Cheap meals

Bob Z

What are the cheapest meals to make?

unkel

Before anyone suggests beans on toast or spaghetti with ketchup (both less than €0.50 a head) or worse, you gotta give us a bit more info in what kinda meals you're looking for, Bob and what is your budget.

Bob Z

unkel wrote: »

Before anyone suggests beans on toast or spaghetti with ketchup (both less than €0.50 a head) or worse, you gotta give us a bit more info in what kinda meals you're looking for, Bob and what is your budget.

The less i spend on food for a while the more i can pay off my CC But say around 50 pw

Improbable

potatoes are usually good and cheap. they're also quite versatile. boil em, mash em, fry em, stick em in a salad. They go well with onions and peppers too.

Jesus Wept

Where do you food shop?

Minder

How many people you cooking for? Can you freeze food in any reasonable quantity?

L'prof

We bought a chicken the other week. I usually wouldn't bother, but I think it cost €3/5. I was quite surprised when we got 3 dinners for 2 out of it.

Bob Z

The-Rigger wrote: »

Where do you food shop?

tesco and/or dunnes

Jesus Wept

Your 50e will go further in Lidl or Aldi, you'll eat well for fifty euro.
I prefer Aldi.

rubadub

The-Rigger wrote: »

Your 50e will go further in Lidl or Aldi, you'll eat well for fifty euro.

Depends on what you are getting, I shop for different things in lidl/tesco/dunnes, some are cheaper and/or better quality in one than the other, one is not better/cheaper across the board.

Tesco have an unusually high amount of offers compared to lidl or dunnes. If you do not go in with a shopping list and have no loyalty to brands you can get stuff very cheaply. If you sign up to tesco.ie it shows all the current offers, 100's of BOGOF or half price deals -in this case you can make a shopping list.

Whenever I go in these days I find myself having to go back with items as the offers get better & better so I should start taking my own advice!

My local butcher has the cheapest chicken fillets.

In work I go to dunnes and get a twin pack of ready cooked whole chickens for €7, sometimes it is only €5

Jesus Wept

You are right about shopping around, though it is a hassle.

I'll sign up to tesco's website, when I go there - I do look for things on special but I still find myself able to spend 40e there and come away with very little.

jpb1974

Picked up 15 good size chicken fillets for €10 in the local Supervalu this morning.

So cheap I bought 15 more.

unkel

jpb1974 wrote: »

Picked up 15 good size chicken fillets for €10 in the local Supervalu this morning.

So cheap I bought 15 more.

If you have a big freezer, thinking like this will save you a lot of money in the longer run.

Another big saver is to check the specials of the supermarkets you go to on line and then make a shopping list going into them. There are an Aldi and a Lidl within a few hundred yards of each other near me, so I usually visit both and pick up the specials

Minder

Cheap meals - vegetarian. You don't have to immerse yourself in a no meat regime, but cutting out meat as the main attraction of a meal for one or two meals a week will save a lot of money. Also a sense of thriftiness will give marked savings on a weeks food shopping. You don't have to be miserly or poor to practice thrift. Just think about what you are eating and make the most out of all of it.

Take a humble chicken. Dinner #1 can be a delicious roast with all the trimmings. Use the leftover cooked chicken in a salad - Vietnamese chicken salad, or a caesar salad. Add the chicken pieces to a white sauce with ham for a pie. Or add the cooked chicken to mushrooms in a white sauce for pasta. Or use the cooked chicken in a tangy cheese sauce with tarragon (Chicken savoyarde). The bones of the roast bird (and any scrapings from the roasting tin) can be used to make a stock - and that stock will be the base for a hearty soup (I'm thinking minestrone) or a simple risotto. Three days meals from one chicken. Freeze the stock

Pasta is a great way to make fantastic tasting meals on a budget. A tin of tuna, a clove of garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, a little chopped parsley - mix the cooked garlic with all the ingredients and toss through the spaghetti. Thats dinner in about 15 minutes. There are plenty of vegetable based sauces for pasta as well as the more common ragu sauces. Mix it up a bit - a packet of regular pork sausages cut up and pan fried with a little crushed fennel seed, coriander seed and some dried chilli makes a very good addition to a tomato sauce for spaghetti. Macaroni cheese? How about baked penne? Cook some penne, make a tomato sauce with some garlic, blitzed tins of tomatoes and a little basil - dress the cooked penne with the sauce, dot with mozzerella cheese, top with parmaesan and bake until crispy and bubbly.

