3 Budget Dinners Under $50 NZD - Prawns, Dahl and Pizza

Three COMPLETELY different dinners, lunches for the week, and it all came from one supermarket shop at New World for $44.90. That is what Savvy Suppers is about: no boring food, no food waste, and no blowing the budget. This episode is one of my favourites because every single ingredient earns its place twice over. Let's get into it!

What's Included

• Three dinners for two to three people, with leftovers for lunch, from a single $44.90 shop at New World in Wanaka.
• Ingredients that cross over. The prawns do double duty across Monday and Friday. The flour makes both the flatbreads on Wednesday and the pizza base on Friday. The dahl swallows whatever is going soft in the vegetable drawer.
• The full shopping list with exact products and quantities is further down this page, along with the handful of things I used from the cupboard.

Monday Night: Spicy Prawn Noodles

The fastest dinner of the week and the one that will genuinely surprise you with how much flavour comes out of a handful of pantry staples. A punchy chilli and sesame dressing poured over hot noodles, sweet prawns and tender cabbage, on the table in 15 minutes.

15-Minute Spicy Prawn Noodles with Cabbage: A quick weeknight noodle bowl with a hot chilli sesame dressing, ready in 15 minutes.

Wednesday Night: Lentil Dahl with Homemade Flatbreads and Fried Egg

The cosiest dinner of the week and the one that proves budget cooking can be genuinely nourishing. A spiced red lentil dahl that uses up whatever sad vegetables are in your fridge, served with fast three-ingredient flatbreads and a fried egg on top. The dahl makes plenty, so you will almost certainly have some for the freezer too.

Lentil Dahl with Homemade Flatbreads and Fried Egg: Spiced lentil dahl with homemade flatbreads, rice and a runny fried egg. Proper comfort food for under $50.

Friday Night: Spicy Prawn Pizza with Apple and Cabbage Slaw

Friday night done properly. A soft, pillowy focaccia-style pizza base made from scratch with fresh yeast, topped with a rich tomato sauce, spicy marinated prawns and melted cheese. Served with a fresh apple and cabbage slaw that sounds like a wildcard and tastes absolutely brilliant against the hot, spicy pizza.

Spicy Prawn Pizza with Apple and Cabbage Slaw: Homemade focaccia-style pizza with spicy prawns and a fresh apple cabbage slaw. The Friday night budget dinner you did not know you needed.

The Shopping List

Here is everything I bought for this episode from New World, Wanaka. Total spend: $44.90.

• Fantastic Wide Instant Noodles 360g
• Pams Basmati Rice 1kg
• Pams Value Raw Prawn Meat Pieces 500g
• Green Cabbage Half
• Brown Onions 2kg
• Pams Crushed Chilli 230g
• Pams Sesame Seeds 40g
• Pams Pure Plain Flour 1.5kg
• Fresh Yeast 100g
• Pams Split Red Lentils 500g
• Pams Value Chopped Tomatoes x3
• Perfect Italiano Pizza Grated Cheese 150g
• Smitten Apples 1kg
• Pams Free Range Size 6 Eggs 6pk

From home: curry powder, vegetable oil, garlic, soy sauce, black vinegar, Chinese five spice, and any sad vegetables that needed using up.

Why This Collection Works

The crossover moments are what make this shop so satisfying. The prawns do double duty across Monday and Friday, giving you two completely different eating experiences out of the same bag. The flour is doing the same thing, making the flatbread dough on Wednesday night and the pizza base on Friday. And the dahl is almost begging for whatever is left in your vegetable drawer, which means nothing gets thrown away.

With more than 20 years of professional cooking experience behind me, I know that the gap between a great dinner and a forgettable one is rarely price. It is knowledge. Savvy Suppers is my way of sharing that: the techniques, the planning, and the crossover thinking that makes a $44.90 shop feel like abundance rather than compromise. This is real cheffing skill applied to a real budget.

If you are new around here, Savvy Suppers is the series where I head to the supermarket, spend under $50 NZD, and make three dinners for two to three people with leftovers for lunch. These episodes take time to plan and film, so they do not come around every week, which means when one drops it is worth saving.

Related Pages

Easy Same Day Focaccia Bread: The dough behind Friday night's pizza base, made as a loaf in its own right.

Deep and Rich Tomato Sauce: Make a bigger batch of the pizza sauce and keep it in the fridge for the week.

Lentil Tarka Dal: A different route to the same comfort, with a hot spiced oil poured over at the end.

This episode is Savvy Suppers doing exactly what it is meant to do. Three dinners that could not be more different from each other, built from one shop where every ingredient pulls its weight more than once. Nothing goes in the bin, nothing tastes like a compromise, and you eat properly all week for less than the cost of one takeaway. Save this one and cook it whenever the grocery bill is starting to bite.

Enjoy!

Del x

Three dinners, lunches for the week, $44.90 and not a single thing wasted, this is Savvy Suppers at its best.