Cheap Easy Meals: 10 Family Dinners for About $2 a Serving
It’s 5:30. Everyone’s hungry. The fridge looks like a “before” photo. And takeout is whispering your name. I get it. But a cheap dinner doesn’t have to be a sad one. These are the 10 cheap easy meals my family comes back to when the budget’s tight, mostly from pantry staples and on the table in about 30 minutes. Most land around $2 a serving. Under each one you’ll find what it costs, why it’s cheap, and a link to the full recipe.
When my boys were little, I made a vow: groceries only if I could pay cash. No checkbook, no plastic. Suddenly every dinner had to be cheap, and I mean cheap, and the meals below are the kind that got us through.
Grocery prices are up about 2% from a year ago, and eating out is up even more, about 3.4%. Your grocery budget didn’t get a matching raise either. So let’s make it stretch.
How I keep dinner cheap (without anyone noticing)
Why does the same family spend $150 one week and $250 the next? Usually it comes down to what dinner got built around.
- Start with the cheapest protein that week. Ground beef, chicken thighs, eggs, beans, or whatever the store is practically giving away. Plan the meal around that, not the other way around.
- Stretch the meat. One pound of ground beef can feed six when it shares the pan with rice, beans, grated carrots, or a biscuit topping. Here’s how to stretch ground beef so nobody notices.
- Make your own mixes. My Master Mix (think homemade Bisquick), sloppy joe mix, and seasoning blends cost a fraction of the packets. Plus you can pronounce everything in them.
- Cook once, eat twice. Double the meatloaf or the spaghetti sauce and freeze half. Next week’s dinner is already done.
- Learn the sale cycle. Stores tend to rotate the same deals every 6 to 12 weeks. Learn how to read a grocery sale cycle, then stock up when your meat hits rock bottom.
The 10 cheap meals
Costs below are per serving, based on King Soopers prices in October 2026. Yours will vary, but cheap stays cheap.
1. Upside-down hamburger pie
Ground beef, tomato soup, and green chilies bake under a golden biscuit crust, then the whole thing gets flipped onto a platter and topped with melted cheddar. Ta-da. It’s been a family favorite since our boys were little.
Why it’s cheap: One pound of beef stretches to eight servings because the biscuit topping helps fill everyone up.
Cost: about $1.80 per serving · Time: 40 minutes
Get the upside-down hamburger pie recipe →
2. Best meatloaf ever
A brown sugar and ketchup glaze on top. Bread, shredded carrot, and cheese inside. This is the meatloaf that made the house smell wonderful when our boys were growing up, and we always hoped there’d be enough left for sandwiches the next day.
Why it’s cheap: Bread, carrot, and onion stretch 1½ pounds of ground beef into six hearty servings, and leftovers make a terrific lunch the next day.
Cost: about $2.40 per serving · Time: 20 minutes prep, 1 hour bake, plus 10 minutes to rest
Get the best meatloaf ever recipe →
3. Instant Pot spaghetti with meat sauce
The noodles cook right in the sauce. No separate pot of boiling water, no colander, and only one pot to wash when dinner’s over.
Why it’s cheap: Inexpensive dry pasta and jarred sauce turn one pound of ground beef into dinner for four.
Cost: about $2.75 per serving · Time: about 30 minutes
Get the Instant Pot spaghetti recipe →
4. Homemade Hamburger Helper
One skillet, lots of real cheese, and no packet required. It’s creamy, beefy comfort food that’s on the table in about 25 minutes.
Why it’s budget-friendly: Pasta stretches a pound of ground beef into a complete one-skillet dinner, and making your own seasoning blend skips the packaged mix.
Cost: about $3.30 per serving · Time: 25 minutes
Get the homemade Hamburger Helper recipe →
5. Asian beef and rice skillet
Ground beef, rice, mushrooms, carrots, and peas come together in a quick soy-ginger sauce. Plenty of flavor, plenty of dinner, and only one pound of beef for six servings.
Why it’s cheap: Rice and vegetables stretch one pound of ground beef into six generous servings.
Cost: about $2.40 per serving · Time: 30 minutes
Get the Asian beef and rice skillet recipe →
6. Beef lettuce wraps
Savory ground beef gets a quick punch of ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and hoisin, then gets tucked into crisp lettuce leaves. Fast and fresh, and considerably cheaper than the restaurant version.
Why it’s cheap: One pound of ground beef makes six servings, and inexpensive iceberg lettuce keeps the rest of the meal simple.
Cost: about $1.85 per serving · Time: 15 minutes
Get the beef lettuce wraps recipe →
7. 3-ingredient peanut sauce noodles
Peanut butter, soy sauce, and a splash of pasta water make a creamy sauce that clings to every noodle. That’s it. Add whatever vegetables or leftover chicken you have if you want to bulk it up, but it’s perfectly happy just as it is.
Why it’s cheap: No meat required. Pasta, peanut butter, and soy sauce turn pantry staples into dinner for pennies.
