Money Smarts Blog

Grocery prices have a funny way of making you stare at your receipt and wonder where all your money went.

So we decided to put $20 to the test.

The challenge: Can you buy enough groceries to make three dinners for a family for $20 or less?

No fancy ingredients. No secret stash of truffles hiding in the pantry. Just a grocery list, a little creativity, and the willingness to make one ingredient work overtime.

We gave three of our team members $20 and asked them to see what they could come up with.

And they proved something important: stretching your grocery budget doesn't necessarily mean eating boring food. It means getting creative with what you buy.

Here’s what happened.

Jaslynn: Taco Night... Three Ways

Jaslynn took the "work smarter, not harder" approach.

Her strategy? Start with taco meat and keep giving it new life.

For her first dinner, she made classic beef tacos with cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes. Pretty standard taco night. Nothing wrong with that.

But then came dinner number two: nachos.

She used the leftover taco meat from the night before, piled it on Doritos, and added cheese and the same toppings. Her daughter even added jalapeños and sour cream they already had at home.

And for dinner number three?

Rotel dip. Jaslynn combined the remaining taco meat with cream cheese, Velveeta, and a can of Rotel, then served it over chips.

One taco-meat base. Three very different dinners.

Her grocery haul came to $20.75, although delivery fees were part of the total. She added a few additional items to avoid the delivery fee, so the actual food costs came in very close to the $20 goal.

The takeaway

Jaslynn said the hardest part was eating three meals based on the same taco meat.

Her advice? “Recycle and elevate.”

Look for ingredients that can pull double, triple, or even quadruple duty. And don't be afraid to use what you already have at home.

If she had another $5 to spend, she'd add dessert. Because apparently there are limits to our financial discipline, and that limit is brownies.

Haylee: One Chicken, Three Completely Different Meals

Haylee took a slightly different approach: buy ingredients that can show up in multiple meals without making every dinner taste the same.

Her $19.24 grocery haul included chicken drumsticks, rice, eggs, frozen vegetables, black beans, tortillas, a Caesar salad kit, onions, and a few seasonings.

From that, she made:

Chicken Fried Rice: Chicken, rice, eggs, and mixed vegetables came together for a filling fried rice dinner.

Black Beans and Eggs: Black beans, eggs, onions, and taco seasoning were tucked alongside tortillas for a simple, inexpensive meal.

Chicken Caesar Wraps: That same chicken made another appearance, this time with a Caesar salad kit, onion, and tortillas.

Three meals. One grocery trip. $19.24.

And there was even a serving left over for lunch the next day.

Haley said the biggest challenge was finding a protein that would fit the budget. She also learned that chicken drumsticks, while budget-friendly, aren't necessarily everyone's dream protein because they come with a little extra... chicken baggage.

Her biggest tip? Stick to basic ingredients that can be used in multiple ways.

That's really the secret sauce of a tight grocery budget. You don't necessarily need a pantry full of specialty ingredients. You need a few versatile ones that can change personalities throughout the week.

Savion: When $20 Turns Into Soup Season

Savion took the simplest approach of the three: keep it basic.

Shopping at Aldi in Rock Island, he focused on inexpensive ingredients that could work across multiple meals.

His three dinners were:

• Onion soup with baked French bread
• Cheesy potato soup with baked French bread
• Pork chops with sautéed green beans

The surprise? He managed to feed three people: his mom, his brother, and himself.

And the soups shared ingredients, too.

He cooked the onions down until golden brown for the onion soup, then used leftover onions and broth in the potato soup. The French bread made an appearance with both soups, too, getting sliced, buttered, and baked until crispy.

Then came the pork chops and green beans, with some of the leftover broth even being used as part of the pork chop marinade.

Savion said he honestly didn't expect to be able to make three actual meals for $20 while still making food he genuinely enjoyed.

His mom's response may be the best review of the entire challenge:

She already asked him to make the onion soup again.

His advice? Don't overthink a meal.

You don't need the most expensive ingredients to make something good. Start with the basics, look for ingredients that can work in more than one dish, and keep things simple.

So... Can You Really Feed a Family for $20?

Our three challengers came up with three very different answers.

Jaslynn showed us how to build one ingredient into multiple meals.

Haley showed us how to buy versatile ingredients and completely change the meal from night to night.

Savion showed us how simple, inexpensive ingredients can go a surprisingly long way.

And while grocery prices and household needs vary, the challenge did prove one thing:

You don't have to spend a fortune to put dinner on the table.

A little planning can make a grocery budget stretch further. Look for ingredients that can do double duty. Buy what you know you'll actually use. And before you buy 14 different ingredients for one recipe, ask yourself: “Can I make this ingredient work for another meal, too?”

Because sometimes the secret to saving money at the grocery store isn't finding one magical bargain.

It's making sure the things already in your cart don't have just one job.

Want to try the $20 challenge yourself? Pick three dinners. Set a $20 limit. Shop your kitchen first. Then hit the grocery store with a plan.

And remember: leftovers aren't leftovers if you give them a new personality.