Challenge-£1.99 ready meal or what else.

hex2

or buy frozen peppers pre chopped, about £1 a bag and they go a long way

shell2001

Phil

I chop carrot and leeks (both in season so cheap) and fry in oil till soft then add them to the liquidizer to puree down with the chopped toms (DH and DDs dont like chunks). I find doing this makes the mince go so much further and I think I now get twice the quantity out of my pack of mince - strange but true!

studentphil

I have cut loads off now by replacing real meat with Veggie mince - 1KG for £3.00

hazzie123

I would get two meals out all this.

I usually use,1 box of mince @ £2.00
1 large onion @ 25p
1 tin of chopped toms @ 17p
3 mushrooms @ 10p
1 packet of spaghetti @ 17p

Total cost £2.69

I`d cook all the ingredients apart from the spag which I`d only use half a packet.

First meal would average out at £1.60 roughly for spaghetti bol for 2 adults and 1 child.

Second meal I`d add another tin of chopped toms and a tin of kidney beans (smart price cheapo ones) tin of cheapo baked beans and some cheap curry powder to make chilli con carne and serve with cheap rice.Also for 2 adults and 1 child.

Far more healthy for you than what you would get out of a box.

dannahaz

Phil

Do you have a freezer? The other way to reduce the cost per meal is to make LOTS of the stuff and freeze it in meal sized pots. Then you'll have your own delicious "ready meals".

Overall you will also save lots of time. It will take you marginally more time to peel & chop the raw ingredients (because there are more of them), but the cooking time will be the same whether you have enough for one meal or enough for 8 meals.

stevenshell

studentphil wrote:

The key to making it cheaper is looking to find something more seasonal than pepers and corgettes which as they are imported cost more.

Exactly! And better still - growing your own! Plan now for next year and you'll have loads of veggies for "free" (less the seed cost!) And so many can be grown in containers if room is limited.

newlywed

If you buy pork mince, or turkey mince you can make spag bol cheaper without using value mince.

Edit: and for veg I usually chuck in a handful of frozen sweetcorn to bulk it out a bit.

stevenshell

mushrooms are also pretty cheap - I always bulk out spag with these!

Sarahsaver

I am steering clear of this thread after posting a list of my student fave meals yesterday - I dreamt I was a student again last night :eek:
Mind you it has inspired me to not spend any more on food this week apart from milk and fruit, so I am using up what's in the cupboard and freezer - some of it stil quite studenty! (lentil and pumpkin curry for example;))

Aril

Like others I lean mince and use value toms with onion, carrot and mushroom and I thicken it with tom puree. If I have a bit of red wine going spare or bacon/ham I also add that.
Aril