Enjoy the weather with friends and family with a budget BBQ feast this bank holiday with tips from MoneyMagpie Editor and financial expert Vicky Parry
Do you have a spare tenner? Do four of your friends and family also have a spare tenner? Pool it together and follow these tips to create a BBQ feast on a budget to enjoy this Bank Holiday!
Spend time to prepare meat
Meat is the most expensive portion of any BBQ event. Rather than buying pre-spiced and pre-shaped kebabs and burgers, opt to make your own.
You can also buy large packs of things like chicken breast in the frozen section, often saving money on the fresh section. Simply give them time to defrost properly before preparing in a marinade prior to cooking. Do check the prices between frozen and fresh per kilo, however, as this time of year offers some great seasonal discounts.
Choose your cuts wisely
Be open minded with the cut you choose. A four-pack of chicken legs costs just £2.25 per kilo at Sainsbury’s compared to £6.45 for chicken breast. Bone-in cuts like chicken legs and thighs do well on a barbeque, too.
Consider barbequing fish as well. It’s a great protein option, suits the health-conscious amongst your crowd, and goes with almost any side. You could pick up six salmon fillets for £10 at Morrisons, for example.
Consider low-and-slow cuts, too, like pork shoulder with the bone still in. They’ll be really moist when cooked but offer a much better price-per-kilo than other cuts.
Make a trip to a bulk buy store
If you live near a bulk buy store like Costco, and have a membership, now is the time to use it. You can pick up large packs of BBQ meat for a significant saving overall, along with other items for your feast such as salad bowls and beer or soft drinks.
The trick with shopping in warehouse-style places is to go with a list and stick to it. The wide range of items on offer can be incredibly tempting, but not a saving if you didn’t need it in the first place!
Salads are your budget friend
While meat is the core element of a Bank Holiday BBQ, remember that you can bulk out your offerings with some salads and sides on a budget. This means it is easy to go from feeding two or three people to six or seven, without taking much from the kitty.
Don’t go for bagged salad. Instead, pick up ingredients like iceberg lettuce (around 89p in most supermarkets), cucumbers (80p-£1), mixed bell peppers (£1.60 at Aldi) to form your base salad. Split into two bowls and add different ingredients to each on top, for variety. You could add some cubed feta (opt for own-brand ‘salad cheese’ for a saving), tomatoes, other salad leaves like rocket (95p at Tesco), or anything else you fancy.
Salad is not only healthy, it’s filling. It also takes longer to eat, so your stomach has time to register that you’re full, rather than overeating.
Go for a pasta or potato side
Add to the BBQ with a bulk-but-budget carbohydrate side, too. Pasta or potato salad is easy to make ahead of time, and you can make a lot on a small budget compared to the ready-made versions.
One kilo of dried pasta (around £1) makes a brilliant base and can be easily adapted to tastes with other additions. Choose from veggies, cheese, tuna, bacon, pesto – whatever you fancy. The Good Food website has a great range of recipes to inspire you.
Switch to own brand
You’ve heard it before, but it’s true: there are some things you can switch to own brand and nobody will notice. Of course, this is where you compromise depending on your budget. For example, if you absolutely must have Heinz sauces, opt for own brand veggies and pasta salad – nobody will notice. Or, check out the own brand versions of crisps and dip: many are made by the exact same company that make the branded version with only small recipe variations!
As an example of what you could save, a 500ml bottle of Filippo Berio olive oil sets you back a whopping £8 at Sainsburys, and when used as a salad dressing with other ingredients won’t taste much different to their own Extra Virgin Olive Oil at £5.55 for 500ml.
Skip dessert
The main event of the BBQ is the savoury food – by the time that’s done, many people have bulging bellies and no room for dessert!
But if you do want to provide dessert for the sweet toothed amongst your party, look for frozen items like individual ice creams, Mini Mochis, or frozen desserts that can be eaten straight from the freezer. This means you’ll be able to offer dessert if people want it – but it’ll keep for future use if everyone is too full for a sweet bite.
Alternatively, look for small bakery items like tubs of mini brownies, shortbread, and cornflake crispies. These tubs are often on offer, such as two for £6.50 at Waitrose, offering people the option of a sweet treat without excess.
Avoid one-use items
Think BBQ, think paper plates. That’s how it is for many Brits in the summer – especially as it makes clearing up after a party really easy.
However, using the crockery you have and washing up as you go will save you a lot of cash. The same goes for things like fancy napkins: it might be fun to have watermelon print napkins but a roll of kitchen towel does the trick for far less!
BBQ gadgets to splurge on
If you have a bigger budget than £50, consider investing in a BBQ gadget to make sure outside cooking becomes a regular event in your household this summer. Remember to approach expenditure like this by a ‘cost per use’ basis. If you’ll only use it once a year, it’s probably not worth the investment – but once a week all summer? Then you can start to justify it.
The Jamie Oliver Pizza Oven is really versatile, and it’s really cheap to make pizzas too. A fun way to spend an afternoon with friends, set up a pizza making table and have fun mixing your favourite ingredients!
When it comes to BBQs themselves, serious chefs might prefer a gas-powered BBQ for temperature control. You can even go all-out and get a smoker to prepare joints of meat with a classic smoked flavour!
But if you need something portable that can go with you to friends houses, the park, or even the beach (where permitted), you can’t go wrong with a picnic grill like Bodum’s charcoal grill. A small size makes it easy to travel with, giving you an on-the-go BBQ option or adding an extra grill at a larger family event.
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