Here are some cheap meal ideas and recipes you can use to save money on groceries! If you want to cut your food bill, using just a few of these ideas and recipes can cut your food bill a lot!
Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – How We Ate For $7 A Week
In her Penny Pinching Mama video series, my mom Jill explained how she spent about $7 a week on groceries when she was raising my brother and me on $500 a month income. That was in 1988, so with inflation, it would be more equivalent to around $35.00 a week in 2026.
In this post, I will share some of the cheap meal ideas and recipes Mom used to keep our grocery budget so low.
This was our food budget out of necessity because of our extremely tight financial situation. You may not want to limit your food to just these things but, at the time, things were desperate for us and Mom was trying to figure out how to feed us within the very tight budget we had.
Don’t get stuck in these numbers. If you find yourself saying, “I could never do that…” or “That is impossible these days…”, you are sabotaging yourself and you will never reach your goals. You will need to decide if you would rather convince yourself there’s nothing you can do so you can lament your financial condition or if you want to take action to empower yourself to make your situation better.
Even if you don’t get your grocery budget this low, you can likely save money from what you are spending now. Most people can save a LOT. I’m sharing these cheap meal ideas so you can think about what your goals are for saving on your food bill and consider how you might be able to reduce your spending.
Look it over and then figure out what you might want to implement in your family budget. If you can take a couple of these cheap meal ideas and recipes and lower your grocery bill even by 10%, you will be saving money over what you are spending now. Then keep checking out our other ideas and figuring out what else best works for your family situation.
For more ideas how to save money and reduce your stress, check out:
- Eating Out – Stop Eating Your Way Into Debt!
- Car Payments – Paying Cash For A Car and When Should You Buy A Newer Car?
- How Many Clothes Do You Really Need?
Most people could save a lot more money on these things than on their grocery bills, so if you want to save the most you can, be sure to check out the above posts!
Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – Basic Meal Ideas
Here are some cheap meal ideas and recipes for each meal of the day and a couple of dessert recipes. Implementing these recipes into your meals at least a few times a week will help you save more.
Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – Breakfast
Here are the most common easy recipes my mom served for breakfast because they are inexpensive and a little bit goes a long way. When you’re looking for cheap meal ideas and recipes, it’s also good to remember to keep your serving sizes reasonable. Many of us eat too much food and then try hard to work it all off, especially here in America. You can reduce the waste by making just enough for your family and also by preparing their plates and serving them at the table so they’re not tempted to eat too much.
This easy homemade pancakes recipe takes about 15 minutes to make and everyone loves them! These pancakes are a staple at our house and your family will love them too! If you need cheap meal ideas and recipes, this recipe is a great breakfast basic!
This quick and easy scrambled eggs recipe should be a staple in every home! It’s a perfect recipe for cheap meals because virtually everyone loves scrambled eggs, but also because they are hearty and provide a lot of protein! You can serve them just as is if your budget is really tight. If you want to spice them up a bit, you can also add things like salsa, green peppers, onions or cheese!
This easy muffins recipe is a perfect recipe for a quick breakfast or snack. My mom used to make these often. They are delicious just as they are. If you’re looking for cheap meal ideas to cut your budget the most, you would save more money serving them plain, but you can also add things like nuts, fruit or chocolate chips for a little extra variety.
Click here for more easy and tasty Homemade Muffin Recipes.
Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – Lunch
Here are some perfect cheap meal ideas and recipes for lunches. We mostly ate sandwiches for lunches because they’re cheap, tasty and filling. You can also make the fillings ahead of time and spread them on the bread just before lunch. If you send them in packed lunches, lightly buttering the inside with butter, margarine or vegetable spread will keep them from getting soggy.
This easy chicken salad recipe is one of our cheap meal ideas that you can whip up in just a couple minutes that makes delicious sandwiches, perfect for lunches at home or packed lunches. It’s a perfect way to use leftover chicken or to stretch a little bit of chicken into another meal!
