Saving money on dried pasta.

Farmfoods used to send a flyer through our door once a month.  For those of you that don't know Farmfoods is primarily a frozen food outlet but it has a small selection of things like bulk packs of cat food, biscuits and crisps and other things like rice, pasta and condiments.  Not everything that is for sale is a bargain.  This is one area where you need to look at the size of the packet and work out if it really is better value,  for example the branded soup for sale is actually a smaller sized tin.   Nowadays they have started giving the vouchers that used to be on the flyer on the website as single use codes.  Although I go infrequently I usually do some research and get a trolley full of things that are better value and then I have the vouchers on top.  Definitely not (for me) a whole week shop and weirdly enough there is very rarely any frozen food in it.
Nowadays you get an email rather than a physical paper flyer and the list of bargains this week included dried pasta (penne) at 19p a pack.  I used my stocking up fund outlined here to buy 4 packs of 400 g each (again smaller pack size than for example Tescos).
Price I paid (no coupons used since I did not get to the £25 threshold) =4*19p=76p for 1600g total.
Price at Tescos is 53p for 500g pack so 1600g would have cost me (53/500)*1600=170 pence or £1.70 (rounded up to nearest penny) - nearly a pound saved but only so long as I use the same amount of pasta.  The tendency when you "eyeball" the amount of food that you cook is to use slightly more if you have more in the packet - or if you are hungry.  I always weigh out the pasta that I cook using a set of digital scales (75g per person for a main meal), even if it is just a few pence saved each time then it still adds up over the year  (we have pasta at least twice a week).  If you don't have these and don't want to spend your budget getting a set just yet then use a cup or mug to get the same volume each time (the weight will obviously be different depending on the shape of the pasta but when I am on a tight budget I don't get sniffy about which shape pasta I buy)
How do I serve it - well the most simple is referred to as Love Pasta in our house.  When my oldest kids were small they did not want Pasta with Homemade Tomato Sauce and would announce loudly that they did not like it.  The next time we called it Love Pasta (since it was made with love) - clean plates all round.

For 4 people
300 g pasta - cook in boiling salted water
Whilst the pasta is cooking in a separate pan heat up one carton of value passata and a good sprinkle of garlic powder (I buy mine from Lidl).
When pasta is cooked mix together and serve.
Variations
Loads....Try one or a combination...
Top with grated cheese before serving
Add chopped bacon to sauce
Add sliced sausage to sauce
Add mixed dried herbs (or a spoonful of pesto)
Add grated carrot/courgette to the pan to soften before adding the passata
Add sliced mushrooms to passata
Use an onion which has been chopped and softened in oil instead of the garlic.
Add  chopped fresh chilli to tomato sauce
Add sliced chorizo to sauce (good with the chilli)
Add lettuce or chard or rocket or spinach to the passata and allow to wilt before serving.
Add seafood such as prawns to sauce
Leftover roast meat can be added to sauce
Roasted veggies  (peppers/tomatoes/aubergine/courgette) can be added to the sauce.