We're Skint. Frugal Meals?

Pasta bake is always a good one and you can throw anything in. Make it a vege one (mushrooms/sweetcorn/peppers/tinned toms) and top with cheese.

Mac and cheese

Sausages and mash (12 half price cumberlands in Tesco and they are lovely)

Baked spuds with beans and cheese

I should add it needs to be fairly healthy too, I'm on a mission to lose 10lb (have lost 8lb already)

JP and beans is always a winner and I do a lot of pasta so I will note them down!

Make lamb stock from the left over bones using water, a carrot, an onion, a few peppercorns and a bay leaf. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours.

Finely chop a carrot or two, an onion or two and a clove of garlic. Soften in a heavy bottomed pan. Shred the leftovers of your leg of lamb and then add these to the pan, allow to colour. Add the stock, a tablespoon of ketchup, two teaspoons or thereabouts of Worcestershire sauce, s&p to taste and leave to simmer for20-30 minutes.

Transfer to a dish and add mashed potato to the top. Fluff with a fork. Bung in an oven at 200c for 20-30 minutes until starting to brown. Serve with peas or any other veg. The very best shepherd's pie. Delicious.

When we need to stretch ingredients we tend to go for casseroles or frittatas.

Soup is another good one.

I regularly make: leek and potato, roasted butternut squash with chilli, chorizo and red pepper, thai broth with fishcakes. All healthy and cheap.

One of my favourite meals is a veggie bake !

I'd go to your local supermarket a bit later today and see if they have any fresh veg going cheap, I usually get lots on a sunday from our local tesco.

Then just boil it up, do some spuds and make it into a sort of veggie pie as such, just veg under the spuds and bake for a while, I like to add some cheese in there for taste, can use philidelphia or something like that maybe to make it healthier. Its cheap and goes a long way and is blooming tasty !

Beans on toast

TYhis sounds great thanks Cricks...thats Monday's dinner sorted, its on the planner?

This is what I was going to say! Not very helpful ?

I sometimes do a cheap curry. Instead of chicken try a keema (mince) and potato one or even chickpeas and potatoes.

Also tesco do a great tin of mixed beans. Use with chickpeas and potatoes and tinned toms to make a stew. I normally put smoked paprika in and call it spanish stew!

Also it might be fun to tell us what you have in and we can all see what meals we can come up with.

OH always tells me there is nothing in. Last time I managed 5 (yes 5!) evening meals out of our so called empty cupboards.

I second the pasta bake, we usually find there's plenty left over for lunch the next day as well which is always a winner.

Have been known to go round the in laws for weekend meals when we are really feeling the pinch!! They love us being there anyway so it's not a problem!

Another good one for us is chicken korma, value chicken, jar of sauce and a bit of rice. Sometimes throw in some peas as well.

If you have any extra lamb left over - you could do Morrocan Lamb. I usually use a spice mix for it, but I'll have a look and check what spices are in it, which you may already have! I just mix the meat with chopped tomatoes, spices, and add some chickpeas. I also add any extra veg in I need used up.

Savory rice stuffed peppers. Mix cooked rice with finely chopped leftover veg, add herbs/seasoning/stock cube, fill pepper shells. You can top with cheese and grill but that isn't the healthiest option.

I find chicken breasts stretch really well in a stir fry when lots of veg is used. I also add beansprouts which bulks it out and means you use less noodles so less carbs!

My supermarket has packets of pre-packed veg often reduced to a few pence - If I see them I but the butternut squash and sweet potato mix, which is delish made into curry or soup.

For lunches, I second Cricks, soup is the way forward. Tasty, filling, healthy and so cheap! Today I have homemade lentil soup surprise (all my soups are a surprise, they are never the same twice!) You can make soup out of anything!

