Budget Meal Recipes
Simple, filling family meals made with affordable everyday ingredients — without anything feeling like a “budget dinner”.
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Week 1: Building Our Budget Kitchen
The first week builds a useful store cupboard and turns a small group of ingredients into seven different dinners, planned leftovers and a batch of soup.
Sausage, Mash, Peas and Gravy
A comforting, inexpensive dinner with creamy mash, peas and plenty of onion gravy.
View recipeTomato and Lentil Pasta
A filling tomato pasta with red lentils and grated carrot. Half becomes lunch for the following day.
View recipeChicken and Vegetable Fried Rice
A flexible fried rice using chicken, vegetables and store-cupboard flavourings.
View recipeJacket Potatoes with Beans and Cheese
Crisp baked potatoes with a simple, family-friendly topping and ideas for inexpensive swaps.
View recipeHomemade Family Pizza
An affordable homemade pizza base with a simple tomato sauce and choose-your-own toppings.
View recipeHidden-Vegetable Cottage Pie
A warming cottage pie that stretches the filling with vegetables without losing its familiar flavour.
View recipeRoasted Chicken Thighs and Vegetables
Good-value chicken thighs roasted with potatoes, carrots and peas for an easy end-of-week dinner.
View recipeVegetable and Lentil Soup
A simple soup that makes several lunches and uses affordable vegetables and store-cupboard lentils.
View recipeThis collection will grow every week
Every recipe from the Thrifty Family Kitchen challenge will be added here. The weekly plans will explain what to buy and when to cook it; this page will remain the simple place to find the recipes.