Use eggs regularly for a lighter meal - a three egg omlette or a more substantial frittata. We use leftover cooked spaghetti as a filling with sweated vegetables for a big frittata - all crispy and cheesey on top. Use eggs to make pancakes, stuff with ricotta and spinach and nap with tomato sauce before baking in the oven with cheese on top.

If you mix up the menu you can afford some fantastic foods - it doesn't have to be thrifty every day. It also doesn't have to be a rigid, set menu each week - more a guide. Two days of meat, then a day without.

BaZmO*

For me the best way to have cheap meals is to drop over to friends and family at dinner time.

But seriously, economy of scale and planning always result in really affordable meals. Scaling up a recipe and bunging a load of it in the freezer is a great way to cut costs, plus it's great for the days when you're not in the mood for cooking anything too elaborate but you want something home cooked.

L'prof

BaZmO* wrote: »

But seriously, economy of scale and planning always result in really affordable meals. Scaling up a recipe and bunging a load of it in the freezer is a great way to cut costs, plus it's great for the days when you're not in the mood for cooking anything too elaborate but you want something home cooked.

Not so great when all you have is a ****ty freezer box though!

BaZmO*

L'prof wrote: »

Not so great when all you have is a ****ty freezer box though!

Yeah, it makes a huge difference alright. Although if you don't mind having the same dinner a few days in a row Stews are a great solution to not having enough freezer space.

The Hill Billy

Also, consider leftovers from a main meal.

For example, buy a whole chicken & have a roast dinner. Roast extra veg (eg, carrots, parsnips, squash, garlic, etc).
Then use the leftover meat & veg for a chicken & vegetable pie the following day. Alternatively, make a stew or soup from the leftovers.

I've also made some damn fine curries from leftover roasted shoulders of lamb.

The carcass/bones can be used for making stock too (easily frozen).

Pretty much two meals for the price of one.

ttoppcat

My personal favourite is my Dads Stoup. 2 chicken legs (dirt cheap normally) Boil them up with loads of veg and potatoes, a couple of stock cubes and red lentils (they make it lovely and thick). After an hour, take out the legs and take the meat off the bone and add it back to the soup. You'll easily feed 4-6 adults with this meal.

Also a bacon joint. Steep overnight in cold water. Then rinse and boil it up. Have the meat with spuds and cabbage and a nice white sauce. Use the stock and any left over bacon, veg and lentils to make a soup.

Tins of tomatoes are a life saver in my house. Fry up some onion, garlic. Add a tin of tomatoes, some tomato paste and basil (buy the plants from aldi/lidl, repot them into a bigger pot and water well and they should last you a few months) and voila, a yummy tomato sauce for your pasta. You can add left over chicken, bacon bits or even just a tin of tuna.

yungwan

The vegetables are the cheapest part of your shop, so fill your trolley with as much as you think you will use and vary it as much as possible.

Look out for cuts of meat on offer or those reduced as they are close to sell by date and freeze that day.

Certain cuts of meat such as minced beef/lamb, lamb neck or rump steak are usuually inexpensive as they require long slow cooking, but are delicious if cooked properly.

Minced beef/lamb can be used very cheaply to make any amount of dishes - homemade burgers, spag bol, mince stew, kebabs etc.

Lamb neck is amazing in stews and can be spread to make two meals.

As mentioned above, chickens are very practical. Roast and serve with potaotes veg one day, use leftovers for a curry then or a stew the next day, and/or have for lunch in a salad or sandwiche.

Planning really is key to cheap eating. Decide when you are shopping what you are going to cook during the week. It doesnt have to be written in stone, but pick up the essentials for 3 to 4 meals at least and work from there with left overs etc.

Myself and partner spend roughly €100 a week and get all our meals for the week out of it, including breakfast, lunch and dinner for ourselves and my son.