Finely chop a carrot or two, an onion or two and a clove of garlic. Soften in a heavy bottomed pan. Shred the leftovers of your leg of lamb and then add these to the pan, allow to colour. Add the stock, a tablespoon of ketchup, two teaspoons or thereabouts of Worcestershire sauce, s&p to taste and leave to simmer for20-30 minutes.

There are plenty of sources of cheap protein you can buy without having to resort to cheap chicken (I'm approaching this from a welfare perspective rather than out of an issue with 'cheap' meat).

OK - on the list are

Spag bol

Chilli (made from the same batch of spag bol sauce but with pepeprs and kidney beans)

Roast Lamb

Shepherds Pie (leftover lamb)

Jacket potatoes with beans / tuna

Pasta - with tomato sauce (this is my go - to meal) with some veggies put in for healthiness.

Soup - I make a chicken one (got it for lunch today) and i will also do a lentil one

In the cupboards -

Tinned tomatoes

Brown Rice

Numerous cooking sauces (i tend to make my own so we have a couple knocking about)

tinned ham and hotdogs (we got a tinned hamper once...)

I cant think what else is in there but i reckon I could knock something together.

Got loads of spices and stuff, onions and garlic...always have these around.

Pasta

Chopped hotdogs through your pasta and tomato sauce!?!?

Sorry, are you HT!? ?

?

I really dont want to have to open the hotdogs haha!

Ok Ok I was only trying to help!!!! ?

I've never had a hotdog in my life, wouldn't want to open them either, but then again, if they needed using up, and I was stuck for something to add to my pasta, I'd give it a shot! (and invite HT round for tea!)

Ha! I could give them to the cat if all else fails.... ?

Would they not be the same as the Mathesons smoked sausage you get? It's tasty chopped through pasta!

Sorry, forgot to mention half a glass of red wine for the shepherd's pie. You may need to add more lifquid whilst simmering. I tend to add more wine or stock.

Loadsa good ideas already! If you are trying to lose weight and eat cheaply then a vegetarian diet is for you!

Frittata is a great suggestion, smoked mackeral is cheap and you can mixed it through home made fried rice with thai curry paste/peas/spring onions, we also have smoked mackeral through pasta with a little stock and sauteed leeks, cauliflower and potato curry, sweet potatos are AMAZING and low GI so better than a regular JP. I have replaced all white potato meals with sweet potato. I bake them, roast them, mash them.... Cous Cous with roast veg and feta? (Good lunch option)

Pasta (shells or twists or something) with pesto stirred in, a few chopped cherry tomatoes and some feta cheese. (Cheddar if very skint)

For the not so skint, add toasted pine nuts. but they cost a blinkin' fortune these days.

Tea at the Cricket household sounds amazing!!

True! I wanted some last week and they were £3 for a tiny packet!! £3!!!!!

Pesto Pasta is another good one, I hate cherry toms but I do have it with mushrooms and sometimes chicken, tho it doesnt need meat. ta!

I always add more wine when simmering, however its normally my belly i'm adding it to, not the food! I have a sign in my kitchen, one of the old tin signs, that says 'I cook with wine, sometimes i even add it to the food' T'is my motto!

I love sweet potato but they're not cheap! I sometimes use them for wedges - if i see them on offer i'll get them but its so much cheaper to just grab a bag of baking potatos which last forever!

Smiley potato faces, fish fingers and beans?

*awaits backlash of 'you cant eat that for tea!!!' *

I dread to think what is in either of these ATB?!!

I like hot dog sausages! just don't think about what goes in them although I am sure it's the same as what goes in normal sausages.

ETA to the OP you have had some good suggestions here another one is a white sauce (easy with milk, flour and butter) can go with loads - either with rice, peas and sweetcorn and/or chicken mushrooms etc like a risotto, or add cheese for a veg bake or cauli/ brocolli cheese although not overly healthy it is very filling so you don't need many carbs or meat with it.

Would it not work out healthier to do any actual risotto though?

I love white suace and i would eat it on everything if I could, but unfortunately if I do that I would be as big as a house!!