What are the cheapest meals you can make?

mmmsnow

I batch cook at weekends and tend to make a variety of meals which are freezer friendly. My current favourites are:

1) Moussaka (made with Hairy Biker's Recipe from BBC Good Food on-line), instead of using 750g lamb mince, I use half that then add lentils and a lamb stock cube. The lamb mince I get from Farmfoods (3 bags of 800g for £10 or 5 for £15). Aubergines are cheapest at Lidl (although my Co-op sometimes has them reduced to 19p as I seem to be the only one around here that eats them!). £6 or so for 6 portions.

2) Shepherd's pie (again, modifying the recipe so we use half the amount of mince and then lentils and a lamb stock cube). Less than a fiver for 6 portions.

3) Pizza - we have a bread machine and can make two thin pizzas (12") from one batch of dough. I make pizza sauce in bulk and freeze it. I tend to top the pizzas with ham, mushroom and mozzarella (45p from Lidl). In total, it's around £3 for both of them (less if you don't use ham).

4) Aloo keema - beef or chicken mince and potato curry. Lovely, hearty dish that's gorgeous with naan (I buy naan reduced and freeze it). I use 5% fat beef mince so that pushes the price up a little. £5-6 for 4 portions.*

5) Beef madras - a slow cooker favourite. I lucked out at Tesco today and got two packs of stewing beef for half price.* So today £5 for 6 portions (usually closer to £9).

6) Chicken biriyani - I use another Good Food recipe for this. It's filling and easy to make and you can freeze it.

7) Sausage casserole/stovies - a combination of frozen casserole veg (from Farmfoods, a giant bag for £1), potatoes, low fat Cumberland Sausages (again, that makes it a bit more expensive but I prefer the taste) and beef stock. The sausages are the main expense and but it's still less than £4 for 4 portions.

Cutting down on meat will obviously cut down on the cost and it's easy to bulk up the meat with veg (e.g. grated or food processor "whizzed" carrots etc) and pulses.

I've found the best thing for cutting down my grocery spending is planning. I have a list of everything in my freezer and store cupboard and when I'm out, I will only buy things that are not on my list if they are significantly reduced. I have learned how to adapt recipes to suit my budget (I use a Heston Blumenthal recipe for pea and ham soup that has every second ingredient crossed out and substituted).

Having frozen meals that you've prepared will also cut down the temptation to grab a takeaway because you don't want to cook after a long day.


* the cost may initially be higher if you are buying all the spices for the first time but once you have garam masala, coriander, tumeric, chili powder, etc, you'll use them over and over in different recipes. I buy my spices from Asian supermarkets or, at a push, the Asian section in Tesco (where even the red lentils are cheaper!).

Spendless

WantToBeSE wrote: »

Bogof_babe I easily spend the £100 a week. I like to eat Organic when i can, eat a LOT of fruit and veg, like trying new foods, and my 16 year old is very funny about the texture and taste of food, as he has Autism. Its hard to meal plan with him, as some days he is vegetarian, sometimes vegan, sometimes carnivore, or other days doesnt eat.

I'm assuming you have a freezer? If so, you need a selection of vegetarian/vegan/meat meals in it so you always have the 'right' meal in for your autistic son.

Fruit (and some veg) can be expensive, depending on what it is. Try to eat fruits in season. Strawberries in winter are going to be expensive for example. Think about portion size when buying not just eating. I read a tip elsewhere that said most people eat 'an apple' without thought to the size. I've been buying funsize ever since. No one in my house has even noticed, let alone commented. Is the fruit to eat as a snack or cooked/added to the meal? If it's to add to say porridge or as part of a cooked dish try frozen fruit instead.

Consider veg that are what I call 'double duty'. I always buy white cabbage, carrots, onions. As well as being just veg for a dinner, they are the ingrediants for HM coleslaw with some mayo.

[Deleted User]

I thinkif you have a reasonable store of spuds,onions and cheese at a pinch a decent layered pyrex dish with part cooked boiled spuds layered with diced uponions and grated cheese the top layer being perhaps sprinkled with breadcrumbs was a very cheap filling meal back in the 1970s when I only had one small wage coming in and and one large mortgage going out I also used to make oddds and ends flan ,basically a blind baked pastry case filled with a couple of beaten eggs and rasher or two of bacon diced and fried to a crisp,a couple of mushrooms sliced and fried up in the bacon fat, even the odd left over sausage sliced up and fried helps to bulk it out, and any peas,diced pepper or a sliced tomato decorating the top.Chuck in the oven until the top is set and browning and its filling with chips and beans for a quick meal or cold in a lunch box or with a small salad.
Look in the fridge and see what you can find lingering there to use up

choccy999

I bought a cheap small chicken from Aldi and roasted it today for Dinner. Made gravy with the juices and it was delicious. Some leftovers for the cats, other meals and will boil the carcass to make stock tomorrow and soup the day after. So much cheaper than buying fillets.

