Sometimes, people assume the only cheap meals for large families are grilled cheese, cereal, or big bowls of ramen. It’s hard to think creatively about dinner when you’re stressed, working overtime, or caring for your fifteen children.
Sound familiar? These meals are here to save your wallet.
I’ve already talked about how to save money on groceries, which you should really read before looking at recipes. If you’re buying expensive groceries, no meal will be a truly cheap meal. For example, if you’re smart and using my strategies to buy cheap meat, the beef pot pie recipe below will be $0.90/serving. But if you’re just buying full-price, name brand groceries, the price jumps up to $2.12/serving. That’s more than double the price. Knowing that, all the per serving costs I break down below are based on my grocery shopping methods (including my favorite- the price book).
You might also be interested in: Cheap Potluck Food Ideas
A note about inflation: yes, prices for groceries are getting more and more expensive. But as I explained in my article on cheap foods, the same types of food are still the least expensive options. Chicken is still cheaper than steak, even with inflation. So while the exact prices might have changed, these dishes are still going to be the best bang you can get for your buck.
When thinking about dirt cheap meals, there are a few basic types of dishes: (click the link to go directly to that category below)
- Breakfast for dinner
- Bean dishes
- Soups
- Homemade pizzas
- Pot pies
- Casseroles
- Pasta dishes
- Ground beef dishes
- Chicken dishes
- Roasts
- Meat-less dishes
I’ve linked to a few awesome recipes from each category, but your only limit is your imagination. If you focus on buying affordable ingredients, any dish is a dirt cheap meal.
Cheap Meals for Large Families Under $1
Breakfast for Dinner
I’ve already written an entire article about cheap breakfast ideas where I break down the costs of various breakfast dishes including smoothies, breakfast pizzas, quiches, and more. But I forgot this one!
Dinner Breakfast Bowls (serves 5)
Cost: $0.72/serving. I love breakfast bowls for lightning-fast mornings when everyone is scrambling (pun completely intended). Just heat up a bowl of this and go.
Bean Dishes
Louisiana Red Beans & Rice (serves 8)
Cost: $0.58/serving if you use homemade chicken stock and cook your own dry beans, or $0.99/serving if you use store bought stock and canned beans. Not bad either way!
Boston Baked Beans (serves 8)
Cost: $0.41/serving if you choose hot dogs for your “leftover meat” addition. If you wanted to use a steak as your meat addition, the cost per serving would go up to $1.16.
Black Bean Burgers (serves 6-7)
Cost: $0.86/serving. Black bean burgers are the perfect alternative when you want to get your grill on, but don’t have anymore on-sale meat stashed away in your freezer (and you’re not paying $6/lb to satisfy a craving). Goes great with a side of pickles and homemade chips!
Black Beans & Rice (double the recipe & it serves 8)
Cost: $0.61/serving, and even less if you have the individual spices that make up creole seasonings and don’t need to buy a pre-prepared blended mix.
Moroccan Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup (double the recipe & it serves 8)
Cost: $0.94/serving, and it’s worth every penny. This was the recipe that taught me to love lentils, and I’m so grateful. They’re a fabulously frugal pantry staple and will stick to your ribs.
Soups
Chicken & Rice Soup (double the recipe to serve 8)
Cost: $0.83/serving. Creamy, comforting, and nutrient-packed soup for when you need an easy one-pot meal.
Minestrone Soup (serves 8)
Cost: $0.65/serving. This meatless soup is tomato-based with plenty of pasta and veggies. Pro-tip: If you’re planning on having leftovers, don’t add the pasta shells to the main soup, but keep them separate until you’re ready to eat a bowl. These also go great with a grilled cheese sandwich, if you’d like to add a little more protein to the meal and stretch the soup longer.
White Chicken Chili (serves 6)
Cost: $0.97/serving, but only if you ignore the recipe calling for a rotisserie chicken and instead use regular chicken breasts or thighs (whatever’s on sale). If you do use a rotisserie chicken as indicated in the recipe, it’ll cost you $1.56/serving.
Gluten-free Pasta e Fagioli (double the recipe to serve 8)
Cost: $0.69/serving Not sure if I’m the only one who goes to Olive Garden for their unlimited soups, but this is a great vegan, allergy-friendly, and gluten-free copycat!
