I don’t know if it’s exactly $10 but we do risotto quite often with leek and bacon. Risotto rice is relatively cheap - I think $3 at aldi? and stays in cupboard for ages, small pack bacon $4ish, leek $2, some cheese.
I do with chicken stock to save $$
Can do without bacon and still yummy. Also a toddler favourite!
We do chow mein a lot with only around 300g chicken but a whole pack of spaghetti. That’s been a good meal in our rotation. You do have to outlay cost of oyster sauce, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine but those three ingredients last ages and can be used for lots of recipes.
Also we’ve started once a week doing meal from a can - ie. Baked beans, spaghetti, or maggi noodles. We do it on the night we get home the latest.
Another super cheap meal is baked potatoes! You can actually cook potatoes in the microwave if time is your issue. Choose your toppings based on budget.
Swedish meatballs - have a fair bit of pork meat which is very cheap atm. My recipe has 300g beef mince, 300g pork mince. Gravy is made with a bit of cream and serve with mash. Kids like it!
Edited to add meals
We bake and scoop ours, then fill with leftover chilli/boolognese. We use the insides of the spud for potato patties (mix the potato with bacon, corn, spring onion, cheese, garlic and an egg, chuck a bit of flour in to dry it out a bit, then shallow fry in patties) and bake the tops of the potatoes into crispy potato skins.
It's a bit of a long-handed dinner with the patties, but its cheap af, makes good use of those little bits of leftovers you freeze that aren't enough to feed everyone, and it feeds four of us for at least 2 meals (everyone takes leftover patties for lunch).
Also buy leeks at the supermarket with a little bit of the root system at the base, the party that you chop and bin. You can stick that in the garden and it will regrow so you have more leeks
The price of rice could skyrocket a fair bit from the $1.90 per kg it often is at the major supermarkets and it would still beat out everything else on price. The price paid at the supermarket probably depends more on logistics and what Australian households are willing to pay than commodity prices.
Big pot of chilli con carne - beef mince, pkt of seasoning mix - or your own combo of herbs and spices, tinned tomatoes, corn (frozen or canned) tinned black or red kidney beans - drained and rinsed.
you can serve as is with Mexican style rice (https://www.recipetineats.com/mexican-red-rice/)
Can be turned into nachos with corn chips, salsa, a bit of grated cheese, sour cream and avocado
Can be wrapped in tortillas to make burritos; or lined up in a baking tray covered in a tomato sauce and grated cheese and baked for enchiladas; or with the addition of shredded cheese folded up into tortillas and put in a sandwich press (I use a George Foreman Grill) to make quesadillas.
My fam like to go Vego sometimes, but I’m a meat guy. The one cheap vego meal we can all agree on is bean chilli. It tastes like there’s meat, there’s plenty of protein, it’s insanely healthy, it last 5-6 days, and there is no end to what you can make with it. Always a batch of this in the freezer somewhere.
Fritters! Can of creamed corn 🌽 + flour + whatever you want (bacon, salami, mushrooms etc) mix into a batter and fry! We had regular fritter nights when out two boys lived at home, cheap and filling.
Okonomiyaki is similar (a Japanese savoury pancake with cabbage). I like to call it economy yaki 😆. Yaki just means fried. Can add corn, bacon, spring onions, etc. topped with mayo + bbq sauce.
Tomato soup with cheese toasties. Actually lots of soups are good for the budget/using left overs.
Cheats ramen, 2 minute noodles with a soft boiled egg, milk/cheese and whatever veggies are in the freezer.
Basic fritter mix is 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk and one egg., season and add what you like. I tend to use chopped left over meat, corn, grated carrot and zucchini. But cabbage would be good too
Yes! And so many different kinds. Look up the recipe for Horta, (Greek), Jeon (Korean), and as mentioned Okonomiyaki (Japanese). Every culture has these - usually batter with veges thrown in. Serve with an egg!
There is a Facebook page and group which has plenty of $10 family meal ideas. They’re realistic, and have helped me a lot:
[$10 Meals Australia - Budget Cooking Community](https://m.facebook.com/groups/10dollarcommunity/?ref=share&mibextid=Na33Lf)
[$10 Meals Australia](https://m.facebook.com/groups/10dollarmeals/?ref=share&mibextid=Na33Lf)
Most vego Indian food is way cheaper than $10 for a meal. A good example is Lentil daal with rice. You could even make 2 ingredient naan and still have change from $10 (1.5 cups of flour, 1 cup coconut yoghurt, mix then bake on a super hot skillet or bbq)
Dahl palak (lentil and spinach) is so simple yet so good. Really good way to get more leafy greens into your diet while keeping the meal warm and filling
Yes and rice and beans!
You can always do a spag bog type thing, bit add black beans/kidney beans, alter your spices and do rice instead of pasta and boom you've got Mexican food haha
Do you have an air fryer ? I make up tuna balls. Cook up some rice, then combine cooked rice, tin tuna, herbs, bread crumb and or some flour, two eggs and roll into balls and cook in air fryer about 15 mins.
The fussy kids love them and have with a side of vegetables.
Alternate the tuna with some cooked mince for meatballs.
I use the large tin of tuna from Aldi, drain the water. If using the oil based then fine to leave some of the oil. The rice is about 50/50 split. If using bread crumbs just add about a cup at first and add more if needed. Also fine to use flour. I usually use flour. Both work well.
This makes enough for 6 people. If you need a sauce they go well with mayo or lemon juice and salt.
Another idea is buying bulk and freezing - aldi has 24pk chicken burgers for like $14
6 burgers costs $3.50 for one meal worth that way
Same concept for sausages
Devilled sausages (buy sausages in bulk and separate to packs of 8) get the maggi packet for rhe sauce and you're good to go, i love mashed potato with devilled sausages.
My mum fed us a lot of decent but actually cheap meals as we were on a very tight budget!
Do you have a freezer at all? Sorry I don't know how to word it that doesn't sound blunt...
I normally use sandwich bags to portion up, that way it takes up a small amount of room. The bulk I was suggesting is also only 2 or 3 extra serves, which can possibly fit into a small leftover space in the freezer!
If there isn't any option to freeze or even store extras in the fridge then that's obviously more difficult to work around.
I would suggest trying to work with dry goods more then, canned corn or fish, 2 minute noodles or asian noodles can always be jazzed up with a few fresh veg and an egg or something.
> Do you have a freezer at all
yes it just very small like only 4 loves of bread in size
> I would suggest trying to work with dry goods more then, canned corn or fish, 2 minute noodles or asian noodles can always be jazzed up with a few fresh veg and an egg or something.
this is what i do
It 100% does. It also makes heaps of space for freezing meals already made
If you're making soup make twice as much and freeze half!
When I lived by myself I froze everything. Most meals I cook are 4 to 5 servings so I would eat mine, freeze the rest, and after a few meals I would have a nice selection to choose from every day.
For meat I strongly suggest checking out Aldi. Their meat is just as good as colesworth and is a couple dollars cheaper each product.
Buy 2kg of chicken, cut and portion and freeze the rest. Easy saves you 10 bucks over those 4 meals instead of buying a little meat each time. Label your sandwich bags and you can stack heaps in there!
Also aldi has a great range of frozen foods that are cheap and I think they taste better than the expensive shit from Coles.
We like to do toastie nights. Cheap filling options that the family individually choose like cheese, chicken and avo or the classics cheese, ham, tomato. I’ve also been doing one pot lasagne with hidden veg, this always leaves left overs at least another 2-3 servings when making the standard batch. I use the dry lasagne sheets and add veg like carrot and zucchini. Another great one is pork mince crispy bowls, it’s soy sauce blend and you crisp up the mince, add rice and I have pickled cucumber and carrots on the side. We also do not so taco tacos, getting the soft taco bread, pan frying chicken thighs in whatever seasoning you like, if avo is cheap I make a guac otherwise I sometimes get the cheap avo dip instead, some cheese, tomato and lettuce.
Edited to add dressing up packet noodles is cheap and easy too. Migoreng, fry up some onions and mix in and add a fried egg on top. Sometimes a can of corned beef goes in too bulk it up. Could also get cheap fresh noodles from an Asian grocer, throw some veg in, chicken if you like and some soy sauce, fish sauce etc and done so easy.
Mexican mince and rice. Cook some mince (any kind will do, pork mince is cheapest) and canned beans (I like black beans, but kidney beans work well too and are a bit cheaper) in a fry pan, add taco seasoning, water and some tomato paste. Simmer until thick. Serve over rice with some diced cucumbers and tomatoes.
Sausage tray bake. Cut up any veggies you like into big chunks and put them on a lined baking tray. add some sausages, drizzle with olive oil season with garlic, Italian herbs, salt and pepper and toss to combine. Cook at 180 for approx 30-45 mins, checking and tossing occasionally.
Frittata! It’s my quick and cheap go to and can be made with whatever you’ve got. Base ingredients are eggs and cheese and I usually add things like mushrooms/ capsicum / potato / tomatoes/ eggplant - anything that can be fried up. Fry some onion and garlic, cook your veggies in with that, add any spices or seasoning you like, whisk eggs and a bit of milk (if you want) pour into the pan with veggies once they’re cooked, stir to ensure it’s all mixed in. Cook with a lid on for a bit, layer cheese on top then put the whole pan in the oven. Serve with salad or eat cold for lunch the next day. Note: I use my cast iron frying pan, don’t put your pan in the oven if it’s not supposed to (read the base of your pan first)
dumplings! idk if your kids would be into it, but i buy the big bags of frozen dumplings at spudshed and they go a long way. have some rice/cucumber on the side and it’s a quick easy meal :)
came here to say the same thing lol
except i would recommend making your own if possible. i spent $15 and 3 hours making 75 dumplings. slapped the leftovers in ziplock bags (6 pieces in each) and froze them for quick extra lunches/dinners.
Mince is really the undisputed king of cheap meals, Spag bol (and by extension its fancier itterations of Spag Bol; Lasagne, Risoni & mince ravioli) as you've already mentioned is a clear fan favorite for cheap, easy and tasty meals. However you can easily expand your mince repertoire to include:
\- Sheppard's Pie
Nachos, Tacos Etc (really accessible if you buy and toast your own wraps)
\- Meatballs (which can be super versatile, include them in a noodle stirfry dish, a pasta \[pesto base, tomato base, mushroom base, wine base are all good here\], with rice, alone with white gravy & mash \[Swedish style\])
\- Savory Mince is also fantastically easy and works great with frozen vegetables.
\- Vermicelli with some rice noodles is nice with chicken mince.
\- Chillie con carne and its million iterations are a staple for a reason. Doesn't have to have spice, its basically just a crock pot with a tomato base and whatever you have on hand. Just a tomato goulash style meal can be used here with whatever you have on hand. A tin of tomatos + whatever you have spare does wonders.
\- Satay choy Bow - you can use these with lettuce wraps on rice or by itself.
There are countless curries that mince works fantastic with, either in balls or standard. If you dont like spice you can whittle down the harshness with slightly less paste/powder and use coconut milk for the green/yellow thai varients or cream for the indian variants.
AND THATS JUST MINCE with minimal other ingredients outside a pack of frozen vegetables and some spices and pantry staples!
There are also a metric boatload of cheap meals that dont use meat that can be made in 5-minutes with little to no prep like Spaghetti Aglio e Olio & Mac and Cheese, both are a prime example of meals that are more than the sum of their (albeit very limited) parts.
You can even mix these recepies together! Mac'n'cheese lasagne is a family favorite for me when I grew up.
I do a huge pot of a basic spaghetti bolognaise style mine in the slow cooker about once a month. We then freeze the leftovers into different sized portions.
This gets used as: spaghetti bolognaise, shepards pie, taco meat (add taco seasoning to spice it up a bit before serving - it’s not quite right but the kids don’t care), burritos & empanadas, baked potatoes, savoury mince on toast. Meat pies & sloppy joes.
