veg and sauce to have with leftover rice one day at work for lunch, too, which I've frozen.

About 30p.

Getting over a bug (thanks dd1) so just a couple of handfull of pasta a smidge of butter.

resurrecting thread with revelation that free range roast chicken (inc. marsala for gravy, goose fat for spuds) is our cheapest meal so far at under £4. i'm a bit stingy with the meat cos i make 2 more meals out of it (risotto/pasta then soup).

i recommend this costing out each meal tactic as it turns out that it's not as obvious as you might think which are the cheap meals and which aren't.

Tonight it's veg chilli for two:

half pack quorn mince 50p (normally 1.99/bafg, was bogof)
onion 15p
chopped toms 20p
kidney beans 20p
rice 20p
peas 10p
red wine 50p (in sauce, I will probably drink a fair bit more!)
tom purée 20p
cheese 50p

so £2.55 for two of us plus we'll freeze the leftovers.

It is defintely worth considering meal cost when meal planning, we do have more expensive meals (eg Mexican with all the dips, or organic salmon) but usually once a week and another night we'll have beans on toast or other budget option!

This is a brilliant thread.

Tonight we are having:

Roasted new potatoes 1.50 but buy one get one free so 75p with a few cloves of garlic (about 15p?) and some of dp's home grown rosemary, with beany pattie things - about two pounds altogether and spiced peas - about 50p.

Where did you get your chicken, mwff? That is very cheap!

Tonight we had roast duck legs (£2.99 for two in Sainsburys), roast potatoes (about 30p for enough for me and DD), gravy (stock made with some slightly past their best carrot, onion, leek and celery plus a bay leaf, maybe 20p), roasted onions (say, 20p) and spring greens (about 40p). So about £4 for two people. I do still have quite a lot of meat, veg and potatoes left. The meat will make me a sandwich for my lunch tomorrow and the veg and potatoes will be turned into bubble and squeak for breakfast.

3 mushrooms(10p), 1/4 onion(5p), handful of pasta(10p), last dregs of pesto sauce( already done 2 family meals so total cost of jar 1.50 - ?25p) leftover chicken (50p)

A grand total of £1

And I made far to much and had to throw some out hate throwing food away.

Only had myself to cater for though

You see, if that was me, norks, I'd be saving it and attempting to think of something I could do with it (with no success) until it went off in the fridge and smelt. Throwing things away is good sometimes!

chicky going cheap - lol - in sainsbos (£5.50) but have only counted a third of it in the meal as would have done us another 2 (if hadn't been left out where cat got it )

so no risotto for us tonight, bubble n squeak instead, free range eggs, grilled tomatoes, £2.10 for 2. there's definitely something in this veggie thing...