16 Cheap Dinners For A Family

These 16 cheap dinners for a family are easy to make and healthy so everyone will be happy to come to the table. Customize them to meet your taste preferences without going over your grocery budget.

I am not very picky about my meals.

I enjoy food, love putting new recipes and meals together, and get a high satisfaction out of everyone liking what I put on the table. 

One place I am a bit picky is around costs. 

Rob and I purposely don’t eat out much at all because we have a hard time justifying the price of meals we can easily cook at home (often with better ingredients and healthier). We both just about fell over in our chairs when we ordered the kids some mac ‘n cheese during one meal out at $8.99 a plate for some Kraft noodles in a bowl.

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While I like to have healthier foods in our house in the way of lots of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains, I am not willing to spend too much on meals that we even cook at home. 

In fact, one reason that we started eating more vegetarian meals was because the prices of meat skyrocketed. We found we felt just as good eating plant-based meals 3-4 nights a week and were able to save on our grocery budget. 

You can read more about how we save on groceries here, but my top 3 suggestions are: 

• Stock up on pantry items during the sales
• Stick to your grocery list that you made after you meal planned
• Make a few things from scratch (dry beans vs canned, broth, cookies, etc).

Whether you just prefer to spend less on your meals or are trying to find more inexpensive meals to add to your Family Meal Binder, this list of 16 cheap dinners for a family has you covered. 

Some of these meals work very well for the freezer, so you can stock up on ingredients when they are on sale, prep your meals, and pop them in the freezer. When you have a busy night ahead, a hard week for your budget, or just out of dinner ideas, you will be ready to go!

Vegetarian Southwest Quinoa Dinner Dip 

Not only is this one a family favorite, but it is a household staple. With ingredients that only come from the panty (unless you want to add cheese), you can have this one on hand just about any time. It is a good one to buy bulk items for!

Easy Cheesy Salsa Broccoli Bites

These little dinner bites are ideal for when we have extra broccoli on hand. They come together fast and take zero oven babysitting. You. canalways leave out the sals to save a bit more.

Quicker Than Take Out Chicken Lo Mein

With pasta being one of the cheaper ingredients you can get, you can adapt this recipe to whatever vegetables you have available. If you don’t have chicken available, just leave it out and make it a vegetable lo mein.

Roasted Vegetable Fajitas 

This is one of my absolute favorite easy and quick meals to make. It is completely customizable to the different tastes of the kids and adults as well. (The kids get plain, the adults get fajita seasoning.)

You can certainly add chicken or steak to your fajitas if desired, but only go that route if you have it on hand and it won’t put you over budget. Apart from the typical peppers and onions, zucchini and mushrooms work well for these as well. 

Tortillas can get pricey sometimes, so just put your fajitas in a lettuce wrap to save some money.

Lightened Up Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole 

The most expensive part of this dish is the chicken. However, if you use a Costco rotisserie chicken it cuts the cost (and prep work) way down. We typically buy rice in bulk and opt to make this when broccoli is on sale.

This casserole makes an excellent freezer meal.

Dinner Egg Bake

Whether you go with the crust or not, a dinner egg bake is a perfect way to use up tons of eggs and just about anything you have in the fridge. The dinner egg bake typically comes up on the meal plan when we have lots of odds and ends leftover from the week and I want to use them up but everyone is sick of stir fry.

Chickpea Mash Sandwich

Whether you are going for a quick lunch or a simple dinner, a chickpea mash sandwich costs very little. This one is a bit of an acquired taste, so tread carefully if you are new to the world of Meatless Mondays, or have a skeptical eater in your house.

Full disclosure: Rob does not enjoy this one, but I like it for lunch here and there.

Broccoli Corn Fritters 

Can you sense a broccoli theme here? While these fritters are slightly more labor intensive because you have to do some flipping, corn can be very cheap if you buy it frozen or buy it in season and freeze it.

Loaded Nachos

The kids are currently obsessed with nachos right now. Whenever I ask them what they want for meals for the week, one of them inevitably says nachos. Topped with canned black beans, corn, and sliced tomatoes, these are the makings of full bellies.

Chili Mac

If a cozy bowl of chili mac doesn’t say winter is here, then you know the negative temperatures of Minnesota does. Chili Mac is one of my go to meals when we are snowed in or too lazy to put on our warm things to go shopping.

All the ingredients can be stocked in your pantry and ready when you are! (It gets even cheaper of a family meal when you make your own broth from vegetable scraps.)

Tex Mex Zucchini Boats

For the summers, you should definitely grow your own zucchini plant. Even just one plant can give your family 2-3 meals worth of zucchinis. Otherwise, save this meal for when zucchini’s are huge and inexpensive in the stores. 

For a slightly more expensive option, go with the Italian Chicken Zucchini Boats.

MYO Sandwiches or Lettuce Boats

The kids just about squeal in delight when they are presented with the Make Your Own Sandwich tray. Their eyes get wide as their little hands reach for their choice of ingredients. 

We typically skip the deli meat on sandwich night to help save on costs and go for fixings like cheese, cucumbers, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, red onion, apple slices, avocado, and peppers. All so delicious on bread or lettuce boats of your choice.

Vegetarian Taco Bake

This is another go to freezer meal that is easy to make multiple of. I have had great success with it by adding in leftover bits and ends from the fridge. A half pepper here, part of an onion there, some zucchini next.

For a slightly more expensive meal, you can add some cooked ground turkey to the mix.

Minestrone Soup

Again with cheap pasta choices, some in season vegetables, and a broth you make yourself, this Minestrone Soup is simple to make, warms bellies, and doesn’t put you over budget. 

You can also freeze the soup into silicon muffin tins, pop them out when they are solid, place them in a plastic bag, and store them in the freezer. When you are ready to eat, just put a few “pucks” in a microwave bowl (or in a stovetop pot), and your meal is ready to go!

Simply Pantry Chili Loaded Potatoes

Not going to lie that this simple pantry chili loaded poatoes dish is a weekly winter go to meal. Potatoes are easy to buy in bulk prices, the avocado is optional, and everything else is stored in the pantry. Warming, filling, and simple.

Vegetable Spiral with Pesto Potatoes

This meal may be cheap to make, it does take a touch more prep work as you spiral the vegetables. If you need a quicker option: just toss the vegetables onto a pan with a little avocado oil, sprinkle with cheese, and bake. Same tasty meal!

With these 16 cheap dinners for a family, you will be saving money on your grocery budget while still feeding your family nutritious meals they will love.