Thanks for the tips :T

I saw this lady on Inside the Food Factory on Channel 4 yesterday. She made a meal from tinned food and a few herbs and it got a thumbs up from the food writers. Link to her blog with some great recipes (mostly vegetarian/vegan)

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/category/recipes-food/

patchwork_cat

Surprised above has not come across A girl called Jack before, but her 9p( now 10p, I believe) burgers are certainly economical.https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2015/01/31/carrot-cumin-kidney-bean-burger-9p/ . This thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4148389, this one https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2176651 and here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/36443.

choccy999

Cheap tea tonight as totally skint and can't do a proper shop and will be overdrawn this month.

Egg, chips and beans - Aldi beans from back of my cupboard were out of date as I never eat them but they tasted ok :cheesy:, eggs £1.75 for 12 from Aldi (so will go far), frozen chips I had in the freezer - I think they were a £1 from Iceland. For pudding 1/2 a tin of rice pudding - 3 tins of Birds rice pudding for £1 in the pound world. I also bought some cheese and bread from Aldi, so I can make omelettes, cheese on toast, etc.

I made some fruit scones last night too as I had all the stuff in. Something else that's sweet and filling.

Hope everyone is doing ok.

Franalamadingdong

Choccy we had egg, chips and broccoli tonight! No beans in. Point A actually, substitute what you want for what is in. And we're baking scones at the weekend - son picked geodes and baking as our two fun weekend things to do and as I've been craving scones (and have everything in) that's what I suggested to bake.

We love risotto in our house. Using point A above, the one of two tins of salmon I had in the cupboard (why??) I made salmon and pea risotto yesterday. I did add the last bit of some yellowing broccoli, a couple of slices of onion (diced), a bit of courgette and a stick of sad celery diced too. Bulks out and uses up and healthy. I squeezed some scabby lemon on top too.

We also often have butternut squash and bacon risotto, which is in expensive and tasty. Leftover squash can be added to curries, soups and stews.

I had an excess of pumpkin in early November and made a savoury crumble. Any root veg will do. Chop up, maybe add a little water or stock. Make crumble using only flour and butter, mix in oats and cheese. Pop in the oven for about 40-60 minutes. I originally made it as a side but my parents loved it and insisted it could be a veggie main. I'd adapted it from a recipe I found online (trying to use up said pumpkin). The recipe was just pumpkin and squash, but I adapted it to what I had. It used nuts in the topping, I didn't have them, my son doesn't like them and they give mum indigestion, so I used oats instead.

Hard_Up_Hester

My cheapest meals are.
1) Rubber chicken, I serve it roasted with yorkies, stuffing roast pots and at least 2 other veg.
Then I strip the meat off the chicken and make a chicken & mushroom pie.
Any scraps left are used with rice, onion, mushrooms & peas to make special fried rice
I make soup with the carcase.
2) 34p tin of sardines mixed with mash form into patties to make fish cakes.
3) Wooton pie, assorted veg, cooked, thicken with oats, flavour with marmite or Bovril top with pastry or mash.

Franalamadingdong

Oh, I thought of another good tip. if you shop at supermarkets check out the counters, fish, meat, cheese etc. Often things here will be more economical than the packaged stuff, especially if there's an offer on. Before Christmas I bought a whole salmon for £15, which the fishmonger then prepared into two sides, one of these sides I then made into 8 generous portions. When I looked down the fish aisle what was said to be a side of salmon, but was half the size of one of my sides, and was £10! You can also use it as an opportunity to buy what you need, rather than what you're given, we find this most useful when buying cheeses like brie or stilton, we don't need masses.

choccy999

Franalamadingdong wrote: »

I had an excess of pumpkin in early November and made a savoury crumble. Any root veg will do. Chop up, maybe add a little water or stock. Make crumble using only flour and butter, mix in oats and cheese. Pop in the oven for about 40-60 minutes. I originally made it as a side but my parents loved it and insisted it could be a veggie main. I'd adapted it from a recipe I found online (trying to use up said pumpkin). The recipe was just pumpkin and squash, but I adapted it to what I had. It used nuts in the topping, I didn't have them, my son doesn't like them and they give mum indigestion, so I used oats instead.

I like the sound of the veg crumble. As I'm strapped meat is off the menu at the moment.

Thanks for all the tips. I had a look online as I've got some chorizo and chick peas in and found a recipe to make a stew, so will have a go at that this weekend.