Cheap Ground Beef Dinner Meals Under $5

This cheap dinner meal plan is based on purchasing ready made meatballs, canned ravioli (large can), ground beef and items needed to fill out the meal. This cheap dinner plan is based on feeding a family of four in northern Florida in 2008. Your prices may vary and your family size may require upward adjustment of the quantities. The recipes and cheap ground beef meal ideas should still give you a meal plan that is lower in cost than most. You may not choose to eat cheap ground beef meals on back to back days. If not, other than the cooked pasta, the items in this dinner meal plan will keep in their original state, or frozen after cooking, in the case of the beef. While these meals may not be the healthiest and may not totally fill your family up, they provide the basis for low cost feeding if you are in a bind and need a cheap dinner meal.

Purchase the following items for your Cheap Ground Beef Meal Plan

Bag Armour meat balls $3.00

Hot Dog Buns $1.25

Ground beef 2 pounds $6.00

Ravioli $2.50

Spaghetti $1.00

Spaghetti Sauce $1.00

Canned tomatoes .80

Canned peas .80

Bag of Fries $2.00

Total Grocery Cost for this Cheap Dinner meal plan: $16.85

Dinner Meal Plan Preparation Step One: Cook the bag of meatballs; there are 32 in the bag. Add the can of sauce and heat thoroughly.

Dinner Meal Plan Preparation Step Two: Brown the ground beef and separate into three containers.

Cheap Dinner Meal Plan Item One: Meatball subs and Fries. For a family of four, assuming you each have two subs, you will use the entire pack of meat balls and the entire pack of hot dog buns (2 per person). If each person does not eat two you will have left over meatballs which can be lunch, or can be used in Meal two. Cook half of the pack of fries to serve with the meatball subs. When making the subs, reserve the extra sauce, you will use it for Meal 2.

Cheap Dinner Meal Plan Item Two: Cheap Ground Beef Meal using Pasta. Cook the entire pound of spaghetti. Drain and put half of it away for another meal. Using the left over sauce from the meatballs, heat sauce and one pack of the browned ground beef. Add some water if the sauce is thick or will not be enough to cover through your noodles. Once heated, stir into the noodles. If it is not saucy enough you may need a can of tomato sauce to add but if you have not over sauced the meatball subs, you should have enough for this meal. Serve with toast if you have bread, if not, there should be enough spaghetti to fill 4 people up.

Cheap Dinner Meal Plan Item Three: Cheap Ground Beef Meal using Ravioli. Chef Boyardee Ravioli in the large can (or a suitable store substitute) covers the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish. Sprinkle a pack of the ground beef on top of it. If you have any cheese, either shredded, sliced, or parmesan sprinkle it on top of the beef. Bake at 350 until warmed completely through.

Cheap Dinner Meal Plan Item Four: Cheap Meal using Pasta. Reheat the other half of the pasta cooked previously. Once hot add in the can of tomatoes, some parmesan and some butter. Heat until tomatoes are warmed. If you have bread you can serve as garlic toast, other wise the meal is filling. If your family will not eat just a pasta meal, consider adding a $1 bag of frozen veggies, or a couple of cans of peas.

Cheap Dinner Meal Plan Item Five: Cheap Ground Beef Meal using Fries. You should have one pack of browned ground beef and part of the bag of fries. Heat the ground beef, add some beef broth, bring to a boil and thicken with flour to make a beef gravy. If you have plenty of beef broth you can do a large amount of beef gravy with this to serve over the fries. Serve with the peas.

You can find other cheap ground beef and pasta recipes through the links at the end of this article.