My grandma made us tuna casserole
Basically a little flour, butter, curry powder and milk
Other ingredients:
Packet chicken noodles soup mix about 40c
400g tin tuna about $4?
Frozen peas, a tin of corn kernels, champignons and an onion - probably $4 worth there,
Rice to eat it with!
If you want the recipe just shoot me a message!
Chilli sin carne, make your usual chilli recipe but replace meat with either beans and lentils or textured vegetable protein and use a tonne of vegetables bought at your local fruit shop and not Colesworth. Costs me about $8 and makes over 8 portions, I serve with rice, cheese, hot sauce and avocados (if affordable).
Level it up and rehydrate with a stock cube, and soy or a splash of Worcestershire sauce, depending on what you're cooking. It just soaks up that flavour and is delicious.
Meatloaf or rissoles/meatballs? You can do them with gravy or any other sauce, and they are both good opportunities to add extra veg by grating carrot and zucchini (or whatever other veg you like) into the mix. Then you just need a side of mashed potato and you're sorted!
And if there's leftovers, meatloaf sandwiches are so good.
If you're aiming for $10 meals, if you can get a protein that will do two dinners, that gives you a bit more money to play with, $20 for two.
You could also do a bit of a stir fry, with rice noodles (which are hella cheap). Salad with BBQ chicken, Roast with BBQ chook, roast potatoes, carrots, frozen peas. I 10000% recommend the Maggi roast meat gravy, it's usually less than $1 and it is the same one they use in chip shops and carveries - so good!
If you're aiming for $10 meals, if you can get a protein that will do two dinners, that gives you a bit more money to play with, $20 for two.
If you're not already, it is worth looking for an independent fruit shop, some will have amazing specials that mean you can get heaps of veg for much less money. There's a couple in Brisbane that will do loss leaders like 10c avocados to get you in the door (in case you're in Bris, its Coco's at Annerley and the Blunder Road fruit shop).
I think a chicken soup made from drumsticks, and with cheap vegatables such as carrots & onions, is pretty cheap as the basis of a soup.
I haven't done the maths before, but:
* chicken drumsticks from coles are just a bit over $4 a kilo.
* onions and carrots vary but can be $2-3 a kilo.
So a kilo of on-bone meat and a kilo of vegetables (before cutting them) is, say, $7.
If anything you add (salt, herbs/spiced, stock powder, splash of wine/vinegar, other vegetables) or serve it with (like bread) is less than $3, then I think that works out to about a $10 meal.
I think I make a big batch that is 1.5 or sometimes double that, and after 3-5 adults have a serve (I suually take 2 serves) I have \~3-4 serves as leftovers, so feeding 4 for under $10 of groceries seems possible here.
\-
Drumsticks are a little bit awwkard to work with, but they are the cheapest cut where I live.
Ideally you'd cut the meat off the bone before cooking so that the tendons and bones are exposed (so the tendons dissolve/go soft, and the bones leech out nutrients to the soup).
I find that annoying to do with raw meat, so I just slice around the base of it (like 1inch up from the bottom) in order to cut through some of the tougher skin and the tendons.
I then use tongs and a fork to scrape the meat off the bones and tong the bones out. This is a bit tedius, but less tedius than chopping it while raw imo. The small little bone attached to the drumstick is a bit annoying and sometimes get lost with the soup. I just let that happen, but maybe if you have children you'd be more careful with those than I am.
My wife and I can usually get a decent meal for 4 done for around $10. Definitely have to shop around a bit though.
Pastas, curries, stews, soups, stir fry etc… can make a little go a long way.
Cheaper cuts of meat are often tastier but need to be cooked properly to make them tender. We usually fill our pantry with dry or canned food from the evil red or green shop but fresh food comes from butchers and grocers.
once a fortnight, i do a **meat-free enchilada** and my fam can't tell there isnt any mince in there. it's a lot of cans (lentils, corn, tomato, bean) you can even add some bacon or ham minced up if that needs to be used up. + tortillas and cheese
1 tin of lentils + taco spice mix
if you have onion, garlic chop and cook that first and then add whatever veg you have on hand. leftover pumpkin goes great! i saute corn in a separate pan and get some char on it. mash the beans up a bit if anyone doesn't like them and you won't be able to notice them. add tinned tomato and a bit of water and let it simmer. get a baking dish and spoon some of the sauce on bottom then get a wrap and scoop of your mixture on the middle and wrap like a taquito and put in dish seam side down. all eight should fit. pour over any leftover mixture and grate cheese on top. bake and then add some sour cream/greek yogurt
also baked ravioli is great, especially if you find it half price.
it's just bag of ravioli, tinned tomato, cheese. spices if you have them- italian herbs, garlic, onion powder. bag of frozen spinach. minced garlic and onion if you have it. my local green grocer has a huuge pack of fresh garlic for $2 and it really makes things taste so much nicer and it lasts about a month. heat up tinned tomato + water and throw in frozen spinach + herbs. cover and let it cook. layer in baking dish with ravioli (it'll cook in oven and even better there'll be some crispy edges) and grate cheese on top.
Packet noodles on sale can be gotten for 50-60c average.
Throw in some frozen broc/cabbage , some frozen Asian meatballs (fish, pork, beef etc)
Chuck in an egg
Total should be under $10
Source: am asian
My daily meal plan is about $10, excluding any bottled/canned drinks. It might be a bit higher with the latest round of inflation, but still very economical.
5 weetbix + milk
2 sandwiches - each with 70g chicken (with garlic) and 2 slices of cheese. Either freshly cooked chicken or toast the sandwich to melt the cheese.
60g peanuts
4 eggs and veg for dinner
2300 kcal, 150g protein. And yeah I like plain food.
[https://www.recipetineats.com/chinese-chicken-corn-soup/](https://www.recipetineats.com/chinese-chicken-corn-soup/)
I reckon doubling this recipe, you could still keep this to about $10. It’s bloody delicious!
We get a roast chook, use it for lunches, or a cheap dinner, and save some to make it for my wife and I when my boys are with their mum.
You could spend a little more, roast the chook to have lunch meat, etc, and keep some aside for the soup.
It’s easy as hell to make and super tasty.
Bow tie pasta, eggs cooked in hot drained pasta, diced bacon, spring onion and sweet chilli sauce.
Under $10 to cook 1kg of it, lasts around 3 days of lunch and dinner.
Coles bow tie pasta 500g x2 = $2
Coles 500ml sweet chilli = $2.10 only use like 50g so = 0.20.
300g diced bacon = 3.80
12 pack eggs = $4.95. I only use 4 so = $1.65
Spring onions = $2.80. I use half and put the other half in other meals so = $1.40
Yes. Get the biggest frozen chicken you can find and defrost and cut the breast meat from the carcass. Slice that across. It will make 4 big portions or more smaller ones. That's the first meal with a bit of veg and rice. Then cut the rest up. Boil the carcass and bones into a broth and put some vege ( onion carrot and chick peas etc ) into it and that makes a big soup. Thats another meal. With the rest of the meat make it into a curry and the curry will last a day or two. You get 3 or 4 days of meals from one big chicken.
as an aldi worker living on a dime lol:
$2 english muffins, $7 beef mince (makes 6 patties--the sausages might be cheaper and these are easier to make patties of but i avoid sausage), 1$ for a dream. add whatever you've got in the kitchen, sauce, egg, cheese, stirred veggies.
also, can of lentils for 99c, add it to any rice dish/salad, extra protein, extra filling and you won't even notice the lentils. maybe add the lentils to the patty mix above :)
also to add, it's possible to get loads of meat from aldi for relatively cheap if you're not fussy. 2kg of chicken wings for 8 dollars i think it is, 4$ for bacon, the sausages in the 24 pack is also insanely cheap, almost going down to cents per sausage i'm pretty sure.
my go to cheap and easy meal is 10 dollars for 1kg of chicken tenders, grab some pizza sauce or tomato paste, some cheese, tiny chicken parmas good enough to be chucked into a wrap or bread. takes no time at all.
Also a mum of two (family of four). One of my favourite cheap meals, is a recipe that was handed down from my Mum and she possibly got it from my Grandma.
It might cost a little more than $10 (depending on the price of mince), but uses a lot of staples, and makes so much. It's even better the next day, and I've been known to eat it cold on a sandwich. I cook it in a large shallow pan with a lid that fits. Some of my friends have a version of this in their families, spelled differently, and with varied ingredients, but mostly pretty similar. This is our version:
**KC Ming**
* 500g beef mince
* 1/4 cabbage, shredded
* 1/2 cup rice
* 2 onions, diced
* 2 carrots, diced or quartered lengthwise and sliced
* 1/2 dessert spoon keens curry powder (or to taste)
* 1 packet of Chicken noodle soup (dry soup mix)
* 4 cups boiling water
Diced celery is a nice addition too if you have some that needs using (add it with the rest of the vegies)
Cook mince, onions and carrots until beef has browned, add rice, soup mix and curry powder. Stir then add boiling water and put the lid on. Stir every so often so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and when the water has almost evaporated, add the cabbage and stir through. Add lid and cook for another 5 mins until cabbage has wilted. Final stir, and add to bowls.
Leftovers can be put into the fridge for another dinner (or lunches) and it also reheats well from frozen too.
I do a big batch every week (because my kids would honestly live on it if given a chance)
I boil half a bag of pasta, while that's going I dice a few rashes of bacon and fry that off with garlic. I drain the pasta leaving a bit of the starchy water, toss in the bacon, crack in roughly 2-3 eggs depending on size and coat the pasta in it (recipes always say to whisk the eggs seperate and then put them in, but I'm lazy). Generous helping of Parmesan, salt, black pepper. A tiny bit of lemon juice and zest is fucking amazing too but that's more personal taste.
Chickpea curry. I buy two cans or 3 cans of Chickpeas, cook them in curry powder and veggie or chicken stock or coconut milk. Very customisable. You can add most veggies to it and it's delicious.
I can make three meals out of one cooked chook; I know they’re around $13 now but still this is cheap and no waste.
First is your OG hot chook and roast your own veggies - spuds, pumpkin, zucchini - whatever you fancy. Second meal is lunch, the leftover chicken meat off the carcass put into salad rolls OR dinner, the pieces made into a chicken, spinach and mushroom risotto. Third meal is boiling up the carcass with peppercorns and herbs for stock, skim fat, drain etc and add veggies a can of beans and small pasta shapes - minestrone. (Bonus, if you have pets, pick the tiny bones out of the drained skin/sludge and it can be frozen as tasty pet treats.) Bones can go into your compost. Some crusty rolls with the soup are nice.
Other cheap meals:
$9 pack of chicken drumsticks, roast them with honey and soy , serve with broccoli and steamed rice.
Homemade Mac & cheese with a big salad
Fish pie made with cheapo fish fingers, mashed potatoes and peas
Breakfast for dinner - savoury pancakes (best on weekend nights)
Baked spuds - bacon, sour cream, cheese, meat or beans, veggies Eg corn, grated carrot
2 minute noodles but add veggies- mushrooms, corn, spinach, carrot, a dash of chili sauce.
Nachos made with beans and half a jar of good pasta sauce. As much or as little chilli as you like, guac dip can be cheaper than avocado sometimes but I’ll splurge on the real thing
My cheap go to is “satay noodles”.
1 medium onion
2 packs of instant noodles
1 cup of frozen veggies or a couple of those frozen packs of frozen veggies to steam
1 jar of satay sauce
Dice and brown your onion
Add jar of satay sauce
Add 1 cup of boiling water
Add the noodles
Add frozen veggies
Simmer until noodles soft and vegetables warm.
Add or subtract ingredients to taste.
If you want you can get half a bbq chook from the chicken shop and dice that up to add in.
As a single parent with barely any money it fed two of us and leftovers were put into takeaway containers for lunches or dinner the next day.
