7 Dinners for Two for Under £35
I wanted to see if I could put together seven proper evening meals for two for under £35 without ending up with a week of boring meals or buying loads of completely separate ingredients.
The trick was to plan the meals so that the same ingredients could be used more than once. The chicken from Sunday came back out for Tuesday’s risotto, the sausages did two different meals, the potatoes were used a few times and the cheese popped up more than once too.
I also made extra where it made sense so we had leftovers for lunch the next day, which made the whole shop stretch even further.
The full Asda shop came to £34.50.
Sunday — Roast chicken dinner
We started with a roast chicken dinner with roast potatoes, carrots and peas.
I deliberately bought a 1.7kg chicken because I wanted enough left over for another meal rather than buying chicken twice during the week.
Once we’d eaten, I stripped the remaining meat from the chicken and saved it for Tuesday.
Monday — Bacon and egg fried noodles
Monday was bacon and egg fried noodles with peas and carrots.
This was a really easy one and it also used some of the vegetables we’d already opened for the roast, without feeling like we were eating the same sort of meal again.
Tuesday — Chicken and mushroom risotto
The leftover roast chicken went into a big chicken and mushroom risotto with risotto rice, mushrooms, peas and chopped onion.
I made a decent sized batch so there was enough left for lunch the following day too.
Wednesday — Jacket potatoes with beans and cheese
Wednesday was a simple one with jacket potatoes topped with baked beans and Red Leicester.
The potatoes were already being used elsewhere in the week and the cheese was going to be used again later, so this was a really cheap meal without feeling like a “budget” dinner.
Thursday — Sausage, mash and veg
Thursday was sausage and mash with peas and carrots.
I bought a pack of 20 sausages and used some for this meal, then saved the rest for Friday.
Friday — Sausage pasta bake
The rest of the sausages went into a pasta bake with spicy tomato sauce and some of the Red Leicester.
Even though sausages featured two nights in a row, the meals felt completely different, which is exactly what I wanted from this plan.
I also made enough pasta bake to have leftovers for lunch the next day.
Saturday — Burgers and sweet potato fries
Saturday was burgers with sweet potato fries and iceberg lettuce.
This was one of the more expensive meals of the week, but because some of the earlier meals were so cheap, it still fitted into the £35 budget without a problem.
The shopping list
- 1.7kg whole chicken — £5.22
- 2kg baking potatoes — £1.80
- 1kg frozen peas — £1.64
- 500g fresh carrots — 75p
- 12 medium free range eggs — £2.85
- Mushrooms — 84p
- Risotto rice — £2.00
- Ready-chopped fresh onion — 60p
- 2 tins baked beans — £2.00
- 20 frozen sausages — £2.48
- Pasta — 75p
- Spicy tomato pasta sauce — 79p
- 250g Red Leicester — £2.42
- 4 burgers — £3.77
- 6 burger buns — £1.00
- Sweet potato fries — £2.20
- Iceberg lettuce — 50p
- 600g noodles — £1.64
- 300g bacon — £1.25
Total: £34.50
I was really pleased with how this one turned out because none of the meals felt like they’d been chosen just because they were cheap.
Planning the meals together rather than one at a time made the biggest difference. It meant I could use the same ingredients across the week, keep the cost down and still have a decent bit of variety.
And the extra portions for lunch were a nice bonus too.
Thank you for reading, Cass x
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