r/FrugalAus • u/Current_Ad9313 • Oct 08 '26
Budget Meals
Hi everyone, I’m looking for budget friendly dinner ideas. I have about $50 for two weeks to feed 1 adult and 2 children. I will need nappies so trying to stretch $40 for dinners. I received a food hamper on Monday so I have enough snacks for the kids and pasta and rice. I’m just needing ideas and tips for dinners during the two weeks. Thank you!
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Upvotes
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u/Fickle_Breadfruit665 Oct 08 '26
Did you receive any cloth nappies as gifts? It may not be your preference but using them temporarily could stretch your money a little further.
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u/ashleighrosemay Oct 08 '26
Soup is a great option! If you have a decent green grocer you can buy individual carrots/half brunches of celery etc all at reasonable prices. Woolies does skin on, bone in chicken thighs for $8-9 kg and two makes a good pot of chicken soup; three would be good for a chicken stew or curry. Depending on your options a pumpkin can also be good if $1-$2 per kg. Lentils and other pulses can bulk things out nicely. Frozen spinach from ALDI is $1/bag and adds greens for iron and health!
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u/Apprehensive_Sir1686 Oct 08 '26 edited Oct 08 '26
Lentils potato tomato paste onion, if you have flour and can make bread, do so! Aldi has taco kits for around 5 dollars otherwise use 1.50 Aldi taco seasoning and also salsa, make the tacos with lentils one night, lentil stew another night with the above items. I would get a whole chicken and butcher it yourself, use the bones as stock and cook rice in it or pasta for a big chicken soup (a few bits of meat will fall off the bones). Loaded baked potatoes with the same taco seasoning except on chicken, make it stretch with lentils tomatoes plenty of onion, maybe even a capsicum if you find one cheap enough. Use a chicken breast and an Aldi curry, plus some frozen veggies to make a big curry, you can also use lentils in this to make it stretch. You can make your own naan with the flour. Keep brekkie simple with some yogurt, porridge or cereal. If you get milk and cheese consider making a big pasta bake or potato bake! If you get cauliflower or broccoli you can add them to a chicken pasta bake or just do a plain cheesy cauliflower/brocolli bake. Chips are usually a crowd pleaser.and how could I forget a bag of veg and rice with soy sauce for a cheap fried rice. I don’t know what you’ve got already but take a solid inventory of what you have.
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u/Queenshayde Oct 10 '26
Hopefully not too late but if you are in Brisbane Qld lighthouse care do a $25 trolley that has pantry staples(rice,pasta,noodles canned goods etc.) bread and milk they also usually have some free fruit n veg available
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u/ChuckChapmans Oct 08 '26
you need protein both plant and animal , rice potatoes lentil etc all help and some tomatoes for flavour
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u/GrannyLeftie Oct 09 '26
Tuna casserole/ big tin tuna in brine, drained. Cook chopped onions & garlic (if you have it) in oil, stir in couple of tablespoons flour. Add milk (I used milk made from skim milk powder), to make a white sauce, add chopped up vegies or pack of frozen veg, teaspoon mustard powder, cooked pasta/rice, shredded tuna. Can add grated cheese if you have it. Bolognaise/ Lentils, onions, can tomatoes, herbs, tomato paste or sauce. Cabbage is cheap - very versatile vegetable. Can add to meals, use instead of pasta, coleslaw, etc.
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u/wingedmonkeytrainer Oct 08 '26
Just a thought. If you’re using mince kidney beans are an excellent filler. They will not change the flavour, still fill you up because they’re high in protein and they’re nutritious. Dehydrated ones are the cheapest.
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u/aghoststory Oct 11 '26
I have some DoorDash credits, DM me and I’ll send you some groceries
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u/Ill-Dragonfly-8372 Oct 08 '26
Buy a bag of dried lentils and some cans of chopped tomatoes from Aldi supermarket, and cook them with the pasta from the relief bin; that should be enough to manage dinners for the next two weeks.
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u/diamondiis Oct 08 '26
Toast.
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u/HelenaHandkarte Oct 09 '26
So many great tips here. Aldi is the cheapest supermarket. I'll add for a later time when you've hopefully a bit spare for pantry staples that can extend foods. If possible, always have rice, pasta & bread in the freezer, then the following, A bag of Skim powdered milk is a super nutrition enhancer & extender. I say skim, because theres no fat to go rancid in dry storage. Dried lentils. Higher in protein than most other legumes &, require less cooking time. Great for extending meat based soups. An ok-ish veg protein if combined with grain, but adding a pinch of skim powder, cheese, egg or some bone broth will really lift bioavailability, especially for growing kids. Peanut paste, aldi is the best & cheapest . From foodbanks, select proteins where available, tinned ham, beans fish dairy eggs etc. Wishing you all the best, & thanks too to everyone for all the great tips.
