Feeding a Household on a Tight Budget: A Practical Month's Plan

Advice about saving money on food is usually vague: "plan ahead", "buy in bulk". This is different — it has a specific week and real numbers behind it.

The founding rule: pulses

Protein is the most expensive thing in any meal, and lentils, fava beans and chickpeas deliver plant protein at a fraction of the cost of meat. Egyptian cooking is built on exactly this principle — koshari, ful medames, ta'ameya and mujadara are all filling dishes at a low cost.

Make pulses the base of three or four days a week and the difference in the shopping bill shows immediately, without anyone feeling they're eating "cheap food".

A week's schedule

• Saturday — koshari. It feeds six, keeps two days and reheats well.
• Sunday — mujadara with salad and yoghurt.
• Monday — okra stew or mesaqaa with a small amount of meat for flavour, not as the base.
• Tuesday — pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese.
• Wednesday — ful and ta'ameya with salad and bread. The cheapest filling supper there is.
• Thursday — the meal everyone waits for: chicken or meat.
• Friday — the week's leftovers in one dish, or a soup from chicken bones.

Five habits that save more than any recipe

1. Cook in batches

Gas and time don't scale with quantity. A large pot of koshari takes about as long as a small one, and saves an entire cooking day.

2. The freezer is your partner

Vegetables about to turn get chopped and frozen. Leftover parsley and coriander get chopped into ice cube trays with a little oil. Chicken bones go in the freezer until you make stock.

3. Buy in season

Seasonal vegetables cost a fraction of out-of-season ones and taste better. Tomatoes in summer and oranges in winter are not the same price they are out of season.

4. Spices save money, they don't cost it

Cheap food that tastes good gets eaten; cheap food that tastes of nothing gets thrown out. Cumin, coriander and a taqleya turn lentils from a dull plate into a meal people look forward to.

5. Don't shop hungry

An old cliché, but demonstrably true — shopping on an empty stomach measurably raises the bill.

False economies

• "Cheap" ready meals — one portion costs more than home cooking that feeds four.
• Offers on things you won't use — a discount on something you throw away is not a saving.
• Bulk quantities that spoil — buying in bulk only saves on things that keep: rice, lentils, pasta, pulses.

Cheap food is not poor food

Koshari, ful and mujadara aren't "food for people who can't afford better" — they're dishes hundreds of years old, eaten in every household. The only difference between a cheap dish that's delicious and one that's dull is the detail: onions browned properly, the acidity balanced, and spices added at the right moment.