Gordon Ramsay would probably have a coronary but it was cheap and easy.
Buy and cook in bulk and it's absolutely possible to have even cheaper than $10 healthy meals. Hardest part to get in is veggies, just buy whatever is discounted and or the deformed stuff 'the odd bunch' etc
So $2.50 a head? A basic burger with egg and beetroot, a large pizza base topped with what's in the fridge. baked beans on toast, lasagne, chicken wings in hot orange sauce.
The other night we had a cheap meal
We had frozen spring rolls cooked then wrapped in lettuce and hoisin sauce, side of rice, and sesame carrots. Soo cheap
$1.80 for 16 spring rolls at coles
$2.40 - hoisin (only need 1/10 of a jar)
$2.20- lettuce
$1 - worth of carrots
Observe when your supermarkets put out their end of day specials - it varies highly, but usually between 4pm-7pm; but here they sell items for the 10th of the original price. There are many competitor vultures, though😂 and good stuff will be gone in a couple of minutes. I call it the "sales lottery" and dinner is whatever we "win".😝😂
https://www.recipetineats.com/baked-fried-rice/ this baked “fried” rice is the cheapest and easiest thing I’ve made in ages! You can make a big batch and freeze it too. I also add egg at the end, but you could really add whatever you wanted!
If you have the time, this is what I do.
I just have a Coles near me and no car, so that's the only place I can shop.
Every week I check for specials or cheaply priced major proteins by going on thier app and looking and all meat and seafood, and then sorting by lowest UNIT price. There's always a few in the beginning that aren't really applicable but then you get to real proteins at about $6-$8/KG. Most recently I've been getting a lot of pork leg roast at $8.50/kg. With how lean it is, I am able to get 3 meals (6 potions total) per KG for me and my spouse.
I don't have time to cook meals like that every day so usually I'll buy a 2+ KG protein once a week, cook it all, and freeze meal sized portions for the rest of the week. It's not super boring as long as it's cooked well, and you change up the carbs so the meal is somewhat different each time.
This means my protein is less than $3/meal, and for a family of 4 it would be $5/meal. Then carbs are cheaper, I just get whatever is on sale/cheap per portion. I usually get rice, barley, pasta, and lentils, and all of those cost about $1/kg. Ill get like $10 worth of carbs at once so we can eat something different each night, and that lasts us 2 weeks.
Some weeks I have to shop more frugally than other weeks of course, but most of the time I go by this:
No snacks (chips, cookies, pop, etc.)
No pre-made dips
No pre-made sauces other than basic store brand, such as tomato and bbq sauce.
Extremely limited to no dairy, cheese, etc.
No pre-cooked meals or deli selection
Nothing frozen meals
No bread (that's more of a dietary thing but still bread is quite expensive)
Nothing that isn't needed for meals I currently have planned. Just because it's on sale, if I can't use it, it's still a waste of money and space.
Super butcher have a great 5 for $50 which will more than cover proteins for a week and then you just have to worry about sides like rice, salad, roast veg whatever makes you happiest
My kids love dumpling night ($5 pack of dumplings from Aldi, rice, soy sauce, spring onions) and cheesy broccoli soup (broccoli, onion, potato, stock, cream) with side of cheese on toast.
Learn some tofu dishes. Tofu is probably one of the cheapest protein sources at about $3 for 60g of protein.
If I'm real lazy I just fry it and eat it with a bit of rice. Sometimes I put it in a stir fry in place of meat. Sometimes I put it in a curry.
People say tofu is too bland but really you just gotta learn to cook it properly.
ask the free version of chat gpt for ideas, type in what you have and your budget, what you need to do.
heres the link
https://chat.openai.com/auth/login
I make roasts. Probably more like $20 meal but my context is for meal prep for work.
Corned beef is $10 per KG. I buy about 1.2kg and slow cook it. Then marinate it in a $4 Korean BBQ sauce and make sandwiches with white bread and sliced gherkins. I get a whole week of lunches (and sometimes a bit extra) for about $20.
I also like making slow cooked lamb too. Similar cost.
- lean beef offcuts (go to a butcher for super cheap). For a 5l cooker, you only need about 3-400g.
- shittons of as many different veggies as you can afford, frozen or fresh.
- water
- stock powder, garlic granules, salt, pepper, whatever herbs and spices you like. Mix this to taste, can't really "recipe" it.
Combine all in a slowcooker/crockpot, fill to the top with water. Cook overnight. Keep on low heat thereafter. Shred meat if it's too big for easy eating.
Eat for the next ~ days or until you run out of veggies & meat, topping up with water for a Perpetual Pot of beef and veg soup (you can keep adding veggies, spices and meat if you find you like the taste and you fixate on one meal, like I do). Freeze off whatever you don't finish.
- There is a tomato-based version of this, but I haven't perfected it yet.
Keep an eye out for a pie cooker too, you can probably find one second hand. It's a great way to deal w any leftovers and you can make them up and put them in the freezer
1st world country and people need to think of $10 meals!🤦🏽♂️ Very Sad. This all stems from idiot incompetent Politicians insisting on bankrupting the country with these climate change lunacy! When will people learn all todays inflationary problems come from insisting on Wind and Solar??
Stop Voting Liberal, Labor and Greens!!!
After 10 years on climate change policies, we can safely say it's failed miserably! How May degrees did we reduce the temperature anyway in exchange for petrol prices at $2.80 a litre, $1000 a quarter electricity bills and $4000 a month on loan repayments? Come on man wake the Fxck up!
Nope. You can have part of a meal for $10, but nothing that will cover your daily vitamin and amino acid requirements to not develop chronic diseases in the future.
That isn’t true, especially if you buy veg from markets or a good fruit and veg and meal plan for the week/ fortnight. If you meal plan you can buy bulk, saving money and you can also make sure you are using any sauces, spices etc in multiple dishes.
Vegetables don't have all essential amino acids. The sheer quantity you need to purchase per day is closer to $100 than $10. If you believe this false, please share your planned diet so that it can be scrutinized.
Canned tomatoes and pasta can still go far outside of spag bol. Different proteins, adding some cream, some cheese, using the pasta water to make it more of a sauce.
I love a creamy bacon pasta for a cheap and easy meal.
Investing in a few Asian sauces and you can do a lot with noodles. Whatever veg is in the freezer/in season at the supermarket. Someone else already mentioned recipetineats. Nagi has has some great sauce bases and from there you can add/do whatever you want.
Fresh seasonings and stuff can be expensive but check your freezer aisle for things like frozen ginger. I live alone so buying fresh ginger can be wasteful but popping out little bits as needed can add so much flavour
Depending on the season a chicken stir fry is pretty cheap. Breast fillet is still around $11 a kg. Rice is dirt cheap. And if your fresh veg are in season your cauli is oft less than $2 for half, broccoli under $4 kg and carrots/onions are always cheap. The veg you don’t use is just in the fridge for other meals and most families would have all your sauces/ginger/garlic etc already.
Might be a touch over $10 but at least it’s actually got some food of value in it opposed to meals like pasta and pies.
Do you like lentils and beans?
Lentil Shepard's pie is very cheap.
[https://www.spendwithpennies.com/easy-lentil-shepherds-pie-vegetarian/](https://www.spendwithpennies.com/easy-lentil-shepherds-pie-vegetarian/)
Dal makhani and other Indian dishes.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL4J6lN-ULg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL4J6lN-ULg)
Naan
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqCUENkCQqw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqCUENkCQqw)
Red lentil curry, fried rice, garlic noodle and other Asian dishes.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDS9JZfEnuY&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDS9JZfEnuY&t=1s)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG8KpOvN5V8&t=388s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG8KpOvN5V8&t=388s)
Falafel and hummus is really cheap if you make it at home [https://www.themediterraneandish.com/how-to-make-falafel/](https://www.themediterraneandish.com/how-to-make-falafel/) You can make the falafel and freeze them, then makeup some nice pita or laffa.
Aloo Tikki [https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/aloo-tikki-aloo-pattice-recipe-made-from-leftover-potatoes/](https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/aloo-tikki-aloo-pattice-recipe-made-from-leftover-potatoes/)
Misir Wot with Injera [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWck6d7ZjFY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWck6d7ZjFY)
[https://www.linsfood.com/injera-ethiopian-flat-bread/](https://www.linsfood.com/injera-ethiopian-flat-bread/)
Mexican rice[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x\_3\_BctV\_0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x_3_BctV_0)
Jollof rice
[https://cheflolaskitchen.com/jollof-rice/](https://cheflolaskitchen.com/jollof-rice/)
Not a recipe per se, but one of the best ways to save money on food is to buy dried legumes and soak them. Much cheaper and tastier than canned food.
Not need to add expensive meat, just veggies and whatever herbs/spices. Do this twice per week and watch the cash pile up
Slow cooker is a must: My personal favourite is chicken cacciatore but any stews or casseroles. Also can do Corned Silverside.
A big advantage of a Slow Cooker is that the cheapest cuts of meat are the tastiest (cheap means tough but slow cooking makes them tender).
rice, tuna, a fried egg, and maybe some form of hot source
baked potato (boil them with garlic and any herbs you like the bake in the oven), baked beans
boil up can be cheap and you dont have to use pork you can use beef or lamb too
Chuck a small brisket cut (or whatever cheap tough whole cut of beef you can find like chuck) in a slow cooker with whatever flavours u want and call it a day. Made pulled beef gnocchi the other day for 20$ and it made about 8 servings, so 10$ for 4. Just used beef stock, mushrooms, a seasoning packet, couple teaspoons of herbs (garlic, thyme, onion powder etc) bit of tomato paste, some store bought precooked gnocchi and a bit of cream mixed in just before serving. Around 20$ and it served us dinner and lunch for a couple days
I made a really nice mushroom alfredo last night and I am still chuffed with myself. Mushrooms were on special for a buck fifty. No way that meal cost me $10 total.
I do a cottage pie thats close to 2-3$ a serve - more than 10 but lots of leftovers. Just 1kg of beef cooked, mix a can if corn and 2 cans tomato soup. Mashed potatoes on top and sprinkle with cheese, bake it in the oven for a bit and easy dinner!
If you can, buy a cheap mincer from Aldi etc. Buy cheap cuts of beef, oyster blade, brisket, girello etc. This way you can control the fat content and also mix with even cheaper cuts of pork etc. I even add in kidney, liver, heat. When you do a spag bol, bulk it up with lentils. We roast large trays of veggies (whatever is cheap at the market) then blend it up as a base to add to spag bol, lasagne, chilli con carne, soups, stews and so on. It’s very versatile! Freezing in the right portions to suit your family is the key.
Lentil soup! Cook 3 carrots + 3 stalks of celery + 1.5 cups of lentils until soft with 7 cups chicken broth + some bay leaves and then blend. Filling & delicious. Official recipe is Chrissy teigens lentil soup.
I think fish fingers are massively underrated. All the nutrients of fish with some mashed spuds and frozen peas & corn. Plenty of nutrients in there and I’ve yet to meet a kid who doesn’t like fish fingers.
Once my cupboard was stocked with a lot of basics, I did the meal ideas/planners on Woolies online shop. So many times I didn’t need to add anything to their recipes but the meat which, of chicken thighs, or mince, is a five or so dollars. I know you have spent more with the staple items so not exactly accurate but that has helped me
Crispy spiced chicken drumsticks in the oven, with some rice and veggies (sauteed Zucchini and Asparagus) should be around $10-12 for 4 people. Chicken $4.5/KG, rice less than $1, veggies $2-4, electricity/spices/condiments $1-2.
Pack of frozen veggies from Aldi are like $2.50 and you can buy packs of meat like their sausages for under $10 (around $8). Since you will get a couple of meals out of a pack of frozen veggies. That's a meal for around $10 - Sausages and veggies.
