This roast dinner on a budget includes a 75cl bottle of Chardonnay, 4 mini cans of Coca-Cola and 4 cans of Sprite too…
I recently posted this meal on Instagram and ran a poll asking if you’d like me to create a full blog post about it. Most of you said ‘Yesss please!’ so here it is.
Feel free to save this blog post and refer back to it if you want to recreate this idea or use it as guidance. If you create a Christmas or roast dinner on a budget then please tag me on Instagram @studentskint and use the hashtag #studentskint too.
First off, let’s talk numbers…
Total cost of the meal: £4.86
Cost per person: 96p (feeds 5)
There were four of us eating this meal and I was the only vegetarian, so the chicken was shared between 3 people. There were enough leftovers for another 2 servings of meat, so that’s why I’ve said this can feed 5, because it could’ve. My Quorn toad in the hole cost £1.50 (4 Quorn products for £6 offer at Asda), so without this the total cost of the meal would be only £3.36!
How I made a roast dinner on a budget, under £5!
There were 2 ways that enabled me to create this roast dinner on a budget.
1. Yellow stickers (reduced items) – checkout my Is expired food safe to eat? blog post to answer any questions you may have
2. Freebies – check out my How to get free food blog post for more info.
Price breakdown:
To find out the places I got each ingredient/item, please check out my Instagram post where it’s all written out for you!
What if you can’t get free wine or reduced food?
Okay, that’s a fair point. I definitely got lucky with all of the free drinks!
It is likely that you’ll have some alcohol at home, or that you have a friend/family member willing to give you a bottle that they no longer want. If not, then check out this blog post for ways that you’ll be able to pick up some free food and drinks.
Maybe you won’t be able to get a chicken reduced to £1 but that’s fine. Adapt my meal and make it your own! You can easily create a ‘roast dinner’ on a budget using boneless chicken pieces or making a pie with reduced or leftover meat instead. Do some research into which supermarket sells chicken (or turkey) the cheapest and pick one up.
I’ve been told that Lidl and Aldi often reduce their Christmas vegetables the week before Christmas, so keep an eye out for that.
Tesco are currently offering lots of staple Christmas dinner vegetables for just 29p and Asda for for 20p – be quick because it’s for 1 week only!
Conclusion
Don’t expect to go shopping and pick up everything for cheap all in one go. It took me almost 2 weeks to gather all of these ingredients at a great price. First the chicken, then I had leftover vegetables, then I realised we could make a roast dinner and then I go the free wine and fizzy drinks.
An alternative way to create a roast dinner on a budget would be to have a cupboard clear out with your friends/family (similar to my ‘leftover picnic’ idea here). Just use what you have already at home and you might even be able to put together a whole meal at no extra cost!
If I’ve inspired you to create a roast dinner on a budget, or any big meal, then please tag me on Instagram @studentskint and also use the hashtag #studentskint.
Great post! We need to see more options like this out there and I think this will help a lot of people.
Thank you so much!!
Great post and point about not expecting to buy all in one go!
Thank you! I love your Instagram and blog 😀