Zuppa Toscana (serves 8)
Cost: $0.94/serving. Speaking of Olive Garden, let me introduce you to my favorite soup recipe of all time. It’s got spicy sausage, potatoes, and even some kale for a punch of nutrients. I’ve never tried to make it a crockpot meal, but I imagine you can tweak it to suit those needs just fine.
Split Pea, Bacon, & Potato Soup (Serves 8)
Cost: $0.81/serving if you follow the recipe. However, I always omit chicken stock and favor a homemade stock made with leftover ham bones. This is a great meal to make with Easter ham leftovers, especially if you want to cook it low and slow and make it a crockpot meal.
Pizzas
Homemade Pizza Rolls (serves 8)
(Shown above) Plain cheese would be $0.37/serving, and adding 6oz of pepperoni would bring it up to $0.74/serving, and adding spinach on top of that would be $0.79/serving. Personally, I’d use this as an opportunity to clean the fridge and use up some leftover meat and veggies to cut back on costs.
Easy French Bread Pizzas (double the recipe to serve 8)
Cost: $0.61/serving. French bread pizzas are a staple all over the world. They’re super customizable and quick, therefore they make a perfect school night dinner that even a kid can make.
Pot Pies
Pork pot pie (serves 8)
Cost: $0.55/slice if you’re making your own pie crust (which trust me, tastes so much better anyways), or $0.73/slice, if you’re using store-bought.
Chicken pot pie (serves 16)
Cost: $0.75/slice. Note that this recipe makes TWO pot pies (for a total of $12.09), so you can eat one now and freeze one for the next time you need a fast dinner.
Beef pot pie (serves 6)
Cost: $0.90/slice using a modified version of Pillsbury’s recipe (where you make your own pie crust and dice your own potatoes). If sticking to their recipe, it’ll run you around $1.28/serving instead.
I didn’t even know you could make pot pies with anything other than chicken until I worked in a steakhouse. Let me tell you- beef pot pie is delicious.
Casseroles
Lemon, Chickpea, and Rice Casserole (serves 6)
Cost: $0.62/serving, as long as you make your own vegetable stock. (Shown above) Have specific dietary needs in your big family? Here’s your dish. It’s vegan, gluten free, and dairy free.
Baked Chicken Parm Casserole (serves 10)
Cost: $0.81/serving. That cost includes buying boxed stuffing, but you can absolutely use homemade stuffing to bring the price down. Rip or cube up some stale bread and enjoy.
Easy Macaroni Bake (Double recipe to serve 8)
Cost: $0.75/serving. This recipe takes only 15 minutes of hands-on time, only uses four ingredients, and only dirties one pot and one baking dish. I’m not sure there’s an easier dirt cheap meal for large families out there.
Pasta Dishes
Tahini Pasta (serves 6)
Cost: $0.60/serving. Did you know you can use tahini (and in a pinch, hummus, which contains tahini) to make creamy sauces? You can! And you really, really should.
Chipotle Pumpkin Pasta (double the recipe to serve 8)
Cost: $0.84/serving. Pro-tip: If you like this recipe enough to make it year round (and not just in October), consider scoping out some sales on pumpkin puree before the weather gets snowy and stock up. Alternatively, you can buy an entire pumpkin and make your own puree. It freezes very well as puree, or you can make an entire batch of this to freeze for later.
Classic Pasta Salad (serves 24)
Cost: $0.72/serving. Yes, you read that right. This recipe makes TWENTY-FOUR servings of pasta salad. It’ll either make a great side dish to bring to the family picnic, or else it might keep your teenage boys full for a few hours.
Ground Beef Dishes
Beef tacos (serves 8)
Cost: $0.76/serving. Who doesn’t love tacos? As a bonus, there’s directions in this recipe for how to slightly adjust this recipe if you’ve got a weaning baby or young toddler eating this meal with you. That way, you can help the little ones love healthy, frugal meals right from the beginning!
Shepherd’s Pie (Serves 10)
Cost: $0.70/serving. This is one of my all-time favorite dirt cheap meals for large families. We ate it all the time growing up on a tight budget, and it’s still a huge comfort food for me today. Plenty of potatoes, a nice heaping serving of vegetables, and perfectly seasoned ground beef round out this chart-topper.
