As many households look for ways to keep costs down, one savvy mum set out to make a family meal from Aldi as cheaply as possible, and was pleasantly surprised.
Trying to find something both adults and children would enjoy, and also keep the ingredients cheap, Emma Gill also wanted the meal to include at least one vegetable towards her family's five a day. The end result was a "rather tasty" cottage pie that came in at less than 71 pence per head using items from Aldi.
In total, the ingredients cost £7.60, the Manchester Evening News reports, but this included entire packs of products, including stock cubes, gravy, Worcestershire sauce and thyme, all of which would be used in many further meals. Emma said she didn't even use all the potatoes, carrots, onions or butter - and worked out the total cost of what went into the dish to be £3.53.
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She said: "Admittedly I went for the cheapest options on everything, but who cares what wonky shapes your potatoes and carrots come in when they're being chopped up into pieces anyway? Apart from the odd sticky out bit on the carrots, they weren't actually that wonky at all.
"And the potatoes were surprisingly good, given the fact I usually go for the more expensive Maris Pipers after being told they 'make better mash'. If you wanted a healthier version, you could pay extra for the lower fat beef mince -while it's £2.49 for a 500g pack of 10% fat, it's £2.99 for the 5% fat pack of the same size.
"With the healthiest option it would bring the cost up to 95p per head, still a very reasonable price for such a hearty meal, which was wolfed down by us adults and two children, with one portion leftover. My other half even approved and he's a chef so not always easily pleased - although he did ask why I hadn't run a fork through the mash to give it a pattern like he does.
"I won't tell you what I suggest he do with his fork. My son on the other hand dared to suggest the dish was 'nicer than when dad makes it'. Now that's karma right there!"
Here's the full list of ingredients and cost, with the amount used and what that equated to
- Potatoes 2.5kg 89p / we used 2kg 71.2p
- Carrots 1.5kg 45p / we used 800g 24p
- Onions 1kg 69p / we used 170g 11.7p
- Beef mince 500g £1.79 / used full pack £1.79
- Stock cubes pack of 12 37p / used one 3p
- Gravy granules 300g 79p / used 45g 11.8p
- Worcestershire sauce 150ml 65p / used 10ml 4.4p
- Thyme 15g 49p / used 1g 3.26p
- Butter 250g £1.48 / used 80g 47.36p
Total shopping list £7.60 / total used £3.53 (serves five / 70.6p per head)
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