In reply to bigpad: The best things to save money are: don't buy meat, don't buy snacks, don't buy alcohol, don't buy anything with a brand, don't buy anything that isn't on your shopping list and don't buy veg unless it's reduced (apart from a big sack of value potatoes or similar).
Another huge vote for dal though and most indian food in general. You can go two ways with eating cheaply, (1) eating cheaply and badly (health and ethics wise) which is easy, just buy cheap food and eat it. or (2) eat cheaply but try and be healthy/ethical with your purchases, this is harder! Everyone will fall somewhere in between so making your mind up on how low your willing to go will give you an idea in advance on how cheap you can live.
An indian vegetarian diet is super cheap, healthy and ethical, but you do have to learn how to cook (easier than most cuisines imo) and you'll probably want to invest in a good variety of whole spices or you'll end up eating the same flavour food constantly. The staples of eastern cookery can be bought in bulk in most places - rice, flour, spices and pulses - and if that forms the bulk of your meals its just a case of cooking whatever vegetables you can find cheap. In my opinion the most interesting cheap diet you can find. If you do go down the dal route my preference is to avoid red lentils and go for something like chana dal which, imo, takes longer to get sick of than split reds, has more flavour and holds it's shape better. Other whole pulses are good as well, chick peas in particular and cheap, easy and pretty versatile. As long as you buy them dried obviously.
That's the veg side sorted but if like me you love meat but can't always afford it then curried meat is the answer as well. But don't buy a packet of chicken breasts and then cook it in a bought sauce, even buying a pound of cheaper cuts of meat and then having a meat curry and rice isn't cheap. Instead get a large amount of stewing meat (mince works really well in a curry as well, either as it is or made into balls/koftas), make your own cheap traditional sauce out of onions, garlic, ginger, spices and water and have small portions of it with your usual rice/bread, pulses and vegetables. Less meat per portion but more meals with meat in.
If you don't like indian food then it's still easy to eat cheaply with the same ideas, cheap veg, big bags of potatoes, cheap cuts of meat, soups etc. Like I said, if you really don't care what you eat then eating cheap is easy, beans on toast, mounds of home made chips, even value ready meals or tinned meals are cheap as hell..disgusting, but cheap.
Ben