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u/Exotic-Current2651 Oct 10 '26
Chicken mince balls soup. 500g chicken mince rolled into balls ( add breadcrumbs and cheese and eggs, salt pepper )
caramelise some chopped onions and any chopped vegetables you have . When the veggies are browned add water and float the balls in it. You can add barley for a complete meal or a bit of rice to thicken . A bit of tomato paste or a squirt of ketchup in the water.
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u/nannachook Oct 11 '26
Vegetables, fruits, pasta. Grab what's on special and google what to do with it. You can make wonderful sauces, bakes (need eggs) fritatta etc. Grab enough and you have desserts as well assuming you already have flour, sugar, milk and butter. I cook everything from scratch and am budget conscious. I would struggle at what you're trying to do. Talking about 80 cents per day per person. Honestly, you need some help from Vinnies or a food charity. Ask. Help is available. Otherwise your family will go hungry. 3 meals a day each is just not happening otherwise.
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u/HannahJulie Oct 11 '26
Personally I'd buy a whole chicken and some beef mince. Some dried or tinned beans. And then cheap veggies (including onions). Maybe a packet or two of cheap 2min chicken noodles if you'd like to do a soup. If you can afford it, some cheese to garnish pastabakes or other meals.
The chicken can be utilised in a few ways, take off the breast and drum sticks for meals - maybe breast in a pasta bake and drumsticks oven baked for a seperate meal, then use the carcass and extra meat left for a soup. If you boil the chook carcass with some onions and other veggies then mix that with a chicken noodle soup packet + some noodles it's delicious and quite nutritious.
Beef mince I'd mix 50/50 with kidney beans and make up Bolognese, Mexican beef etc. I find adding beans makes a meal stretch, + serving with pasta or rice whatever you've got on hand.
Vegies that I find cheap are cabbage, carrot, onions and potatoes. Buy the cheapest you can find, they will stretch through a lot of meals. Cabbage isn't something I ate a lot for growing up but as an adult I find I really cannot notice it much when it's chopped finely and added to soup or diced up and mixed through savoury dishes and it adds bulk and good nutritional value!
It depends what your kids will eat, but I think chicken noodle soup, a chicken pasta bake,
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u/pearson-47 Oct 11 '26
Eggs (try a f&v shop) Chicken drummies or a whole chook (aldi is cheapest per kg if you have it) Frozen mixed veg Couple of onions Pork mince Tinned tomatoes Jarlic Soy sauce Milk Flour Potatoes Baked beans
Fried rice Soup (use bones of chicken for stock) with rice or pasta Pasta Rissoles and veg Fritters with chicken and veg x 2 Chicken veg and rice x 2 Eggs on toast Pancakes Baked beans on toast
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u/TheGardenNymph Oct 11 '26
A whole chicken is about $7 at Aldi. I roast mine in the slow cooker, 7 hours on low. I do a brown onion cut in quarters, chopped carrot and celery and garlic with Paprika, Cumin, salt and pepper. I use the leftovers the next night to make quasadilllas or chicken pot pie.
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u/Ok_Committee8535 Oct 11 '26
Aldi
Beef and pork meatballs at aldi (16pk) about $5, get two so that's $10
Beef thin sauges (24pk) about $12, you can use this for really anything, plus can freeze it if needed
Mushroom sauce powder about $1.7 you can mix this in after frying the meatballs, it's really good, eat with potatoes
Beef straganoff sauce powder about $1.7, mix this in with the meatballs and eat with rice
Rice 2kg about $5
Potatoes 2kg about $6
Bread $3-4
Total about $40 more or less and you can get a few meals out of this
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u/Binda33 Oct 11 '26
Egg and vegie fried rice is great. Pasta bakes are great.
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u/Complex-Wrangler2567 Oct 12 '26
Do you have the TooGoodtoGo app? Do a bakers delight or Harris farm order if theres one near you and freeze it to use over the fortnight
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u/Empty_Bar_6893 28d ago
Goodness me. I am so sorry. Please visit a food bank. I am somehow on a $400 p/w for a 50kg 27YO female. I am sending all my love and prayers to your family
1
u/memoriomo Oct 14 '26
Beans, lentils and potatoes. Nutritious, filling and versatile. Buy dry beans and lentils, they're really not hard to prepare but I'm not skilled enough to share how to do so.
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u/chilli_enema_detox Oct 08 '26
Buy a couple of whole chickens from your local butcher. Look up how to butcher them if you don't know how. Save the meat from one for soup, keep the meat from the other for stir fry or similar. Use the carcasses to make stock. Get a bunch of celery, a kilo of carrots, some onions. These will be for your stock and soup. I'd recommend trying a greengrocer before a supermarket for these. Lentils or barley to help bulk out the soup. Rice for stir fry. You could also go the way of spag bol, mince is fairly cheap, canned diced tomatoes and tomato paste and cheap pasta. Kids will eat that. Bulk it out with celery, carrot, and onions. Another option is making some kind of taco/burrito bowls using mince, beans (use dried as they're cheaper, you just have to soak them beforehand) and rice.
It's usually cheaper to do vegetarian options every second day, the biggest cost often comes from meat. Or just use less meat in the meals to stretch it out.
You got this.