Low-cost kitchen guide

You don't need lots of expensive gadgets. This is what works for me:

1 large and 1 small non-stick saucepan
1 large frying pan or saute pan, with a lid
1 roasting tin
1 baking sheet
1 loaf tin
2 wooden spoons
Masher
Sharp paring knife
Kitchen scissors
Small grater
Measuring jug or old baby bottle
General cutlery
Blender: mine is from a supermarket value range and cost about a tenner.
Scales: for measuring bread or cake ingredients. Everything else is a handful of this, whatever's left of that.
Large mixing bowl: mine is a big metal bowl from a pound shop.

Store cupboard

Carbs: The cheapest rice is invariably long-grain, with brown varieties costing far more. The same goes for pasta. White flour is far cheaper than wholemeal. However, you can use any type you like for my recipes.
Dairy: A large pot of plain yoghurt goes a long way, either as a standalone breakfast with some tinned fruit, or as a sauce in which to marinate chicken or toss with pasta, lemon juice and herbs for a quick lunch.
Dark chocolate: Use as a base for Mexican-style soup or authentic chilli, or melted to make cornflake cakes.
Fruit: Tins of peaches, pineapple chunks, mandarin segments and pears are all handy for stirring into yoghurt, tagines, curries or simply as a snack. The reduced chiller in the supermarket is your friend – freeze punnets of berries and store for a few months.
Lemon juice: Bottled lasts far longer than a bag of lemons.
Oil: Olive oil is nice but expensive. I like the lightness of sunflower oil when making pesto and sauces, and the way it takes on the flavour of other ingredients.
Plain flour: Self-raising is great, but the raising agents cease to be as effective when they come into contact with air, so I buy plain and add one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda or baking powder to 150g flour.
Protein: Can be found in tins of sardines, jars of fish paste and tins of beans and pulses. I eat meat twice a week, fish twice and vegetarian alternatives in between. I pack out soups with pulses and use them to make chilli, burgers, curry and flavourful stews. Beans, pulses and lentils are a great source of fibre and far cheaper and easier to store than a big joint of meat.
Raising agents: You can make a quick soda bread from just bicarbonate of soda, flour, lemon juice and milk.
Spices: My essentials are paprika, cumin and turmeric, to enliven simple ingredients. They are cheaper in large plastic bags from an Indian grocery store than in jars from a supermarket.
Stock cubes: I aways have supermarket value-range vegetable, chicken and beef cubes as a base for soups, sauces, gravy, curries and casseroles.
Tins: Potatoes, carrots, kidney beans, chopped tomatoes and fish are great in tins.
Vegetables: Tinned carrots, tomatoes and sweetcorn can be cheaper than fresh or frozen. Frozen spinach, peas and green beans are interchangeable in most recipes. A large bag of onions will keep for around three weeks in the bottom drawer of the fridge – longer if peeled, chopped and frozen.
Wine: A little splash of a supermarket's own-brand red or white can make a big difference in casseroles, risottos and soups.

Herbs and chillies

Start a herb garden with just four plants.

"Everything" herbs: Parsley, or coriander if you like curries and spicy food.
Delicate herbs: Mint or basil are well-suited to Mediterranean cooking, pasta dishes, light soups and pesto.
Woody herbs: Rosemary is hardy. Sage is deliciously earthy. Thyme does well on a sunny window ledge and can be plucked into tiny pieces.
Chillies: I grow tiny red chillies on a window ledge and get a good crop all year round. Chilli plants are cheap from a supermarket or garden centre.

• Extracted and abridged from A Girl Called Jack: 100 Delicious Budget Recipes by Jack Monroe (Michael Joseph, £12.99). To buy a copy for £9.99 including free p&p, visit the Guardian bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.