Whether you could give Carmy from “The Bear” a run for his money in the kitchen or your idea of fine dining is Chef Boyardee in the fancy bowl, grocery shopping can be the most stressful part of meal planning. Specifically, the cost of groceries, which only seems to be moving in the wrong direction.
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If you’re hungry for more options on a limited budget, you just might find what you’re looking for in a surprising place — your local dollar store. OK, but surely you can’t get everything you need for a week of meals shopping at outlets like Dollar Tree — even if your budget is less than $50. Right? Actually, yes, you can. Here’s how.
You Plan in Advance
Social media star Dollar Tree Dinners, aka Rebecca Chobat, has gained a lot of popularity for showing her viewers how to feed themselves and their families for cheap, like less than $50 a week cheap. Part of the reason she’s able to create such flavorful meals at such low prices is careful planning.
In one video focusing on how she made five nights of four-person family meals for only $25 using Dollar Tree items, she explained her planning process.
“I will sit down and make a list, and there are several things I’m looking for in the ingredients that I’m buying from Dollar Tree,” she said. “The first thing is bang for my buck. If each ingredient is $1.25, I’m looking at the ounces on the package, I’m looking at the ingredients, I’m looking for the most amount of food that I can make for that $1.25.”
Getting bang for her buck means finding products that already come seasoned or with vegetables, so she doesn’t have to spend extra on spices or canned or frozen veggies.
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You’re Willing To Get Adventurous
When you think of foods available at Dollar Tree, you probably imagine rice and beans or pasta. Yet Chobat encouraged you to broaden your mind and try foods you might’ve been leery of getting at a dollar store — like frozen meat.
In a video bluntly called “Is Dollar Tree Salmon Good?” she visited the Dollar Tree Plus section of a store (for the uninitiated, Dollar Tree Plus is where you can find certain high-value items for between $3-$5) to sample various meat options. With some creativity, she made a variety of meals from country-fried steak to a lemon garlic shrimp and rice bowl to, of course, a blackened salmon.
Halving certain options, like the steak, allowed Chobat to get two servings out of one purchase. Meals like the shrimp and rice bowl would make enough to feed a family of four, or for a single person to refrigerate during the week.
You Find the Right Recipes
Chobat’s YouTube channel includes, to date, over 400 videos that are all about budget-conscious shopping and meal prep. Her video about making five nights of family meals for $25 is nearly an hour long, including a comprehensive look at her grocery haul, as well as tutorials on how to make crowd-pleasing meals. She even has playlists dedicated to inexpensive holiday meals — including Thanksgiving staples.
If you’re pressed for time, you can also ask ChatGPT for a week’s worth of recipes with ingredients from Dollar Tree that cost less than $50. That’s what your friendly GOBankingRates writer did (aka moi), and I got a list of suggestions for all three meals of the day, as well as a grocery list I could print out.
While not as creative as what Chobat developed — seriously, that lemon garlic bowl sounds amazing — ChatGPT’s list would keep you fed for a week without blowing your budget. ChatGPT also had general ideas to keep you under $50, like mixing ready-made options such as frozen burritos for breakfast with lunch or dinner options that you prepare yourself. ChatGPT built in a $5 buffer for other options like vitamins, fresh fruit and veggies.
As grocery prices continue trending in the wrong direction, you might be looking to save money however you can — which includes doing your weekly shopping at Dollar Tree or another dollar store. Even with a budget of less than $50, you’ll find you can get some pretty good deals for some pretty great meals if you’re willing to plan carefully, broaden your horizons and find the right sources for recipes.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Dollar Tree Meal Planning: Can You Eat for a Week for Less Than $50?
