The cost of a meal

Sainsburys do their own brand “ essentials “ pasta bake, lasagne, macaroni cheese, spaghetti bolognese, I buy them for a quick meal if I’m busy. They are excellent and 85p!

I manage 8 meals from a chicken. We love a roast so have that on Sun, Mon and Tues and the carcass plus loads of lentils and veg with dumplings. That often gets frozen for a later meal. The spagbol tonight also had lentils and loads of veg.

I pay an awful lot for chicken these days ever since I read how badly treated chickens are that end up in most supermarkets. But M&S chickens ( supposedly) have a better life so I’ve been buying them for a year or so. Because it’s so expensive I try to use every last part of it and make as many meals as possible. I strip it and freeze it in small portions, then make stock out of the carcass. I used to buy bags of salad but now buy little gem lettuce. I’ve started making lasagne again, after finding the green lasagne that I like and one lasagne freezes into @ 6 portions. Tonight I just had reheated baked potatoes topped with cheese; I baked them in the oven when I made a cake the other night. I’m not much of a foodie. I probably spend far more on my dogs food than my own. I usually add lentils to mince when cooking chilli etc.

There is 3 of us here , us in your 60's, mum in her 80's and I would spend very little on meals tbh, although we do eat well

I yellow sticker shop, cook from scratch and fill out the plates with veg

The other week Lidl NI had extra large chickens for £3;50, I squeezed as many as I could into the freezer

So one chicken - roast dinner for three
Sweet and Sour chicken and fried rice - loads bottom of the drawer veg - juilliane carrots, peppers, spring onions, shredded cabbage , sweetcorn - whatever
Chicken Curry and rice , add left over cauliflower florets and spinach , mushrooms if Ive got them

So 9 meals out of a £3:50 chicken

Veg, I buy seasonal, I buy what's going to go with a roast, and I buy the biggest of a single price item - say a cauliflower - Ill buy a huge one, there's at least 3 meals coming from that ( use the stalks in the cauliflower cheese - no one notices )

I also buy a lot of frozen veg

I also use beans and lentils to stretch a meal. A fav here for example is a sausage casserole, its really flavoursome , throw in a can of butter beans and every one is stuffed full with just 2 good quality sausages ( although I often use the packs of cocktail sausages reduced to pennies around Christmas )

I would say our main meals are around £2 a head

Today I picked up 500g of butchers mince for 2.50. That with a few handfuls of red lentils, half a bag of frozen mixed veg, an onion or two and some spuds will make cottage pie for six . 3 eaten tomorrow, 3 for the freezer for another day

We also eat a lot of salad veg in season. Which for me makes cooing easier and cheaper - I make quiches using left overs from sandwich ham , squidgy tomatoes etc . Even a smallish one will serve 3 and a small portion left for someone's lunch.

I make pizzas, wraps, risottos where very little meat is required

And I make good use of pressure cooker, slow cooker, air fryer and freezer

Last night we had paprika chicken with potatoes (recipe from the New York Times)
300g chicken breast from Lidl - cost £2.40 I think.
Potatoes ? 40p
Pantry items to make up the marinade ? 40p
Asparagus to accompany I think £1.80.
So total cost of main course £5 or £2.50 per head.
(We did have strawberries & cream for dessert as well).
Oh and 🍷😆
But we didn’t eat all the chicken & I’ll use the leftovers in a salad for lunch tomorrow.

I only have a ready meal rarely, usually when pushed for time. We cook from scratch. Since I require gluten- free food, it's easier for me anyway to cook from scratch.

A friend of mine buys Iceland meals , I believe they are a £1 each. She bulks them out with veg. Iceland deliver free if you soend £45 , I think

I make stock from a chicken carcass and use it for chicken and mushroom risotto. DH loves it!

It’s a bit ambiguous mabon but as I understand it …
sazz means 6 servings but between 2 - so enough for 3 days. Eg. the breasts as roasts, meat from the thighs for curry and the bird stripped for sandwiches.

I find it's drinks that push up the bill. Teabags, coffee, tonic water but no alcohol .orange juice etc.

You must have very small appetites, is all I can say, SIK meanls for two unbelievable. That suggests that one chicken would feed 12 people!!!!!

I’ve always included a rice dish, an easy pasta bake and a simple egg meal in my fortnightly meal plan - I’m sure that must help with the food budget.

