Big crowd, small budget!

Supper club chef and author Rosie Kellett gives her advice for keeping costs down when you're feeding family and friends

- BY LAUREN TAYLOR

Cooking for a small crowd week in week out - whether that's a family of four to six, or lots of housemates - can be difficult when you're on a tight budget. But when food writer Rosie Kellett moved into a six-person East London warehouse five years ago, keeping costs down and flavour up became a joy as well as a challenge.

However, with a budget of £25 per person a week (which also covers other household goods), each night there is a 'delicious meal on the table', she writes in her debut cookbook, In For Dinner - which includes 101 recipes 'that are affordable, achievable and good for you and good for the planet alike'. Here the 32-year-old writer - who also hosts supper clubs - shares her top tips for making lots of (wholesome, healthy) food on a strict budget.

Do your grocery shopping online

'I'd say online shopping saves us a lot of money because we get delivery once a week, and it's far easier just keep track of what you're spending, you can always see your basket, and you can take advantage of the deals. And you're not doing all of those little trips to the local mini supermarket and picking up a couple of things here and there. You plan a bit better and know what you need to use up. I think that mentality really helps to budget.

‘Because you're never going to shop more frequently than once a week, towards the end of the week it's quite slim pickings, but it forces you to really utilise what there is in the fridge and in the cupboard and you become a bit more inventive.’

A lot of Kellett's recipes have been born from moments of ‘looking at a fridge at a bag of carrots, and I'm like, “Cool, what are we going to do with that?”.'

Make plants the focus