Cost: about 35¢ per serving · Time: 11 minutes
Get the peanut sauce noodles recipe →
8. Cheesy chicken and rice bake
Leftover chicken and cooked rice get a second life in this creamy, cheesy casserole with a buttery cracker topping. It’s the kind of dinner that makes leftovers look suspiciously like you planned them.
Why it’s cheap: Leftover chicken goes a long way when rice fills out the casserole, and it’s a great way to use up a rotisserie chicken you’ve already bought.
Cost: about $1.85 per serving · Time: 50 minutes
Get the cheesy chicken and rice bake recipe →
9. Slow Cooker Chinese Chicken
Chicken thighs simmer all afternoon in a sweet, savory sauce of hoisin, plum sauce, soy sauce, fresh ginger, and lime. Serve it over rice and dinner tastes considerably fancier than the grocery bill suggests.
Why it’s cheap: Bone-in chicken thighs are one of the least expensive cuts of chicken, and a scoop of rice turns them into a filling dinner.
Cost: about $2.20 per serving with rice · Time: 10 minutes prep, about 5 hours in the slow cooker
Get the Slow Cooker Chinese Chicken recipe →
10. Impossible Oktoberfest Pie
Bratwurst, sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese get tucked under a simple Master Mix batter that magically bakes into its own golden crust. No rolling pin, no separate crust, and only half a pound of sausage feeds six.
Why it’s cheap: Just half a pound of bratwurst stretches to six servings with inexpensive sauerkraut, eggs, and homemade Master Mix.
Cost: about $1.10 per serving · Time: 50 minutes
Get the Impossible Oktoberfest Pie recipe →
A week of cheap dinners
So how does this look on a real calendar? One shopping trip, seven nights:
- Monday: Best Meatloaf Ever
- Tuesday: Peanut Sauce Noodles
- Wednesday: Upside-Down Hamburger Pie
- Thursday: Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake
- Friday: Impossible Oktoberfest Pie
- Saturday: Leftovers night. Here are 34 ways to turn leftovers into dinner.
- Sunday: Instant Pot Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Estimated cost for the week: about $58. That’s for the full recipes, including all the meat and other ingredients used, and they make about 34 servings altogether. Plenty for dinner for four all week, with leftovers to help cover Saturday and possibly a few lunches, too.
That’s about $1.70 per serving for everything you cooked.
The cheap meals pantry
Keep these on hand and you can make almost everything above without a special trip.
- Rice, dry pasta, and egg noodles
- Canned tomatoes, tomato soup, and beans
- Peanut butter, soy sauce, and hoisin
- Onions, garlic, carrots, and potatoes
- Shredded cheese (cheaper by the block, grated yourself)
- Master Mix, or flour, baking powder, and shortening
- Ground beef and chicken in the freezer, bought on sale
My must-never-run-out item? Canned tomatoes. Always. They’re cheap, they keep forever, and they rescue a dinner more often than I’d like to admit. Every so often I spring for San Marzanos, because homemade marinara deserves a little glory.
Cheap meals questions
What's the cheapest meal to make at home?
Anything built on rice, pasta, beans, or eggs, with meat playing a supporting role. The peanut sauce noodles (about 35¢ a serving) and the Impossible Oktoberfest Pie (about $1.10) are my two cheapest.
How can I feed a family of four for under $10 a night?
Build dinner around the week's cheapest protein, stretch it with a starch, and cook once to eat twice. Most of the meals above run $2.50 a serving or less, which keeps dinner for four under $10.
What's a reasonable grocery budget for a week?
The USDA's Thrifty Food Plan, its leanest benchmark, runs around $1,000 a month for a family of four. That's roughly $230 a week, or about $2.80 per person per meal. The dinners above average about $2 a serving, so they fit well inside that.
Is $50 a week enough for groceries?
For one person who cooks every night and doesn't mind rice and beans, it's possible. Comfortable? Not so much. For a family, it won't stretch.
What's the cheapest way to feed a crowd?
Pasta, rice, and anything baked in a big pan. Double the hamburger pie or the chicken and rice bake and you've fed everyone.
Are cheap meals healthy?
They can be. Add a vegetable to every meal (frozen counts, and it's often cheapest), and lean on beans and whole grains. Cooking at home also gives you control over salt and sugar that takeout never will.
Cheap, easy, and actually good. That’s the goal, and it’s more doable than it sounds. Pick one, hit the store, and see what dinner costs you this week.
Question: What’s your family’s favorite cheap dinner? Share it in the comments. I’m always looking for the next one.
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If I need an inexpensive meal, I sometimes make hamburger and rice. It is similar to ground beef fried rice, only I steam the rice. Brown the ground beef with diced onion, celery, and carrots. I also add in frozen peas and corn if we have it. Mix together with steamed rice and some kind of sauce…whether that be low sodium brown gravy, soy sauce & Worcestershire, tomato based sauce, etc. Hearty, filling, and tasty.
