Did you know grocery prices are up 29% since 2020?
“Wait, seriously?”
Yep. Twenty-nine percent in five years.
So if you feel like your grocery bill has basically doubled overnight, you’re not imagining it. But my problem is this: I still want to cook meals that are reasonably healthy, deeply satisfying, and not the same three dinners on repeat.
So in this article, I’m showing you 20 meals I make whenever money is tight and we need to stretch a dollar. (Oh and they are also easy, because I have four kids ages seven and under, so time is… not something I own in abundance.)
I will die on this hill: the humble legume is one of the most underrated superheroes in the kitchen.
They’re cheap, insanely filling, full of protein and fiber, adaptable, and they stretch into multiple meals. Beans, lentils, chickpeas, you can swap them around endlessly without feeling like you’re eating the same thing every night.
Black bean tacos or burritos are one of my go-tos, mostly because the base is absurdly cheap and everything else is customizable depending on what’s on sale.
My basic method:
Dump a can of black beans into a pan—liquid and all. If I have an onion or pepper, great, but it’s optional. Season with salt, pepper, garlic, and cumin. Cook until the liquid is mostly gone, then mash.
From there you can:
Make tacos with lettuce or avocado.
Roll bean + cheese burritos and crisp them in a pan. Recipe
Build burrito bowls with rice, salsa, frozen corn, and any leftover meat from the week.
Smash tacos are another favorite—spread on the beans, smash the tortilla bean-side down onto the griddle, flip, crisp, done. Recipe here.
Lentils are like beans’ overachieving sibling: same benefits, but they cook in a fraction of the time.
Quick myth-bust: If you struggle digesting legumes, it’s usually because your gut isn’t used to the oligosaccharides they contain. Start small, eat them regularly, and your microbiome typically adapts. Black beans, pintos, and lentils tend to be easiest.
My easy lentil soup formula:
Sauté whatever veggies are in your fridge, add lentils + broth + canned tomatoes, and simmer. That’s it. It freezes beautifully. Recipe here
I also love a Cheesy Lentil Bake—sauté carrots, garlic, onion, add red lentils, broth, and grated stale bread. Mix in cheese, bake until set, and top with more cheese. My kids inhale it. Recipe here.
Chickpeas might be the most versatile pantry item I buy in bulk at Costco.
Some favorites:
Pasta e Ceci
Cook down tomatoes, add pasta + broth, simmer, stir in tomato paste, garlic, and chickpeas at the end. Recipe hereLemon Chickpea Soup
Bright, fast, cozy. Recipe here.
Chickpea salad
Chickpeas, olive oil, garlic, parsley, salt, maybe red onion or pepitas, feta if I have it. Eaten as-is or smashed into sandwiches. Recipe here.
When meat is the priciest part of your cart, the trick is to use it strategically.
This is my “I refuse to think” dinner.
Search whatever meat + vegetables you have with the words “sheet pan,” and something always comes up.
Use:
Chicken thighs
Sausage
Pork
Meatballs
Flavor with pesto, honey mustard, balsamic, teriyaki—whatever you’ve got. Toss with veggies, roast, done.
Chicken thighs are cheaper and more forgiving than breasts. There are endless one-pot variations, like this Honey Chipotle Chicken from Budget Bytes.
My swim-lesson-night hero.
2–3 chicken breasts • 1 cup rinsed long-grain white rice • 1½ cups broth (or water + bouillon) • 1½ cups salsa
Optional: 1 cup corn, 1 can black beans (drained), ½ cup onion, garlic powder, cumin.
Add everything to crockpot; cook LOW ~4 hrs (less if your slow cooker runs hot) until rice + chicken are done. Remove chicken, shred, return, stir.
Stretch a half-pound of meat with beans and tomatoes and it becomes a whole pot.
Marinate leftover chicken in soy sauce + garlic + brown sugar. Pan-fry. Serve with rice and roasted (not steamed!) frozen broccoli. Recipe here
Boil a whole chicken with veggie scraps, garlic, herbs, etc.
You get:
A huge pot of homemade broth
The juiciest shredded chicken for meals all week
It’s cheap, foolproof, and makes you feel like a frontier woman with a Costco membership.
Plants can be incredibly budget-friendly when you cook them well.
Garlic → curry powder → coconut milk (or canned tomatoes + yogurt) → chickpeas → frozen veggies → simmer 15 minutes. Serve with rice. Recipe here
Couscous cooks in five minutes. Mix with roasted veggies and feta or parmesan if you have it.
Top with:
Greek yogurt
Black beans
Broccoli
Corn
Mushrooms
Leftover chili
One of my favorite variations is sweet potatoes topped with crispy chickpeas + tahini dressing: recipe here
Carrots, potatoes, turnips—cheap but hearty. Add broth, tomatoes or coconut milk, seasoning, and simmer. Add chicken if you have some.
3 Favorite Soups:
Dough costs pennies. Sauce from the pantry. Whatever cheese + toppings you can use up. Kids love it. Cheaper (and often better) than takeout. Recipe here.
Eggs poached in tomatoes with spices and veggies. Fancy-looking, dirt cheap. Recipe here.
Omelets, pancakes, breakfast bowls—an excellent “clean out the fridge” night.
None of these are fancy. All of them work.
This alone saves me the most money.
One plan allows you to know exactly what you’ll need for the week. It’s the “little midweek trips” that blow the budget every time.
Rice, beans, oats, flour, potatoes, canned basics. Cheap, filling, long-lasting. Costco is my go-to.
Snacks = expensive + kid appetite-ruining + waste-creating. We choose 2–3 per week and that’s it and I try to make at least one or two of those easy homemade options.
Stretch it with beans, rice, or potatoes. Try one meatless night a week.
Onions, garlic, dried herbs. Plus parsley and basil grown at home in the summer.
If you don’t like soup, it’s probably because you’re not topping it.
Freeze leftovers, extra rice, cooked beans, waffles, broths anything!
If I’m making lasagna or enchiladas, I always make two.
Future me is thrilled, and it saves real money.
Store brands are often identical to name brands. Once you can read the labels you can find the dupes. Don’t pay for the label.
Cooking cheap doesn’t mean eating boring. With a few go-to meals and tiny weekly habits, you can stretch your dollar, feed your family well, and still eat food you’re excited about.
If you want the full recipes I mentioned, I’ve linked them throughout—just scroll back.
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