Cheap Family Dinners

The cheapest family dinner on MealSpend is Vegan Peanut Noodles at $0.80 per serving (U.S. grocery prices reviewed August 2026), with 24 g protein per serving. All 23 recipes below are ranked from one shared price table, so they're directly comparable.

Dinners that make four or more servings, ranked by cost per serving — the recipes where one pot feeds the whole table and probably tomorrow's lunch too.

Recipe	Per serving	Protein	Time
Vegan Peanut Noodles	$0.80	24 g	22 min
Egg Fried Rice	$0.81	15 g	25 min
Red Lentil Soup	$0.87	17 g	40 min
Lentil Sloppy Joes	$0.92	19 g	40 min
Black Bean Soup	$1.11	10 g	40 min
Kielbasa, Cabbage & Potato Soup	$1.21	12 g	55 min
Loaded Broccoli-Cheddar Baked Potatoes	$1.30	16 g	1 hr 5 min
Sheet-Pan Chicken Thighs & Green Beans	$1.39	31 g	40 min
Crispy Chicken Thighs with Buttered Broccoli	$1.41	33 g	35 min
Creamy Chicken Thighs with Spinach	$1.56	33 g	30 min
Cabbage & Sausage Skillet	$1.64	16 g	30 min
Chicken & Broccoli Rice Bowl	$1.88	48 g	35 min
Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas Tacos	$1.91	48 g	8 hr 15 min
Paleo Turkey & Sweet Potato Skillet	$1.91	27 g	35 min
Black Bean & Rice Burritos	$1.92	28 g	30 min
Butter-Basted Pork Chops	$1.93	47 g	20 min
Chickpea Coconut Curry	$2.09	20 g	35 min
One-Pot Turkey Marinara Pasta	$2.12	38 g	35 min
Mediterranean Chicken & Chickpea Skillet	$2.20	43 g	40 min
Keto Cheeseburger Skillet	$2.71	30 g	30 min
Ground Beef & Zucchini Skillet	$2.89	24 g	30 min
Slow-Cooked Chuck Roast with Carrots	$3.37	42 g	8 hr 15 min
Beef Patties with Bacon & Cheddar	$3.41	40 g	25 min

Ranked by cost per serving. Every figure is computed from the same ingredient price table — see how we price.

9 of 49 ingredient prices come from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average price data; the remaining 40 are estimates. Last reviewed 2026-08-12. Your store will differ — treat every figure as a planning estimate, not a quote. Nutrition is computed from USDA-typical ingredient values and rounded.