There is a Facebook group set up for people expressing an interest for extremely cheap meals, not a £1 a day, but an even more frugal 50p a day. So if you’re saving really hard for a house deposit, a special holiday, a new car perhaps, or maybe illness, redundancy, divorce, the immoral scourge of zero hours contracts or the ghastly benefit sanction have wreaked havoc on the household budget, or there is simply too much month left at the end of the money. This post may be the one for you.
Feeding yourself at such a very low level requires extremely cheap meals and a lot of discipline – no sneaky extra biscuits! I haven’t done a meal plan as such. What I’ve got here are many options to enable you to make choices that will keep you in budget. All the recipes are easy to make, don’t need complicated equipment and use basic ordinary ingredients. A basic store cupboard if you have one, would be helpful. Things like salt and pepper, basic self raising and plain flour, sugar and oil. Then there are flavourings that bring life to a dish, soy sauce and fish sauce, worcestershire sauce and mustard.
Table of Contents
Extremely Cheap Meals
I have scoured the Thrifty Lesley Recipe archives for anything cheap enough. I thought as a rough budget it should be split 10p for breakfast, 10p for lunch and 30p for dinner, and if you’ve managed it for less, as you will with many of these options, then there is a bit left for cake, or extra veg, or maybe a bit of fruit.
Breakfasts – budget of 10p
Sandwich Pastes
Many of the sandwich pastes cost up to 10p, or even less, with a couple of slices of value wholemeal, or white, bread
Jammy Oat Bars
Raisin Pancakes
Cinnamon Toast
Carrot & Sultana Loaf
Lunches – budget of 10p
Lunches can also involve the sandwich pastes, perhaps in a sandwich, a home made penny wrap or a home made pitta. Much nicer than shop bought and they can all be frozen. These uber cheap wraps and pitta can contain many and varied delicious morsels. You don’t need much filling and it’s amazing what lovely little dishes can be created from this and that in the fridge
Flatbreads
Cheapy Bread Rolls
or you might prefer rolls instead of wraps
Sparkling Water Tomato Rolls
or even tomato rolls made with no yeast, just sparkling water, and no kneading!
Home Made Pitta
or delicious home made pitta, super cheap. Sorry about the closeup eyes, I was showing off newly acquired false lashes!
Split Pea Soup
This split pea soup requires only 3 ingredients and is just 8p, (even cheaper than when I first posted about it in January 2016!), leaving enough for a bread roll as well. Particularly delicious when made with chicken or turkey stock
Hummus & Grated Carrot Sandwich
https://thriftylesley.com/hoummous-and-grated-carrot-sandwich-9p-a-serving/
Beans on Toast
Or the classic cheap lunch, 2 slices value bread with half a tin of value beans, 16p
Dinners – budget of 30p
Many, many options cost up to 30p or even less, so lots of choices for dinner, even at 50p a day!
Pea Crumb Fritters
The cheapest dinner on Thrifty Lesley at 6p, although to be fair, you’ll need something else to go with it. So maybe a jacket potato (10p) and a knob of buttery spread (2p) and a portion of mixed frozen veg (10p), a total of 28p
Stuffed Potato Cakes
These stuffed potato cakes are really good, and certainly don’t taste like a budget basic meal.
Salted Cashew Couscous
Gajar Matar, Everyday Vegetables Wearing a Sari
Gnocchi Made With Dried Mash
Raw Chickpea and Carrot Falafel
These falafel are cheap enough to allow the addition of a portion or two of vegetables to go with them.
Balti Spring Green Pancakes
Lots of spicy flavour in these balti pancakes. The spices used can be varied too for variety. A good strong tasting meal
Pea Fritters
Sweetcorn Fritters
Here are a trio of dahls, many different flavours can be made, these are suggestions to start you off
Tomato Dhal
Coconut Dhal
Lemon Dhal
Cheese & Ham Toastie
Home Made Sausages
Each spicy banger is 19p, leaving you with a bit left for chips and beans, or mash and peas, or a jacket potato with butter, or beans
Lentil Dumplings
Stuffed Pancakes
Sardine Toast, Sandwich & Pasta
Sardine Fish Cakes
More ideas for fishcakes
More Fish Cake Ideas
Zombie Burgers
Peanut Noodles
Ham & Cheese Pancakes
Scone Based Pizza
Olive Drop Scones, Fried Onions & Carrot Ribbon Salad
Beetroot & Feta Tart
Tuna & Onion Pie
Chicken & Onion Pie
Pasta & Soft Cheese
Vegetable Crumble
Faggots & Gravy
Baconey Tomatoey Pasta
Lentil Nut Loaf
Chole & Nan
Broccoli Pesto & Pasta
Spinach Dumplings
Olive Drop Scones & Garlicky Soft Cheese
Wild Garlic Pesto
Spaghetti with Beef & Tomato Sauce
Chorizo & Roasted Veg Pizza
Fishless Kedgeree
A Trio of Vegetable Hummus – Green Pea, Butternut Squash & Sweetcorn
A 2nd Trio of Vegetable Hummus – Beetroot, Parsnip & Swede
Bacon, Olive & Cheese Savoury Loaf Cake
34p a serving, so you’d probably need to have it on it’s own, but you get 544 calories and masses of protein
Lentil Ragu & Spaghetti
You’d need to omit the cheese to hit the 30p budget
Soups
Soup makes a perfectly acceptable main meal, especially with a fresh scone, warm from the oven. A filling and warming meal
Roasted Vegetable Soup
Parsnip Soup
Spiced Parsnip Soup
Spiced Broccoli Soup
Fillers
Herby Scones
Rosemary & Mustard Scones
Tomato Scones
Fruit Scones
Two Ingredient Cake
Coconut Biscuits
Bannocks, With/Out Roasted Veg Hummus
Great! So glad you like them xx
Love them all
Thanks Lesley