Hi,

I'm looking for some really cheap meal ideas to feed my family, pref. also suitably (or easily adapted) for a 9month old. Only have around £50 a week to feed hubby, me, & 3 kids - 6yrs, 4yrs, and 9mnths so they need to be really cheap, but filling, and nutritious and easy to make. I like cooking, but these days rarely have time (or energy) to spend hours fiddling around.

Anyone got any ideas?
Thanks.

There was a thread about this a little while ago that had some very good ideas.

just put

COOKING ON A G STRING BUDGET

in the search bar and select chat.

Rustie is correct, there are some terrific ideas on this thread for cheap nutritious family meals.
One I made last night was a very tasty dish which involved..
Some cooked pasta shells,
A batch of cooked mince, I used a tomatoey base, and made it quite thick,
Cheese sauce made with 1/2 or 3/4 pt milk depending on how many I'm feeding.
2 eggs
a little extra cheese to finish.

To make, put 1/2 the pasta shells into the bottom of a dish, follow with the cooked mince and top with the other 1/2 of the pasta shells.
Beat the two eggs into the cheese sauce and cover the pasta shells with this. Finish with a scattering of grated cheese.
Bake it in a hot oven Gas6 for about 30 to 40 mins until top is golden brown and bubbly.
Really tasty.
Pasta is incredibly cheap and mince is quite often on offer,(although I use vegemince! ) so this is a good and filling recipe. Hope it helps.

Corned beef, onions and mashed potatoes made into patties and fried tasty and economical

SHEPARDS PIE, IS VERY CHEAP AND CHEARFUL TO, I HAVE A HUBBY, WHO EAT`S ALOT, TWO KID`S AGED 7 AND 4. I MAKE A LARGE DISH FULL AND FEED`S US ALL. PUT THE MINCE THEN A LAYER OF CARROTS THEN THE MASH, GOES FURTHER WITH THE CARROT`S. IF THEY LIKE CHEESE, GRATE SOME ON THE TOP BEFORE PUTTING IT INTO THE OVEN TO BROWN.

hi i have a faimly of 6 and one of the best dishes i do is a joint of boiling ham cost £4.98 from my local butcher ( i find that the local butcher is very much cheeper than a supermarket and do better offers) i just cook it in my slow cooker with a bit of water and some cloves, i then serve it hot with a sauce and fresh veg or cold with a salad and new potatoes and quite often there is enough ham left over for sandwiches the following day.

thanks for your ideas - am looking forward to trying them.

Rustie - tried your tip, but kept coming up with "no matches found". shame cos I was looking forward to seeing what was there.

Jilly - I hadn't thought of using corned beef. Good idea thanks.

Ok Bagpuss, I see what you mean, the search engine is having one of its funny five mins.

but try this. either

under recipes the thread started on the 17th Jan

or

type sausages in the search bar and select chat, and it is at about number 45

sorry.

i have two boys who love having a weekly treat of pork pie chips and beans. another one is sausages with savoury rice or a sausage cassrole with mash spuds

Hi

My top tip is to work out when the supermarkets make most of their reductions. Where I live it seems to be just before 12 noon on a sunday and late morning during weekdays.

Also local markets towards the end of market day. I go to one in Wiltshire (devizes) they almost give stuff away. eg 4 giant aubergine for £1, 4 tubs cherry tomatoes for a pound etc etc.

Hi Bagpuss2

Also look around for pet-food wholesalers as they generally offer sacks of potatoes and carrots for a fraction of supermaket prices. You may have to drive out to one but the savings are incredible and they are usually locally grown produce that don't quite make the supermarket grading system.

Macaroni cheese is very easy, cheap and hugely filling. Adding some veg or salad increases the nutrition too and I suspect that home-made cheese sauce will be more healthy than shop bought.

Make a basic cheese sauce (much cheaper than buying ready made) - melt big lump of butter, stir in enough plain flour to make a sludgy mix, allow to sizzle gently for a couple of mins stirring all the time then start adding milk. Little by little and stirring constantly to get rid of lumps, until you get it to the consistency of thick custard then grate in cheddar cheese to taste and stir to melt. Don't worry about exacts measures on this as you can always add more milk if needs be, however don't stir in more flour as you go along because the lumps may never come out. Just little by little adding milk is best.

Cook your macaroni. Oil or butter a large dish. Slice up some big tomatoes or half small ones and line the dish with these if you wish. Stir sauce into macaroni and tip into serving dish. Sprinkle top with breadcrumbs and little more cheese if you wish. Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 mins or so until top is browned.

My kids like this with some garlic bread and broccoli on the side (or salad if you wish).

Any leftovers heat up quite well in microwave as long as refrigerated for no more than 2-3 days aftewards.

Enjoy!

Other ideas:
Baked potatoes with tuna mayo & sweetcorn are cheap and filling plus fairly nutritious - you could mash up the insides for your baby too if you want.
Another idea is Toad in the Hole - lots of recipes online and you can do plenty of hole for your toad to reduce cost. Apparently Yorkshire pudding (the hole) was to make the meat go further by serving it covered in gravy as it is filling.

If you shop around, you can often get veg very reasonably (greengrocers often cheaper than supermarkets) and lots of these can really bulk out a meal. Little tricks like drizzling a small amount of honey on cooked carrots to make them more exciting can tempt little ones to scoff lots.

As Matt the chef said supermarkets for reductions are great, i do it all the time, even if you aren't going to use the stuff straight away most things can be frozen for another day,
One thin which i find cheap quick and easy is a veg bake, cook a load of veg (its normally whats been lurking in my fridge for a while!) till just tender, cover with a cheese sauce (please nobody criticise at the next bit) you can buy powdered cheese sauce to save time, add a tsp of whole grain mustard to pep it up, sprinkle over some bread crumbs and grated cheese and bake till golden and bubbly, i love it with brown sauce or gravy

My mother would often serve us a `casserole` of baked beans, tinned tomatoes, frozen mix veg, small cubed potatoes, cayenne pepper and leftover ham hock, sometimes corned beef. Mostly store cupboard and tinned this was pure comfort food. Recreated this dish myself recently for pure nostalgia and felt that food hug all over again.

i love the old irish recipe of bacon,cabbage and potatoes,but it take rather a long time to cook the big bacon joint. i have found a really tasty alternative an its really (especially if you go to aldi)cheap.get some bacon smoked or unsmoked (bacon bits work well) chop it up into small pieces fry it in alarge frying pan with some onion and garlic chop up a savoy cabbage an add to the pan a handfull a time so to wilt keep stiring when its done to your liking serve with new potatoes or jackets work well. i like the cabbage to have some crunch but you can cook it longer.try it its lovely and dont take long.