How to prep kid friendly meals that are easy on the wallet? We raised six kids on a small budget, so we got you. Check out these budget friendly meals that your kids will actually eat — and maybe even love.
Be sure to try our easy Chicken Noodle Soup that’s better than the can as well as our super simple Instant Pot Mac and Cheese recipe that rivals anything in a box! Our creamy Chicken and Gravy recipe will be a regular repeat at your dinner table, guaranteed.
Want to save this post?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox. Plus, I’ll send you budget recipes and money-saving tips every week!
Cooking for kids presents some key challenges, especially when it comes to finding easy dinner recipes the whole family loves. Cooking on a budget has its own challenges, like how the heck do you pay for the high price of groceries these days?!
Cooking easy family dinners that everyone will eat, that don’t take all day and don’t cost a fortune?
Put those all together in the quest for kid friendly recipes that are easy on the budget, and it may seem like a losing battle.
It’s all good. I’ve got you.
I raised six kids (including the pickiest of the picky eaters) while we were getting out of debt. Our grocery budget for 8 people was $100/week. Yes, it was the 21st century.
And we ate like kings! We still do, even now that we’re feeding the appetites of teens and college boys. The best cheap dinner is the one everyone loves.
You can prep kid friendly dinner recipes and still maintain your budget spending.
Why It Matters
Wasted food means wasted money. If you’re prepping foods the kids won’t eat, that’s good money down the drain. It’s important for your finances that you make meals your kids love.
Happy tummies makes for happy attitudes. When we were paying down tens of thousands of dollars in debt, we had to say no to a lot of good things: meals out, amusement parks, new clothes. We found that it was easier for all of us to handle fewer luxuries when we were satisfied at meal times.
You can eat like kings on a budget! Believe it or not, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to enjoy tasty meals. Follow our easy dinner ideas and you’ll be set for success. Both your kids and your bank account will be happy.
Strategies for Success
Listen to your kids. They know what they like. And yes, it is subject to change. That said, if they have buy in, they are more likely to eat what you’re dishing out. Allow them some say in the meal planning. My kids always chose Lawnmower Taco.
Choose easy meals and simple comfort food. Don’t spend a lot of time prepping feasts unless it’s a special occasion. Good food, even gourmet meals, can be prepped simply and quickly. Focus on slow cooker or air fryer recipes that can be quickly assembled without a lot of fuss. 30-minute meals are your hero!
Keep things separate. Use caution with one pot meals or casserole recipes unless you know your family absolutely loves it. Allowing meal components, like pasta and sauce, to stay separate gives kids agency of choice and reduces fussing and wasted food and money.
Plan versatile recipes that you can jazz up. While the kids might enjoy a simple baked chicken or grilled cheese sandwiches, you can spice those dishes up for adults and adventurous eaters with sauces for the chicken or sauteed mushrooms and onions to tuck into the sandwiches.
Mom Food is absolutely okay. So are chicken nuggets or chicken tenders. You can each have what you love some of the time. If you treat the kids to nuggies, feel free to do some Mom Food Meal Prep so that you get what you want, too.
Focus on generally frugal ingredients. Be sure to download our Budget Grocery List so that you can focus on the proteins that are almost always budget friendly, like ground beef or pork.
Make it fun! It doesn’t have to be party food, but generally kid friendly dinner ideas involve fun food, so be sure to include a homemade pizza recipe in your weekly meal plans or maybe a burrito bar where everyone can choose what he or she likes.
Lean on theme nights. I’ve been leaning on a regular weekly dinner menu template for 20 years. It changes with the seasons but it keeps meal planning quick and simple. In minutes, I can set up the week’s meals that everyone loves.
Using these strategies on a regular basis will not only help you save money, but also help you stop eating out.
FAQs
An air fryer or crockpot recipe is a great thing for a kid to start with as it doesn’t require much hands-on with an open flame. Slow Cooker Chili and Instant Pot Cream Cheese Pasta are good starter recipes for kids.
Ask the kids! Your children are unique. Adults assume they only like junk food, but you’d be surprised. Include your children in the meal planning, let them browse your cookbooks, watch a cooking show together. When you expose children to good, healthful food, they will end up choosing great meals.
While you may be tempted to lean on cheap commercial items like boxed ramen and hot dogs, you can prep lots of cheap meals that are healthy and based on whole foods. Consider homemade mac and cheese, breakfast for dinner, sour cream chicken, and loaded mashed potatoes.
Family Dinner Ideas & Cheap Meals Your Kids will Love
These are cheap meals for kids as well as adults, recipes I’ve been making since we had lots of littles running around, that my teens and grown kids still love. Only now the kids can do the cooking!
Homemade Pizza
We have a regular weekly pizza night. It’s a favorite food for everyone and such a cheap meal to make at home. You can make your own pizza dough or just use a base like English muffins, tortillas, bagels, or French bread.
Instant Pot or Crockpot Recipes
Set it and forget it so you can do something else. Make kid friendly meals quickly and easily when you use the pressure or slow cooker.
