"Regardless of whether you love being in the kitchen or consider your cooking skills passable at best, I think we can all agree that it’s getting more and more expensive to cook nice meals at home. Between things like sky-high inflation, student loan repayments, and the ever-increasing cost of living, your grocery budget just doesn’t go as far as it used to. But while it seems like the cost of groceries has spiraled out of control recently, we’re here to tell you that you can still create delicious meals at home without draining your bank account. The key is to skip complex recipes with long lists of gourmet ingredients in favor of simple meals that use pantry staples and other budget-friendly items. Below, we’ve rounded up 12 cheap recipes that’ll help you save money at the grocery store. Keep scrolling to discover your new weekly meal rotation.
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1. Beans and Rice
This meal packs a lot of flavor without the hefty price tag, as it calls for common pantry items like white rice, black beans, corn, chicken broth, and a variety of spices. And since it requires just five minutes of prep before allowing the ingredients to simmer over a stovetop for 20-25 minutes, it’s virtually hassle-free, too. What’s more, the recipe is also completely customizable and can be enjoyed alone or along with your choice of protein.
2. Instant Pot Potato Soup
Instead of letting those potatoes in your pantry go to waste, use them in this deliciously simple Instant Pot recipe. In addition to potatoes, you’ll also need a few kitchen staples like yellow onion, carrots, vegetable broth, and milk to pull together this cozy recipe. It’s so good that you’ll want to eat this on repeat.
3. Vegan Mac and Cheese
Contrary to popular belief, eating vegan doesn’t have to mean spending a fortune on groceries. For a plant-based take on everyone’s favorite childhood meal, this recipe uses cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and seasonings to create a vegan cheese sauce that pairs exceptionally well with cooked elbow pasta. The best part is that this whole meal is ready in just 30 minutes, so you can whip it up on evenings when you’re contemplating getting takeout after a busy day.
4. Frozen Veggie Fried Rice
The best kind of cheap recipes are ones that use up ingredients leftover from other meals. Case in point: This fried rice recipe calls for leftover brown rice and whatever frozen veggies you can find in your freezer. As long as you have a few eggs on hand as well as some pantry staples like soy sauce and sesame oil, you can easily whip up a plate of fried rice that rivals your favorite takeout joint.
5. Easy 6-Ingredient Chili
If you’re looking for a hearty meal that won’t break the bank, look no further. Because this recipe uses common kitchen items like ground beef, kidney beans, and chunky salsa, you’ll likely have most of the ingredients already and won’t have to go shopping. Plus, it requires just 30 minutes of cooking on a stovetop and yields multiple servings, so if you’re cooking for more than one, you’ll be golden.
6. Pasta Carbonara
This pasta carbonara is one of those dishes that looks like it requires a lot of skill to make, yet in reality, it’s the complete opposite. Not only does it take just 20 minutes from start to finish, but it’s also easy on your wallet. All you need to bring this meal to life is a pound of pasta, some eggs, garlic, bacon, butter, and parmesan cheese.
7. Chicken Enchilada Casserole
If you think you can’t make a delicious dinner with only five ingredients, think again. This chicken enchilada casserole combines black beans, shredded chicken, cheese, corn tortillas, and enchilada sauce to create a seriously mouth-watering meal. All you have to do is layer the tortillas with the rest of the ingredients across an oven-safe casserole dish and bake it in the oven for 30 minutes.
8. Tuna Melt
This recipe is basically the protein-filled cousin of the traditional grilled cheese, so you really can’t go wrong with it. It’s made the same way you’d make any other grilled cheese, with buttered bread turned golden in a skillet on the stovetop. Sandwiched in between the cheese, however, is a creamy mixture of canned tuna, mayo, Dijon mustard, chopped celery, pickle relish, and chopped red onion. The end result? A meal that’s equal parts filling, delicious, and budget-friendly.
9. Bean and Cheese Burritos
Rather than blowing your grocery budget on frozen burritos to heat up in a pinch, whip up these bad boys instead. All you need is some canned refried beans, a jar of salsa, some shredded cheese, flour tortillas, and seasonings to create these yummy, melty burritos. Aside from how delicious it is, the best part about this recipe is that it’s virtually mess-free since the burritos are cooked in the oven. Plus, they’re ready to eat in under 30 minutes.
10. Classic Egg Salad
If you’re in the mood for something both comforting and nutritious, this is the meal for you. This recipe combines hard-boiled eggs with mayo, red onion, and a few seasonings for a classic make-ahead dish that’s super simple to throw together. Serve it on toasted bread with lettuce, over a bed of greens, in a tortilla wrap, or simply by itself. As an added bonus, your leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to three days in an airtight container.
11. Tuna Noodle Casserole
Tuna casserole is a seriously underrated meal. Not only is it super easy to make, but it also calls for ingredients commonly found in kitchen pantries, like canned tuna, egg noodles, and breadcrumbs. To start, cook the noodles first, then combine them with tuna, peas, half-and-half, and flour. Once everything is mixed together in a casserole dish, simply pop it into the oven, and dinner will be ready in 20 minutes.
12. Mexican Lasagna
If you have corn tortillas, black beans, corn, and salsa lying around in your kitchen, this is one of the best cheap recipes to use them up. Not only is it super easy to make because it’s ready to eat in 30 minutes, but it’s also so flavorful. Similar to the layering of traditional lasagna, it layers Mexican-inspired ingredients commonly found in kitchen pantries and freezers to create a budget-friendly meal that’s super satisfying.