Chinese Food on a Budget: 5 Family Meals for £16.50 [Part 2]

Chinese Food on a Budget: 5 Family Meals for £16.50 [Part 2]

• May 05, 2023

As cost of living continues to rise around the world, budgeting for family meals have become more important than ever. I shared a Part 1 series with 7 recipes for Chinese Food on a Budget and now I'm back with a Part 2 series. 

Chinese and Asian food is primarily what I cook for family meals at home, and I want to share some money-saving tips I've learnt over the past year or so. Sainsbury's have a great selection of authentic Chinese groceries ranging from condiments/sauces to 5kg sacks of Thai Jasmine rice (the preferred type of rice that most South-East Asians are used to eating) that work out cheaper than Asian supermarkets.

Another tip for family meals is to always choose the large size for everything, as I know I can really stretch out our meals this way. Plus, it's less time spent cooking too and leftovers can just be quickly reheated. Vegetables are great for bulking out meals and there are many vegetables that you can buy for less than 50p such as cucumber and broccoli.

With a little bit of know how, everything from Western supermarkets can be turned into delicious, authentic and budget-friendly Chinese meals for the family. 

The total for all these items came in at £16.50 from Sainsbury's. If you didn't know, Sainsbury price matches a lot of items with Aldi, so a shop here gets you more than you may realise. I've planned for 5 family meals instead of 7 meals like in Part 1, because we tend to be out and about at the weekends and I'm not always home to cook. Plus, there's usually plenty of leftovers from these 5 meals that are used for lunches or another meal to heat up quickly at the weekend. 

You will have to factor in additional cost for condiments each month. My absolute must have Chinese condiments is the holy trinity of light soya sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Hoisin sauce, Shaoxing wone and 5 spice powder are also staples for me, but are not essentials for a lot of Chinese dishes. Oil, garlic powder, ketchup, sugar, salt and pepper are items that most people will have already have in the cupboard. I haven't included the cost of rice in these recipes, as this is another staple that most people will have at home.

Here are the 5 meals I planned for my family of 4 and how much it cost to make each meal:

1) Chinese sticky wings with noodles £4.29

2) Bacon and broccoli stir fry £3.06

3) Chinese soya sauce chicken £2.71

4) Gammon and cabbage fried rice £2.19

5) Chinese pork and leek lettuce wraps £4.25

I'll post the recipes for the 5 meals in the upcoming weeks and update links to these recipes as they get published.

In the meantime, do explore other recipes already on here.