What are the cheapest meals you can make?

choccy999

Hard_Up_Hester wrote: »

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.

I bought a chicken a couple of weeks ago and made a roast dinner, stock and soup from your advice on this thread. I like the sound of the fried rice and will also give the fish cakes a go. So many great ideas.

ripplyuk

If you're looking for nice, tasty, well balanced meals then my suggestions won't help, but if things are desperate for anyone, then:

Porridge : Budget brand, in bulk, made with water.
Bread: you don't need butter.
Potatoes: I got a big sack for £6. Try any local farmers.

I survived for ages on this. None of it costs a lot of money to cook. The porridge and potatoes can be microwaved. If possible, buy some budget baked beans and a jar of marmite too.

Pop_Up_Pirate

Cheap AND Healthy is key I think so no good filling up on carbs such as potatoes, pasta, bread.

Find the biggest chicken you can, fresh is best.
-Roast it and serves with masses of seasonal veggies. Then use leftovers to make
-Chicken stir fry
-Chicken and Veg bake
-Warm chicken salad (if the people in your house will eat it)
-Boil the carcass for at least 6 hours to make broth then pick off every scrap of chicken (you will be surprised how much you get)
You then have a very very nutritious base for chicken soup which in my house can last 3 days.

One weeks evening meals out of one chicken.

PasturesNew

One "tip" I'd add in for saving money on food - is looking at how much it costs you to cook/bake it.

Any recipe that says to have the oven on for, say, 1 hour, could be costing close to £1 in electricity. Not very MSE when you view it like that.

Costs of cooking vary, but firing up a whole electric oven for one dish isn't economical. The cost of cooking should be factored in for anything taking more than 20 minutes

Electric oven + 3 cheap baked potatoes in the oven for £1.50 of electricity = "could've had something more interesting with that £1.50"

OneLeggedPig

Starch-based meals are the cheapest (and healthiest)
base meals on:

potatoes
brown rice
brown pasta
couscous
beans
lentils
oats

Nothing is cheaper if you get it in big amounts. Add a bit of veg and sauce/gravy, spices, you're done.

Towser

My son likes garlic bread from Aldi dipped in baked Camembert also from Aldi with cucumber, celery and carrot crudites on the side.
He is a fussy Autistic boy who mostly eats McDonald's so this is cheaper than McDonald's.
People do say look at the cost of the waste rather than the cost of the meal which is true in my house. If nothing is wasted then it's a bargain.
Another waste free meal is chicken stir fry from Aldi.
Diced chicken, box of stir fry veg, noodles and sauce. This way there is nothing left over festering in the fridge. My family are not to keen on veg so have half a box and the next night have it with beef, rice and different sauce. That makes two nights with no waste.

choccy999

ripplyuk wrote: »

If you're looking for nice, tasty, well balanced meals then my suggestions won't help, but if things are desperate for anyone, then:

Porridge : Budget brand, in bulk, made with water.
Bread: you don't need butter.
Potatoes: I got a big sack for £6. Try any local farmers.

I survived for ages on this. None of it costs a lot of money to cook. The porridge and potatoes can be microwaved. If possible, buy some budget baked beans and a jar of marmite too.

I had porridge made with half water and milk this morning with a bit of honey. Filling and cheap.

Gonna buy some beans and more eggs, as they go a long way.

Just made this stew as I had chorizo and chickpeas in. Substituted the kale for frozen spinach and it was really tasty, with plenty of leftovers to freeze http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickpea_and_chorizo_36240

I have a handful of frozen blueberries left over so I'm going to make some muffins this afternoon to curb my sweet cravings.

:T

choccy999

Porridge for breakfast today - made this

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cinnamon-apple-raisin-porridge

Aldi cheap oats, no apples so added the left overs from an old jar of apple sauce, no yoghurt but added a splash off milk cooked in the microwave. Added a squeeze of honey and the sultanas were nice and plump from soaking overnight. It tasted lovely.

I'm also going to give this a go to try and pimp up my porridge

https://www.weightwatchers.co.uk/util/prt/RecipePage.aspx?Type=1&RecipeID=7089652

debbym

Weezl did another web site https://www.cheap-family-recipes.org, sadly not updated recently but a good starting point.
Re autistic kids and food I know exactly what you mean! All 3 of mine are autistic and I can cook 4 different meals for dinner on an average day! Try and batch cook cheap stuff that you can then freeze and reheat another day. This means you can serve a single portion of one meal but have used the cheaper big bags of stuff to cook it in the first place, if that makes sense:)

kazmeister

I guess the cheapest meal I made was asparagus soup. Got some reduced asparagus from Mr M for 9p between Christmas and New Year. Snapped the stems off and froze the main part. The other bits I fried off with some onion then added veg stock and thickened it with a bit of instant mash. It was delicious and made enough for DH and I with cheap part baked baguettes.