if you could post your favourite cheap recipes I would appreciate it.  Anything is good apart from ones that contain beans. I am usually not too bad with recipes but seem to be in a rut and could do with some new ideas. My 20 y/o daughter has moved back and with the hubby and son being big eaters (as is she) I can see cut backs in our future....main meals and even bread recipes would be good.

Cheers
J

I'm not much of a cook, so I aim for simple every time.

This one is a hit with the kids (13yr and nealry 12yr boys), aswell as hubby & me:
baked potatoes with bacon and cheese mixed in (can also add chopped mushrooms & onions, but I have fussy kids that don't like mushrooms and a belly that objects to onion :( ).
Bake the spuds (being the rubbish cook that I am, I zook 'em in the microwave!).
Scoop out spud from 'shell', mash up & mix with a knob of butter, chopped cooked bacon, grated cheese (and anything else you fancy).
Spoon mashed spud mix back into shells and serve with salad and corn on the cob - yum :)
Or serve with baked beans and some fresh crusty bread.

If you can be bothered (which I usually can't!) you can sprinckle grated cheese on the finished spuds and pop under the grill for a few minutes, to give a cheesey topping.

ETA, just re-read your post - ignore the suggestion of serving with beans!

Corn Beef mash, normal mashed potatoes with a tin of corn-beef well mixed in served with veg and either gravy or ketchup. you can stretch it with using more spuds.
When the kids were small I used to put their helpings out with an ice-cream scoop :-)

Boil some s'getti, drain, put back in the pan on a low heat, mix in tomato ketchup (or puree if you prefer), add a mound of grated cheddar and stir until it melts. Add some chopped ham. Eat. Nomnomnom!

My fav cheap meal is spinich and cheese pasta bake(you can throw what you want in if you dont like spinich)
2pkts of cheese sauce(make it up like it says on the pkt and throw in a handfull of chedder)
spinich(i use frozen as its cheaper and use 2 blocks)
Tomatoes(usually baby toms and tesco value,aprox half a packet)
Pasta(for a family of 4 threee quaters of a normal size bag)
Cook pasta,warm up cheese sauce,chop the tomatoes and cook and drain the spinich,once done,stir together,sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20 mins gas mark seven,serve with crusty bread.
I also love the lyod grossman tai green curry,use cheap chicken breast and boil in bag rice,
xxxxx

Pasta with just about any combination you like thrown in . I sometimes use a tin of tomato soup as the sauce then add ham fried onions peas and sweet corn. Cheese on top under the grill or not and there you are

Philidelphia stired into hot pasta use the flavoured one with extras of your choice ie smoked salmon, prawns are also good with some veg if you like
My sons favourite meal for him to cook is chicken breast chopped vegetables eg onions, peppers mushrooms infact anything you like that can be fairly quickly roasted and on the chicken breast he puts philidelphia with chives and a piece of bacon pop in oven till cooked and off you go
Make up a bolognese sauce with mince onions and a bottle of dolmio (others are available :))  Now you have different meals.
Add mash potato and you have shepherds pie, add spaghetti and you have spag bol, layer with lasagna and cheeses sauce from a packet and you have ? yep youve guessed it lasana or layer with thinly sliced potatoes or courgettes or aubergines and then top with cheese sauce with an egg added and you have a sort of moussaka

Do you like rice?  Savoury rice with some fried onions and a tin of tomatoes will then take anything else you have going spare such as bacon, mushrooms, cold sausage, sweetcorn etc.  A variety of herbs and spices will ring the changes, from garlic and chilli to oregano, worcester sauce or tabasco.

Serve on it's own, with broccoli or with salad

If you don't have one, a rice cooker is a good investment and is probably the most used 'gadget' in my kitchen!

Have you got a hot pot? Mine's a godsend (although it gets put away for the summer months - having said that seriously considering bringing it back out given the recent weather).

My favourite is cheap chicken portions (with the bones), sling them in with some sliced potatoes and anything else you fancy, add some stock, set on low, leave the house for work, return 12 hours later to a wonderful smell, and very tasty food.

> My favourite is cheap chicken portions (with the bones), sling them in with some sliced potatoes and anything else you fancy, add some stock, set on low,
> leave the house for work, return 12 hours later to a wonderful smell, and very tasty food

I use cheap chicken portions too - Sainsbury's frozen value pack is very reasonable and I give the chicken wings to the dogs :) I always make sure that there is plenty of stock/liquid (tins of value tomatoes) and when the chicken has been eaten I add begetables to the leftover liquid and then serve up the next few days as a hearty soup :)

Personally, I've never liked hot pots. I've a very large saucepan and most things cook perfectly well in it (particularly cheap cuts of beef) if left on a low heat for a couple of hours :)

Daisy and Tadsy make a good point - hotpot or slow cook - preparing early and cooking slowly generally saves money:

You can use cheaper cuts of meat, don't need to succumb to a panic takeaway, and a carefully thought out and planned meal can often cost less than more instant food you might otherwise pull out of your freezer or cupboard, particularly if it's the kind of food that you can eke out over two or more days like casseroles, soups and stews.

I'm off to check the bottom of my freezer - I feel a hearty stew is needed for this rotten weather :)

have you ever looked at www.greatlittleideas.com. I've had some fantastic ideas off there :)

>> You can use cheaper cuts of meat, don't need to succumb to a panic takeaway

That was the key thing for us, if we hadn't planned ahead our default was a takeaway. So bad for the pocket and the physique! I tend to use the cheaper cuts because they are more flavoursome when cooked over this period of time. I tried using chicken breasts once and they were really dry by the time I came to eat it. Cheap beef joints fare really well too, as Daisy says make sure there's a good amount of liquid, throw in a tin of tomotoes and whatever else I have to hand and away you go.

Stews and casseroles, buy a cheaper cut of meat, plenty veggies, potatoe's and slow cook/casserole, very filling and not expensive.

Also one of my favourites when I was young, boil some pasta, add tin of beans, springle with cheese, very tasty and filling.
Also but Pizza bases, and put what ever you wish on them! :)