Monday
Paprika chicken and pepper traybake
Chicken, peppers, onions and potatoes roasted together with paprika.
About 40 minutes · £6.40
Keep half the chicken, one pepper and some cooked potatoes for later dinners.
Affordable weekly dinner plan
5 affordable dinners for two under £40
A five-night UK dinner plan for two, designed around a £40 target with shared ingredients, practical substitutions and transparent reference-price estimates.
By DinnerByDesign editorial team · Reviewed 18 July 2026
A practical £40 week, not five separate shopping lists
Planning five different dinners can easily create five disconnected shopping lists. This week is designed differently: useful ingredients are deliberately carried from one dinner into another, while chicken, pulses and eggs provide variety without requiring five separate main-protein purchases.
The £40 target refers to the expected checkout cost of representative complete packs for two people. The lower ingredient figure shows the estimated value actually used across the ten portions. Keeping both figures visible makes it easier to distinguish the food consumed from the cash likely to be needed at the supermarket.
This is a practical starting point rather than a fixed prescription. Brands, pack sizes, retailer, location and ingredients already at home will change the total. The substitutions below show how to adapt the week without losing its underlying cost-control structure.
Plan summary
Dinner target: £40.00 for five dinners for two.
Estimated ingredients: £25.35.
Expected checkout: £37.90 using full reference packs.
These are planning estimates based on the DinnerByDesign UK reference-price catalogue, not a retailer quotation.
The five-night dinner plan
Tuesday
Tomato and lentil pasta
A simple red-lentil tomato sauce with pasta and a little cheddar.
About 30 minutes · £3.75
Uses the same onions, garlic, tomatoes and cheddar needed later in the week.
Wednesday
Chicken and vegetable fried rice
Monday’s reserved chicken with rice, pepper, carrot and egg.
About 20 minutes · £4.80
Turns reserved chicken and vegetables into a quick midweek dinner.
Thursday
Loaded bean and potato bowls
Crisp potatoes topped with tomato beans, cheddar and yoghurt.
About 35 minutes · £4.20
Finishes the potatoes, tomatoes and cheddar without requiring another main protein.
Friday
Carrot, chickpea and spinach curry
A tomato-based chickpea curry served with the remaining rice and yoghurt.
About 30 minutes · £6.20
Uses the remaining carrots, spinach, tomatoes, rice and yoghurt.
The shopping strategy behind the week
Buy one main chicken pack and divide it between Monday’s traybake and Wednesday’s fried rice. Cook and reserve Wednesday’s portion promptly rather than treating it as an accidental leftover.
Use one bag each of potatoes, onions and carrots across several dinners. These ingredients are inexpensive, flexible and less likely to leave an unusable remainder than several specialist side dishes.
Open tins and longer-life packs later in the week. Lentils, beans, chickpeas, pasta and rice provide budget resilience if a fresh ingredient becomes unavailable or needs replacing.
Cheddar and yoghurt are supporting ingredients rather than the centre of a dinner. Small quantities add flavour across several nights without requiring a separate topping or sauce for each dish.
How we kept the plan under £40
- One chicken purchase, two dinners: Chicken is used twice, reducing the need to buy another higher-cost main protein for Wednesday.
- Three pulse-led dinners: Lentils, beans and chickpeas keep the week varied while protecting the overall target.
- Repeated vegetables with different roles: Peppers, carrots, onions, potatoes and tomatoes appear in different combinations rather than as identical leftovers.
- No promotional price dependency: The plan does not require a loyalty-card offer, multibuy or temporary reduction to remain below its stated reference target.
How ingredients are reused
- Onions and garlic: The traybake, pasta sauce and curry.
- Peppers and carrots: The traybake, fried rice and curry.
- Potatoes: Monday’s traybake and Thursday’s loaded bowls.
- Rice: Wednesday’s fried rice and Friday’s curry.
- Tomatoes: The pasta sauce, loaded beans and curry.
- Cheddar and yoghurt: Small amounts across Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Practical substitutions
- Replace chicken with an extra tin of chickpeas and 250g mushrooms. Creates a vegetarian week and should reduce the reference estimate.
- Use frozen spinach and mixed peppers. Can reduce waste and may cost less than buying several fresh packs.
- Use brown rice or wholewheat pasta already at home. Keeps the plan structure while avoiding an unnecessary new pack.
Make the plan work in different circumstances
If you already have rice, pasta or spices
Mark those items as already in stock when personalising the plan. The expected checkout estimate should fall because no new pack is required.
If you are cooking for three or four
Increase the household size in Plan My Week. Quantities will scale, but complete-pack rounding means the total will not always rise in a perfectly straight line.
If you shop at a different supermarket
Keep the dinner structure and compare equivalent standard packs. Treat £37.90 as the reference-basket estimate rather than a promise from a particular retailer.
If you want a vegetarian week
Replace the chicken with chickpeas and mushrooms and apply the vegetarian rule before generating alternatives.
How this plan was selected
The plan repeats useful ingredients across five different dinners to reduce disconnected purchases and food waste. It is not guaranteed to be the mathematically cheapest possible basket.
Read the ingredient-pricing methodology, see how dinners are selected or understand the wider UK food-cost picture.
Questions about this £40 plan
Does the £40 target include full supermarket packs?
Yes. The expected checkout figure uses representative complete packs.
Will my actual checkout be exactly £37.90?
No. Retailer, availability, substitutions, promotions and ingredients already at home will change it.