When you’re strapped for cash, trying to make things last until payday it can be diffiicult to come up with cheap, tasty and healthy meals for your family.
In this list, I cover some recipes that I hope will help you feed your family on a budget. It may also give you some inspiration on what to do with what you have available in your cupboard. What you’ll discover though, is that eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive. These meals will help you stretch your budget, until your next payday.
To start with, here’s some basic meal ideas – suitable for those with limited time or cooking skills. They require minimal ingredients, and are quick & easy to make.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
Table of Contents
Pasta with tinned tomatos, herbs and meat or lentils
This meal might seem basic, but it’s really cheap and easy to make. You can add flavour to this dish using herbs, and if you like it – add some garlic. This makes it more flavoursome and feels a bit less basic. This recipe can easily be made vegetarian, or gluten-free. If you’re on a low carb diet, just ditch the pasta and add some cheap low carb vegetables such as green beans.
For this meal you’ll just need:
Dried Pasta – Whatever you have in the cupboard works, or you can pick some up in the supermarket for under 50p a bag. Make sure you get the supermarkets own brand.
Tinned tomatos – chopped, or whole. – A 400g tin is normally under 30p in the supermarkets for their own brand. Check the reduced section, as sometimes dented tins end up there.
Minced beef or dried lentils (or a mix of both) – When picking a minced beef, check the freezer section – this is sometimes cheaper per kg than the fresh section. Don’t be afraid of the fat content in minced beef. Fat in meat, isn’t as unhealthy as it’s been made out to be plus it’s more satisfying than carbs, so you’ll feel more full for longer. Which is great with cheap meals, as it means you can use less meat per serving. If you’re not eating meat, then use lentils instead. You can also use lentils tobulk the meal out, and make it go further. Dried lentils are the cheapest – under £1.50 for 500g in most supermarkets but if you’ll struggle with preparing them the tinned lentils are also fairly cheap at under 60p a tin.
Herbs – I normally use a mix of italian herbs, and garlic also works great. If you don’t have any herbs, most supermarkets do their own brands. Asda for example, has mixed herbs for 30p!
Optional ideas: If you have any cheese or dried parmasan, you could add this on top to give it to some extra flavour. If you’d like to bulk the meal out with some vegetables; peas, sweetcorn, and carrots are all fairly cheap and are great at bulking. If you’re buying them, I recommend buying frozen as these will last longer.
Egg fried rice on a budget
Egg fried rice, is easy to make. This isn’t an authentic Chinese version, but it makes for a yummy, nutrious meal. If you’re grain-free, or low carb, you can make this using konjac rice or cauliflower rice.
For this meal you’ll need:
Rice, preferably white but any rice you have in the cupboard is OK. If you’re buying rice, then supermarket own brands are perfect & cheap. If budget allows, buy a bigger bag than you’ll need as rice keeps for a long time!
Eggs – I recommend 1 egg per person but if you have less, that’s OK. If buying, check the reduced section in the cold area, as they will put short dated eggs there but the best before dates on eggs is far from accurate. They last much longer than the date on them. To avoid the possibility of wasting your eggs, break them seperately into a dish. One at time, break the egg, check if it’s OK and then pour it into the pan before doing the same with another.
Vegetables – peas and sweetcorn work best for this recipe. Frozen, or tinned is cheapest. Check the reduced section for dented tins!
Tuna Mayo & Peas Cheap Low Budget Meal
This dish is so simple and cheap to make. It uses tinned tuna, which can be bought quite cheaply from the supermarkets but you could try it with a different tinned fish if you’d prefer. This dish is more of a lunch, than a dinner as its quite light weight. To make it into a dinner, you can combine with something like a baked potato to add extra bulk and make the meal more filling.
For this recipe, all you need is:
Some tinned tuna, I use half a tin per serving so you may need 2-3 tins depending on family size.
Peas – Frozen or tinned is fine, I recommend using garden rather than marrowfat or mushy.
Mayonnaise- Any brand, supermarket own brand is fine. Check the reduced section as you can sometimes get out of date Hellman’s mayo quite cheap! You can also buy a huge, 2 litre jar of Hellman’s Mayonnaise from Amazon which offers a decent saving over buying smaller jars.
If you’re using frozen peas, cook them. Then just mix the tuna, peas and mayo together in a bowl. It might not look great, but its an OK basic and cheap lunch. You could add some other cheap vegetables like sweetcorn or carrots to make things go further. Sometimes I use green beans, to add more variety.