Alot of the shops are also doing promotions such as 3 meats for €6 (Supervalue) or 3 for €10 (Tesco).

tfak85

if you can manage to get to a halal shop try buying meat there, very cheap and great quality, lamb chops only 1.50! also, buy thighs and legs of chicken as an alternative to breasts, they have much more flavour and are so cheap... i got 8 free range oyster thighs in dunnes for 3euro the other day!

you could try using couscous as a slightly cheaper alternative to rice, you can get good sized bags for around 2euro in health food stores.

check out your nearest asia market, lots of tasty bits and pieces - spices and dried herbs for great prices...also if you eat the occasional cheeky noodle dinner buy them there, great taste and only 50c!

read through the cooking club forum for good recipe ideas, i made the chicken stew the other day, modified it by using said chicken thighs and made enough for 4 whole meals for about 3euro!

best of luck..alot of people are in the same boat as yourself, goodness knows my OH is sick of me saying "cheap and healthy, cheap and healthy"!!!

unkel

yungwan wrote: »

Planning really is key to cheap eating.

That really is the most important thing!

With careful planning, I now spend less than half of what I used to spend on food for my family of 5, but we eat much nicer and healthier meals and we throw out a lot less food.

It has to be said though, we do spend more time planning, shopping and cooking. But a lot of this can be converted into quality time too. I made carrot / walnut / raisin muffins today with the help of my 4 year old daughter and she loved it!

Chewabacca

Tesco reduced aisle is your friend.

If you live near a tesco (walking distance) you'll be in love with it. All the food is dirt cheap because it's going off soon so if you could go there every 2 days or so I reckon you could do it on 25 quid a week. If you're inventive enough and buy essentials like onions and potatoes from time to time you coudl eat quite well too. I remember buying around 10 sausages for 89 cent there once.

deelite

Potato and Leek Soup (very very cheap and easy to make)

Mince is very reasonable and versatile - from meatballs - mince beef pie.

Certain fresh fish half price (weekly in superquinn) - handy leftovers for fish cakes.

And the cheap sausages and bacon go into the coddle.

nyeb2007

Bob, check out your local butchers, our one here does "freezer pleazer deals"

10lb mince for €19
10lb stewing beef €24
15 chicken fillets for a tenner

Since I lost my job have been keeping an eye on all bargains.

May sound mean but for the 2 of us i can get 2, even 3 meals out of a lb of mince, eg: fry off mince, add onions, mushrooms, carrots, peppers and any other veg I have handy, once its well bulked out you could split it in 3, one for sheperds pie, one for spag bol - just add your preferred sauce - I also bulk make this. Then for the 3rd lot I'd add kidney beans and make a chilli - it helps that neither of us are huge red meat eaters

admiralofthefleet

i cooked stuffed chicken breast wrapped in streaky rashers with boiled potato and veg last week for 4 people. the whole thing cost €8.49 for the ingredients from lidl

joebucks

Spag Bol.. Make the sauce yourself with tinned tomatoes. Sauté mince with garlic and onions and bulk out with veg- courgette aubergine peppers mushrooms. Season with salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar and a drop of balsamic vinegar if you have it. The longer you leave it to cook the better the flavors will blend.

Also if you cook it in bulk you can add chilli to the leftovers and serve with rice or chips for a bit of variety.

PicturePerfect

Just reading through this and found some great tips in here, not as much for cheap cooking (even though that's always a pro!) but specially how to use those left overs (that are usually binned...) and quick and easy (but nice and healthy!) dinners.

Thanks guys!

jamiecoins

hi iv a few recepies i like to cook
1. chicken casaroul
2.beef casaroul
3.beef stir fry (sorta lol)
4,lasagne

all these meals can feed up to 4 people if u want any recepies just ask

Kells...

