To cook budget meals of any shape and size you need a fully packed store cupboard, stocked full of basic ingredients all ready to go!

A great store cupboard can contain a variety of different tinned, dried and frozen foods. Store cupboard food can sometimes have bad reputation but with times changing these different ingredients are a great, go to resource.

When it come to tinned or dried food remember to store in a cool, dry place and keep an eye on dates!

These are my ultimate 9 store cupboard ingredients that will provide the basis for many a family meal…

1. Flour

Flour is probably one of the most expensive store cupboard staples on this list but one of the most versatile. You can pick up a bag of plain flour for well under £1 in your standard supermarket and can make different flatbreads, pastas, cakes, pastries, dumplings not to mention thicken sauces and stews. Bread and whole-meal flours get slightly more expensive but the options are endless. Ill be putting some simple, money saving breads up as soon as possible. I quite like the RC one.

2. Baked beans

There is nothing more vital to my store cupboard than a can of baked beans! The versatility of a can of baked beans is just unbelievable and the fact that they count as one of your 5 a day makes it all the better! Baked beans are high in fibre and provide a great choice for a plant based protein. A can of baked beans in the store cupboard gives you the ability to knock up a range of quick, cheap meals, some of which literally cost pennies. Check out my baked beans quesadillas and my baked bean shepherds pie.

3. Tinned Tomatoes

A can of tinned tomatoes has to be in my budget store cupboard list as I use them so regularly. I quite often buy a 4 pack of tinned plum tomatoes every week to cook big family dishes.
A tin of tomatoes can quite easily be turned into a fresh pizza sauce, a quick soup or a Bolognese or stew. They also count as a veg if you are worried about sneaking anything vegetabley into the kids. Cheap, versatile and available everywhere!

4. Beans and Pulses

Pea, bean and lentil come in both dried and tinned form. The dried version requiring slightly more work but will usually go much futher for your money. Peas, beans and lentils are all low in fat, super cheap, have numerous health benefits and are a great vege filler to a meal. You can jam pack a curry or a stew for a hit of vegetable protein, and don’t forget hummus, different bean dips, falafel, burgers and patties. They are a super cheap food!

5. Dried Pasta

Ofcourse dried pasta has to be on my top 10 budget store cupboard list! With different shapes and sizes including spaghetti, penne, lasagna sheets, linguine, farfalle, the list could go on, and it is all cheap, all readily available and also comes in whole meal versions which is brilliant!
There are an unlimited amount of meals you can create with dried pasta, even just from the store cupboard using tinned tomatoes, tinned fish and jarred pestos and sauces. Dried pasta is also great to feed the family with big pasta bakes, big bowls of pesto pasta, and large servings of spaghetti and meatballs or Bolognese.

6. Rice

Rice is one of the most important foods on the planet. It’s a commodity crop produced on a large scale and consumed all over the world. It’s one of the cheapest pound for pound and a great budget food with millions of rice recipes on the internet.
If I were going to rank cheap foods on a scale, rice would be near the top whether it be brown, white, wild or any if the other types on the market these days. You can make anything, from curries to Mexican dishes to sweetly spiced puddings. You would be hard pushed to find a cuisine without a rice dish in it.

7. Oats

A bowl of porridge first thing in the morning is a great thing! If we are talking budget food you cant get better than that! Oats are a delicious, fashionable, food staple, cheap as chips at 12p per 100g roughly and an integral part of the budget store cupboard list.
Make sure you include oats in your store cupboard staples as their versatility goes well beyond a good bowl of porridge! You can make cakes, muffins and cookies. Whizz them into shakes and energy bars. You can bake them in bread, bulk out a meat ball or make a pie crust…the options are almost endless. They come in a varying degree of brands and price points but all pretty cheap.

8. Stock

Fresh stock, whether it be vegetable, fish, beef, lamb or chicken is a great thing to make at home and will always taste better…lets get that out the way…it always will! However, if you want a store cupboard from which you can make cheap meals for the entire family, a couple of different stock cubes in the cupboard is vital! Stock is a great base for obvious things including soups and stews but you can drop a stock cube into anything for a good boost of flavour. You can create some lovely sauces or rubs for different meats but do watch salt levels as they can be quite high and always buy the best you can!…

9. Herbs and Spices

Herbs and spices are a great way to quickly and cheaply flavour food. Individual pots of spices can be picked up for well under £1 and u can always create your own spice mixes to jazz things up. Premade spice packets can also be good, perhaps not as cheap as they could be if home made but tip top for convenience. Some of my favorite store cupboard spices include salt and pepper (if they count), garamasala and a couple of good curry powders, smoked paprika, cumin, coriander seed, cinnamon, dried oregano, dried thyme…I could go on!