This easy egg salad recipe is another tasty recipe to help use up all those colored eggs after Easter. You can make up a big batch and have it for several lunches. You can add lettuce leaves or celery for extra crunch.
This easy chicken salad recipe is a tasty recipe you can whip up in just a couple minutes that makes delicious sandwiches, perfect for lunches at home or packed lunches. It’s a perfect way to use leftover chicken or to stretch a little bit of chicken into another meal!
Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – Dinner
This easy chicken and dumplings recipe is an easy way to make chicken and dumplings like mom and grandma used to make! It’s a perfect comfort food recipe that is quick and easy to make!
This quick and easy beef stew is my mom’s beef stew recipe and it is the best beef stew you will ever eat! It is probably my favorite of all of the cheap meal ideas. Every time I make it, everyone raves about how great it is. It’s so great we hardly ever have leftovers! If you need a quick and easy meal to put in the crockpot or on the stove to simmer, this is the recipe for you!!
This recipe is a tasty, tummy warming recipe for cool winter days and you can easily use leftovers in places of some of the ingredients. This is a very low cost recipe and is very tasty as written, but you can feel free to modify it to your liking. If you prefer, you can add or take away veggies and if you don’t mind the extra cost, you can add more meat.
This Quick and Easy Chili Recipe will get you in and out of the kitchen fast! It’s a homemade chili recipe that even kids will love!
This quick and easy chili recipe is another of my favorite cheap meal ideas! If you are a chili connoisseur, it may not be for you but if you have picky eaters or children this recipe is perfect. You can adjust the amounts of the ingredients to the size of your family without doing much harm. This is also a perfect recipe to make the day before and just warm up when you need it.
This easy cornbread recipe is so delicious, sweet and moist you can eat it with nothing on it! It is the best cornbread ever! Serve with stews, chili, soups and more!
I loved drowning my cornbread in syrup until I discovered this easy cornbread recipe. This cornbread is so delicious I can eat it with nothing on it! It is sweet and moist, easy to make and has the best flavor! It’s great to use to make dressing (stuffing) or to serve with stews, soups or chili. It is so good, it will probably become a staple in your home!
Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – Desserts
When people think of cheap meal ideas and recipes, desserts don’t often come to mind, but it’s nice to have a little sweet treat, especially for the kids. Here are our favorite cheap and tasty dessert recipes my mom made for us. They make great playtime or after school snacks!
This is the best homemade sugar cookies recipe! Sugar cookies are a great treat for holidays or for kids’ snacks. These are so light and fluffy, you’re sure to love them! My mom made these for us and now my kids love Nan’s sugar cookies just as much!
This easy no bake fudge cookies recipe is a wonderfully chocolatey recipe to satisfy your kids on those hot summer days! These cookies are our kids most favorite recipe and older kids can easily make this recipe themselves!
These cheap meal ideas and recipes are from volume 1 of our cookbook:
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This is a great menu! We have enjoyed your Chicken and Dumpling many times now. Thanks for the good work, excellent tips, ect. that you do. We’ve been blessed by what you do as a family; in our home.
Oh thank you so much Birdie for taking the time to let us know the things are helping. We do appreciate it so much.
Thanks so much for the recipes! We use the various sandwich recipes alot! I usually use canned chicken if I happen to have it. Even with higher grocery prices, these meal ideas save a ton of money.
One thing I like to do with chicken salad, or sloppy joes, is mix it with cooked rice. It stretches the meat, cuts the cost, and isn’t “ricey”. Especially if it can sit a bit, the rice softens more with the mayo or sloppy joe mix.
Have you ever tried adding lentils? I found a recipe using them to make sloppy joes as a meatless meal. After seeing your post about adding the rice to them, I think I’ll try adding the lentils. Then I might be able to see if I think they would work as a substitute instead of just a stretcher.
