MEALS FOR $2

male_timaru, Feb 9, 5:18am
Yes it can be done

Buy ingredients in bulk first then make the following:

Pasta Beans and Cheese bake
Potato Egg and Cheese Bake
Tomato Pasta and Egg bake

(Yes a theme there in the cheese and bakes!)

pickles7, Feb 9, 5:39am
some pics would be nice, .male_timaru

pickles7, Feb 9, 5:45am
corn today were 5 for $3.00 today. That would be enough for 2 nights and 1 lunch. I choose not to eat corn myself, for those that do, that is a very good price.

valentino, Feb 9, 6:13am
Kilo of Tomatoes is cheap at the moment, with a little bit of onion, all sliced and cooked in frypan then onto some toast and season . yummy about 2 to 4 plus meals.

dibble35, Feb 9, 6:17am
I had a $2 meal tonight for tea. Snapper I caught this avo from front of moored boat (no fuel costs yay!) , tomato and cucumber out of garden with Balsamic vinegar. Spent $8 on bait and used maybe 1/4 of it, did lose 3 hooks, greedy baby snapper swollowed the hooks right down. So bait and hooks were my costs, and theres 2 Kahawai for someone else to have for their tea as well

uli, Feb 9, 8:07am
Ahh come on m_t you can do better than that!
Where are the veges!
Carbs with carbs and carbs is NOT the done thing for non-gym bunnies!

pom-pom, Feb 9, 8:44am
lentil dhal - goes a long way and is very cheap to make - freezes in batches - fantastic!

male_timaru, Feb 9, 9:07am
Ok ok - replace pasta with froz or fresh veggies lol

ruby19, Feb 9, 6:57pm
A jacket potato with a home made tom sauce- asmall chopped onion, clove of garlic, couple of large toms s&p couple of tbsp water & herbs, or spices on hand. Even cheaper if home grown produce used.

norse_westie, Feb 9, 8:02pm
But is that a $2 meal for one person! If so, I have to multiply it by 7 and quite frankly I can do better for $14.

horizons_, Feb 9, 8:38pm
You make a good point norse_westie. More often than not it is even cheaper and more nutricious to think 'bigger picture': One of my fav's at the mo is a small can of tuna ($1.09) and a huge lettuce based salad. My food bill is supplemented by free ranging when I can. Berries, edible weeds, wild food etc.

gerry64, Feb 9, 9:52pm
I have recently started cooking orzo - not sure how much it is over there only $1 packethere enough for 4 salads - I cook one cupful - dress with olive oil and lemon juice - then add can tuna - and whatever - tomatoes -spinach etc etc-makes a lovely salad for 4 -very cheap

darlingmole, Feb 9, 10:07pm
orzo it just under $3 at PaknSave I think!

A large stuffed squash will feed all of us and they're cheap at the mo (stuffed with other veges - toms, onions, herbs, mushrooms, capsicum, garlic - you get the drift, you can also add a bread stuffing etc)

claudds, Feb 9, 10:36pm
wereisallthevegtables ,chicken,meatandroughage.isfood
foreverynitemealbecauseaguyworkingalldaywouldwant
morethanthat.myhusbandwouldwantallandmore alrightfor
a dietperson.

gerry64, Feb 9, 10:44pm
my husband is a meat and spud man but once or twice a week is happy with somehting like a orzo salad - I also make it with chicken tenderloins - get $2 worth from WW - steam it - lovely - he realises that we have to budget and thats that

beaker59, Feb 9, 10:48pm
Cost of fish you catch yourself is normally astronomic certainly mine are even though we catch heaps and have fish probably 3 nights a week on average as do my children and thier families and some favoured neighbours. The costs of owning our boat are conservatively estimated at 10K per year so work it out.

The garden however is awesome value and certainly over summer we buy virtually no veges and only a quarter of our winter consumption would be bought veges. Same with herbs and some spices. The garden probably costs me around 200 dollars a year could be less but I have to water it allot from town water I collect seed and cuttings for fun which saves heaps I also feed several of my children and thier families they often come raid dads garden. Few visitors leave without a bag of beans or a corgette or three. My son in law regularly takes away large baskets of herbs for his resturant, I cut back some large rosemary bushes the other day as a result special of the day at the resturant was lamb on rosemary skewers.

Meat then becomes affordable (OK I hunt a little but again similar maths to the fishing) This week I bought a turks free range corn fed chicken I like these for the taste that will become 2 and a half meals for 3 people at 15 bucks thats 2 dollars a head. I also got a large roast of pork because it was on special I paid 16 dollars for that but will easily get 4 meals out of that so about 1.33dollars per head. I am going south soon to visit some friends we will bring home 3 or4 wild goats to refill the meat freezer and with luck maybe a deer or pig that will help but the cost of going and the cost of ownership of gear makes it only moderately priced meat.

dibble35, Feb 9, 11:05pm
I understand what you mean beaker, luckily not my boat - my dads. The way I look at it is I spent 3 hoursdown there yesterday entertaining myself fishing. If not doing this then i would be reading, housework, playing on laptop (like now).Luckily i think its great fun, especially since at the mooring is mainly smaller fish, the occasional decent sized one makes it worth keeping on trying though.

mwood, Feb 10, 2:11am
Crayfish and a loaf of bread

beaker59, Feb 10, 2:38am
Best boat to have which is what my sons say when they ring up to take it out, along with "is it full of diesel Dad" :)