Eat In and Save ££’s

Leeds Building Society recently asked us to take part in a blogger cook off challenge. The challenge was to create a meal that we would normally eat out for £10. The reason for the challenge is to prove that you can have the same meal for less and save money at the same time. Leeds Building Society carried out some research on memebers of the public and the Kick My Habits research found that the average Briton spends £17.34 per week on evenings out.

We like to eat out when we get the chance. This isn’t as often as we would like because we always struggle to find a babysitter especially when Matthew with Matthew’s night shifts at work, so instead we would either grab a really quick bite to eat or opt for a take away instead but even these can cost us just as much as a meal out does sometimes.

My favourite restaurant to visit or take away meal to eat is Chinese. I love Sweet and Sour Chicken with a side of Prawn Crackers and Spring Rolls. When we have a Chinese Matthew has his usual Chicken Curry with Egg Fried Rice and Spring Rolls.

For our challenge we decided to buy a ready meal for two from Tesco. This was priced at £5.00. A packet of prawn crackers. These were priced at 15p and 4 Spring Rolls which were priced at £2 for a pack of 4. The set meals contained a portion of egg fried rice enough for two people, 1 portion of Chicken Curry and 1 portion of Sweet and Sour Chicken and a portion of Prawn Crackers.

Each portion was easy to prepare and took a few minutes each to cook in the microwave. This meal was perfect for us as the last thing either of us wanted to do was to cook. We enjoy or meals out / take aways for that reason so something with very little cooking / preparation suits us just fine.

Our total for both of our meals was £7.15. This meant that there was change for dessert – of course I chose my favourite flavoured ice cream – Mint Choc Chip!!!

By spending just £10 for our meal in we would  have a £7.34 saving per week, which could amount to £382 a year. For us this would mean a small fortune in our wedding fund jar or a weekend away on our own or a fantastic family day out / overnight stay with the boys.