Student budget meals: 12 dinners under $2

Short answer: the cheapest easy dinners are built on rice, pasta, noodles, beans, eggs and canned tomatoes. In the Chef Drago recipe data, 30 main dishes cost about $2 a serving or less, take 30 minutes or less and need no oven. The cheapest, simple homemade rice and beans, comes out at about $1.06 a serving.

The list

Estimated ingredient cost per serving, in US dollars, as stored in the Chef Drago recipe data (October 2026). Your receipt will be different: see how we counted below.

Dinner	Cost / serving	Time	Calories
Simple homemade rice and beans	~$1.06	30 min	436 kcal
Garlic and chilli soy noodles	~$1.20	15 min	390 kcal
Hearty vegetable minestrone soup	~$1.24	25 min	402 kcal
Quick tomato soup with toast	~$1.30	17 min	205 kcal
One-pot creamy tomato, parmesan and spinach orzo	~$1.50	25 min	455 kcal
Quick cottage cheese flatbreads	~$1.50	22 min	355 kcal
Curried cauliflower with rice	~$1.50	20 min	340 kcal
Creamy stovetop mac and cheese	~$1.50	18 min	730 kcal
Buttery garlic parmesan pasta	~$1.50	22 min	670 kcal
Quick kidney bean and corn chili	~$1.60	18 min	355 kcal
Egg fried rice with veggies	~$1.60	15 min	350 kcal
Broccoli and parmesan pasta	~$1.60	18 min	455 kcal

For comparison, the median main dish in the same data costs about $2.80 a serving.

How we counted

• Source: the recipe catalogue of the Chef Drago app, exported in October 2026.
• Filters: lunch or dinner recipes, rated easy or medium, 30 minutes or less in total, no oven or other special equipment (slow cooker, grill, blender, food processor…), and an estimated cost of $2.00 per serving or less.
• Prices are estimates per serving based on typical supermarket prices in US dollars. They vary a lot with the country, the store, the season and what you already have. Treat them as a ranking, not a quote.

What actually makes a meal cheap

• The protein decides the price. Beans, lentils, eggs and tofu cost a fraction of meat and fish. A dish with half the meat and a can of beans is often just as filling.
• Spices are an investment. Cumin, curry powder and chili flakes cost a few dollars once and make cheap ingredients taste like a plan.
• Waste is the hidden cost. A cheap recipe that leaves you with half a bunch of herbs and half a pepper to throw away is not cheap. Plan two dinners that share ingredients.
• Cook double. The second portion costs almost nothing in time, and it is tomorrow’s lunch.

Make it a habit

Pick three dinners from the list for the coming week and write one shopping list for all three. Our guide to meal planning for beginners shows how, and easy meals for students lists the minimal kitchen kit. In Chef Drago, the weekly planner takes a budget and builds the shopping list for you.