20 Budget-Friendly Meals You'll Want to Add to Your Regular Dinner Rotation (2024)

Whether you're trying to save for a home upgrade, new car, or just trying to be more budget-conscious in general, there are loads of ways you can cut costs at the grocery store and still eat plenty of delicious food. Our top tip? Familiarize yourself with these budget-friendly dinner recipes.

The only thing that isn't cheap about these affordable dishes is their flavor. The secret to putting a fresh, satisfying meal on the table for less than the price of a delivery pizza is two-fold: First, all of these recipes excel at making the most of affordable proteins like eggs, ground meat, tofu, and canned items like beans and tuna. Next, you'll find that our recipes seamlessly combine those proteins with affordable pantry and refrigerator staples like rice, pasta, barley and potatoes to go with them. The results are hearty, full meals that will never leave you feeling shortchanged and will have your family requesting them again and again.

As a way to really take these dishes over the top, we use budget-friendly extras that maximize flavor, like tomato paste, canned chipotle chiles in adobo, and Parmesan cheese. While these ingredients may seem like small details in the grand scheme of a full recipe, they contain umami, which has the power to bring downright luxurious flavors to an otherwise ordinary dinner.

Ready to start saving money while also enjoying tasty, healthy meals? Click through for our best budget-friendly dinner recipes, which prove that the most affordable meals can also be some of the most delicious.

Pork Meatball Skillet Bake

Quick, affordable, and easy? This skillet dinner is a triple threat! The three-ingredient meatball mixture uses ground pork, which has a mild taste perfect for taking on the flavors of a bold sweet pepper-tomato sauce.

Cauliflower-and-Chickpea Pitas with Creamy Yogurt Sauce

Legumes like chickpeas are more popular than ever as plant-based cooking has gone mainstream, but their cost per can is still pleasingly low.

Smoky Tofu Chili

Tofu blends seamlessly into this hearty chili—its neutral flavor is the perfect backdrop for the spiced flavorings of the chipotle sauce. Using extra-firm tofu is the key to it holding its shape through cooking and taking on a ground meat effect.

No-Cook Tomato-Tuna Sauce with Spaghetti

An easy pasta dish like this one can be a great option for those times you feel like cooking, but when you also don't want to damage the weekly budget by ordering takeout. This easy and delicious no-cook sauce incorporates canned tuna with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and plenty of Parmesan.

Pasta-e-fa*gioli Pasta

This comforting pasta combines famously inexpensive ingredients like pasta and canned beans. As affordable as it is to make, the resulting taste is downright luxurious thanks to flavor-boosting ingredients like tomato paste and Parmesan cheese.

Kielbasa and Lentil Rice with Spinach

Lentils and rice—two powerhouse pantry staples—combine with crushed tomatoes and spinach to make a saucy and filling side for smoky Polish sausage.

White Fish Stew with Dumplings

A flaky white fish like cod, tilapia, or haddock is an affordable choice to make at the seafood counter. Here, it's showcased in a hearty stew with tender biscuits baked on top.

Mushroom-Cheddar Frittata

Forget brunch! A frittata is a great choice to make for a budget-friendly dinner. In this vegetarian version, the addition of mushrooms, white cheddar, and broccoli give the bake a deeply savory flavor.

Curried Steak with Scallion Rice and Peas

Flank steak is an economical cut of beef that can taste phenomenal when prepared right; in this case, a quick and punchy marinade in store-bought curry paste and an even quicker sear in a skillet until cooked to medium-rare perfection.

Chicken Barley Soup

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts aren't an economy cut, but you can get the most bang for your buck in this hearty grain-based soup that uses just two chicken breasts in a dinner that will make four hearty portions. Bolstered by fiber-rich barley, carrots, and spinach, this meal will leave both bellies and wallets full.

Braised Chicken Legs in Sauerkraut

Chicken legs are one of our favorite proteins; they're economical, flavorful, and extremely versatile. Here, they play nicely with store-bought sauerkraut for a rich, flavorful casserole.

Spanish Rice with Ground Beef and Eggs

For a very filling family dinner, try this update on tomatoey Spanish (or Mexican) rice using ground chuck and eggs.

Tuna-Noodle Casserole with Cauliflower

Looking for the ultimate comfort food? We gave the dish that everyone loves a makeover. All the good things remain, but we add cauliflower and make the sauce from scratch (which isn't hard and doesn't take long). The result is divine.

Escarole and Bean Soup

This deliciously filling soup uses both canned chickpeas and canned kidney beans, and comes together in just 25 minutes. Toasted bread is a must, which soaks up the tasty broth.

Tomato Soup with Poached Eggs

Hearty but not heavy, this soup makes a satisfying dinner anytime of the year. It uses canned tomatoes and swaps in water in place of the usual broth for an even greater savings. The eggs are cooked in the soup and supply an an economical, meatless source of protein.

Chickpea, Sausage, and Kale Pasta

Substantial and super-fast, this pasta dish has tons of appeal. It stretches a small amount of sausage by also using chickpeas and plenty of kale.

Chicken Paprikash

These tender, juicy braised chicken legs—and you know we love juicy, meaty chicken legs—in a classic Hungarian style taste like they were cooked long and slow, but the dish comes together in just 45 minutes. There's plenty of rich paprika-tomato sauce for the broad egg noodles.

Red-Bean Burgers with Avocado and Lime

Quick and easy to make, these bean burgers are so good that even dedicated carnivores will adore them. Serving them with avocado adds to their rich appeal, but cheese would also be delicious.

Cottage Pie with Vegetable Mash

Meat and potatoes can be affordable, too. Here, we pair them with carrots and mushrooms in a comforting pie. We consider this a cozy, crowd-pleasing meal.

Zucchini Stuffed with Sausage

Not only are these zucchini inexpensive to make and good to eat, but you can also assemble them a day ahead and refrigerate, then bake them the next night. We call that a win-win-win.