Mum makes a week’s worth of family dinners for under £20

TikTok influencer Heidi Ondrak is known for her money-saving videos which she posts under the username @theduchessofthrift. With the cost of living crisis hitting homes across the UK, Heidi has shown how you can make a week’s worth of family dinners for under £20.

In the video, she showed her meticulously planned meal plan, and how she managed to make the most of supermarket offers to save money.

“It’s got passed the middle of the month so I’ve done a really economical meal plan for the week, so I am doing 24 dinners for £19.71,” Heidi explained. “This is one of the cheapest menus I’ve done and there’s stuff on there that is store cupboard stuff.”

Meals include a tomato pasta dish, a pasta bake, frittata and chips and Chinese noodles. Heidi’s menu relies “heavily” on tinned products, as well as plenty of vegetables, eggs and pasta. She admits that they’ve had to go “quite light on the meat” in order to save money.

READ MORE: Make ‘the best roast potatoes you’ve ever had’

The thrifty mum also explained how to make the most of in-store offers and points cards to shave money off your final bill. “This is what the shop looks like. I’ve done it from Sainsbury’s and the reason I did it with Sainsbury’s is I got money shaved off on my Nectar offers. I bought a big pasta, that’s economical,” she explained.

“We are quite light on meat this week and we are having to rely on quite a lot of pasta and vegetables. Eggs feature quite heavily and the jacket potatoes were a bargain.

“So this is what I call the passed the middle of the month shop and actually there’s enough food there to last feed all of us with an evening meal for the week. So, that’s 24 meals at £19.71.”

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How to make 24 meals for under £20

Heidi shared her meal plan for the week with viewers, including a full price breakdown based on her Sainsbury’s shop.

Saturday

Jacket potatoes with beans

• Four baking potatoes – £1
• Two tines of beans – 98p
• Optional cheese

Overall cost: £1.98

Sunday

Toad in the hole

• Sausages – £1.49
• Flour from the cupboard
• Three eggs – 40p
• Splash of milk from the fridge

Overall cost: £1.89

Monday

Chinese noodles

• Egg noodles – £1
• Chicken – £1.79
• Spring onion – 49p
• Broccoli – 40p
• Mayflower powder from the cupboard

Overall cost: £3.68

Tuesday

Frittata and chips

• Six eggs – 80p
• Pepper – 49p
• 20g of cheese – 50p
• Half red onion – 7p
• Chips £1

Overall cost: £2.86

Wednesday

Pasta in tomato sauce

• Pasta – 86p
• Passata – 49p
• Tomato puree – 49p
• Garlic – 20p

Overall cost: £2.04

Thursday

Corned Beef Hash

• Corned beef – £1.70
• Half red onion – 7p
• Frozen mash – £1.65
• 20g cheese – 50p

Overall cost: £3.92

Friday

Bacon, cheese and broccoli pasta bake

• Macaroni – 95p
• Bacon – £1.49
• 20g Cheese – 50p
• Broccoli – 40p
• Milk from fridge

Overall cost: £3.34