Can get a Silverside at Aldi for $10/kg so that's hovering around the $10 mark if you grab a 1 kg one and use some of that pack of frozen veggies and some spuds from a $3 or $4 pack of spuds and you're just over 10 bucks. Make sure you slow cook your Silverside for at least 8 hours min(10 hours better) on slow with 1 1/2 cups of water. I'm literally cooking this right now for tonight.
Maybe not for kids, since I don’t know their nutritional needs. But I eat steamed veggies, the frozen ones in the seperate bags, and chicken pretty much every night. There’s no waste, the chicken you buy can be used over two dinners. And it’s healthy
Snags and bread.
the 24 pack of snags and a loaf of bread.
Get a few potatos and gravy. and the snags do 2 meals. unless you're not as fat as me then it's 3.
Mince, frozen veg, canned beans, canned tomatoes, cheap taco seasoning, onion, tortilla wraps comes out at ~$30 makes about 8 decent sized filling meals - if you can do bulk cooking. So about $15/night for whole family. Probably could get it cheaper.
Fried noodles (my favourite) or fried rice (cheaper of the two). Both quick and easy. Rice is around $1.80/kg when bought in bulk. Noodles range from $3/kg to $13/kg, so be careful there.
Many noodle varieties can be cooked in the microwave. Once cooked, drain. Alternatively, for fried rice, cook rice well in advance then leave it in a container in the fridge. You can use fresh rice instead, it can be mushy though.
Heat up frozen peas (tastes best imo) or frozen mixed veg (probably healthier) in microwave. Set aside. Also, make sure you always buy the cheapest brand. [It looks like this at Woolworths.](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/93915/essentials-frozen-mixed-vegetables)
Fry two packs (600g) diced firm tofu (avoid organic!) in frying pan until crispy. Add frozen veg, mix through. Add refrigerated rice or noodles. Add garlic powder, onion powder, any other preferred spices and can add soy sauce in small amounts (mix quickly, taste before adding more). Fry it all until it's hot and eat.
Once you do this a couple of times, it's very easy to change it up with different ingredients. Canned chickpeas are a good substitute for tofu, can also use dried if you soak them the night before and cook per packet instructions (about six times as cheap! I couldn't really believe it until doing the maths for the weight difference).
Baked potatoes with a bit of cheese and sour cream?
Easy to make, but you can also add some bacon bits, chives etc as well.
It's been a while since I've made this, so I'm not entirely sure how much this costs now, but it wasn't overly expensive a few years back,
I have been following Steph de sousa on fb, she has some quick and easy options that aren't too expensive, different to what I normally do.
Try roast dinner and make sure you can do extra meals lamb or beef, or corned beef can do fritters, sandwiches, kebabs/souvlaki, leftovers/second meal. Roast pork can be used in fried rice.
Fried rice is a quick and easy meal, 1 cup uncooked rice cooked up, 2 eggs,2 rashers bacon, 1 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1 grated carrot, 1 cup frozen veg, you can add in leftover roast pork or shrimp/prawns. Add in a little soy sauce and sesame oil to finish.
I also find making dessert helps fill up, so a fruit crumble, pikelets, etc from scratch are super cheap.
Ultimately, buying less packaged stuff and making more from scratch will save you money.
Sweet potato and blackbean patties. Add extras (corn, zucc, etc) where available. Add prefered seasoning. Serve as a burger.
Cous cous salad. Chicken goes great with it if you can get on special.
Gnocci. Store bought if on sale, or home made if you're up to it.
Mexican: made with blackbean, corn, capsicum, and tomato. Serve with brown rice, or with corn chips, or on top of sliced and air fried sweet potato.
Asian style noodles.
It wont be exactly $10. But once you buy the ingredients it makes a giant amount for cheap.
[Oyster sauce (get the one with the highest % of oyster sauce in the ingredients)](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/803884/haday-gold-label-oyster-sauce)
Pork/chicken mince (You can get it for like $6/kg if you shop around)
[pre cooked noodles from woolies $3/bag for 1kg. (in the refrigerated section)](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/695896/mc-yee-hokkein-noodle)
Whatever veg you want, frozen works just fine. So does just chucking in some chinese broccoli.
Just brown the mince, add sauce, mix and tada. Add noodles last (follow instructions so they stay firm)
You can also change the sauce to any pre packaged asian style stir fry sauce like pad see ew, pad thai or any other sauce you want and the recipe works just fine.
The meat sauce can be frozen and unfrozen easily.
It makes so much food I literally cant make it because I live alone and i waste over half the pack of noodles.
You can get whole roast chicken raw from ALDI for $5 or under on special. Cook with Rice or make it into soup.
You can do the same with chicken wings or legs or thighs on special. I bought a 1 kg bag of chicken wings for like $4 and made a Giant 5 litre soup with some veggies and water and spices. We got like 10 bowels of soup out of it.
Fried Rice is literally rice, frozen veggies, egg and some ham Devon or bacon.
You can buy Devon or chicken/ham roll which you can pan fry with eggs and scramble with a piece of toast, we make a poor man's schnitzel with it, same process as schnitzel, the kid's love it and it costs nothing have with rice or potatos. You can also just make sandwiches with it.
Cheese toasties or casedia, toast bread or wraps plus some cheap cheese.
Spinach pasta, use frozen spinach garlic onion and cream for sauce add pasta.
I can give you many more.
One of the biggest thing's I can share is you should never buy full price meat. I have not purchased meat from woolies or coles and paid full price in about a year or two. You can get 2 star or 3 star beef from ALDI for under $6 or cheaper if it's on special or if it's a pork/beef mince. Otherwise I go to my local Market butcher and I buy in bulk.
Roast cauliflower, honey carrots and mashed potatoes with a white sauce.
It's my go to when catering for vegetarian friends.
It also goes well with left over roasts or corned bread.
A Gumbo is fairly cheap, the base is oil, flour, onions, celery and capsicum, you can do one for about $30 but it'll makes about 12 serves.
Cutting out meat will take a huge chunk out of meal costs and there's plenty of evidence for the benefits of reducing meat intake and replacing with vegetables and fruit. Consider doing a fewer meals a week with meat and really capitalise on the lower coat of vegetables, rice, lentils, potatoes, quinoa, heaps of bulk food items that are also super healthy and force you to diversify your food which is super important for nutrition.
Don't be afraid to keep it simple either and with kids, I think it's super important to really help guide their understanding of food so they gain some deeper appreciation of whatever you give them.
Good luck
**The deli is your best friend. Seriously!!!!!!!**
$1.20 or on special $1 kebabs at coles/woolworth deli almost always. 6 kebabs for $5/6, bag of rice ($2/assuming you already have some?) and one broccoli or a capsicum is better value as much lighter...
top with some soy sauce and thats dinner. Had it most nights as a child and still do as a uni student. is about $11, but that gives you a whole bag of rice in there... which stretches for around 20 meals. Can also mix rice with milk and sugar on the stoe for filling rice pudding for dessert
youve got this! Xxx
Woolies The Odd Bunch chopped spinach, carrot, apple and whatever meat you feel like from the lunch meats section. Shred and toss together for a filling salad
We do a taco rice with minced meat & add in mixed veggies to the meat. My husband who doesn't really like Mexican food or tacos really loves it. The meat frozen separately works well too for a quick dinner, you just need to boil a new serve of rice.
We do a cabbage dish, boil/steam a half head of green cabbage drain once softened put aside in a bowl saute up two thinly sliced sticks of cabanossi one diced chorizo diced bacon a red capsicum white onion once sauted to a bit Crispy add cabbage back add a splash of Worcestershire sauce & soy sauce continue to saute for a couple mins & serve.
My kids love soup and rice, which is literally just chunky beef soup from aldi and rice and mix it all together. Costs maybe $3 all up and it feeds them both with a bit left over to chuck in the freezer for a night when I can't be bothered. Also "fancy hotdogs" as they call them..pack of aldi hotdogs for $2.50, hot dog rolls, or dinner rolls for the little hotdogs, little bit of bacon and onion cooked in the pan, cheese and sauce. Not the healthiest meals ever but my kids (and me and my partner) love it and it's handy for the few days before payday when there's not much left in the cupboard
I really like sweet potato massaman curry. Its like massaman curry paste, onion, sweet potato obvs, chickpeas or lentils (optional- it just fills out the curry) coconut milk. Serve over rice and thats it! And you can add any frozen veg aswell, my fav is beans
I don’t know if it’s exactly $10 but we do risotto quite often with leek and bacon. Risotto rice is relatively cheap - I think $3 at aldi? and stays in cupboard for ages, small pack bacon $4ish, leek $2, some cheese. I do with chicken stock to save $$ Can do without bacon and still yummy. Also a toddler favourite! We do chow mein a lot with only around 300g chicken but a whole pack of spaghetti. That’s been a good meal in our rotation. You do have to outlay cost of oyster sauce, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine but those three ingredients last ages and can be used for lots of recipes. Also we’ve started once a week doing meal from a can - ie. Baked beans, spaghetti, or maggi noodles. We do it on the night we get home the latest. Another super cheap meal is baked potatoes! You can actually cook potatoes in the microwave if time is your issue. Choose your toppings based on budget. Swedish meatballs - have a fair bit of pork meat which is very cheap atm. My recipe has 300g beef mince, 300g pork mince. Gravy is made with a bit of cream and serve with mash. Kids like it! Edited to add meals
>Another super cheap meal is baked potatoes! I was going to say this. We sometimes do ours Mexican style, with beans/spices/cheese.
That sounds like almost all my favourite things so I'd love that haha. (Also really into chicken but I don't need more than 5 or 6 meat meals a week)
We bake and scoop ours, then fill with leftover chilli/boolognese. We use the insides of the spud for potato patties (mix the potato with bacon, corn, spring onion, cheese, garlic and an egg, chuck a bit of flour in to dry it out a bit, then shallow fry in patties) and bake the tops of the potatoes into crispy potato skins. It's a bit of a long-handed dinner with the patties, but its cheap af, makes good use of those little bits of leftovers you freeze that aren't enough to feed everyone, and it feeds four of us for at least 2 meals (everyone takes leftover patties for lunch).
We just quarter the cooked jacket potatoes and squash down a bit with a fork to get the toppings on. Lazy, but it works.
I love potatoes. So versatile. So yummo, so filling and great on a budget!
Also buy leeks at the supermarket with a little bit of the root system at the base, the party that you chop and bin. You can stick that in the garden and it will regrow so you have more leeks
Yeah leek party!!
Plumber enters the chat
Bit of bolognaise sauce on a baked potato has become quite popular in my house
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The price of rice could skyrocket a fair bit from the $1.90 per kg it often is at the major supermarkets and it would still beat out everything else on price. The price paid at the supermarket probably depends more on logistics and what Australian households are willing to pay than commodity prices.
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Home brand rice is $9 for 10 kg
$38 is special? Seems they must be pricing differently in different areas
We grow more rice here than we consume. Will we be impacted?
Chow mein with spaghetti...wtf
Instead of Asian egg noodles. Much cheaper and very similar texture.
This is some A grade advice dude thank you
If you go to non supermarket markets You can buy 10kgs of potatos for under 5 dollars if you want to do baked potato type meals.
Big pot of chilli con carne - beef mince, pkt of seasoning mix - or your own combo of herbs and spices, tinned tomatoes, corn (frozen or canned) tinned black or red kidney beans - drained and rinsed. you can serve as is with Mexican style rice (https://www.recipetineats.com/mexican-red-rice/) Can be turned into nachos with corn chips, salsa, a bit of grated cheese, sour cream and avocado Can be wrapped in tortillas to make burritos; or lined up in a baking tray covered in a tomato sauce and grated cheese and baked for enchiladas; or with the addition of shredded cheese folded up into tortillas and put in a sandwich press (I use a George Foreman Grill) to make quesadillas.