Ground Beef Teriyaki Rice Bowls (serves 6)
Cost: $0.47/serving (including a 1/2 cup of rice). With teriyaki dishes, it’s all about the seasonings. Otherwise, you just have plain beef and rice with a sprinkling of vegetables. But with the spices, sauces, and vinegars, you get this incredible flavor for pennies to the dollar. As an alternative (if you aren’t a big fan of rice), you can make it with ramen noodles, though it brings the price up to $0.67/serving. That’s right! Ramen noodles are actually more expensive than rice for the same serving size. (I know, mind. blown.)
Dirt Cheap Meals for Large Families Under $2
Chicken Dishes
Instant Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken (double the recipe for 8 servings)
Cost: $1.42/serving. If you (like me) don’t have an instant pot, feel free to make in a slow cooker instead, but change the cook time to 4-5hrs on high instead.
Cajun Chicken Alfredo (double the recipe and it serves 8)
Cost: $1.51/serving. This recipe, developed by a registered dietitian, is equal parts creamy and spicy. Just what the doctor ordered!
Mexican Chicken Casserole (serves 10)
Cost: $1.11/serving. I discovered this recipe by mistake one day, as I accidentally left a bag of tortillas open overnight and they got super stale. Voila! I baked them for a few minutes in the oven and made some crushed tortilla chips and used them to whip up this delicious concoction.
Ukranian Baked Chicken Thighs (serves 9)
Cost: $0.49/serving. When baked and basted as described, these are restaurant-quality chicken thighs ready for date night. Not included in the cost per serving is any sides, however. So if you add rice, quinoa or freshly baked bread, you can expect the cost to per serving to decrease even more.
Pasta Dishes
Mushroom aglio olio (serves 6)
Cost: $1.33/serving. As you can see by the photo above, this is a mushroom-filled delight. Plus, it’s vegan!
Bacon Broccoli Mac & Cheese (double the recipe and it serves 8)
Cost: $1.70/serving (and this includes plenty of bacon)
If you haven’t yet found the BudgetBytes website, go there right now. They’ve got scores of recipes all broken down to the cent. Whatever you’re craving, they probably have the affordable recipe to make it.
Lasagna with Cottage Cheese (serves 9)
Cost: $1.07/serving. Pro-tip: freezing the cottage cheese then thawing it will give it a more similar texture to ricotta, if that’s what you’re used to.
Roasts
Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner (serves 6)
Cost: $1.18/serving. Sheet pan dinners are some of my favorites for quick, easy, weekday madness meals. This one has all the different food groups cooking on the same pan, making it doubly easy.
Perfectly Simple Roasted Chicken (serves 6+)
Cost: $0.83/serving if you’re just talking about the chicken meat. Of course, no one eats a giant plate of nothing but chicken for dinner (except maybe a toddler). If you add your own rolls, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, and/or bean dishes as sides, you can bring the per plate cost even further down, depending on your choices.
Crock Pot Pork Roast and Veggies (serves 6-8)
Cost: $1.52/serving. Pro-tip: If you plan on using a really long cooking setting like 8-10 hours, you might benefit from putting the vegetables in partway through the cooking process. They’ll be fine if you can’t (say, if you’re at work all day), but they will be slightly less mushy if they don’t cook the entire length of time.
Soups
Dutch Oven Beef Stew (serves 8)
Cost: $1.98/serving. Beef stew is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods. It’s warm, a little smokey, and filled with plenty of meat and potatoes. The best thing about this particular recipe is that it only dirties one pot, making it perfect for people who love to eat but hate doing the dishes.
Chili with Green Chiles (serves 6)
Cost: $1.43/serving. This one is a crockpot recipe for easy weeknight dump meals. It’s also gluten- and dairy-free!
One Pot Creamy Turkey Orzo Soup (serves 8)
Cost: $1.44/serving. Can soup be its own food group? I could seriously eat it all day, every day. This little delight combines pasta bits, savory turkey, and just a splash of half-and-half to round it out.
Meatless Dishes
Mexican Stuffed Peppers (serves 12)
Cost: $1.35/serving. Instead of the typical rice, beans, and ground beef, these stuffed peppers are filled to the brim with riced cauliflower, sweet potato, and broccoli!
Lentil Sloppy Joe Cornbread Casserole (serves 8)
Cost: $0.40/serving. Corn bread is one of the easiest ingredients in dirt cheap meals for large families. Whether it’s part of a cohesive meal (like this one), or it’s a side dish to help stretch the rest of the meal along, they can do a lot to bring down the cost of dinner.
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