Any dish that you prepare yourself will cost a lot less than buying it ready made in a shop or restaurant – so really all home cooking is relatively frugal. The recipes listed below are exceptionally thrifty but still healthy (sacrificing your health is not frugal at all!) – no meal should be over £1 per person and most will be less. If you are using some of our shopping tips such as buying staples from clearance sellers like Approved Food, many of the main courses are under 50p per person and the soups and dips considerably less.

Also see our post The 25p Meal for super-frugal meal ideas.

The recipes listed all feed a family of four unless otherwise stated (you can of course, reduce or increase the quantities if needed). All recipes are suitable for vegetarians and vegans. Those that are low fat are marked LF and gluten free dishes have GF by them. Don’t miss our Frugal Weightloss section if you want to trim down a bit! For recipe books recommended by us visit our aStore

Soups:
Root Soup LF GF
Creamy Carrot and Wild Garlic Soup GF
Lentil Soup LF GF
Basic, versatile vegetable soup
Tomato and Rice Soup LF GF
Radish Top Soup
Nettle Soup
Vegetable and Barley Soup LF
Yellow Split Pea Soup LF GF
Minted Noodle Soup LF
Leek and Potato Soup LF

Main Courses:
Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage LF GF
Spicy Sweet Potato Fajitas LF
Roast Pumpkin and Garlic Pasta LF sauce is GF
Potato and Onion Pie
Sausage and Bean Pie
Chunky Purple Pasta LF sauce is GF
Gluten-free Veggie Lasagne
Aduki Bean and Amaranth Pie
Basic Pasties
BeanBurgers
Chick Pea Curry LF GF
Potato Bake LF GF
Mixed Bean Casserole LF GF
Mince and Dumplings
Singapore Noodles
Pasta with Tomato sauce LF

Side Dishes, Sauces, Dips and Basics:
Beer Battered Onion Rings GF
Roast Potatoes and Peppers GF
Mushroom and Pea Rice GF
Rice Salad GF
Dandelion Fritters or Pancakes
Wild Garlic Pesto
Simple Herb and Garlic Bread
Hummus GF
Basic Baked Potatoes LF GF
Mushroom Gravy
Vegetable fritters GF
Oatmeal Stuffing

Sweet Things:
A simple breakfast: porridge!
3 ingredient raw chocolate bites GF
Bramble Chocolate Chip Cakes GF
Apple, Banana & Raisin Cake GF
Crumble! GF option
Banana Raisin Flapjacks with no refined sugar
Rhubarb and Ginger Jam LF GF
Apple Pie
Cookies
Chocolate Cake
Basic Sponge cake
Ice Lollies LF GF
Gluten Free Apple Layer Cake GF

Frugal Christmas (more recipes)
Frugal Weightloss (more recipes)

Ailish Sinclair‘s debut novel, THE MERMAID AND THE BEAR, set in a fictional castle in Aberdeenshire, and featuring the 1597 Aberdeen witchcraft panic, is out Autumn 2019. On Amazon and Waterstones or see Author website for more details.