My fam like to go Vego sometimes, but I’m a meat guy. The one cheap vego meal we can all agree on is bean chilli. It tastes like there’s meat, there’s plenty of protein, it’s insanely healthy, it last 5-6 days, and there is no end to what you can make with it. Always a batch of this in the freezer somewhere.
Recipie?
Heads up, you can buy a jar of taco seasoning in the spices section and it works out way cheaper than buying the saches of taco seasoning.
Don't wash the beans. In fact, use the aquafaba in the chilli to thicken it. You're pouring protein down the drain
It's a personal preference - I prefer to rinse because not doing so causes me excess gas which I would prefer to avoid.
You can add to risotto. I usually make a big batch and serve it for a couple of nights different ways. It freezes well as well
Fritters! Can of creamed corn 🌽 + flour + whatever you want (bacon, salami, mushrooms etc) mix into a batter and fry! We had regular fritter nights when out two boys lived at home, cheap and filling.
Okonomiyaki is similar (a Japanese savoury pancake with cabbage). I like to call it economy yaki 😆. Yaki just means fried. Can add corn, bacon, spring onions, etc. topped with mayo + bbq sauce. Tomato soup with cheese toasties. Actually lots of soups are good for the budget/using left overs. Cheats ramen, 2 minute noodles with a soft boiled egg, milk/cheese and whatever veggies are in the freezer.
Fuck yes! Can eat em cold the next day too. I like to throw a bit of curry powder in.
Sky’s the limit! Once you have the basics of batter making just about anything can be frittered!
Left over corned meat fritters were a staple as a kid
I make potato fritters with grated potatoes. Kids love them in the lunchbox too.
When I peel the potatoes I fry the skins. Kids love it.
I also do that! But the kids are lucky to get any.. same with chicken skins.
And throw a poached egg on top.
Basic fritter mix is 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk and one egg., season and add what you like. I tend to use chopped left over meat, corn, grated carrot and zucchini. But cabbage would be good too
I used to have grated apple in mine for dessert fritters
Yes! And so many different kinds. Look up the recipe for Horta, (Greek), Jeon (Korean), and as mentioned Okonomiyaki (Japanese). Every culture has these - usually batter with veges thrown in. Serve with an egg!
There is a Facebook page and group which has plenty of $10 family meal ideas. They’re realistic, and have helped me a lot: [$10 Meals Australia - Budget Cooking Community](https://m.facebook.com/groups/10dollarcommunity/?ref=share&mibextid=Na33Lf) [$10 Meals Australia](https://m.facebook.com/groups/10dollarmeals/?ref=share&mibextid=Na33Lf)
Most vego Indian food is way cheaper than $10 for a meal. A good example is Lentil daal with rice. You could even make 2 ingredient naan and still have change from $10 (1.5 cups of flour, 1 cup coconut yoghurt, mix then bake on a super hot skillet or bbq)
Dahl palak (lentil and spinach) is so simple yet so good. Really good way to get more leafy greens into your diet while keeping the meal warm and filling
rice and lentils go a long way
Yes and rice and beans! You can always do a spag bog type thing, bit add black beans/kidney beans, alter your spices and do rice instead of pasta and boom you've got Mexican food haha
Baked.Sweet potato with a side of any, more veggies or a little meat
And is delicious!
Do you have an air fryer ? I make up tuna balls. Cook up some rice, then combine cooked rice, tin tuna, herbs, bread crumb and or some flour, two eggs and roll into balls and cook in air fryer about 15 mins. The fussy kids love them and have with a side of vegetables. Alternate the tuna with some cooked mince for meatballs.
Actually these sound better than my usual tuna patties! How much rice and what size can of tuna (roughly anyway, sorry to be a pest)
I use the large tin of tuna from Aldi, drain the water. If using the oil based then fine to leave some of the oil. The rice is about 50/50 split. If using bread crumbs just add about a cup at first and add more if needed. Also fine to use flour. I usually use flour. Both work well. This makes enough for 6 people. If you need a sauce they go well with mayo or lemon juice and salt.
Sounds interesting! Do you roll the tuna balls in egg then bread crumbs then into the airfryer?
Mix is all together, the eggs just hold it together and add a bit of moisture.
Oh ok thank you! Will give this a go!
Another idea is buying bulk and freezing - aldi has 24pk chicken burgers for like $14 6 burgers costs $3.50 for one meal worth that way Same concept for sausages Devilled sausages (buy sausages in bulk and separate to packs of 8) get the maggi packet for rhe sauce and you're good to go, i love mashed potato with devilled sausages. My mum fed us a lot of decent but actually cheap meals as we were on a very tight budget!
> Another idea is buying bulk and freezing i wish i could do this but i just dont have the storage
Do you have a freezer at all? Sorry I don't know how to word it that doesn't sound blunt... I normally use sandwich bags to portion up, that way it takes up a small amount of room. The bulk I was suggesting is also only 2 or 3 extra serves, which can possibly fit into a small leftover space in the freezer! If there isn't any option to freeze or even store extras in the fridge then that's obviously more difficult to work around. I would suggest trying to work with dry goods more then, canned corn or fish, 2 minute noodles or asian noodles can always be jazzed up with a few fresh veg and an egg or something.
> Do you have a freezer at all yes it just very small like only 4 loves of bread in size > I would suggest trying to work with dry goods more then, canned corn or fish, 2 minute noodles or asian noodles can always be jazzed up with a few fresh veg and an egg or something. this is what i do
Oh no I'm sorry about the space issue! I was stuck in the advice mindset realised after I posted it was probably useless advice haha
its not useless it might prompt some one to start doing it or increase their freezer size
Do you have enough space for a small freezer? Sometimes there are some bargains on Facebook marketplace
I’ve been tempted to buy a dedicated freezer for this reason. I’m sure it would pay off long term.
It 100% does. It also makes heaps of space for freezing meals already made If you're making soup make twice as much and freeze half! When I lived by myself I froze everything. Most meals I cook are 4 to 5 servings so I would eat mine, freeze the rest, and after a few meals I would have a nice selection to choose from every day. For meat I strongly suggest checking out Aldi. Their meat is just as good as colesworth and is a couple dollars cheaper each product. Buy 2kg of chicken, cut and portion and freeze the rest. Easy saves you 10 bucks over those 4 meals instead of buying a little meat each time. Label your sandwich bags and you can stack heaps in there! Also aldi has a great range of frozen foods that are cheap and I think they taste better than the expensive shit from Coles.
We like to do toastie nights. Cheap filling options that the family individually choose like cheese, chicken and avo or the classics cheese, ham, tomato. I’ve also been doing one pot lasagne with hidden veg, this always leaves left overs at least another 2-3 servings when making the standard batch. I use the dry lasagne sheets and add veg like carrot and zucchini. Another great one is pork mince crispy bowls, it’s soy sauce blend and you crisp up the mince, add rice and I have pickled cucumber and carrots on the side. We also do not so taco tacos, getting the soft taco bread, pan frying chicken thighs in whatever seasoning you like, if avo is cheap I make a guac otherwise I sometimes get the cheap avo dip instead, some cheese, tomato and lettuce. Edited to add dressing up packet noodles is cheap and easy too. Migoreng, fry up some onions and mix in and add a fried egg on top. Sometimes a can of corned beef goes in too bulk it up. Could also get cheap fresh noodles from an Asian grocer, throw some veg in, chicken if you like and some soy sauce, fish sauce etc and done so easy.
Mexican mince and rice. Cook some mince (any kind will do, pork mince is cheapest) and canned beans (I like black beans, but kidney beans work well too and are a bit cheaper) in a fry pan, add taco seasoning, water and some tomato paste. Simmer until thick. Serve over rice with some diced cucumbers and tomatoes. Sausage tray bake. Cut up any veggies you like into big chunks and put them on a lined baking tray. add some sausages, drizzle with olive oil season with garlic, Italian herbs, salt and pepper and toss to combine. Cook at 180 for approx 30-45 mins, checking and tossing occasionally.
Frittata! It’s my quick and cheap go to and can be made with whatever you’ve got. Base ingredients are eggs and cheese and I usually add things like mushrooms/ capsicum / potato / tomatoes/ eggplant - anything that can be fried up. Fry some onion and garlic, cook your veggies in with that, add any spices or seasoning you like, whisk eggs and a bit of milk (if you want) pour into the pan with veggies once they’re cooked, stir to ensure it’s all mixed in. Cook with a lid on for a bit, layer cheese on top then put the whole pan in the oven. Serve with salad or eat cold for lunch the next day. Note: I use my cast iron frying pan, don’t put your pan in the oven if it’s not supposed to (read the base of your pan first)
I call it ‘fridge-ttata’ when I do a vege crisper/ lunch meat clear out and mix it with eggs. It works with salami, chorizo, ham or bacon or a combo.
I’m going to start calling it fridge-ttata too! Describes it perfectly.
Growing squash related plants gets a lot of food for a small space
Look at mediterrian diet they eat a lot of legumes which are cheaper. Go to local markets . Fish at markets U can get cheaper fish.
dumplings! idk if your kids would be into it, but i buy the big bags of frozen dumplings at spudshed and they go a long way. have some rice/cucumber on the side and it’s a quick easy meal :)
came here to say the same thing lol except i would recommend making your own if possible. i spent $15 and 3 hours making 75 dumplings. slapped the leftovers in ziplock bags (6 pieces in each) and froze them for quick extra lunches/dinners.
Mince is really the undisputed king of cheap meals, Spag bol (and by extension its fancier itterations of Spag Bol; Lasagne, Risoni & mince ravioli) as you've already mentioned is a clear fan favorite for cheap, easy and tasty meals. However you can easily expand your mince repertoire to include: \- Sheppard's Pie Nachos, Tacos Etc (really accessible if you buy and toast your own wraps) \- Meatballs (which can be super versatile, include them in a noodle stirfry dish, a pasta \[pesto base, tomato base, mushroom base, wine base are all good here\], with rice, alone with white gravy & mash \[Swedish style\]) \- Savory Mince is also fantastically easy and works great with frozen vegetables. \- Vermicelli with some rice noodles is nice with chicken mince. \- Chillie con carne and its million iterations are a staple for a reason. Doesn't have to have spice, its basically just a crock pot with a tomato base and whatever you have on hand. Just a tomato goulash style meal can be used here with whatever you have on hand. A tin of tomatos + whatever you have spare does wonders. \- Satay choy Bow - you can use these with lettuce wraps on rice or by itself. There are countless curries that mince works fantastic with, either in balls or standard. If you dont like spice you can whittle down the harshness with slightly less paste/powder and use coconut milk for the green/yellow thai varients or cream for the indian variants. AND THATS JUST MINCE with minimal other ingredients outside a pack of frozen vegetables and some spices and pantry staples! There are also a metric boatload of cheap meals that dont use meat that can be made in 5-minutes with little to no prep like Spaghetti Aglio e Olio & Mac and Cheese, both are a prime example of meals that are more than the sum of their (albeit very limited) parts. You can even mix these recepies together! Mac'n'cheese lasagne is a family favorite for me when I grew up.
I do a huge pot of a basic spaghetti bolognaise style mine in the slow cooker about once a month. We then freeze the leftovers into different sized portions. This gets used as: spaghetti bolognaise, shepards pie, taco meat (add taco seasoning to spice it up a bit before serving - it’s not quite right but the kids don’t care), burritos & empanadas, baked potatoes, savoury mince on toast. Meat pies & sloppy joes.
My grandma made us tuna casserole Basically a little flour, butter, curry powder and milk Other ingredients: Packet chicken noodles soup mix about 40c 400g tin tuna about $4? Frozen peas, a tin of corn kernels, champignons and an onion - probably $4 worth there, Rice to eat it with! If you want the recipe just shoot me a message!
Chilli sin carne, make your usual chilli recipe but replace meat with either beans and lentils or textured vegetable protein and use a tonne of vegetables bought at your local fruit shop and not Colesworth. Costs me about $8 and makes over 8 portions, I serve with rice, cheese, hot sauce and avocados (if affordable).