Hi do u mind if u tell me the lasagna 1 thanks:D

jamiecoins

hi no problems .
i buy the mince in a supermarket dnt no if im allowed name it
but u can get the 700g pack of mince meat for 2.85
buy sthe supermarkets own brand lasagne sheets 50 cent all taste the same
pasta sauce and lasagne white sauce .market brands cost 4.50 for both

fry the mince in the pan for 8-10 mins lightly salt remove any excess fat refry for another min and add the tomato puree sauce

once done add a layer of mince to ur dish then place ur pasta sheets add ur white sauce add cheese also repeat the procces as many times as u want then the last base add loadsof cheese in the oven 30-40 mins at 200.degrees

Faith

Threads merged.

nyeb2007

jamiecoins wrote: »

hi no problems .
i buy the mince in a supermarket dnt no if im allowed name it
but u can get the 700g pack of mince meat for 2.85
buy sthe supermarkets own brand lasagne sheets 50 cent all taste the same
pasta sauce and lasagne white sauce .market brands cost 4.50 for both

fry the mince in the pan for 8-10 mins lightly salt remove any excess fat refry for another min and add the tomato puree sauce

once done add a layer of mince to ur dish then place ur pasta sheets add ur white sauce add cheese also repeat the procces as many times as u want then the last base add loadsof cheese in the oven 30-40 mins at 200.degrees

To be perfectly honest €4.50 for the 2 sauces is maddness - you could make your bolognaise sauce for the price of a tin of tomotoes and puree and add your herbs and spices for waaaay less than a €1, same goes for your basic white or cheese sauce both sauces for way less than your €4.50

You should give it a try

irish_goat

Always keep a bag of frozen peas in your freezer as they are ridiculously easy to add to a variety of meals, or to just to serve on the side of your plate and they're cheap. Easiest way, I find, to get one of your five a day. Frozen sweetcorn is good too, in fact, any frozen veg is handy.

A bag of porridge oats will cost less than a box of cereal and last about 4 times as long and if you're really in a rush you can chug down uncooked oats with a glass of milk. They're healthy too.

Buy bags of beans(butter, kidney, pinto, whatever), they can go into curries, chilli, casseroles and loads of other meals and they cost barely anything plus they're really good for you. Only downside is remembering to pre-soak them.

Here's an interesting wee article about cheap and healthy foods for under $1 which applies in Ireland too. www.divinecaroline.com/article/22107/52070/print

LimeFruitGum

It works out cheaper to make your own sauces than buying jars.

I never buy chicken fillets now unless there's a very good deal. I can pick up a good free range chicken for 5-6 euro and I can make it go a long way with stock for soups, salads, sandwiches.

At the same time, don't skimp so much that you end up malnourished on poor quality food. Once you have some basics like frozen peas, spinach, sweetcorn, tinned tomatoes and a selection of herbs, you can have some good nutritious variety.

hootietootie

With the lasagne I always grate 3 carrots into the homemade tomato sauce as well, bulks it out great, we get 2 days dinner out of one, me, himself and our 6 year old

Amhran Nua

Bit of a thread necro here but I didn't want to start a new one - filling snacks for under a euro:

Pea soup: take a 58 cent can of Dunnes green peas, chop half an onion in and fry it with a couple of thin slices of butter and half a chicken stock cube. Serve when mushy but not completely paste-like with a couple of slices of brown bread and you're done.

Single sausage hot dogs: Take three single sausages and fry them normally, along with half a chopped onion, put them on three slices of white bread with ketchup and mustard, fold over the bread and done.

Also another handy tip, if you don't want to splash out for the expensive rashers, you can give cheapo ones a real zing by rubbing pork spices (or whatever spices or herbs) on them, just a tiny amount as they are usually salty enough already.

nesbitt

unkel wrote: »

That really is the most important thing!

With careful planning, I now spend less than half of what I used to spend on food for my family of 5, but we eat much nicer and healthier meals and we throw out a lot less food.

It has to be said though, we do spend more time planning, shopping and cooking. But a lot of this can be converted into quality time too. I made carrot / walnut / raisin muffins today with the help of my 4 year old daughter and she loved it!

+1

I feed a family of four on a fraction of what friends/relatives with similar family size spend. I eat better in my view and do not throw out food because I meal plan each week and make a shopping list. I limit the junk in the trolley and will plan to shop without kids in tow.... I bake too so give the kids lovely treats very inexpensively.

I have 'chipper' night once a fortnight as a treat, and even then I will buy 2 fresh cod and chips and share it out between us, served with my own veg etc. I know folks who eat alot of take-away in my view and have seen kids eating half of what was bought and the rest put in the bin....

