Cheap Eats Meal Plan

Welcome to the cheap eats meal plan! It’s not easy to tighten up the belt and rein in the grocery budget. In fact, it can be downright overwhelming. Our goal is to do all the thinking for you and hand you everything you need to serve up amazing meals at home for under $3 per serving. And to give it all to you for free!

We’ve put hundreds of hours into coming up with a meal plan that uses a base set of pantry staples that are used throughout the month, with 7 meals each week for a total of 4 weeks. We keep everything efficient, eliminating food waste as much as possible, all while keeping a variety of flavors and dishes so that it never gets repetitive.

And did we mention that all of the recipes are easy to make? Nothing super time-consuming here! They also use real, whole ingredients, with fresh produce and everything! This is real cooking made as easy and as approachable as possible.

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• Absolutely everything is free. We’re not upselling you on anything. We truly believe people on the internet still deserve free content that provides real value.
• We’ll show you what the grocery haul looks like and what all of the meals for the week look like
• We’ll show you what a serving size of each recipe looks like. Serving sizes are so subjective, we know how important it is for you to see it.
• We’ll even show you our receipt from the store.
• We’ll also give you a printable shopping list for each week.
• Oh, and there’s even a video demonstration for each recipe in case you need a visual to help.
• Mix and match recipes from week to week without messing anything up!

Use the recipes on our website from your device, or print them out. Come back as much as you want! And feel free to share it with friends and family who could use it.

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If you’re looking to cut down your grocery bill without losing your mind, you’re in the right place. This plan was built for real people living real life, not for someone who wants to spend every Sunday batch-cooking and spreadsheeting their way through dinner.

It might be a good fit if:

• You’re feeding a family and trying to stretch every dollar.
• You’re overwhelmed by the thought of meal planning and just want someone to do it for you.
• You’re a beginner in the kitchen and want something straightforward.
• You want to eat fresh food at home without spending hours planning for it.

Basically, if you like the idea of a no-stress, budget-friendly dinner that still tastes good, we made this for you.

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If you want to customize your plan, we do have a tool that is in beta. Listen, it’s not pretty, but it gets the job done. It will allow you to customize the number of servings for each recipe, swap out recipes, and then generate a new shopping list based on your customizations.

You will need to create a login to access the feature because it saves everything for you. We do not use that information for any other purposes, and it will not sign you up for an email list.

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Every good meal plan should be built around a set of pantry staple ingredients. These are the ingredients that are used throughout the month. We wanted to make sure it required a limited number of spices and a limited number of condiments.

We’ve done a deep dive into these pantry staples, where you can learn all the details by clicking the image above. There are tips, suggestions, and various options to help you save money and make sure this plan works for you and your needs.

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Here’s what you get in just one week:

• 7 dinners with full recipes
• A printable shopping list with every item you need
• Photos of each dish so you know what to expect
• Cost breakdowns per meal and per serving
• The exact receipt from a regular grocery store

This isn’t just a list of dinner ideas. It’s a full system to help you get dinner on the table without spending your whole paycheck.

Click on any of the menus to be taken to the full breakdown for that week.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

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We’re not about bare-bones eating just to save a buck. This meal plan is about cooking real food with real ingredients while keeping it all simple and affordable.

What that means:

• Yes, you’ll see rice and pasta—because they’re cheap, filling, and useful—but you’ll also get fresh produce, sauces, and bold flavors that keep things interesting.
• We picked ingredients that show up more than once, so nothing gets wasted.
• We limited the spice cabinet and the condiments list, but you still get variety in every week.

You’re cooking actual meals, not just assembling cans or boxes of things.

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We kept the kitchen gear to the basics. You don’t need fancy appliances or a dozen gadgets to make any of these meals.

Here’s what’s helpful to have:

• A good knife and cutting board
• A large 12-inch skillet
• A 4-quart saucepan
• A 6-quart pot
• A baking sheet
• A 9×13 pan or 3-quart casserole dish
• A large mixing bowl or salad bowl
• Measuring cups and spoons

Optional but helpful:

• We love using a 6-quart enameled cast iron dutch oven. There’s absolutely no need to spend hundreds of dollars to get one of the fancy name-brand ones. Most of ours are generic brands or inexpensive purchases from Walmart or Costco.

We also don’t expect you to be a pro. You don’t need knife skills or years of cooking experience to make this work. If you can stir, simmer, and sauté, you’re set.

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Let’s be real, $3 doesn’t go far these days. But with this plan, it gets you a full, satisfying meal made with real ingredients right in your own kitchen. No hidden fees, no delivery tips, no overpriced drive-thru. Just good food, made simply.

We didn’t pull this number out of thin air either. We used National databases that track the average price of groceries. Then we proved it and shopped for everything ourselves with actual receipts from the grocery store—no bulk warehouse pricing, no extreme couponing, and no chasing deals.

You’ll get:

• Full meals that feel like dinner, not side dishes.
• A better value than any convenience foods, frozen meals, or fast food.
• Real food, cooked fresh, that you can feel good about serving.

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Let’s set a few things straight so you know what you’re not getting into.

This meal plan:

• Doesn’t make you eat the same flavors all the time
• Doesn’t rely on bulk buying or coupon stacking
• Doesn’t skip out on fresh ingredients
• Doesn’t assume you have a giant freezer or a deep pantry
• Doesn’t give you tiny, unsatisfying servings

We built this to be realistic and doable for the average home cook. No gimmicks. Just solid meals at a solid price.

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FAQ