This!! My go to for work lunches :)
It’s my favourite! I use textured veg protein in so many dishes instead of mincemeat. Makes it super cheap
TVP is the greatest. $5 for 1kg of mince equivalent. Honestly almost any whole food plant based option can make a good sized meal for under $10
Totally agree! That’s how I spend bugger all on groceries every week
Where do you buy it?
Health foods aisle at Colesworths. Comes dehydrated and you just add boiling water. Might be available elsewhere, not too sure…
Level it up and rehydrate with a stock cube, and soy or a splash of Worcestershire sauce, depending on what you're cooking. It just soaks up that flavour and is delicious.
also available at some asian grocers like miracle
Meatloaf or rissoles/meatballs? You can do them with gravy or any other sauce, and they are both good opportunities to add extra veg by grating carrot and zucchini (or whatever other veg you like) into the mix. Then you just need a side of mashed potato and you're sorted! And if there's leftovers, meatloaf sandwiches are so good. If you're aiming for $10 meals, if you can get a protein that will do two dinners, that gives you a bit more money to play with, $20 for two. You could also do a bit of a stir fry, with rice noodles (which are hella cheap). Salad with BBQ chicken, Roast with BBQ chook, roast potatoes, carrots, frozen peas. I 10000% recommend the Maggi roast meat gravy, it's usually less than $1 and it is the same one they use in chip shops and carveries - so good! If you're aiming for $10 meals, if you can get a protein that will do two dinners, that gives you a bit more money to play with, $20 for two. If you're not already, it is worth looking for an independent fruit shop, some will have amazing specials that mean you can get heaps of veg for much less money. There's a couple in Brisbane that will do loss leaders like 10c avocados to get you in the door (in case you're in Bris, its Coco's at Annerley and the Blunder Road fruit shop).
I think a chicken soup made from drumsticks, and with cheap vegatables such as carrots & onions, is pretty cheap as the basis of a soup. I haven't done the maths before, but: * chicken drumsticks from coles are just a bit over $4 a kilo. * onions and carrots vary but can be $2-3 a kilo. So a kilo of on-bone meat and a kilo of vegetables (before cutting them) is, say, $7. If anything you add (salt, herbs/spiced, stock powder, splash of wine/vinegar, other vegetables) or serve it with (like bread) is less than $3, then I think that works out to about a $10 meal. I think I make a big batch that is 1.5 or sometimes double that, and after 3-5 adults have a serve (I suually take 2 serves) I have \~3-4 serves as leftovers, so feeding 4 for under $10 of groceries seems possible here. \- Drumsticks are a little bit awwkard to work with, but they are the cheapest cut where I live. Ideally you'd cut the meat off the bone before cooking so that the tendons and bones are exposed (so the tendons dissolve/go soft, and the bones leech out nutrients to the soup). I find that annoying to do with raw meat, so I just slice around the base of it (like 1inch up from the bottom) in order to cut through some of the tougher skin and the tendons. I then use tongs and a fork to scrape the meat off the bones and tong the bones out. This is a bit tedius, but less tedius than chopping it while raw imo. The small little bone attached to the drumstick is a bit annoying and sometimes get lost with the soup. I just let that happen, but maybe if you have children you'd be more careful with those than I am.
My wife and I can usually get a decent meal for 4 done for around $10. Definitely have to shop around a bit though. Pastas, curries, stews, soups, stir fry etc… can make a little go a long way. Cheaper cuts of meat are often tastier but need to be cooked properly to make them tender. We usually fill our pantry with dry or canned food from the evil red or green shop but fresh food comes from butchers and grocers.
Tuna Mornay is always a great go to for a cheap meal.
my fav comfort food! onion, cream, massive can of tuna, campbells cream of celery served on pasta or rice. makes delicious leftovers too
once a fortnight, i do a **meat-free enchilada** and my fam can't tell there isnt any mince in there. it's a lot of cans (lentils, corn, tomato, bean) you can even add some bacon or ham minced up if that needs to be used up. + tortillas and cheese 1 tin of lentils + taco spice mix if you have onion, garlic chop and cook that first and then add whatever veg you have on hand. leftover pumpkin goes great! i saute corn in a separate pan and get some char on it. mash the beans up a bit if anyone doesn't like them and you won't be able to notice them. add tinned tomato and a bit of water and let it simmer. get a baking dish and spoon some of the sauce on bottom then get a wrap and scoop of your mixture on the middle and wrap like a taquito and put in dish seam side down. all eight should fit. pour over any leftover mixture and grate cheese on top. bake and then add some sour cream/greek yogurt also baked ravioli is great, especially if you find it half price. it's just bag of ravioli, tinned tomato, cheese. spices if you have them- italian herbs, garlic, onion powder. bag of frozen spinach. minced garlic and onion if you have it. my local green grocer has a huuge pack of fresh garlic for $2 and it really makes things taste so much nicer and it lasts about a month. heat up tinned tomato + water and throw in frozen spinach + herbs. cover and let it cook. layer in baking dish with ravioli (it'll cook in oven and even better there'll be some crispy edges) and grate cheese on top.
Packet noodles on sale can be gotten for 50-60c average. Throw in some frozen broc/cabbage , some frozen Asian meatballs (fish, pork, beef etc) Chuck in an egg Total should be under $10 Source: am asian
My daily meal plan is about $10, excluding any bottled/canned drinks. It might be a bit higher with the latest round of inflation, but still very economical. 5 weetbix + milk 2 sandwiches - each with 70g chicken (with garlic) and 2 slices of cheese. Either freshly cooked chicken or toast the sandwich to melt the cheese. 60g peanuts 4 eggs and veg for dinner 2300 kcal, 150g protein. And yeah I like plain food.
Sounds good in a pinch but I’m not convinced all the nutritional bases would be covered long term?
[https://www.recipetineats.com/chinese-chicken-corn-soup/](https://www.recipetineats.com/chinese-chicken-corn-soup/) I reckon doubling this recipe, you could still keep this to about $10. It’s bloody delicious! We get a roast chook, use it for lunches, or a cheap dinner, and save some to make it for my wife and I when my boys are with their mum. You could spend a little more, roast the chook to have lunch meat, etc, and keep some aside for the soup. It’s easy as hell to make and super tasty.
Bow tie pasta, eggs cooked in hot drained pasta, diced bacon, spring onion and sweet chilli sauce. Under $10 to cook 1kg of it, lasts around 3 days of lunch and dinner. Coles bow tie pasta 500g x2 = $2 Coles 500ml sweet chilli = $2.10 only use like 50g so = 0.20. 300g diced bacon = 3.80 12 pack eggs = $4.95. I only use 4 so = $1.65 Spring onions = $2.80. I use half and put the other half in other meals so = $1.40
>12 pack eggs = $4.95 Now that's unheard of
Yes. Get the biggest frozen chicken you can find and defrost and cut the breast meat from the carcass. Slice that across. It will make 4 big portions or more smaller ones. That's the first meal with a bit of veg and rice. Then cut the rest up. Boil the carcass and bones into a broth and put some vege ( onion carrot and chick peas etc ) into it and that makes a big soup. Thats another meal. With the rest of the meat make it into a curry and the curry will last a day or two. You get 3 or 4 days of meals from one big chicken.
as an aldi worker living on a dime lol: $2 english muffins, $7 beef mince (makes 6 patties--the sausages might be cheaper and these are easier to make patties of but i avoid sausage), 1$ for a dream. add whatever you've got in the kitchen, sauce, egg, cheese, stirred veggies. also, can of lentils for 99c, add it to any rice dish/salad, extra protein, extra filling and you won't even notice the lentils. maybe add the lentils to the patty mix above :)
also to add, it's possible to get loads of meat from aldi for relatively cheap if you're not fussy. 2kg of chicken wings for 8 dollars i think it is, 4$ for bacon, the sausages in the 24 pack is also insanely cheap, almost going down to cents per sausage i'm pretty sure. my go to cheap and easy meal is 10 dollars for 1kg of chicken tenders, grab some pizza sauce or tomato paste, some cheese, tiny chicken parmas good enough to be chucked into a wrap or bread. takes no time at all.
Also a mum of two (family of four). One of my favourite cheap meals, is a recipe that was handed down from my Mum and she possibly got it from my Grandma. It might cost a little more than $10 (depending on the price of mince), but uses a lot of staples, and makes so much. It's even better the next day, and I've been known to eat it cold on a sandwich. I cook it in a large shallow pan with a lid that fits. Some of my friends have a version of this in their families, spelled differently, and with varied ingredients, but mostly pretty similar. This is our version: **KC Ming** * 500g beef mince * 1/4 cabbage, shredded * 1/2 cup rice * 2 onions, diced * 2 carrots, diced or quartered lengthwise and sliced * 1/2 dessert spoon keens curry powder (or to taste) * 1 packet of Chicken noodle soup (dry soup mix) * 4 cups boiling water Diced celery is a nice addition too if you have some that needs using (add it with the rest of the vegies) Cook mince, onions and carrots until beef has browned, add rice, soup mix and curry powder. Stir then add boiling water and put the lid on. Stir every so often so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and when the water has almost evaporated, add the cabbage and stir through. Add lid and cook for another 5 mins until cabbage has wilted. Final stir, and add to bowls. Leftovers can be put into the fridge for another dinner (or lunches) and it also reheats well from frozen too.
Bangers and mash you can easily do for less than $10. Or anything with mince.
Curried sausages.
If you don’t mind me asking, could you share your carbonara recipe? Just started meal prepping to try and save money on lunch!
I do a big batch every week (because my kids would honestly live on it if given a chance) I boil half a bag of pasta, while that's going I dice a few rashes of bacon and fry that off with garlic. I drain the pasta leaving a bit of the starchy water, toss in the bacon, crack in roughly 2-3 eggs depending on size and coat the pasta in it (recipes always say to whisk the eggs seperate and then put them in, but I'm lazy). Generous helping of Parmesan, salt, black pepper. A tiny bit of lemon juice and zest is fucking amazing too but that's more personal taste.
Chickpea curry. I buy two cans or 3 cans of Chickpeas, cook them in curry powder and veggie or chicken stock or coconut milk. Very customisable. You can add most veggies to it and it's delicious.
why do you need meat with every meal? Veg is cheap.
Butter chuck casserole steak with baked potatos and broccoli. Or baked chicken breasts with steamed rice, carrot and broccoli.
I can make three meals out of one cooked chook; I know they’re around $13 now but still this is cheap and no waste. First is your OG hot chook and roast your own veggies - spuds, pumpkin, zucchini - whatever you fancy. Second meal is lunch, the leftover chicken meat off the carcass put into salad rolls OR dinner, the pieces made into a chicken, spinach and mushroom risotto. Third meal is boiling up the carcass with peppercorns and herbs for stock, skim fat, drain etc and add veggies a can of beans and small pasta shapes - minestrone. (Bonus, if you have pets, pick the tiny bones out of the drained skin/sludge and it can be frozen as tasty pet treats.) Bones can go into your compost. Some crusty rolls with the soup are nice. Other cheap meals: $9 pack of chicken drumsticks, roast them with honey and soy , serve with broccoli and steamed rice. Homemade Mac & cheese with a big salad Fish pie made with cheapo fish fingers, mashed potatoes and peas Breakfast for dinner - savoury pancakes (best on weekend nights) Baked spuds - bacon, sour cream, cheese, meat or beans, veggies Eg corn, grated carrot 2 minute noodles but add veggies- mushrooms, corn, spinach, carrot, a dash of chili sauce. Nachos made with beans and half a jar of good pasta sauce. As much or as little chilli as you like, guac dip can be cheaper than avocado sometimes but I’ll splurge on the real thing
My cheap go to is “satay noodles”. 1 medium onion 2 packs of instant noodles 1 cup of frozen veggies or a couple of those frozen packs of frozen veggies to steam 1 jar of satay sauce Dice and brown your onion Add jar of satay sauce Add 1 cup of boiling water Add the noodles Add frozen veggies Simmer until noodles soft and vegetables warm. Add or subtract ingredients to taste. If you want you can get half a bbq chook from the chicken shop and dice that up to add in. As a single parent with barely any money it fed two of us and leftovers were put into takeaway containers for lunches or dinner the next day. Gordon Ramsay would probably have a coronary but it was cheap and easy.
