Frugal Recipes With 5 Dollar Dinners

Be sure to check out the other posts in my ABCs of Frugal Living series!

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty obsessed with saving money on groceries. I try to find every resource I can to find cheap meals. 5 Dollar Dinners has been a favorite for a few years now; I used one of her freezer meal plans when Allison was a baby and loved it, and she’s got great recipes, too. Today I’m featuring Erin’s site, how it’s helped me save money, and how you can benefit too! Note: I’m not receiving any money from the links you click in this post. I just really like her site!

---

Recipes

One of the main sections of Erin’s site is her recipes. She breaks down the cost of her meal, which is usually right around or under 5 dollars. They’re inexpensive but delicious, and she’s got hundreds of recipes archived! Check there first for ideas; here’s a list of some of my favorites.

Recipes I’ve tried

Slow Cooker Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas (You can tell I like Mexican food)

Recipes I want to try

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast

Ham and Cheese Oven Omelette

Mexican Breakfast Scramble

Honey Mustard Lentils and Rice Casserole

Pizza Penne Bake

Slow Cooker Chicken and Butternut Squash

Shredded Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches

Slow Cooker Refried Beans

---

Meal Plans

What first drew me to Erin’s site was her meal plans. She was most popular for her freezer meals for $150 at Sam’s Club/Costco, and I actually did one back in 2014 (You can see a small picture of it here). Back then, these meal plans were free, but now they’re available for a small price, between $2.50 and $5.00. Still worth it, if you need help filling your freezer! She also offers other meal plans that include printable labels, grocery list, recipes, assembly instructions, and even videos with the assembly process!

---

Services

5 Dollar Meal Plan- Erin offers a weekly meal plan subscription that sends you a week’s worth of meals to help save you time and energy on the meal planning process. It’s $5.00 a month, which isn’t too bad and could pay for itself if you find yourself grabbing fast food once a week because you don’t feel like cooking dinner.

MyFreezEasy- For $10.00 a month, you can subscribe to a freezer meal service. You’ll receive 8 meal plans a month, each with about 10 recipes that you can prepare and get in your freezer in an hour. You can also customize your meal plans with meals that you like. It looks like a really good service!

Grocery Budget Makeover- Erin offers a 5-week course on how to cut your grocery spending. It gives advice on meal planning, couponing, and grocery shopping, and people have said great things about it. You can currently join the waiting list here.

Whether you’re looking to totally re-do your meal planning process or just want some new, cheap recipes, definitely check out 5 Dollar Dinners! Her Sam’s Club meal plan saved me a few years ago, and her recipes are delicious. Have you tried any of her recipes or meal plans? Let me know in the comments, I’d love more ideas!