We had roast chicken and veg Chicken cost £5 that will make 6 meals for us 2 people
Roast with broccoli carrots potatoes day 1
Chicken Curry with veg leftover and rice day 2
Lunch chicken sandwiches with salad and coleslaw Day 3
So around £2 a meal with added rice, bread, salad and coleslaw
My granny used to stew the carcass and make soup but I don't eat soup

I cook much like Sago, we have a roast (supermarket) chicken or traybaked chicken thighs most weeks which then do another couple of meals with pasta or as risotto. Also mince cooked as meat sauce for pasta or chilli, and fresh fish (bought on special offer, which I freeze) once a week. If the grandchildren are here for a meal after school we often have a cheap roasting joint, decent quality sausages/burgers which work out a bit more expensive.
To be honest I've never calculated what a single meal would cost, though I'm guessing that I do spend at least £3 on a single portion of a main meal.
I don't usually spend more than £60 per week on food for the two of us, three meals a day. Lunch is more snacky than a real meal and we do have eggs for breakfast every day. I buy meat, poultry and fish to freeze when it's on special offer.

ferry23 With my slow cooker the lining of the cooker comes out and you put it on the stove to bring all the ingredients up to boiling point, then you place it in the preheated slow cooker for an hour. That way the lentils cook through and become part of the bolognaise sauce.

Dishes left simmering on the hob need constant checking and stirring to ensure they are not boiling dry and sticking to the pan. I just put the bolognaise sauce in the liner, heated to simmering point on the hob, into the slow cooker and then go away and come back an hour later.

I also batch cook, a habit I can't break, and freeze in portions for 2. That gives me flexibility for when we are descended upon.

I agree, there are 2 of us but I always batch cook, then freeze.
I'm not keen on spaghetti bolognese but my husband loves it, so always have lots of 1 portion bags in the freezer for him while I have chilli or fish.

I guess after feeding a family of 4 and having the extended family at weekends I've never really got into the habit of cooking for 1 or 2

M0nica

The answer is batch cooking, even for 1. There are two of us and when I cook mince I always add lentils and simmer gently in my slow cooker for an hour or so.

One lb of mince, 2 oz of lentils, plus other ingredients and a pack of spaghetti will feed up to 8 people for around £1.50 a head.

I'm a bit intrigued by this.

Why would you not just simmer it on the hob for 15mns or so? A slow cooker takes way longer than a hour or so to reach it's ambient temperature and be safe enough to destroy any bacteria, so all you're really doing is keeping it warm and paying for electricity that you don't need to be using.

The answer is batch cooking, even for 1. There are two of us and when I cook mince I always add lentils and simmer gently in my slow cooker for an hour or so.

One lb of mince, 2 oz of lentils, plus other ingredients and a pack of spaghetti will feed up to 8 people for around £1.50 a head.

Unless ready meals are the only option then they are best left alone. Not only are they quite costly but are high on salt and fats.
On an average my main meal, often salmon and vegetables or chicken curry costs around £3 but isn't full of unwanted additives, fat and salt.
If I am watching the pennies I like cheesy beans or scrambled eggs on wholegrain toast. Cost around 80p.
The ready meal market is huge so clearly very popular but not with me.

I make a lentil tomato and aubergine bake which is pretty cheap. You can add cheese and more veg to bulk it up.M and S often have tins of beans and tomato for about 60p.

I can make a huge lasagne with beef/turkey mince, lentils, veg etc for £6, this would feed 6 people.
Dhal with homemade naan breads would also come out at around £1 a portion.
Although I buy a butchers chicken at around £10-12 if I bought a supermarket chicken and did a roast, then made stock for soup and did a chicken past dish the following day the meals would be around £1.50 a portion.
I would say cooking for one you would be doing well if your meals averaged out at £3 a head.

That's a difficult one.
I don’t really analyse the cost of a meal, but say I’m cooking tonight’s chicken stuffed with garlic cheese and wrapped in bacon, with a side salad and air fried new potatoes, it costs more than when I do jacket potato with basa fillets and peas.
Can you give me an idea of what you cook for a £2 meal or a £3 meal?

NB It’s almost guaranteed that any ready meal will cost more than £2 or £3 unless you find a “due up today” cottage pie in Lidl.