I meal prepped for a week for £3.72 and it only took 20 minutes

I meal-prepped for my whole week at work, and it cost me only £3.72. Meal prepping is a great way to save money and it doesn't have to take too long.

Since I started working in an office, I have become slightly obsessed with meal prepping because I have noticed how much money I could end up spending when I don't bring food to work with me. Even spending money on a supermarket meal deal every day eventually adds up and your wallet can take a serious hit. My own personal mission has become meal-prepping for as cheap as I can.



In today's cost-of-living crisis, cheap meals are a great way for me to save money. So, when it came to my most recent meal prep, I decided to do it on the cheap and figure out exactly how much it cost. When I discovered that the total cost of making five meals was £3.

72, I was both shocked and very smug. I can't believe I managed to do it. In fact, each meal only cost 74p.

I was thrilled about that. So, what did I make? I cooked three portions of pasta and two sandwiches, as well as two side salads to go with the sandwiches to make those lunches a bit more substantial. For the pasta, here are the ingredients I used and how much they cost: 170g Penne pasta (from a 500g bag) - 23p 1 tin plum tomatoes - 47p 1 white onion - 36p 160g frozen vegetables - 20p Total for the pasta = £1.

26. To cook, I fried the onions for five minutes before adding in the frozen vegetables, followed by the plum tomatoes a minute later. I added salt, pepper and chili powder to flavour, but these are optional.

I simultaneously boiled my pasta for ten minutes and when everything was done, I combined it and split it into three portions. For the sandwich and side salad meals, of which there were two, I used: 30ml soy sauce - 12p 100g couscous - 12p 1 tin sweetcorn - 85p 4 slices of bread (50p from the reduced section of the supermarket, kept in my freezer) - 2p 1 tin tuna - 80p 1 gem lettuce - 40p 80ml mayonnaise - 15p Total cost of the sandwiches and side salad = £2.55.

To prepare the couscous, simply pour boiled water into a bowl with the couscous and cover. The water should just cover the surface of the couscous. After being covered for five minutes, it should have expanded.

I then just mixed the couscous with my soy sauce and the remainder of the sweetcorn. I also split the lettuce between the sandwiches and the salads. In total, I came out with five meals that would be enough to fill me during my work lunch break.

And for 74p each, I was more than happy with the result..