Yellow Sticker Dinner Challenge under £1 dinners

AgentSpike

Hello,


Hubby and I are trying to save as much money as possible. Therefore I have decided to challenge myself on my spending for dinners (evening meals). All dinners must include a yellow sticker (reduced) item. nb. This does not include staples such as breakfast cereals, tea, coffee, milk, drinks etc...
This does mean producing a meal for under £1 for the two of us, using whatever is lurking in the fridge / freezer or purchasing items, spending no more than £1 per day. For one month starting today. That is dinner for 2 (30 days = £30). Hope some of you find this useful....
The idea here is to share some inspiration for tasty cheap dishes


Day 1. From COOP I purchased large bag new potatoes for 20p, 1 iceberg lettuce for 10p, 6 buns for 20p, bag of white onions 35p, 1 large cauliflower 10p (all reduced) = 95p spent
Tonight we had "Big burgers" Two big Burger buns grilled, topped with shredded lettuce, white onion and burgers out of the freezer, which I griddled. Delicious. Whilst preparing tonight's dinner, I boiled all of the cauliflower florets and made up a white sauce using plain flour and milk. One portion I have now frozen, the other is in the fridge for tomorrows tea which will be chicken (portions out of freezer) with cauliflower and potatoes.
The remaining cauliflower I added milk and cumin seeds too (now also in the freezer, blitzed) this will be a soup for a future dinner which I intend to serve with crusty bread buns (the remaining 4 buns are now in the freezer)
Now I have 3 meals and have spent less than £1 so far. Therefore allowing me a further £2 to spend, which will be spent on yellow sticker (reduced)meat or fish. I'll continue to post with other dinners and let's see if I can meet this challenge.
Happy reduced sticker shopping!

redfox

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AgentSpike

Where has this been moved to please?

Babafette

AgentSpike wrote: »

Where has this been moved to please?

Household & Travel: Old Style MoneySaving

dlusman

Bit of a cheat if you are going to allow yourself to include things you have already bought as "freebies" . The meals you have made so far have NOT cost you under a £1

I could easily eat stuff out of my freezer for the next couple of weeks - and under your rules I would have lived on a zero spend

HappyMJ

dlusman wrote: »

Bit of a cheat if you are going to allow yourself to include things you have already bought as "freebies" . The meals you have made so far have NOT cost you under a £1

I could easily eat stuff out of my freezer for the next couple of weeks - and under your rules I would have lived on a zero spend

Considering that the 100% beef burgers are going to be the most expensive ingredient in the meal I agree.

Quarter pound of beef and OP did say "big burgers"...what's that £3 for 4 at most supermarkets so £1.50 for 2 burgers.

M.E.

We often have yellow sticker meals.
Family ask... Wot no yellow sticker! We woz robbed!

Often I enjoy making things from the "glut" items or "oddities" that lurk on the yellow sticker shelf.
We enjoy telling each other... that cost 5p... better than the Ritz!

Some examples
Bananas...... 64p for over 80 bananas.... turned into banana jam with chocolate... dried banana slices.... banana icecream...

Haggis slices... now frozen.... 3p each
(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)
Double cream... frozen and then made into icecream
Fruit... made into jam or frozen as sorbet
Salad... eaten as salad or put in a stir fry
Turkey sausages... used as normal sausages
50.. yes 50.. limes... made into marmalade (cost 35p)
Celeriac, seaweed, rhubarb, rutabaga, plantains, avocados, flat peaches, soft mangoes, slightly squished raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, mangetout, kale, spinach... all have made it onto our dinner plates.
Along with exotic dishes that we wouldn't buy at full price, but under 50p worth trying.
I don't buy bean sprouts or stir fries with too many in, by the way, they go "off" quickly. Same with cut runner beans.

I freeze yellow sticker vegetables and use them as a vegetable soup which I make in the slow cooker. Once made a HUGE pot for a quiz supper for 80 people. Along with yellow sticker bread/rolls warmed in the oven was a huge success. Cost for 80 people was under £3... no kidding.

What have other yellow sticker addicts found to be best buys or bad tries?

tessie_bear

i love a good delve through the reduced food and have had many bargains you sound as if you have found some gems...i do however think some meals are cheaper than reductions even when not reduced eggs
beans on toast
egg and chips
jacket pots from a sack
quiche
mince dishes
pasta and grated cheese
mac cheese
tinned spag on toast
tins of ravoli/spaghetti/beans/beans and sausage

i would look for bargains but also include some of the above in a meal plan as i find constant yellow sticker hunting wearing and what happens if you dont come up with anything
good luck tessa

craigywv

well we just after for tea there now ys sausages 25p ,a packet of potatoe bread ys 15p,ys mushrooms 10p and a 5p packet of pancakes from goodness knows when all in freezer and an egg total 95p ,ended up too much so oh will have cold sausage sandwiches for work and dog got a pancake also. I love ys ,needed to buy flowers as a present today in tescos and they were selling 10p broccoli so got 3 for later day xxx

[Deleted User]

What ever the poster does they are making an effort, true they used some meat from the freezer, but it will eventually run low, so a little bit of encouragement is needed.

Just thinking before buying is good housekeeping Keep going and tell us what sort of meals you are getting through, even with a bit of help from the existing stocks

Well done,on making the effort Agent Spike,we all need a bit of a push sometimes to save some cash and you are obviously doing what you can,keep thinking positively
JackieO xxx

craigywv

tomorrow we having pork chops ys 1.24 for 4 ys baby potatoes 35p,ys broccoli 10p ys carrots approx. 2p as massive bag was 10p all have been bought over weeks/months and chopped and froze when bought not including the potatoes this comes to 1.71p that's for 4 people as having a guest come to tea so that's approx. 40p each was going to curry the chops but read this thread and decided to see if could do it entirely ys,granted could not do it for every night but could do it for a brave few nights would need to keep going ys shopping more often to keep this up which I cant be bothered doing due to work commitments but if I had no other choice could do it easily,some nights ys is bizarre things on shelves other nights its fill your trolley with meat and veg,cant be guaranteed all the time though xxx