Four family main meals for under £3
Try these shopping and cooking tips and feed the family for less
Making these four recipes takes a bit of thinking ahead, and some smart shopping, both habits that cut your weekly food bill, as will shopping seasonally. All the ingredients in this case came from Sainsbury’s, but similar ingredients are of course available elsewhere.
5 tips for smart food shopping
1. Buy ‘basic’ fruit and veg, generally downgraded because they’re outside daft EU size or shape norms. With tinned tomatoes you pay half the price, and the only differences are colour variation and an occasional bit of skin.
2. Own-brand is often as good as branded goods.
3. For the cook ‘recipe’ bacon is a bargain. Often in thick lumps, dice it to enrich stews, pasta sauces, gratins...
4. Check out ‘ethnic foods’ shelves. Pride brand coconut milk at 99p for a 400ml tin was yards from big-name brands at £1.82, and a large packet of spice is a fraction of what you pay for spice-rack bottles containing less.
5. Don’t be a brand slave, snap up suitable offers and check out other stores.
5 cooking tips for tasty economy
1. Never buy mild cheese. It’s slightly cheaper, but half the flavour of good stuff.
2. All four dishes use onions: cheap, flavoursome, and nutritious.
3. Ginger and little chillies give you lots of bang for your buck.
4. Protein is expensive, so don’t just think ‘meat’. Pulses and tinned fish can be store-cupboard bargains.
5. Think ahead. The fish pie used two frozen pollack fillets from a pack containing six: the other four would make a fish curry, or baked fish, or chowder...
The costings
Here's how we costed these dishes.
Mushroom risotto
Sage leaves, either cut finely and stirred in at the end, or flash-fried and used to decorate each plateful, would be great. If you haven’t got a sage plant in the garden or a window box, it’s worth the effort. Any frozen peas you've got knocking about the freezer would also add a spot of colour and extra flavour.
95p for 400g pack ‘basic’ white mushrooms
99p Sainsbury’s own-brand risotto rice, 500g packet
20p for 2 medium onions - economy pack of onions £1.50 for 1.5kg
4p for 2 garlic cloves - 1 head cost 30p
17p for 2 stock cubes, Sainsbury’s own brand, 84p for 10
36p for 75g Butter, again ‘basic’ - £1.19 for 250g
5p for 4 tbsp vegetable oil (probably less but life’s too short)
Total £2.76
Chick pea and potato curry
Nigel Slater does a chick pea and potato curry using tinned tomatoes where we use coconut milk, so his version would be cheaper still.
54p for 1kg potatoes – basic white potatoes £1.35 for 2.5kg pack
79p for Sainsbury’s own 410g tin chick peas
99p Pride brand 400ml tin of coconut milk
20p for 2 medium onions - economy pack of onions £1.50 for 1.5kg
11p 50g fresh ginger - £2.11/kg
4p for 2 garlic cloves - 1 head cost 30p
15p ½ a lemon – 30p each
5p 2 tbsp oil (life’s still too short)
10p 5 tsp powdered spices from ethic shelf packs (see oil comment)
Total £2.97
Fish pie
The smoked flavour of the kippers is lovely here, but if you don’t like it double up the pollack (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would probably approve), or substitute with a handful of small frozen prawns.
67p for 175 g (2 fillets) frozen whitefish fillets – 520g pack £2
84p Princes kippers, 190g tin
54p for 1kg potatoes – basic white potatoes £1.35 for 2.5kg pack
20p for 2 medium onions - economy pack of onions £1.50 for 1.5kg
10p for 1 medium carrot – 1kg pack £1
26p for 500ml semi-skimmed milk, 2.27l £1.18
5p for 50g plain flour - £1.05 for 1.5kg
24p for 50g butter – basic salted £1.19/250g
Total £2.90
Bacon, cheese and onion gratin
Use full-cream milk to make this richer still. Or you could omit bacon and increase the onion and potato for a (cheaper) veggie version.
50p 335g ‘cooking’ bacon - 99p for 670g pack
30p for 3 medium onions - economy pack of onions £1.50 for 1.5kg
4p for 2 cloves garlic – 30p for a head
54p for 1kg potatoes – basic white potatoes £1.35 for 2.5kg pack
39p for 750ml milk – 2.27l semi-skimmed £1.18
5p for 2tbsp oil
24p for 50g butter – basic salted £1.19/250g
50p for 50g cheddar – Cathedral City on offer £2 for 200g
Total £2.56
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