When I was a child our breakfasts nearly always were pancakes, oatmeal, or grits! Cold cereal,especially sweet cereal “cost too much”. We were extremely poor and my mother “made do”. Your recipes are thrifty, easy, and delicious. Nowadays I can afford a pricier breakfast–but why bother? Your recipes are also nutritious compared to what most eat for breakfast these days. And you are correct. Many eat too much at their meals and pack on the pounds from an early age. Childhood obesity is epidemic and who is to blame? It starts at home and at the table. My siblings and I drank water and ate apples for snacks (they were always cheap and still are!) or carrot sticks. None of us were ever overweight, but we didn’t starve either. Thanks for the recipes!Quick, thrifty, easy and delicious–what more could you want?
Thank you so much for sharing your family recipes. Thanks for everything you do for us by sharing ways to save money even if we don’t listen sometimes (and want to argue like kids sometimes too).
LOL you are welcome Pat.
Thank you for these wonderful low cost ideas. When I was a child, my Mom would make SOS (hamburger in a milk gravy or dried beef in milk gravy) often and serve over toast, fried potatoes or biscuits. She called it rib sticking food. 🙂 She could use the smallest amount of meat to flavor a large batch.
Oh yes SOS was a staple when I was growing up too along with fried potatoes. You mom was right it was rib sticking food. : )
One of my favorite comfort meals!💜
I just started making this this year my children LOVE it!
LORD JESUS bless
i grew up in the 50’s we had cream of wheat or creamed chip beef over toast. sometimes for dinner, we had pancakes with an egg on top and broke the yolk – that was my favorite. I still have two of the three i mentioned.
I learned from one of your videos to add a little fat to meals to make you feel fuller for a longer period of time. I will serve my muffins with butter or peanut butter. Peanut butter is also good in oatmeal.
I also add flax, chia or wheat germ to oatmeal, pancakes, waffles and muffins for the same reason.
Cold cereal is a waste for me, as I am hungry very soon afterwards. It is also one of the more expensive breakfast choices.
I like to make a big batch of whatever I’m having and freeze it.
I have also had muffins in a mug or eggs in a mug.
I work full-time and need fast things with minimal cleanup in the morning.
Can you provide more vegetarian meal ideas please?
Bria we usually don’t provide meal ideas for special diets because there are hundreds of them now but one thing we have had many many vegetarians use our recipes and book over the years because they say the tips and ideas are so easy to adapt for what they need. People on a diabetic diet tell us the same thing.
Love your recipes and ideas. I have used many of them and they have all turned out wonderfully!! Thanks for the wonderful ideas on how to cut cost.
Whenever I feel like getting new clothes I head to the goodwill and purchase a few. Some of them still have tags on them. I love it when the tag color is half price or a dollar too. Score.
I pick up my vintage kitchen items there too. I have my Aunts, grandmothers, and my mothers but sometimes I am missing something in a set and I get it there. During COVID our Goodwill never closed and I got some awesome Pyrex sets for less than 20 for a 4 bowl set.
My grandson always shops for his sister when he is with me. So cute. He looks and says this is Hayley’s size but she won’t like it. LOL
Love the ideas and recipes in this menu. I think with careful planning and shopping, and maybe cutting back on the eggs because they are still pretty expensive, I could do this menu for around $10 a week in 2026 — and some things would go into the following weeks, like the mayo, the baking mix, etc. I’d switch peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the egg salad and maybe French toast or oatmeal for the scrambled eggs. One thing I do that saves a lot is watch for whole chickens on mark-down, then cook them in the crock pot, pull them apart and freeze the meat in portions, and make broth from the bones. Then we have chicken for pot pie, enchiladas, and all the good things in your recipes here. (Purchase most meats on markdown and freeze in meal-size portions) We aren’t fans of chili, but my daughter loves taco soup, so once a month, I make it (less than $6) and freeze it in portions so we have it once a week. (I use half a pound of hamburger and throw in some brown lentils — no one notices that it doesn’t have a whole pound of hamburger as the recipe says!) I always buy baking supplies on sale — flour and sugar were both $1.99 over the holidays, and store brand peanut butter was $1.49. We live in a small rural Western town and don’t have Walmart or discount groceries, but watching the sales and watching for mark downs usually means I can feed us, even now, for around $10 a week.