Baked Potato Ideas for budget meals
Potato’s are cheap, and you can sometimes find them in the reduced section. They’re super easy to cook, as all you need is a microwave or oven.
For this recipe, all you need is:
A largeish potato, maybe a jacket if you find some reduced
Some butter or vegetable spread
A topping that contains some protein – so tuna mayo, baked beans, cheese.
You could also combine it with something like some chicken, or bacon to add more protein to this meal.
Eggy Bread
This is a great breakfast, but really simple to make.
All you need is bread, and eggs! I make this by putting some oil in a pan, cracking an egg and then putting a slice of bread in. Flipping the bread over straight away, covering both sides in egg an then cooking it until both sides are cooked.
You could serve this with some bacon, or baked beans to make the meal go further.
Always check the reduced section for bread! You can buy reduced loaves and freeze them, to make sure you always have bread available for cheap filler meals.
Boiled egg & Soldiers
Another basic one, but this is so good as kids love it. All you need is soft boiled eggs, some bread toasted and sliced up to make the soliders.
If you’re grain-free or low carb, check your supermarkets reduced section and hopefully you can find some halloumi or asparagus. Both make great soliders!
Cheap Pizza Toast
Kids love this, especially if you can get them involved! It’s so simple, and makes a cheap meal. It’s a fun dish to make, that gives a good source of protein plus some carbs & healthy fat. For this recipe, you’ll layer cheese on toast with some toppings.
So you’ll need:
1-2 slice of bread per person – check the reduced section
Cheese – preferably cheddar, but red lecister can also work. Don’t be afraid of buying the supermarkets own brands that look cheap, they work well for this recipe!
Tomato puree or ketchup – puree works better but this is eating on a budget, so if you’re stuck with only using ketchup that’s ok! BBQ sauce may also work if that’s all you have.
Toppings – Sliced pepperoni is about £1 a pack, but you could also use something else such as; tomato slices, sweetcorn, cut up bacon, peppers, olives etc. Whatever you have in the cupboard.
Cheap Noodle Dishes
Noodles are a great bulky food, and they’re great for making cheap meals for your family. You can buy the supermarkets own branded noodles, and always check the reduced section. Combine with some meat, vegetables and sauce and bam you have a meal.
You can also spice some up some instant noodles, with meat and vegetables to make them into a healthier more balanced filling meal.
For a basic noodle recipe you’ll need:
Dried noodles, these are cheaper and last longer than fresh. You’ll probably need to pay £1 for a pack of wheat or egg noodles. Instant noodles can be as little as 30p but you’ll need a few packs so this can work out more expensive.
A source of protein – Chicken, beef or pork are all good options. Whatever is the cheapest per serving. If you’re not a meat eater then beans can work well, or tofu if you can afford it.
Some vegetables – peas, sweetcorn, peppers, are all good options and you can use tinned/frozen if you can’t afford fresh.
For the sauce, you can go simple with something like soy sauce. But if your budget allows, sesame oil + soy sauce is such a good combination. You only need a small amount of sesame oil to give it flavour, so a bottle lasts for a long time (mine lasts me about 6 months).
You could also use a bbq sauce, or sweet and sour source. If your budget allows, a packet sauce can make this meal more interesting. This will add at least 50p cost per meal though.
Sausage & Mash
Sausage and mash is a great filling meal, suitable as a lunch or dinner. Where possible, I do recommend buying higher protein sausages (check the reduced section!). But if you’re on a budget, frozen sausages work well.
For the mash, use actual mash potato’s as this goes further and is much healtheir and nutrious than a packet mix. Buy the cheapest per kg potato’s, or just use what you have available. Mix them with some butter or vegetable oil. Cream cheese can also make them creamy.
If you cannot eat potato, cauliflower works great as an alternative.
You’ll also want some gravy, the supermarkets own brand is fine. You can sometimes find short date gravy in reduce sections so be sure to check.
Optional: If you want to bulk this out further, you could add some cheap vegetables. Green beans, peas, mushrooms, cauliflower all work well. Whatever you have, or whatever is in the reduced section!
I hope you find these suggestions for cheap meals helpful. If you have any suggestions please let us know so we can expand our list.
Remember, if you’re struggling financially you can always ask organisations we have listed here, for help and advice. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