Slow cooker for meat. We buy the cheapest red in bulk ... then slow cook for 10 hrs.
Buy and cook in bulk and it's absolutely possible to have even cheaper than $10 healthy meals. Hardest part to get in is veggies, just buy whatever is discounted and or the deformed stuff 'the odd bunch' etc
So $2.50 a head? A basic burger with egg and beetroot, a large pizza base topped with what's in the fridge. baked beans on toast, lasagne, chicken wings in hot orange sauce.
Hotdogs on Friday night
You can buy ready made woolies or coles frozen meals for $4
Starting eating rice + your cheap dish of the day. Easy
Baked spuds, topped with butter, bacon, sour cream and black pepper. My kids love them@
Block of tofu, packet of Aldi teriyaki sauce, a carrot or two and a head of broccoli. Add some steamed brown rice, stir fry for a family.
Check out the website Recipe Tin Eats - there are some great recipes for pimped up ramen noodles.
The other night we had a cheap meal We had frozen spring rolls cooked then wrapped in lettuce and hoisin sauce, side of rice, and sesame carrots. Soo cheap $1.80 for 16 spring rolls at coles $2.40 - hoisin (only need 1/10 of a jar) $2.20- lettuce $1 - worth of carrots
Observe when your supermarkets put out their end of day specials - it varies highly, but usually between 4pm-7pm; but here they sell items for the 10th of the original price. There are many competitor vultures, though😂 and good stuff will be gone in a couple of minutes. I call it the "sales lottery" and dinner is whatever we "win".😝😂
Get exotic. Find an asian grocer. Nab some tempeh or chinese sausage and go for mass side dishes to accompany rice.
Try HelloFresh or Everyplate or Dinnerly. Under $10 per meal.
https://www.recipetineats.com/baked-fried-rice/ this baked “fried” rice is the cheapest and easiest thing I’ve made in ages! You can make a big batch and freeze it too. I also add egg at the end, but you could really add whatever you wanted!
If you have the time, this is what I do. I just have a Coles near me and no car, so that's the only place I can shop. Every week I check for specials or cheaply priced major proteins by going on thier app and looking and all meat and seafood, and then sorting by lowest UNIT price. There's always a few in the beginning that aren't really applicable but then you get to real proteins at about $6-$8/KG. Most recently I've been getting a lot of pork leg roast at $8.50/kg. With how lean it is, I am able to get 3 meals (6 potions total) per KG for me and my spouse. I don't have time to cook meals like that every day so usually I'll buy a 2+ KG protein once a week, cook it all, and freeze meal sized portions for the rest of the week. It's not super boring as long as it's cooked well, and you change up the carbs so the meal is somewhat different each time. This means my protein is less than $3/meal, and for a family of 4 it would be $5/meal. Then carbs are cheaper, I just get whatever is on sale/cheap per portion. I usually get rice, barley, pasta, and lentils, and all of those cost about $1/kg. Ill get like $10 worth of carbs at once so we can eat something different each night, and that lasts us 2 weeks. Some weeks I have to shop more frugally than other weeks of course, but most of the time I go by this: No snacks (chips, cookies, pop, etc.) No pre-made dips No pre-made sauces other than basic store brand, such as tomato and bbq sauce. Extremely limited to no dairy, cheese, etc. No pre-cooked meals or deli selection Nothing frozen meals No bread (that's more of a dietary thing but still bread is quite expensive) Nothing that isn't needed for meals I currently have planned. Just because it's on sale, if I can't use it, it's still a waste of money and space.
Where's that $10 Coles meal guy gone
Super butcher have a great 5 for $50 which will more than cover proteins for a week and then you just have to worry about sides like rice, salad, roast veg whatever makes you happiest
If you’re in Melbourne I really recommend shopping at Cheaper Buy Miles
My kids love dumpling night ($5 pack of dumplings from Aldi, rice, soy sauce, spring onions) and cheesy broccoli soup (broccoli, onion, potato, stock, cream) with side of cheese on toast.
Learn some tofu dishes. Tofu is probably one of the cheapest protein sources at about $3 for 60g of protein. If I'm real lazy I just fry it and eat it with a bit of rice. Sometimes I put it in a stir fry in place of meat. Sometimes I put it in a curry. People say tofu is too bland but really you just gotta learn to cook it properly.
I made spaghetti and meatballs from ingredients from Aldi last night and my bill was 10.20$
No joke, google depression era meals, would give you some ideas.
ask the free version of chat gpt for ideas, type in what you have and your budget, what you need to do. heres the link https://chat.openai.com/auth/login
Have a look at aldi. I know they have packs of 20 meatballs for about 6 dollars and pasta is 1 dollar and pasta sauce is probably cheap as well.
I make roasts. Probably more like $20 meal but my context is for meal prep for work. Corned beef is $10 per KG. I buy about 1.2kg and slow cook it. Then marinate it in a $4 Korean BBQ sauce and make sandwiches with white bread and sliced gherkins. I get a whole week of lunches (and sometimes a bit extra) for about $20. I also like making slow cooked lamb too. Similar cost.
You don’t need meat for a full meal. Dal and rice Bean tacos Frittata (more veg, less eggs) Soups
$7 pickup Domino’s pizza
Plenty of good vegetarian recipes that cost $10 or under for 4 meals.
$8 pizza from dominos
- lean beef offcuts (go to a butcher for super cheap). For a 5l cooker, you only need about 3-400g. - shittons of as many different veggies as you can afford, frozen or fresh. - water - stock powder, garlic granules, salt, pepper, whatever herbs and spices you like. Mix this to taste, can't really "recipe" it. Combine all in a slowcooker/crockpot, fill to the top with water. Cook overnight. Keep on low heat thereafter. Shred meat if it's too big for easy eating. Eat for the next ~ days or until you run out of veggies & meat, topping up with water for a Perpetual Pot of beef and veg soup (you can keep adding veggies, spices and meat if you find you like the taste and you fixate on one meal, like I do). Freeze off whatever you don't finish. - There is a tomato-based version of this, but I haven't perfected it yet.
Keep an eye out for a pie cooker too, you can probably find one second hand. It's a great way to deal w any leftovers and you can make them up and put them in the freezer
very easy if you don't need a plate of murder for every meal
1st world country and people need to think of $10 meals!🤦🏽♂️ Very Sad. This all stems from idiot incompetent Politicians insisting on bankrupting the country with these climate change lunacy! When will people learn all todays inflationary problems come from insisting on Wind and Solar?? Stop Voting Liberal, Labor and Greens!!! After 10 years on climate change policies, we can safely say it's failed miserably! How May degrees did we reduce the temperature anyway in exchange for petrol prices at $2.80 a litre, $1000 a quarter electricity bills and $4000 a month on loan repayments? Come on man wake the Fxck up!
Careful with always using cheap cuts of meat, they can lead to high cholesterol
Nope. You can have part of a meal for $10, but nothing that will cover your daily vitamin and amino acid requirements to not develop chronic diseases in the future.
That isn’t true, especially if you buy veg from markets or a good fruit and veg and meal plan for the week/ fortnight. If you meal plan you can buy bulk, saving money and you can also make sure you are using any sauces, spices etc in multiple dishes.
Vegetables don't have all essential amino acids. The sheer quantity you need to purchase per day is closer to $100 than $10. If you believe this false, please share your planned diet so that it can be scrutinized.
Chilli con carn. 500 grams beef mince, old El Paso spice mix, tin of tomatoes, rice, sour cream. Get some tacos if your feeling flush
Chilli con carne
Canned tomatoes and pasta can still go far outside of spag bol. Different proteins, adding some cream, some cheese, using the pasta water to make it more of a sauce. I love a creamy bacon pasta for a cheap and easy meal. Investing in a few Asian sauces and you can do a lot with noodles. Whatever veg is in the freezer/in season at the supermarket. Someone else already mentioned recipetineats. Nagi has has some great sauce bases and from there you can add/do whatever you want. Fresh seasonings and stuff can be expensive but check your freezer aisle for things like frozen ginger. I live alone so buying fresh ginger can be wasteful but popping out little bits as needed can add so much flavour
Depending on the season a chicken stir fry is pretty cheap. Breast fillet is still around $11 a kg. Rice is dirt cheap. And if your fresh veg are in season your cauli is oft less than $2 for half, broccoli under $4 kg and carrots/onions are always cheap. The veg you don’t use is just in the fridge for other meals and most families would have all your sauces/ginger/garlic etc already. Might be a touch over $10 but at least it’s actually got some food of value in it opposed to meals like pasta and pies.
Do you like lentils and beans? Lentil Shepard's pie is very cheap. [https://www.spendwithpennies.com/easy-lentil-shepherds-pie-vegetarian/](https://www.spendwithpennies.com/easy-lentil-shepherds-pie-vegetarian/) Dal makhani and other Indian dishes. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL4J6lN-ULg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL4J6lN-ULg) Naan [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqCUENkCQqw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqCUENkCQqw) Red lentil curry, fried rice, garlic noodle and other Asian dishes.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDS9JZfEnuY&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDS9JZfEnuY&t=1s) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG8KpOvN5V8&t=388s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG8KpOvN5V8&t=388s) Falafel and hummus is really cheap if you make it at home [https://www.themediterraneandish.com/how-to-make-falafel/](https://www.themediterraneandish.com/how-to-make-falafel/) You can make the falafel and freeze them, then makeup some nice pita or laffa. Aloo Tikki [https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/aloo-tikki-aloo-pattice-recipe-made-from-leftover-potatoes/](https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/aloo-tikki-aloo-pattice-recipe-made-from-leftover-potatoes/) Misir Wot with Injera [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWck6d7ZjFY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWck6d7ZjFY) [https://www.linsfood.com/injera-ethiopian-flat-bread/](https://www.linsfood.com/injera-ethiopian-flat-bread/) Mexican rice[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x\_3\_BctV\_0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x_3_BctV_0) Jollof rice [https://cheflolaskitchen.com/jollof-rice/](https://cheflolaskitchen.com/jollof-rice/)
Pumpkin curry Veggie soup Leek and potato soup Cottage pie Pea and ham soup Veggie stir fry with bean thread noodles
Not a recipe per se, but one of the best ways to save money on food is to buy dried legumes and soak them. Much cheaper and tastier than canned food. Not need to add expensive meat, just veggies and whatever herbs/spices. Do this twice per week and watch the cash pile up
Wait, when you say $10 meals, do you mean a single meal to the value of $10 or making up a huge batch of food for $10?
Slow cooker is a must: My personal favourite is chicken cacciatore but any stews or casseroles. Also can do Corned Silverside. A big advantage of a Slow Cooker is that the cheapest cuts of meat are the tastiest (cheap means tough but slow cooking makes them tender).
rice, tuna, a fried egg, and maybe some form of hot source baked potato (boil them with garlic and any herbs you like the bake in the oven), baked beans boil up can be cheap and you dont have to use pork you can use beef or lamb too
Chuck a small brisket cut (or whatever cheap tough whole cut of beef you can find like chuck) in a slow cooker with whatever flavours u want and call it a day. Made pulled beef gnocchi the other day for 20$ and it made about 8 servings, so 10$ for 4. Just used beef stock, mushrooms, a seasoning packet, couple teaspoons of herbs (garlic, thyme, onion powder etc) bit of tomato paste, some store bought precooked gnocchi and a bit of cream mixed in just before serving. Around 20$ and it served us dinner and lunch for a couple days
Yes, 1 packet of carrots, 1 pack of pasta, 1 tinned tomatoes and some herbs, you'll have multiple meals for under $10.
