Cheap Meals 2020

off_the_wagon

Having had a long absence from OS I reread some of the cheap meal/recipe threads to get some ideas for this weeks meals (on unpaid leave at the moment due to family issues).  One of them was singing the praises of corned beef which back in the day I used to love...  Mr T website now states that this is £2.30 for 300 g - making it even more expensive than fresh mince gram for gram! 
So here is my challenge to the lovely readers here.  What is your latest go to cheap meal.  Can we still do the likes of 50p a head or has that now had to go to £1 or more a head for committed carnivores like my OH? Or are we doomed to live on "Pasta with HM tomato sauce" and the like forever?

joedenise

Absolutely no need to live on pasta with HM tomato sauce to eat cheaply!  I'd suggest looking at a couple of cheap food websites:

https://cookingonabootstrap.com
https://cheapfamilyrecipes.co.uk

Both these websites have loads of cheap recipes.

Pulses are definitely a good substitute for meat and cheap.  My DH is a definite carnivore and is happy to eat things like mixed bean goulash (cookingonabootstrap.com) or mushroom stroganoff (bbcgoodfood.co.uk), if you use chestnut mushrooms or a mix of mushrooms cutting them into chunky pieces it seems really "meaty".

dan958

http://budgetbytes.com/ is also a good resource.

Here are just a few cheap things I have made from that site which turned out great, just so you can get an idea.
https://www.budgetbytes.com/slow-cooker-vegetarian-lentil-chili/
https://www.budgetbytes.com/curried-chickpeas-spinach/
https://www.budgetbytes.com/pan-fried-sesame-tofu-with-broccoli/
https://www.budgetbytes.com/easy-orange-chicken/
https://www.budgetbytes.com/easy-sesame-chicken/
https://www.budgetbytes.com/easiest-burrito-bowl-meal-prep/

As soon as you add meat to a recipe, the cost will go up.

off_the_wagon

Thanks for ideas but OH will not eat pulses under any circumstances (and yes he does know if they are snuck in there - it's a texture thing).  Jack Monroe tends to use them as does Weezl who was the MSEr who set up "cheap family recipes".  Once again I have found both of these suffer from having prices that are wildly out of date - sign of the times I suppose.
I haven't heard of the budget bytes one though Dan958 - I'll have to have a look.

PasturesNew

Aldi/Lidl do cheaper corned beef, but it stopped being a cheap option 3-4 years ago. 
It is highly/ridiculously priced these days. 

I'm a big fan of starting with: spuds, eggs, baked beans, cheese .... and seeing where that lands you.  
Baked spuds topped with cheese/beans; egg and chips; cheese/potato pie and beans, cheese omelette/chips/beans. Spanish omelette/chips/beans (or just beans).

Next there's sausages, with cheapo veggies, made into a stew + dumplings. Or a simple sausagemeat pie, which is sausages (onions?), possibly with beans, topped with mash (maybe cheese) or beans on the side.

Giant Yorkshires turn a meal into a banquet... fill with sausages/mash and gravy + veggies (or not).

Mince as a shepherd's pie, topped with the usual mash... but also combinations of greens/mash, swede/carrots/mash, for a change.  

I'm a 'fan' of the 67p frozen cheapo Mr T pizzas, they're plenty good enough compared to other cheap varieties. 

I actually think a huge "cooked breakfast" means you only have to have that one good meal a day: eggs, sausages, beans, fried bread, hash browns ... optional bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms if you like those things.   The secret there is to be aware of the cost of each ingredient and go large with the cheaper items.  Fill your boots. 

Variety is the financial downfall... once you start trading up, falling for expensive ingredients, following posh chefs.  Keep things simple, eat it all.  

Beans on toast is a meal, especially if topped with cheese too.  40-60p loaves of sliced bread are plenty adequate (I opt for the higher priced 50-55p varieties as I find them fluffier than the very cheapest ones). 

building_with_lego

I found a way of using up half a chicken breast between two of us.
Panic stations one evening when I had planned a chicken wrapped in bacon sort of thing then realised that I only had half a chicken breast in the fridge. I snipped it into teeny pieces, fried off an onion and a grated carrot, added some Mexican spices (could be a bought fajita mix, or separate cumin/ chilli/ allspice/ garlic type options) then added the chicken and some macaroni, covered the whole lot in milk and simmered until the macaroni and chicken were cooked through. 