Soups
Canned soup is a regular favorite with kids, but making your own at home means you can control the ingredients (ewww, onions) as well as the sodium content. Here are some of our favorite canned soup copycats.
Sandwiches
Sandwiches are easy for the cook and absolutely kid friendly. Sloppy joe’s, burgers, grilled cheese, and DIY subs are all great options for cheap dinners.
Skillet Meals
Cooking in the skillet usually means the meal is going to be fast, making it mom-friendly as well as kid-friendly. These sautes are super comforting, cheap meals you can pull together in a jiffy.
Mexican Food
Mexican food is easy to prepare, usually shares common ingredients among recipes, and can be customized to suit everyone’s tastes. Lay out a a buffet of Mexican food ingredients and let everyone mix and match.
Breakfast for Dinner
Breakfast for dinner is a mom’s ace in the hole. It’s an easy kid-friendly, cheap meal that everyone loves. Put it on the weekly schedule and repeat all year long!
Tell us what you think!
We love to hear your experiences with Good Cheap Eats. Click the STARS on the recipe card or leave a STARRED comment to let us know what you think of the recipe.
This post was originally published on February 25, 2013. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Sonya
My daughter loves BLT’s.
I use turkey bacon at 2.49 a package
Lettuce about 10cent/serving
Tomato about 10 cent/serving
Avocado mixed with a small amt of mayo
And white or wheat bread.
She gets about 8-10 sandwiches out of it. Whenever she comes home from school hungry, she makes this. And she loves it. I personally,just love the cost.
Kelly Pietrangeli
Love so many of these suggestions!! My backup/standby meal is tuna melts. Open faced, tin of tuna piled on top with grated cheese – melted under a hot grill for a couple of minutes. Voila! I add mango chutney to my bread first. Yum!
jo
have you ever tried shakshuka? smitten kitchen has a recipe I use. simply divine!
Jessica Fisher
That looks yummy!
Abby
Our favorite meal is a twist on the taco or tostada depending how you view it. The base is a waffle but you make it with cornbread and add frozen corn. Prepare the cornbread mix how you normally would normally and 1 Cup of frozen corn then thin the cornbread mix out to make it like waffle batter by adding more milk. then pour it into your waffle maker. It makes a sweet yummy base. I top mind with pinto beans salsa cabbages cilantro and avocado or whatever you like on top of your taco normally. You could use meat but I really don’t find it necessary in this recipe. I found this online I don’t remember where but it’s become a great backup meal.
Margaret
I love the new Eat Well Spend Less Format. It has taken me a couple of days to read everyone’s posts, and that has been awesome! Tons of great ideas in here.
kate
I really like making spinach frittata using fresh or frozen spinach. We use Kale too when I can get it. Kale is really hardy and grows really easy, its a cool super food to grow at home!. I like to use lots of cheese but recently I have been cutting that back. You can use left over rice and left over pasta in a frittata too…
CG
Beans ‘n toast is the most frugal meal I can cook up around here. It’s just some white beans, two cans of diced tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and a bit of sage. Served with toasted country or ciabatta bread, it’s won over even the picky one.
Kelly
We are chicken noodle soup fans here. I use leftover roasted chicken, homemade stock (made from the roasted chicken carcass), and homemade noodles (flour and eggs) along with carrots, celery, and onions – which are cheap and hearty veggies. The whole family (save one) gobbles it up – there’s always one, it seems. My kids like the other things mentioned in your post, too: pizza, pasta, tacos, beans and rice, etc.
Jessica Fisher
Wow. Homemade noodles? That’s amazing.
Kelly
Before homemade noodles, my husband hated soup. I could only make chicken and dumplings, and I had to convince him of that. Once I learned how to make the noodles, I suddenly had a new favorite recipe for my hubby! And it’s cheap. Win-Win! Now, if I could convince him that beans are not, in fact, “little packages of dirt” as he calls them.
Christina K.
The one meal that my kids love and is budget friendly is breakfast. They love pancakes and eggs!
Jessica Fisher
Yep, that’s a winner here, too.
Kate @ Green Around the Edges
Pasta is probably our go-to kid-friendly dinner on the cheap. Unfortunately, many of the low-cost things I see on many sites are Mexican in base: tacos, enchiladas, etc. My kids are fine with that…it’s my husband who’s the problem. He doesn’t like any of that genre of food and generally rejects anything with beans in it so it gets tricky!
sona
Ditto here, Mexican not a favorite here, as hubbys stomach rebels! Always looking for quick, easy non Mexican meals. Like quinoa based for one
Jessica Fisher
I think if you investigate any “ethnic cuisine”, you’ll find that there are lots of budget-friendly choices. Do you guys like Asian foods? Stir fries and fried rice can be pretty economical.
Jenn @ A Simple Haven
These look great! (And I love that you used the word “bruhaha”). I would love to try them, but like you, we’re about to go grain-free, so we’ll be on a tortilla hiatus for a bit. Will keep them and the other recs in mind, though!
Jessica Fisher
I’m currently grain free, but can’t imagine transitioning my kids that way. Good luck with that!