It is a mindset you develop and then in turn gain experience on using leftovers, storage of food incl sell bys and use bys etc, cooking in quantity to save money for example making a beef goulash and freezing half.

nesbitt

irish_goat wrote: »

Always keep a bag of frozen peas in your freezer as they are ridiculously easy to add to a variety of meals, or to just to serve on the side of your plate and they're cheap. Easiest way, I find, to get one of your five a day. Frozen sweetcorn is good too, in fact, any frozen veg is handy.

A bag of porridge oats will cost less than a box of cereal and last about 4 times as long and if you're really in a rush you can chug down uncooked oats with a glass of milk. They're healthy too.

Buy bags of beans(butter, kidney, pinto, whatever), they can go into curries, chilli, casseroles and loads of other meals and they cost barely anything plus they're really good for you. Only downside is remembering to pre-soak them.

Here's an interesting wee article about cheap and healthy foods for under $1 which applies in Ireland too. www.divinecaroline.com/article/22107/52070/print

+++1 on frozen veg. I have Lidl's organic frozen veg range very tasty and Aldi cauliflower and brocolli grand too. I buy all sorts of veg this way incl green beans and petis pois. On my budget I can serve a lot of veg at dinner by using frozen. Shop around the brands though as some frozen stuff is tasteless whilst other brands are in my view as good and tasty as 'fresh'.

Honey-ec

If you buy the 3 packs of peppers and find that you're always left with one that ends up in the bin, chop it and freeze it. They can be chucked into stir-fries, casseroles etc. straight from the freezer.

Same goes for bread - if you've heels or a slice or two going hard at the end of a pan, blitz them into breadcrumbs and freeze.

Leftover mash can be used to make potato cakes, gnocchi etc. Root veg can go into bubble & squeak. If you've single (raw) sausages or rashers left over after doing a breakfast, freeze them; you'll soon have enough to make a full meal with.

I can't stress enough the importance of using a list when shopping, and never doing it when you're hungry.

We have three dogs too, so thankfully very little gets thrown in the bin round our way!

chickenbutt

cheap/studenty carbonara: spaghetti with cooked bacon bits and creme fraiche, om nom nom!

nesbitt

chickenbutt wrote: »

cheap/studenty carbonara: spaghetti with cooked bacon bits and creme fraiche, om nom nom!

+1

I regularly cook this as family meal. May I recommend Lidl Creme Fraiche with a dash of mustard and black pepper. Add also finely chopped onion and mushrooms to the bacon when frying. I serve this with garlic baguette again courtesy of Lidl... Plates cleared, crumbs left...:)

Amhran Nua

nesbitt wrote: »

cooking in quantity to save money for example making a beef goulash and freezing half.

Oh yeah, it's great shopping for special offers then buying lots of them when cheap.

LimeFruitGum

Here's a good, handy cheap meal from cupboard basics.

1x tin chopped tomatoes or dollop of passata
1x portion of pasta
2 x sausages (highest meat content & quality you can afford, works very well with the tomato)
sprinkle of basil or pepper to season
1 small can of kidney beans (optional, but kidney beans are a cheap source of fibre and bulks out the dish easily. Could use puy lentils for this as well)

Chop sausages and brown them first. Add the tomato, kidney beans and basil/herb/pepper seasoning. Let that simmer (alternatively, leave the sausage, bean & tomato mix in the fridge overnight if you want extra flavour) for about 20 mins. in the meantime, get your pasta going and then put it all together later.

Stheno

Once a month I bulk cook, my local butcher does 2lbs of mince and 2 of stewing beef for €10

That gets me eight to ten portions of stew which the OH's kids love, six portions of spag bol, and six of lasagne.

Excluding the four portions of stew the kids eat, it leaves us with min. 16 dinners for the two of us.

We often do a roast when his kids are over and the leftovers from that are usually turned into sandwiches and stock as well.

edit, I also cook from scratch, the OH knows this and recently after making dinner for his kids and I, he gave his son a tin of bisto, with the announcement that he might be "killed" for having instant gravy in the house Always find it cheaper and you can adapt and learn as you go!