Easy & Cheap Meal Ideas For When You’re On A Budget

Being a busy mom and trying to feed your family without breaking the budget can get difficult sometimes. There isn’t much time between getting home from work and bedtime. These are some frugal meal ideas that you can throw together quickly.

Everyone has a different idea of “cheap” but these meals are actually low cost for pretty much everyone. The easy the economy is these days, it costs about the same to cook a meal as it does to eat out and when money is tight we have to get creative because we can’t spend our entire pay check on groceries.

These are some of my favorite budget-friendly meal ideas that my family loves and you can easily make.

Also see: Quick & Easy Weeknight Dinner Recipes

Grilled Cheese Hot Dogs

It’s funny my two year old will not eat a grilled cheese or a hot dog alone, but she will eat these grilled cheese hot dogs.

I know it doesn’t make much sense, but they are actually really good so I guess I can understand.

Grilled Cheese Hot Dogs Recipe

Muffin Tin Pizza Bombs

My kids love pizza rolls and these are like an upgraded style of them. And they are SO much better and super easy to make.

Muffin Tin Pizza Bombs Recipe

Mini Meatball Subs

These are so easy to make and so good! You only need 4 ingredients and 20 minutes.

This is one of our go to meals when money is tight and we also make them as a lunch sometimes. I think they would also make a great finger food for a party too!

Mini Meatball Subs Recipe

Firehouse Rigatoni Bake

We make this a lot in our house! Only 5 ingredients and it tastes even better the next day. This is always a win with my toddler and of you have picky kids you know when you find a meal your kids will eat every time, it’s a win!

Firehouse Rigatoni Bake Recipe

Crockpot Salisbury Steak Meatballs

We always have a bag of meatballs in our freezer, but I was trying to find a recipe that was a little bit different than what we normally do and I came across this one.

This is beyond simple to make, the hardest part is making the mashed potatoes to serve them with. And if you want things to be quick and painless like I do, just buy a bag of instant potatoes and they are done in like 5 minutes.

Note: If you don’t like mashed potatoes or don’t have them. These are really good over white rice too!

Crockpot Salisbury Steak Meatballs Recipe

Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole

I love chicken bacon ranch anything and this is super good and easy. I’m not gonna lie, I used pre-cooked bacon crumbles that come in the bag and pre-made chicken (like you would put on a salad) because my time was limited when I made this and that’s what I had in the fridge at the time. It was really good tho!

Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole Recipe

Pizza Sliders

Kids want pizza, but you don’t want to spend $50 on delivery? Try these out! They are really yummy and I personally get tired of regular pizza.. But these hit the spot every time!

Pizza Sliders Recipe

Taco Baked Potatoes

Look… I would have never thought to put taco ingredients on my baked potatoes. But this is genius. Regular tacos get boring, and my family loves baked potatoes. We make them with pulled pork all the time. But taco meat is easier to make so these will be my new go to!

Taco Potatoes Recipe

Homemade Beefaroni

My kids love the Chef Boyardee beefaroni, but I don’t. When I saw this recipe, I was thinking okay… the kids HAVE to like this if they like it from a can. Needless to say the whole house liked it and the leftovers are even better!

This is like the grown up version of Chef Boyardee and it’s delicious!

Homemade Beefaroni Recipe

Chicken Parmesan Casserole

I like that you can use frozen chicken tenders to make this when you are short on time and it still tastes good. This looks and tastes like a fancy dish, but its so simple and budget-friendly.

If you have a little extra time, it tastes even better if you make the chicken yourself. But both ways are great!

Chicken Parm Casserole Recipe

Cheesy Beef Taquitos

My kids really like those frozen taquitos, but I like to feed them dinner that doesn’t come from the freezer most nights.. So I found this recipe to make them at home. And they are a huge hit every time!