We're all looking for ways to keep costs down at the moment, especially when it comes to our rising food bills. And when it comes to feeding the family, the last thing you want is to spend money on something that gets wasted.
But when you want a substantial meal that grown ups and children will enjoy, pleasing everyone can be tricky and the budget can soon be quickly forgotten. However, eating on the cheap doesn't have to mean eating rubbish and with supermarkets competing for our custom, most are selling budget basics we can all benefit from.
I set out to make a family meal from Aldi for less than £1 a head - with at least one vegetable in there towards our five a day. The end result was a rather tasty and satisfying cottage pie which came in at an impressive 71 pence per head.
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We headed to budget retailer Aldi with a shopping list of all the ingredients needed to make the family favourite. The only extras we added from the cupboard were the cooking oil and the salt and pepper.
Altogether the ingredients cost £7.60, but that was for the entire packs of products, including stock cubes, gravy, Worcestershire sauce and thyme, all of which would be used in many further meals. I didn't even use all the potatoes or carrots, I only used two small onions from the 1kg bag and there was around two thirds of the full block of butter left over.
Admittedly I went for the cheapest options on everything, but who cares what wonky shapes your potatoes and carrots come in when they're being chopped up into pieces anyway. Apart from the odd sticky out bit on the carrots, they weren't actually that wonky at all.
And the potatoes were surprisingly good, given the fact I usually go for the more expensive Maris Pipers after being told they 'make better mash'. If you wanted a healthier version, you could pay extra for the lower fat beef mince -while it's £2.49 for a 500g pack of 10% fat, it's £2.99 for the 5% fat pack of the same size.
With the healthiest option it would bring the cost up to 95p per head, still a very reasonable price for such a hearty meal, which was wolfed down by us adults and two children, with one portion leftover. My other half even approved and he's a chef so not always easily pleased - although he did ask why I hadn't run a fork through the mash to give it a pattern like he does. I won't tell you what I suggest he do with his fork.
My son on the other hand dared to suggest the dish was 'nicer than when dad makes it'. Now that's karma right there!
Here's the full list of ingredients and cost, with the amount we used and what that equated to
- Potatoes 2.5kg 89p / we used 2kg 71.2p
- Carrots 1.5kg 45p / we used 800g 24p
- Onions 1kg 69p / we used 170g 11.7p
- Beef mince 500g £1.79 / used full pack £1.79
- Stock cubes pack of 12 37p / used one 3p
- Gravy granules 300g 79p / used 45g 11.8p
- Worcestershire sauce 150ml 65p / used 10ml 4.4p
- Thyme 15g 49p / used 1g 3.26p
- Butter 250g £1.48 / used 80g 47.36p
Total shopping list £7.60 / total used £3.53 (serves five / 70.6p per head)
Do you have a budget recipe to share for a family meal? Do you have any tips for making your food go further? Let us know in the comments here.
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