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Stretching grocery budgets and being smart with the weekly food shop can be tricky at the best of times. It becomes particularly challenging if you are cooking for one, when bulk buying and batch cooking might not be an option. With this is mind, we asked some of our favourite food writers to put together budget meal plans to serve one person, creating a week's worth of dinners that are varied, use easy-to-find ingredients and don't require any specialist kit or techniques.

There are three plans to choose from: a vegan plan, a vegetarian plan and this one, which is suitable for meat eaters.

7 meals for under £1.60 per portion

This plan includes recipes for seven main meals which cost just over £11 in total (it was under £10 when first published, but prices have continued to rise). It was created by Justine Pattison, an experienced cookery pro who works on TV shows, with celebrity chefs and for various food brands. Here, she has focused on recipes that are not only affordable but faff-free and, above all, delicious. There's also lots of tips on how to get the best value from your grocery shop and incorporate ingredients you might already have at home.

To make sure your grocery shop for the week stays under budget, the costing of these recipes has been done slightly different to how you might expect. For more information read our article to see how we are calculating the cost of our new budget recipes and view the full store cupboard.

The recipes

Day 1: Chicken dinner for one

A simple and satisfying roast dinner for one person. This is a good opportunity to batch cook the chicken thighs, so you won't need to use the oven again for rest of the week.

Day 2: Mac ‘n’ cheese for one

A creamy and comforting macaroni cheese on a budget. It's finished under the grill rather than in the oven to save on energy costs.

Day 3: Soy and chilli chicken rice bowl

Packed with healthy veg and ready in 15 minutes, this recipe uses the last of the batch-cooked chicken and a few store cupboard staples to make a tasty dinner you'll want to eat again and again.

Day 4: Loaded tuna and sweetcorn wedges

If you like a tuna and sweetcorn jacket potato, you’ll love this cheat’s version that cuts out time and energy by par-boiling and then pan-frying the potato, instead of baking in the oven. It can easily be adapted to suit other toppings, too.

Day 5: Easy mushroom pilau

A quick and easy one-pot that's on the table in less than 20 minutes. Using standard long grain rice instead of basmati makes it much cheaper.

Day 6: Chicken and bean burritos

Burritos are super easy to make and using tinned beans and batch-cooked chicken thighs mean they're budget-friendly, too. To keep costs down, this recipe includes instructions for making your own tortillas – which is much easier than you might expect. If you prefer though, you can buy them ready-made and use any leftovers for lunches, or freeze them for another time.

Day 7: Budget arrabiata pasta

A classic spicy pasta dish that's quick and easy to whip up for mid-week meals.

Shopping list

Fruit and vegetables

□ 4–5 carrots (depending on size)
□ ½ head broccoli or 1 small broccoli (roughly 125g/4½oz)
□ 600g/1lb 5oz potatoes (2 large baking potatoes or 5-6 medium potatoes)
□ 150g/5½oz mushrooms
□ 1 onion
□ 4 garlic cloves

Meat and fish

□ 1kg/2lb 4oz pack of chicken thighs

Tins, packets and jars

□ 400g tin beans in spicy chilli sauce
□ 145g tin tuna chunks
□ 400g tin chopped tomatoes
□ 160g/5¾oz long-grain rice
□ 175g/6oz dried pasta

Dairy, eggs and chilled

□ 20g/¾oz butter
□ 125g/4½oz cheddar
□ 300ml/10fl oz milk

Cooking ingredients

□ 10 tbsp vegetable oil, plus another 3 tbsp oil, ideally olive oil
□ 155g/6oz plain white flour, plus extra for dusting
□ 1⅓ chicken or vegetable stock cube
□ ¼ tsp dried mixed herbs
□ ½–1 tsp dried chilli flakes
□ 1–1½ tsp medium curry powder
□ salt and ground black pepper

Frozen

□ 170g/6oz frozen peas
□ 80g/2¾oz frozen sweetcorn

Condiments

□ 2–3 tbsp mayonnaise
□ 1¼ tsp soy sauce

Other

□ crusty bread, to serve (optional)

Our meal plans for one were created on a strict ingredient budget of £10 for the week, which is on average just under £1.50 per dinner. And, as we wanted to make your food shop as practical as possible, we’ve costed these recipes slightly differently. Standard practice is to divide the cost of every ingredient by the number of potential servings, and then add all of those costs together.

Instead, we’ve based most of our costs on the smallest available pack size, meaning even if you don’t use a whole jar or packet, the entire cost is still included in the budget.

These costs are added to a store cupboard of common items like oil, salt, pasta and rice that you may buy regularly and use for several meals. These basics are costed according to the quantity you use. The items in this limited store cupboard tend to have long shelf lives, or are regularly purchased (bread, milk and potatoes).

We’ve also made sure each plan uses as much of each ingredient you buy as possible, not only to keep costs down but also avoid waste. So, while you can easily pick and choose which recipes you want to make from across all three, the plans work best when you follow a specific one for a whole week.

First published September 2022. Prices updated in March 2023.