Budget meals that are good for Pro Points
- Thread starter calirose
- Start date
Do you like beans? I love mixed bean chilli, I make a chilli sauce first (because I like it to cook for a while) and then add the beans and cook for about 15 minutes. I usually make a big pan of this with 3 types of beans. This probably costs about £3-4 and does me at least four meals (I mostly eat it just by itself with a bit of extra light philadelpia. But you can have it with rice/jaket potato/wedges). You can buy cans of mixed beans if you don't want to make such big portions.
What about stir fry? You mightn't mind veggies in stir fry as they stay nice and cruchy.
Chicken thighs are cheaper than breast, and tastier - especially if you're cooking them for a while, but you get a smaller portion for four points. However you could make for example a curry with chicken thighs and then bulk it out with chickpeas/lentils.
I'm a fan of beans and pulses.
What about stir fry? You mightn't mind veggies in stir fry as they stay nice and cruchy.
Chicken thighs are cheaper than breast, and tastier - especially if you're cooking them for a while, but you get a smaller portion for four points. However you could make for example a curry with chicken thighs and then bulk it out with chickpeas/lentils.
I'm a fan of beans and pulses.
calirose
Full Member
I do love chicken thighs! aha. Ive just been avoiding buying chicken atm cus of the cost, but in my next shop i might invest in sum thighs! I have soo little money right now i havent been able to experiment cooking new things i start a new job soon so hopefully after that i will have lots of money to buy nice food ehe. Thanks for the ideas! x
i start a new job soon so hopefully after that i will have lots of money to buy nice food ehe. Thanks for the ideas! xmummy2lily
Member
Iceland's do really good fish portions, I think they do most fish individually packaged in a bag for about £3? You could saute some onions, mushrooms, garlic and tinned toms, whack on top of the fish and then bake all in foil. It's pretty good (and quick! ) x
) x
Lidl is very good for frozen fish at very reasonable prices. I got 5 portions of cod for £2.69 and they were decent portions. They also do chicken thighs etc cheap when on offer. Aldi are good for decent meat as well. I only buy my meat from local butchers and Ifind I may pay a bit more but there is little or no waste as they are not plumped up with water so no shrinkage when you cook. Could you tell your butcher what budget you have for meat and ask him to make up a pack of different things that would do for 2 people. My butcher did that for me and got some really nice stuff. Pays to ask. We got some offcuts of filet steak for a pound and we made steak and cheese wraps with salad. Keep your eyes open at local markets as well, in ours if you go at end of the day they sell off big bags of veg for a pound, enough to keep us going for a week. and they also do bags of fruit for a pound.
pikapiaaml
Member
One tip is to go to the supermarket later in the evening (at least after 7pm, if not later) when they're doing their final reductions - if you're lucky you can get some AMAZING bargains. The amount of times I've been in and got meat for 30p/pack, or WW ready meals for 19p ...
Whatever cheap meat you can get, take it home and bulk-cook something with it - chilli, curry, stew ... Then pot it up and freeze it - you can get 10 plastic pots for a £1 from certain pound shops, and you can re-use them over and over.
If you're buying 'full price' meat though, probably the best value thing to get is diced turkey thigh - it's about £4.50/kg. You might have to spend 10 mins just trimming off the fat a little though. Funny thing is, it's always reduced at my local morrisons in the evening!
I wish I could even check out the 'local' butchers, but there isn't one nearby. There's one in the town joined on to mine, I'll be honest it's only 5 mins drive down the road, but even then I work full time so I do my shopping on weekday nights. Usually have enough in for the weekend that I don't need to go to the shops so there would be no point checking out the butchers!
But I'm a bargain hunter really, I only buy stuff on offer or where it's cheapest, and I go to different supermarkets based on what offers they have and what I want/need. Barely spend more than £20 in one shop.
Whatever cheap meat you can get, take it home and bulk-cook something with it - chilli, curry, stew ... Then pot it up and freeze it - you can get 10 plastic pots for a £1 from certain pound shops, and you can re-use them over and over.
If you're buying 'full price' meat though, probably the best value thing to get is diced turkey thigh - it's about £4.50/kg. You might have to spend 10 mins just trimming off the fat a little though. Funny thing is, it's always reduced at my local morrisons in the evening!
I wish I could even check out the 'local' butchers, but there isn't one nearby. There's one in the town joined on to mine, I'll be honest it's only 5 mins drive down the road, but even then I work full time so I do my shopping on weekday nights. Usually have enough in for the weekend that I don't need to go to the shops so there would be no point checking out the butchers!
But I'm a bargain hunter really, I only buy stuff on offer or where it's cheapest, and I go to different supermarkets based on what offers they have and what I want/need. Barely spend more than £20 in one shop.
calirose
Full Member
Wow ur a smart shopper i think i need to get more intelligent with it..but the problem is that i dont have a car and i dont live that close to supermarkets so i have to order online. For the two of us to get a good shop its normally like £45 a week :/ which sucks, i wish i culd do it cheaper!!!! I need to plan more aha
