The cost of living has shifted the way so many of us look at food. Everyday ingredients that used to be a no-brainer addition to the trolley suddenly make you hesitate and it’s remarkably easy for a quick £20 top-up shop to spiral into £30, £40, or more.

So welcome back to part five of my £25 shop series. This time, I’m putting Sainsbury’s to the test to see how hard we can make every pound work. The result? £25.37 for four completely different meals.

On the menu this week:

Spicy Chorizo, Bean & Egg Pots

Slow Cooker Carrot & Chorizo Soup

Slow Cooker Dirty Cabbage

Fakeaway Prawn Toast Smashed Tacos

Making all of that work for just over £25 took a few clever tricks to stretch the ingredients further. So let’s get straight into the full trolley breakdown and the recipes.

I know that £25 can mean different things to different people. For some households, it might be a very tight budget. For others, it might be what you’d normally spend on a couple of dinners. But the point of these meal preps isn’t to suggest that everyone should be able to feed a family for £25, or that there’s one magic budget that works for everybody. It’s about looking at what you can do with the money you have.

Because when food prices are high, getting value from your shopping trolley matters.

I think there can sometimes be a misconception that budget cooking means boring food. It doesn’t have to mean beans on toast every night or eating the same pasta dish five days in a row.

You can still have big flavours.

You can still have variety.

You can still cook food that you’re genuinely excited to eat.

The trick is making your ingredients work across multiple meals. For this shop, I’ve got chorizo appearing in two recipes, carrots being used in the soup, peppers helping to bulk out the spicy pots, and inexpensive ingredients like cabbage, beans and eggs doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Some of the ingredients are also things I’d consider staples that are useful to have around anyway. And that’s something I always think is worth considering when you’re meal planning. Don’t just ask, “What do I need for this recipe?” Ask, “What can I buy that will work in several recipes?”

Here’s everything I bought for this meal prep. I’ve included the prices I paid, including the Nectar price saving, so you can see exactly where the £25.37 total comes from:

2 bags of carrots £1.38

Peppers £1.59

Chorizo ring £2.60 (Nectar price saved me £0.35)

5% fat mince £5.05

Brown onions £0.95

Soft taco wraps £1.30

2 cans of beans £0.60

Spring onion bunch £0.69

Limes £1.15

Eggs £1.90

White cabbage £0.89

Garlic bulb £0.22

Sesame seeds £1.15

Raw king prawns £5.00

Flat parsley £1.25

Total: £25.37

Cupboard Essentials

These are the additional ingredients required across the four recipes that you should have in the cupboard:

Chicken Stock Cubes

Beef Stock Cubes

Sesame Oil

Tomato Purée

Worcestershire Sauce

Sweet Chilli Sauce

Curry Powder

Paprika

Onion Powder

Oregano

Chilli Flakes

Fresh Red Chilli

Salt & Black Pepper

Before you head to the supermarket, take a look in your cupboards first. You probably already have plenty of staples (herbs and spices, pasta, rice, stock, tins, beans and other basics) that can form the foundation of your meals. Use what you already have to plan your recipes, then make your shopping list around the fresh ingredients you need, like protein, vegetables and fruit.

Budget staples like cabbage, carrots, onions and beans can be seriously flavourful when paired with the right herbs, spices and cupboard ingredients. A little planning means making what you already have work harder and keeping your supermarket shop focused on the essentials.

So without further ado, here are four quick recipes that stretch your budget to the max….

One of the biggest lessons from these £25 meal preps is that the individual price of an ingredient doesn’t tell the whole story. You need to look at what that ingredient can do.

Take the chorizo. At £2.60, you could look at it as another item adding to the cost of your shop. But I’m using it across two recipes. The same applies to the carrots. I bought two packs because I knew I wanted enough for the soup, but carrots are also one of those ingredients that can easily be used elsewhere if you have leftovers.

Then there are the beans. At just 30p each, they’re doing a huge amount of work in the Spicy Chorizo, Bean & Egg Pots. Beans are one of those ingredients I always think are worth having around when you’re trying to make meals stretch further. They’re inexpensive, filling and incredibly versatile.

Eggs are another great example. At £1.90 for the pack, they add protein and richness to the spicy pots without pushing the cost of the meal up dramatically.

Meal prep can also help you save money by taking the guesswork out of food spending. When you’re tired and there’s nothing to eat in the fridge, it’s easy to reach for a takeaway or expensive meal deal. By having a few meal prep options in the fridge or freezer, it can help break that cycle and help you save time and money in the process.

PS – For more easy, budget-friendly meal prep recipes, my brand new book Prep & Go is available this December. You can pre-order now for half price!

Happy cooking!!

Nathan 🙂