Cheap dinner ideas

Jegethy

Jegethy

Jegethy

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After an unexpected expense yesterday, I am left with £18 to feed 2 people for 8 days.

I have the basic things such as pasta, rice, noodles, herbs ect and some frozen chicken breasts and pork chops that I bought a while ago.

Any ideas?
 
Thats going to be tight :s
£18 is the max you have? No chance of dipping into an overdraft for a week?


Your going to have to eat large amounts of that pasta/rice/noodles with little to garnish them
 
Judgeneo said:
Thats going to be tight :s
£18 is the max you have? No chance of dipping into an overdraft for a week?


Your going to have to eat large amounts of that pasta/rice/noodles with little to garnish them
Click to expand...

I could, but I don't actually have an overdraft limit so it would be an unarranged overdraft which will include hefty charges if not paid back the same day.
 
If you've got loads of past a rice and noodles and meat tucked away in the freezer you've got nothing to worry about. Just need some herbs and stuff to spice it all up a little.

Get cheap veg to go with it as well, like maybe buy some sweetcorn mix in with pasta and chicken.

Or pesto pasta chicken.

Chop pork chops up and stir fry add to noodles.
 
You can probably make huge amounts with what you have.

You have rice, pasta I assume flour.
Rice with sauce, pasta with sauxe. Flour can easily be turned into flatbreads.

And if the worse comes to the worse. Tesco value frozen sausage + tesco value canned tomato + tesco value pasta/rice and bag of their cheapest onions.

Won't be tight at all, just annoying. Doesn't even have to be boring if your cupboards are well stocked.

And value bread and value cheese on it's own is horrible. But makes edible cheese on toast under the grill.
 
The key is don’t buy any meat.

Buy potatoes for pork chop and mash

Left over potatoes can make jacket spuds (maybe with beans and cheese if you have them)

Cheep tinned tomatoes and can be boiled down with herbs to make basic pasta sauce. Add a bit of sugar or it can be very sharp. If you shop around you may be able to buy ready made sauce very cheaply.

Buy some basic veg and make stir fry with the chicken and noodles and veg curry to have with rice.

Veg is much cheeper at the market if you have one and you should be able to buy enough to make a lot of stir fry/curry. Curry will keep well too.

You can also eat noodles with a small amount of hot water and curry powder or stock if you want a snack.
 
Fairly easy to do if you've got a well stocked cupboard. Grab some cheapo 19p tinned tomatoes and knock up a pretty basic tomato sauce with basil or thyme (if you have them) and a spoonful of sugar or tomato ketchup to help with sweetness. If you have any mince make a bolognese one night, use leftovers from that with some value kidney beans the next night to make a chilli.

As stretch says, buy stuff from the market if you can, or just walk up the aisle ends in the supermarket looking for a deal. You can usually get reduced fruit and veg and even instore bread if you go later on at night.
 
One other tip is to visit supermarkets at the right time for reduced items. The co-op at around 8 is real a winner, they practically give away the bakery goods. Tesco and Asda are also good at various times.
 
Not exactly luxurious but frrozen pizzas are always pretty cheap, and not the worst tasting things in the world.

Cheap veg like potatoes and carrots will help bulk out meals quite a bit.
Some nice wedges are never bad
 
As well as that lot, you could make enough shin of beef stew for 2 nights for about £3.50. As a treat :p
Beef shin, root veg.. onions, carrots, tinned tomatoes, stock, herbs etc. Stewed for 3 hours or so.
Serve with a nice fresh baton or some value pitta breads or something.

Jacket potatoes and beans/cheese.

tinned tomatoes, chopped onions, garlic, herbs etc makes a simple sauce for pasta, or add some chicken if you like or mince, whatever

Go to aldi and stock up on cheap tinned tomatoes and fresh veg, pasta, bread etc.
 
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Chilli con carne
Bag of rice (small bag does at least 16 good sized portions) - £1 a bag
Pasta (if you wanted a change from rice) - £1 a bag
Beef stock cubes - £0.60
Minced beef or lamb - £4-5 for a few packs (always on special somewhere)
Kidney beans - £2 for a few tins
Tinned tomatos - £2 for a few tins
Sundries - couple of quid

I double this recipe up and get 8-10 meals out of it (freeze it in old takeaway containers).

Good thing with the rice/pasta is you can chuck whatever veg you like in it to fill it out.

Plenty of recepies here
 
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I managed to sweet talk the lady at the greengrocer, and got a bag of stuff for £5

8 carrots,
1 Broccoli,
1 Cauliflower,
1 Swede,
6 Large Potatoes
Quite a few new potatoes,
3 onions,
Bunch of spring onions,
3 Leeks,
Garlic blub
3 Apples,
3 Oranges,
2 Lemons,
And the best bit: A punnet of strawberries (normally £2 on their own.)

Gotta love small village shops.

Also went into the butcher and got a kilo of diced beef that I paid £6 for, which I am going to use in a stew which will be enough for 3-4 meals, maybe more.
 
use some of the carrots/swede/potatos/onions and diced beef for a stew. just needs some water and beef stock. should last for about two meals.
 
for the leeks, see if you can get some cheap peas (tined ones are fine) and fry one or two pieces of the beef and a bit of onion and the leek. cook the peas with the fried onion and beef and leak, season to taste and blend into a smooth pea soup. some cheap toated toast on the side to go with it. sorted.
 
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if you got the right pasta cut some of the beef into thin slices, drench into flour and fry. cook pasta (spaghetti, linguini, etc should work well). at the end throw cooked pasta and cut up spring onion and mix with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and the sliced beef.
 
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