It's become one of my go-to meals- if I have a couple of chicken fillets leftover I'll snip them and freeze them- and is pretty cheap for two, You can chuck in whatever veg are lurking in the bottom of the fridge, and grate a little cheese over the top of you fancy. 

goldfinches

I suggest things like bubble and squeak, fishcakes made with tinned sardines/pilchards, potato cakes, savoury bread puddings with bacon fat used to flavour the onions, mixed veg and a small amount of mince in a dish topped with pastry, onion and mushroom pasties or spicy carrot, peas and potato pasties.
Basically a lot of things where the filling part of the meal is the cheapest bit and something that your OH will hopefully recognise and want to eat.
You could add fried or poached eggs or a tiny bit of cheese to some dishes to make them more nutritious and pinch ideas from various other cuisines like using pierogi or samosa fillings in pasties or using vinegar to increase flavours which all helps spin out ingredients.
PS with cheese go for the more expensive stronger flavoured ones, use less per dish and add a pinch of English mustard powder to bring out the flavour.
You can also bulk out mince with oatmeal, I believe so you might try asking on here for anyone who can help you with that.
There's a thread on here called Reverse Meal Planning which you might find useful, it's about getting the best from what you already have in the larder and is on the first page of OS every day.
You could also have a look at the Grocery Challenge (always 1st thread on this board) which contains the OS Recipe Index from post 4 of each month listed by category and then alphabetically for more cheap ideas.
Have a look at the Shopping pages too for alerts about local/national bargains and vouchers and so on.
Best of luck, goldfinches.

off_the_wagon

Thanks Goldfinches.  I started with the Grocery Challenge thread - that was what led me to get out the calculator and access the Mr T website - not surprisingly prices have gone up in the nearly 20 years that MSE has been in existence- some more than others hence the idea for this thread. Might be time to cull some of the recipes or post a warning to take a note of the original date of posting...
I like the idea of pasties - actually have some leftover spag bol sauce that might now go this way for dinner tonight.  Wonder if grated cheese in there as well would be good, sort of calzone pasty - we might have invented a new dish!
BTW for 4 people I add 2 heaped tbsp of oats to 450g mince - disappears like magic - honest guv:)

joedenise

off_the_wagon said:

Thanks Goldfinches.  I started with the Grocery Challenge thread - that was what led me to get out the calculator and access the Mr T website - not surprisingly prices have gone up in the nearly 20 years that MSE has been in existence- some more than others hence the idea for this thread. Might be time to cull some of the recipes or post a warning to take a note of the original date of posting...
I like the idea of pasties - actually have some leftover spag bol sauce that might now go this way for dinner tonight.  Wonder if grated cheese in there as well would be good, sort of calzone pasty - we might have invented a new dish!
BTW for 4 people I add 2 heaped tbsp of oats to 450g mince - disappears like magic - honest guv:)

I usually add a similar amount of red lentils as I find the oats give it a weird texture for me but maybe I was putting too much in.  May give it another go as I've always got oats but not always got red lentils!  Wonder if I could get away with adding both?

MisterPym

Last night I cooked veg chilli. One big carrot, one fat parsnip, half an onion, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of mixed beans. Garlic, chillies and cumin. Absolutely lovely, served with rice and tortilla chips and dead cheap.

goldfinches

joedenise said:

off_the_wagon said:

Thanks Goldfinches.  I started with the Grocery Challenge thread - that was what led me to get out the calculator and access the Mr T website - not surprisingly prices have gone up in the nearly 20 years that MSE has been in existence- some more than others hence the idea for this thread. Might be time to cull some of the recipes or post a warning to take a note of the original date of posting...
I like the idea of pasties - actually have some leftover spag bol sauce that might now go this way for dinner tonight.  Wonder if grated cheese in there as well would be good, sort of calzone pasty - we might have invented a new dish!
BTW for 4 people I add 2 heaped tbsp of oats to 450g mince - disappears like magic - honest guv:)

I usually add a similar amount of red lentils as I find the oats give it a weird texture for me but maybe I was putting too much in.  May give it another go as I've always got oats but not always got red lentils!  Wonder if I could get away with adding both?

Like you I find red lentils vanish into the background while bulking things out but I don't think they add to the flavour particularly. I now add brown ones which I think do the vanishing trick while also adding a sort of nutty savoury depth to the background of whatever dish I'm preparing especially if it contains onions, garlic and mushrooms. I've only just discovered this so haven't experimented very far with it and would be glad to hear others opinions on the subject of the taste and quantity to add too.