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Cheap Meals: Budget Recipes Around $2.50 a Serving

Every recipe in this collection costs about $2.50 a serving or less, based on average US supermarket prices, and none of them taste like it. The trick is building meals around the cheapest ingredients that bring the most flavor.

Recipes
38
Quickest
15 min
Avg. hands-on
11 min

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38 recipes

How we cook budget meals on a weeknight

Beans, eggs, pasta, rice and ground meat do the heavy lifting here. A can of beans or a dozen eggs costs a fraction of a pound of steak, and with the right spices they make a dinner that feels generous.

Spend where it counts: a good can of tomatoes, a block of real Parmesan and fresh garlic make cheap ingredients taste expensive. Save on the rest by buying store brands, frozen vegetables and family packs of meat to freeze in portions.

Each recipe shows its estimated cost per serving, so you can plan a week of dinners on a budget. Prices vary by store and region, so treat them as a guide.

Short on time? Classic Chicken Salad is the quickest here at 15 min, with 15 min of hands-on work.

Every recipe here, by total time
Hands-onHands-off