Cheapest dinners for 1?

Legacy_user

I need some ideas please

So far, have came up with

Toast & Beans, beans 30p, toast 10p = 40p!

gunsandbanjos

Try the old style board for super cheap ideas.

I find batch cooking makes my money go further.

PasturesNew

Beans on toast is 5p for bread and 17p for half a can of supermarket own brand (not the cheapies) beans.

One cheap meal I sometimes have is a cheapo packet of instant noodles, 15p, with half a can of cheapo peas, 7p. So 22p. But that's a main meal.

System

PasturesNew wrote: »

Beans on toast is 5p for bread and 17p for half a can of supermarket own brand (not the cheapies) beans.

One cheap meal I sometimes have is a cheapo packet of instant noodles, 15p, with half a can of cheapo peas, 7p. So 22p. But that's a main meal.

1 slice and half a tin is only around 300 calories, I need around 500-600 calories

MysteryMe

Spanish omelette using up left overs is a tasty meal, put in things like bacon, peas, potatoes, toms, onion whatever you have in the fridge.




Going to cost more than 15p but at least it's a proper meal

torbrex

berbastrike wrote: »

1 slice and half a tin is only around 300 calories, I need around 500-600 calories

make it 2 slices and add an egg (scrambled)

redfox

we move threads if we think they’ll get more help elsewhere (please read the forum rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

AnnieO1234

Are you looking for standalone meals or overall cost if you kept back leftovers etc?

Xx

babyshoes

I assume you are eating a healthy main meal at lunch time? If not, the many of the ideas you've had are not going to be good for you long term.

Baked beans are reasonably healthy (especially served on whole-wheat bread) as they are a good source of protein, vitamins and fibre, but are too high in salt and sugar to have more than a few times a week. The rest of the meals seem to be lacking either veg or protein in sufficient quantities to be more than occasional meals. Instant noodles with peas, for example, won't be enough in terms of calories or nutrition for a regular main meal - but is fine if the rest of your diet is good. Add another pack of noodles if needed, more veg (e.g. from a bag of frozen veg or just more peas) and some protein such as pieces of cooked sausage, leftover meat, beans (not baked beans, yuk!), quorn or a raw scrambled egg stirred in at the end and cooked until just done, and you have a meal which is reasonably nutritious apart from the salt and artificial flavourings in the noodles. I had a house-mate at uni who almost lived on this type of meal. He always added the egg, and often a chopped up hot dog sausage or bits of ham/salami etc. It didn't look great, but tasted surprisingly nice, for a cheap, easy meal.

Why not cook enough proper food for several meals at once, then freeze the leftovers for home made microwave meals? If you don't have a freezer, most things will last a few days in the fridge, and if you cook twice you can alternate the 2 meals for the rest of the week, or just cook once and dress it up differently - for example a batch of bolognese sauce can do second duty as a potato topping, it can also be made into lasagne, cottage pie and chilli... Just remember to heat things up well to kill off any bugs that may have appeared.

Pasta sauce can be very cheap to make - use a tin of tomatoes, some onion, a handful of bacon offcuts or other meat (optional), garlic, some herbs, black pepper and any other bits you fancy or have lurking in the fridge. Things like peppers, mushrooms and olives can be tasty. Some people add sugar to cut through the acidity of the tomatoes, I use a splash of milk or a blob of cream cheese. Simmer together for at least 30mins (1-2 hours is better, or all day in a slow cooker) and serve on pasta with a sprinkle of cheese. Will easily do 3-4 main meals. I often bulk it out with an extra tin of tomato to make a load of lunches for work too. Freeze just the sauce (not the cooked pasta - it does freeze but takes up space and is better stored dry) in single portions in ziplock bags which freeze flat & fit into small spaces in the freezer.
Bolognese can be made using a similar method, use a minimum of mince and bulk it out as much as your taste buds will allow. Investigate soya mince, oats, extra tinned tomatoes, grated carrots, other veg and lentils for bulking (not all at once though!) to see which ones you prefer. There are lots of threads on Oldstyle about bulking out meals!

Soups can also be very cheap to make, especially if you look for reduced veg and use up leftovers like the carcass of a chicken after roasting. Home made carrot and coriander soup, for example, is delicious and economical. Ham and pea soup can also be made very cheaply with frozen, tinned mushy peas or even dried peas, and doesn't need a lot of actual ham to taste good. There are a lot of soups out there made from cheap ingredients - I tend to see what veg I can find reduced or on special then look up a recipe from there, or just make it up as I go along! To make a soup more filling, add carbs like pearl barley, rice or pasta and leave the soup chunky. If that still doesn't seem like a proper main meal, serve it with grilled cheese on toast - the extra protein and fat in the cheese go a long way towards making you feel full.

I haven't priced these up, but although it would end up seeming expensive if you looked at the total cost, when you break it down into portions they should be quite reasonable, and pretty healthy.

In terms of staying healthy, veg is usually pretty cheap especially if you buy seasonal veg - if you find something cheap and don't know what to do with it, ask on here! The carbohydrates are usually cheapest for the amount of bulk and calories you get for your money, but provide the least nutrition, (unless you go for whole grain - and even then they aren't enough to stay healthy) while the protein portion tends to be the most expensive. We tend to eat more meat than we actually need in the UK, especially if we are getting some protein from non-meat sources. Experiment with soya, different beans, nuts, lentils, quorn and dairy products to get most of your protein. If you are eating enough of these types of protein, you can reduce your meat consumption significantly - though unless you care enough to do the research to ensure you are getting all the amino acids you need (and even committed vegetarians can struggle with this at first), you will probably still need to eat some meat once or twice a week to ensure your body gets enough of the right proteins. The official portion guideline is a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards daily - obviously this will be less if you are also eating other proteins - so as you can see you really need very little actual meat in your diet, and it need not be prime steak or lamb cutlets unless you want and can afford those! Try to think of it more as a 'flavouring' or side dish than as the main attraction of the meal - better for both your wallet and your health. Cheap meat need not be unpleasant if cooked correctly - tough meat just needs long, slow cooking to make it melt in the mouth delicious. I also think some types of offal can be very tasty if cooked correctly, such as oxtail and liver, though some types I've tried a few times and still dislike (kidney - bleargh!). Look at recipes on here and online for stews, offal, mince etc for ideas. Remember that you can almost always substitute or simply leave out expensive ingredients if necessary. Again, you can ask here on oldstyle how to adapt a recipe you like the sound of but that costs too much to make.

paddyrg

Baked potato?

Seakay

vegetable curry is very cheap - Iceland are doing big bags of prepared and frozen veg for 89p each at the moment (usually £1) and you just need a fresh onion and some curry powder to start you off.
It also depends on whether you want to spend as little as possible all the time or whether you can invest a little to save overall.
eg my local greengrocer was selling sacks of onions for £2 (they also have a reduced shelf where they sell off about to go over stuff for 50p a bag, excellent for cooking that day or freezing) so I bought one and made a huge batch of curry base which I froze in muffin tins and use as one person portions of curry base, adding a few handfuls of frozen veg and a piece of frozen fish (5 for £4 Iceland) some legumes, a little quorn or just veg alone.