I need help with budget meals

ClaireS84

Full Member
Hey.

I am need of some help big time!

My partner and I are doing some needed budgetting and we need to look at what we spend on food.

Can you lovely people help me with some cheap meals - red or green days (I dont do EE).

Many thanks :D
 
At the moment, I always seem to be eating on a budget as I have just changed jobs.

Some meals I find handy are:
Stir Fry or Curry made with EL mince (Morrisons do 250g for £1.30ish - bulk it out with lots of veg)
Vegetable soups, bulked out with lentils
Houmous, made with tinned chick peas
Jacket Potatoes - top with beans, cheese (HeA), or anything else you fancy.
Pasta with a tomato vegetable sauce - sauce can be cheaply made from tinned chopped tomato, tomato puree, carrot, onion, garlic, pepper and dried herbs.
 
Really if your sticking to a very tight budget green days will be much much cheaper. :D there's lots of scope of green days with Sw chips, mash, baked beans and spaghetti, roast pots, mash pizza, pasta
 
Tins of value Spaghetti 15p
Valve Baked beans (all taste the same) 33p
Potatoes unwashed (cheaper if you buy a big sack and will last ages) £5
Super Noodles 40p
Pasta in sauce 40p
Veg from Aldi/Lidl's
Tinned or frozen Veg

We live of cheap quick meals Monday - Friday and make a meal Saturday which will do both days (like a cottage pie)

Make do without Quorn as its over priced.
Cheap eggs (box of 15) £1.68

The key thing is to plan all your meals and write a list for the week.....Dont keep popping to the shop for this and that you should already have it if you have done a list....... When i dont make a list for the week my shopping goes up between £30-£40 which is silly plus i get waste then grrrr

But if pasta in sauce or tins of beans etc are on offer and i know i eat alot of them i do pick up a tenners worth as i know they will keep ;)

Just a few ideas, hope it helps
 
Ill write you one if you tell me your likes and dislikes or i can let you know my menu for last week??
 
BATCH COOKING! I usually make a huge pan of pasta sauce using tinned toms and then whatever veg I could pick up at the grocers (much cheaper than supermarkets), Then if you pop to the pound shop and pick up some plastic take away tubs (usually 10 for a quid) then I portion the sauce out, either with or without cooked pasta, I do it with as I can just grab them every day for lunch. Then freeze. In my freezer I have batch cooked pasta and sauce, pasta with quorn (or cheaper brand), spag bol, shepherds pie, chilli etc. Perfect to grab and go and also allows you to buy bigger multi packs as you are cooking on a bigger scale. On green day I usually spend about 30-40p per meal this way and it helps me portion control with the box sizes!
 
Becci that would be fab! I am not really a fussy eater so if you could write me one and also let me know what you ate last week that would help me out so much.
 
TVP mince is a much cheaper alternative to quorn.
 
Monday - Jacket with Beans
Tuesday - SW Chips, 2 eggs and Beans
Wednesday - Pasta in Sauce (Chicken n Mushrooms
Thursday - 2 packets each Super Noodles 99%FF
Friday - Jacket and Salad with Beans
Saturday/Sunday - Cottage pie with Veg

Breakfast is the same every day - Beans, 2 slices of toast from a 400g loaf (HEXB) 3 eggs and tinned Mushrooms added to beans

Lunch is a Muller light with Fruit and if really hungry a jacket with guess what.....Beans lol Super Speed food!!!!!

Shopping list for 2 people and i have given you a tin of beans each on each meal (i would have 1/2 or 3/4 and save the left overs)

Tins of beans x24 = £7.92 ( you could use spaghetti some some meals which works out at 15p per can instead of 33p)
Tinned Mushrooms x9 = £2.70
Bread 2 loafs (400g) = £1.40
Eggs x 2 packs of 15 = £3.26
Muller lights x14 (7 4 £3)= £6.00
Fruit £5
Lettuce, Cucumber, Toms £3.00
Sack of Potatoes £5
Pasta in Sauce x 2 £1
Super Noodles x 2 £1
Extra Lean Mince 500g £3
Veg for roasting/boiling etc £4
Stock Cubes £1
Milk for drinks £2
Diet Drinks £5
Total £41.28*
Please note you can shop around for cheap fruit & veg - aldi etc also offers maybe on Plus you will have left overs :)

I hope this helps and gives you a few ideas......
 
Your a gem! Thanks for that Becci. :)

@Mrsthunderbolt - where do I find this TVP mince? Also are any kind of vegetarian minces free on GREEN?
 
If you want a spag bol mix you could try

Meat Free Bolognese Mix, 120g pack, dried, 100g Adsa - FREE
 
If you have an aldi near yo uthe you should go and have a look at their SUper 6 offers. 39p for a bag of new potatoes & Baby Gem Lettuce!!
 
The Lentil and mushroom loaf (in recipe section) is divine and very cheap!
Find a local world food shop to buy spices and some herbs, even rice and pulses work out cheaper.
If you have a local Farm shop buy sacks or half sacks of spuds, the half sack is about £6 for 13kg
Don't think they'll go off as quickly as supermarket potatoes as they don't, the sack is double thickness so as long as you keep the top rolled sown and in a dark fairly cool corner they will keep well!
You can pay a little bit more for washed ones lol!
 
I'm a student, and that means serious budgeting! Like someone above me suggested, batch cooking is definitely the way forward!

That, and if you choose veggies that are in season they will be cheaper - so as we're going into autumn, that means root veggies like carrots etc. Also, anything you can make with tinned tomatoes (e.g. quorn chilli, spaghetti bol made with quorn) can be useful on green days. Also, Morrisons do their own version of quorn mince, which I'm supposing is free (if not, oops!).

By pre-planning your meals, you'll find you don't tend to impulse buy at the supermarket as well, so I'd reccomend that as it stops you over-shopping!

Good luck!
 
Beanfeast is a great way to save money and eat well, make a lovely big shepherds pie adding extra vegetables , even a bag of mix veg ,to the mix to bulk it out, or a chilli adding extra kidney beans and chopped carrots to bulk out ,serve with rice or chips, you can get a meal for 4 people for less than £2.
 
I think the Morrisons meat free mince is synned:


Meat Free Mince, frozen, 400g pack 3
 
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