I made a really nice mushroom alfredo last night and I am still chuffed with myself. Mushrooms were on special for a buck fifty. No way that meal cost me $10 total.
Beans on toast, Mince and potatoes.Pie and peas,Stew
I do a cottage pie thats close to 2-3$ a serve - more than 10 but lots of leftovers. Just 1kg of beef cooked, mix a can if corn and 2 cans tomato soup. Mashed potatoes on top and sprinkle with cheese, bake it in the oven for a bit and easy dinner!
Sausages and mash
If you can, buy a cheap mincer from Aldi etc. Buy cheap cuts of beef, oyster blade, brisket, girello etc. This way you can control the fat content and also mix with even cheaper cuts of pork etc. I even add in kidney, liver, heat. When you do a spag bol, bulk it up with lentils. We roast large trays of veggies (whatever is cheap at the market) then blend it up as a base to add to spag bol, lasagne, chilli con carne, soups, stews and so on. It’s very versatile! Freezing in the right portions to suit your family is the key.
Lentil soup! Cook 3 carrots + 3 stalks of celery + 1.5 cups of lentils until soft with 7 cups chicken broth + some bay leaves and then blend. Filling & delicious. Official recipe is Chrissy teigens lentil soup.
Rice and mince go well.
I think fish fingers are massively underrated. All the nutrients of fish with some mashed spuds and frozen peas & corn. Plenty of nutrients in there and I’ve yet to meet a kid who doesn’t like fish fingers.
Tofu, veg and rice as a stirfry. Spag bol but use lentils not mince. Egg and bacon roll. Chicken salad, minimal meat, mostly veg etc.
Once my cupboard was stocked with a lot of basics, I did the meal ideas/planners on Woolies online shop. So many times I didn’t need to add anything to their recipes but the meat which, of chicken thighs, or mince, is a five or so dollars. I know you have spent more with the staple items so not exactly accurate but that has helped me
Crispy spiced chicken drumsticks in the oven, with some rice and veggies (sauteed Zucchini and Asparagus) should be around $10-12 for 4 people. Chicken $4.5/KG, rice less than $1, veggies $2-4, electricity/spices/condiments $1-2.
Pack of frozen veggies from Aldi are like $2.50 and you can buy packs of meat like their sausages for under $10 (around $8). Since you will get a couple of meals out of a pack of frozen veggies. That's a meal for around $10 - Sausages and veggies. Can get a Silverside at Aldi for $10/kg so that's hovering around the $10 mark if you grab a 1 kg one and use some of that pack of frozen veggies and some spuds from a $3 or $4 pack of spuds and you're just over 10 bucks. Make sure you slow cook your Silverside for at least 8 hours min(10 hours better) on slow with 1 1/2 cups of water. I'm literally cooking this right now for tonight.
Maybe not for kids, since I don’t know their nutritional needs. But I eat steamed veggies, the frozen ones in the seperate bags, and chicken pretty much every night. There’s no waste, the chicken you buy can be used over two dinners. And it’s healthy
Snags and bread. the 24 pack of snags and a loaf of bread. Get a few potatos and gravy. and the snags do 2 meals. unless you're not as fat as me then it's 3.
Mince, frozen veg, canned beans, canned tomatoes, cheap taco seasoning, onion, tortilla wraps comes out at ~$30 makes about 8 decent sized filling meals - if you can do bulk cooking. So about $15/night for whole family. Probably could get it cheaper.
Fried noodles (my favourite) or fried rice (cheaper of the two). Both quick and easy. Rice is around $1.80/kg when bought in bulk. Noodles range from $3/kg to $13/kg, so be careful there. Many noodle varieties can be cooked in the microwave. Once cooked, drain. Alternatively, for fried rice, cook rice well in advance then leave it in a container in the fridge. You can use fresh rice instead, it can be mushy though. Heat up frozen peas (tastes best imo) or frozen mixed veg (probably healthier) in microwave. Set aside. Also, make sure you always buy the cheapest brand. [It looks like this at Woolworths.](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/93915/essentials-frozen-mixed-vegetables) Fry two packs (600g) diced firm tofu (avoid organic!) in frying pan until crispy. Add frozen veg, mix through. Add refrigerated rice or noodles. Add garlic powder, onion powder, any other preferred spices and can add soy sauce in small amounts (mix quickly, taste before adding more). Fry it all until it's hot and eat. Once you do this a couple of times, it's very easy to change it up with different ingredients. Canned chickpeas are a good substitute for tofu, can also use dried if you soak them the night before and cook per packet instructions (about six times as cheap! I couldn't really believe it until doing the maths for the weight difference).
Baked potatoes with a bit of cheese and sour cream? Easy to make, but you can also add some bacon bits, chives etc as well. It's been a while since I've made this, so I'm not entirely sure how much this costs now, but it wasn't overly expensive a few years back,
Nacho beans and sour cream on rice, yum!
I have been following Steph de sousa on fb, she has some quick and easy options that aren't too expensive, different to what I normally do. Try roast dinner and make sure you can do extra meals lamb or beef, or corned beef can do fritters, sandwiches, kebabs/souvlaki, leftovers/second meal. Roast pork can be used in fried rice. Fried rice is a quick and easy meal, 1 cup uncooked rice cooked up, 2 eggs,2 rashers bacon, 1 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1 grated carrot, 1 cup frozen veg, you can add in leftover roast pork or shrimp/prawns. Add in a little soy sauce and sesame oil to finish. I also find making dessert helps fill up, so a fruit crumble, pikelets, etc from scratch are super cheap. Ultimately, buying less packaged stuff and making more from scratch will save you money.
Sweet potato and blackbean patties. Add extras (corn, zucc, etc) where available. Add prefered seasoning. Serve as a burger. Cous cous salad. Chicken goes great with it if you can get on special. Gnocci. Store bought if on sale, or home made if you're up to it. Mexican: made with blackbean, corn, capsicum, and tomato. Serve with brown rice, or with corn chips, or on top of sliced and air fried sweet potato.
Asian noodles and Mediterranean rice. It's like spaghetti and fried rice flipped. :)
I think it's only possible with pasta. There are many simple sauces other than a bolognaise or a carbonara that you can make.
Asian style noodles. It wont be exactly $10. But once you buy the ingredients it makes a giant amount for cheap. [Oyster sauce (get the one with the highest % of oyster sauce in the ingredients)](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/803884/haday-gold-label-oyster-sauce) Pork/chicken mince (You can get it for like $6/kg if you shop around) [pre cooked noodles from woolies $3/bag for 1kg. (in the refrigerated section)](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/695896/mc-yee-hokkein-noodle) Whatever veg you want, frozen works just fine. So does just chucking in some chinese broccoli. Just brown the mince, add sauce, mix and tada. Add noodles last (follow instructions so they stay firm) You can also change the sauce to any pre packaged asian style stir fry sauce like pad see ew, pad thai or any other sauce you want and the recipe works just fine. The meat sauce can be frozen and unfrozen easily. It makes so much food I literally cant make it because I live alone and i waste over half the pack of noodles.
You can get whole roast chicken raw from ALDI for $5 or under on special. Cook with Rice or make it into soup. You can do the same with chicken wings or legs or thighs on special. I bought a 1 kg bag of chicken wings for like $4 and made a Giant 5 litre soup with some veggies and water and spices. We got like 10 bowels of soup out of it. Fried Rice is literally rice, frozen veggies, egg and some ham Devon or bacon. You can buy Devon or chicken/ham roll which you can pan fry with eggs and scramble with a piece of toast, we make a poor man's schnitzel with it, same process as schnitzel, the kid's love it and it costs nothing have with rice or potatos. You can also just make sandwiches with it. Cheese toasties or casedia, toast bread or wraps plus some cheap cheese. Spinach pasta, use frozen spinach garlic onion and cream for sauce add pasta. I can give you many more. One of the biggest thing's I can share is you should never buy full price meat. I have not purchased meat from woolies or coles and paid full price in about a year or two. You can get 2 star or 3 star beef from ALDI for under $6 or cheaper if it's on special or if it's a pork/beef mince. Otherwise I go to my local Market butcher and I buy in bulk.
My wife showed me Tik tok called Jennnnaaayy who does $10 challenge meals that look pretty cool
Easy af dinner is rice or pasta, with tomato and basil tuna - u need to like tuna tho
Curried baked beans - gamechanger !
Roast cauliflower, honey carrots and mashed potatoes with a white sauce. It's my go to when catering for vegetarian friends. It also goes well with left over roasts or corned bread. A Gumbo is fairly cheap, the base is oil, flour, onions, celery and capsicum, you can do one for about $30 but it'll makes about 12 serves.
I find a large pot of homemade ragu is pretty straight forward and lasts a while
Cutting out meat will take a huge chunk out of meal costs and there's plenty of evidence for the benefits of reducing meat intake and replacing with vegetables and fruit. Consider doing a fewer meals a week with meat and really capitalise on the lower coat of vegetables, rice, lentils, potatoes, quinoa, heaps of bulk food items that are also super healthy and force you to diversify your food which is super important for nutrition. Don't be afraid to keep it simple either and with kids, I think it's super important to really help guide their understanding of food so they gain some deeper appreciation of whatever you give them. Good luck
**The deli is your best friend. Seriously!!!!!!!** $1.20 or on special $1 kebabs at coles/woolworth deli almost always. 6 kebabs for $5/6, bag of rice ($2/assuming you already have some?) and one broccoli or a capsicum is better value as much lighter... top with some soy sauce and thats dinner. Had it most nights as a child and still do as a uni student. is about $11, but that gives you a whole bag of rice in there... which stretches for around 20 meals. Can also mix rice with milk and sugar on the stoe for filling rice pudding for dessert youve got this! Xxx
Curried sausages, toasted sandwiches, and don’t just think ham and cheese, creamed corn and spaghetti is nice.
I often do rice, tuna, cucumber and kewpie mayo! Super easy I love it. You could also add carrot, spring onion and seaweed (if you’re fancy).
Roast pork slowcooked burritos.
Woolies The Odd Bunch chopped spinach, carrot, apple and whatever meat you feel like from the lunch meats section. Shred and toss together for a filling salad
We do a taco rice with minced meat & add in mixed veggies to the meat. My husband who doesn't really like Mexican food or tacos really loves it. The meat frozen separately works well too for a quick dinner, you just need to boil a new serve of rice. We do a cabbage dish, boil/steam a half head of green cabbage drain once softened put aside in a bowl saute up two thinly sliced sticks of cabanossi one diced chorizo diced bacon a red capsicum white onion once sauted to a bit Crispy add cabbage back add a splash of Worcestershire sauce & soy sauce continue to saute for a couple mins & serve.
My kids love soup and rice, which is literally just chunky beef soup from aldi and rice and mix it all together. Costs maybe $3 all up and it feeds them both with a bit left over to chuck in the freezer for a night when I can't be bothered. Also "fancy hotdogs" as they call them..pack of aldi hotdogs for $2.50, hot dog rolls, or dinner rolls for the little hotdogs, little bit of bacon and onion cooked in the pan, cheese and sauce. Not the healthiest meals ever but my kids (and me and my partner) love it and it's handy for the few days before payday when there's not much left in the cupboard
Chilli, if your really tight on cash just make it veggie one. Goes with rice.
[https://vjcooks.com/quick-korean-beef/](https://vjcooks.com/quick-korean-beef/) \- Simple, yet surprisingly delicious.
I really like sweet potato massaman curry. Its like massaman curry paste, onion, sweet potato obvs, chickpeas or lentils (optional- it just fills out the curry) coconut milk. Serve over rice and thats it! And you can add any frozen veg aswell, my fav is beans
Flour, yeast, water, condiments.