Our local Mc Donald’s price for a sausage McMuffin with egg(English muffin, egg, pork sausage patty, American cheese, butter) is $5.89. I bought “good”ingredients: Pastured eggs, Irish butter, real cheese, etc..It costs me $1.64 to make the same sandwich and I can have it done in 5-7 minutes. I get roasted coffee beans on Amazon and a travel mug of coffee is less that 60 cents! I have a programmable coffee maker and the coffee is done when I wake up.
I can be out the door in 10 minutes with a breakfast sandwich and coffee for less than $2.50!
Mary, I love your recipes, cleaning recipes, financials tips and your sweet spirit. Everyone in my family has heard your name many times!
Everyone at our house love the edges of meatloaf. So I divide a pound into 4 or 5 personal size meatloafs on a cookie sheet. Takes way less time to bake and the grease has a place to go, instead of staying around the meat!
I am going to try the meatloaf without the topping. My picky eaters won’t eat tomatoes.
Psst! Don’t tell them. The glaze is the best and does not taste anything like tomatoes (at least not to me!). It tastes like a great BBQ sauce.
Mary, I loved seeing your recipe for Upside Down Hamburger Pie. I’ve been making it for nearly 50 years (married almost 53)! I don’t use the green chilies (were they even in stores in the 70s?) or the oregano; instead, my recipe calls for diced celery and green pepper. My notes actually say, “I don’t know where I got this recipe – perhaps a Bisquick cookbook? – but it is delicious and the kids love it.” I probably make it once every 5 years or so now, but I’ve decided to make it for my grandsons – ages 10 and 6 – this week when I watch them after school. Thank you for reminding me of this recipe!
Aw, that’s sweet! 50 years? Wow. Well, I do know that I personally am not a fan of green chilies at all EXCEPT in this recipe. But your version sounds great, too. Maybe I’ll try that …
I used to make this recipe years ago. Definitely comfort food! The recipe was on the Bisquick box, along with others over the years.
I don’t know where I got the meatloaf recipe, but being a non-meatloaf person, it was a surprising hit with me! (I think it’s the cheese.) Instead of bread, I substitute Italian-seasoned crumbs. Thanks, Mary!
Mary. I made your recipe for the “Best Meatloaf Ever” tonight for dinner. It was FANTASTIC! I followed it exactly. My husband had seconds and he is not a meatloaf fan! I sent the link to my 3 daughters who love to cook also. I told them this is a one is the only meatloaf recipe they will ever need to save it!! Thank you! I have been following you for many, many years. I look forward to receiving your emails! You have made a huge difference in my life. Simplicity and practicality!! I also have been making and using your homemade laundry soap recipe for years. My husband refuses to use anything else!
Oh tell your hubs thanks for loving this as much as my non-meatloaf-loving family members do! (We have a neighbor who daily hopes I’ll make it and invite them over 🙂 ). And double thanks to your husband for his endorsement of the homemade laundry soap/detergent!
I am going to try the meatloaf without the topping. My picky eaters won’t eat tomatoes. My picky eaters love meatloaf, beef stew and pot roast.
Any chance you could add subs for allergies, like gluten, dairy, etc. Also several friends and I don’t keep wine or Asian add ins and in our small town we have no way to buy them. Is there something else we can use?
You can order any of those ingredients online, Sharon!
The spaghetti recipe here is TERRIFIC; talking about low hassle and yummy! Definitely a different way to do it (husband was very skeptical) but works perfectly. Used ground Italian sausage instead of ground beef. Thank you, Mary, for another hit; looking forward to trying some of these others, too. Best regards.
I totally agree. It is the best thing ever! I’ve been trying different pasta and the hubs and I agree our new favorite is 8 oz mini penne!
My mother-in-law gave me this master mix recipe 44 years ago, she fed a family of 9 on it & I’ve used it since to make economical meals for my family of 6. It’s great seeing it again. Everyone should try it.
I really want to make the Master Mix but have always had trouble, cutting in shortening for various recipes. Might I be able to use my food processor to pulse the shortening into the mix?
That should work. But you’ll need to do that in small batches … unless you have a commercial size food processor!
I had periodontal surgery this week, and needed to eat soft food. For the first time in years, I made creamed tuna (over rice), added half a pack of peas, and it was plenty of food for three. My husband said I should make this every week, he liked it so much. The cost–1 can of tuna, 2 cups of milk, 1/2 cube of butter, peas, and a cup of rice–about $2.50 in all. Next week, I will try creamed chipped beef.
WHERE IS NOTE 2? I’M CONFUSED–IF I USE BISQUICK DO I NOT NEED TO ADD MILK OR WATER?
If you use Bisquick you add milk; Master Mix you add water.
Exactly what I’ve been looking for given the semi-empty shelves at grocery store and soaring meat prices. Your posts are always so timely, Mary! Thank you!!
Mary, thanks for the recipes you provided here! I def will have to try the Master Mix idea. That is one I would use more frequently than the others!