I Turned $25 Into 7 Meals… Here’s What I Made!
How I turned a $25 grocery budget into 8 easy meals. Grocery prices are rising, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat boring food. With one simple $25 grocery haul, you can make multiple filling meals using pantry staples like rice, beans, pasta, and potatoes, plus a few affordable ingredients.
These budget-friendly recipes are designed to stretch your groceries across the week while still being simple, satisfying, and family-friendly. Whether you’re trying to save money, meal plan on a tight budget, or just need easy dinner ideas, these meals will help you make the most of what you have. Thanks for watching 💜
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Grocery Prices Are CRAZY… $5 Dinners That HELP https://youtu.be/F_9docgB-qA
50 Budget COOKING Hacks That Save You MONEY Every Week https://youtu.be/DaSn-TJXdrU
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00:00 Extreme Budget Meals
00:34 Grocery Shopping at Walmart
03:23 $25 Grocery Haul
04:07 Chili Pasta Recipe
06:44 Loaded Baked Potatoes
08:40 One-Pot Pesto Veggie Skillet
10:09 Pesto Pasta with Vegetables
10:59 Batch Cooking Mayocoba Beans
12:17 Green Chile Bean Enchiladas
15:03 Pesto Chicken Potato Skillet
16:23 Bean and Rice Tacos
📍All of the written recipes from this video → https://www.juliapacheco.com/how-i-turned-a-25-grocery-budget-into-8-easy-meals/
50 Comments
Thanks for being here my friends!🩷More new videos here: https://youtube.com/@juliapacheco?si=lwijKXKppzwYhzbH
As a Canadian, this makes me so jealous. Can of tomatoes is at least $1.99 here. Never find cheese less than $5. Bag of frozen veg is at least $2.50 here but my local store charges $4.49 for a small bag of frozen veg. Also, I suck at doing poor. I am recently realizing I’m poor and have to change the way I eat. This meal of pasta with a tomato water based sauce would not taste good for me. In fact, none of these recipes would be flavourful. The enchiladas. Nope. Needs meat.
I love great value veggies and products I just don't get the fruit because it has a lot of recalls
as a Canadian this makes me sad.
– 1lb pasta box is $1.35 converted, $2 here
– Ground chicken 1.96 converted is 2.76 CAD, here that is $4 CAD (on sale right now locally, normally $6).
– Tomato paste funny enough is half as much here (tomato economy in Canada is much different than USA), canned tomatoes close in price
– Corn tortillas, about double cost here
– cheese :'( about 15% cheaper
– frozen and fresh veg is all like half the cost as here
and they still give you plastic bags!
I like to add cooked white beans to pesto pasta for protein. So yummy.
So happy this one has meat and much more appetizing meals than that $12 for 7 days video. That one mad me sad for you lol
Go, Julia!
Can you make cottage cheese?
Those portions are very small. But okay.
Very well done, appreciate this video!
Jesus, less than $2 for a whole cheese? Why is cheese so cheap in the US? Here in UK it’s at least twice that price
Can't wait to try this but vegan! Will be using tofu instead of chicken, which I think is similarly priced where I shop.
These recipes are wonderful Julia~ thank you so much for sharing 🙂 Bless you 💕
You are the best Julia!👍👍
Thanks!💕
These all look amazingly yummy!! Unfortunately my family wouldn't even touch it 😢
Slow down. Breathe
I love your videos so much! I do get some fantastic ideas! It seems that the budget portion is always off for me because where I live in cansda is insanely expensive! We can't get frozen ground meat and the fresh ground turkey or chicken is like $7-$8.50/lb. They wanted $28 for 4 chicken breasts this week. A pack of 4 or 5 chicken sausage is $7-8 . I feel like I can't keep up on groceries for my monthly budget
Those prices are EXTREMELY cheap. In Canada it would be twice that price plus more.
Wonderful ideas! I will definitely be using these recipes. I’ve started using a lot more store brand lately due to the price of groceries.
I tried the one pot veggie/chicken pesto . so great!!!!
Thank you so much. Sending this to my sisters too!
The chilli pasta was perfect thank you!
It is very filling and I LOVE that
Super healthy too 🙂
Hard to stretch meals using pasta, potato, etc when you are diabetic. I hate this entire system. 40% of food on grocery store shelves is thrown away while 1/6th of houses are food insecure.
Richest country in human history…what a joke. 😢
Only fown side to broccoli cuts is sometimes you end up with woody stem pieces in the bag and is not pleasant to eat so we ate the extra cost and florets
1:43 YEET
my hero
Do you have an Aldi in your area? Could you possibly do a budget grocery haul from there 😊
Bruh try living in new zealand we have way more expensive then you do you cant even shop on $25 for just me groceries cost me $150 a week that's how expensive it is so you dont even know what expensive is sorry
Thanks for your honest look at budget groceries and meals. It's tough these days to keep food healthy and filling. I am from Australia. Food prices are killing us over here. Your groceries at Walmart are so cheap. Our spring onions are $3 a bunch thats 2.16 in US dollars and you pay 1.06. Our cheese is $7.70 for a pound of cheese 5.54 US you pay under $4 for a pound. We are getting ripped off by the big box grocery stores here.
Bro I would beat my meat to this video ngl
I spent $30 this year on a Costco membership, JUST so that I can buy a $5 rotisserie chicken each week. You can make a lot of meals for 2 people using a single chicken. I think Wal-Mart often has the previous day's rotisserie chickens available for just a few dollars in the cold case and you can use that for casseroles or soups or pastas.
Not sure if you know this you probably do but sometimes if I don’t have eggs, I will use mayonnaise. It has both oil and eggs and can be used in recipes like corn muffin mix.😊
Corporate greed. That’s the only reason for this massive price increase. And tariffs. Mostly the first thing though, prices on just about everything have increased 50% in the last 2-3 years
13:50 Babe… lightly fry the tortillas in oil to soft them up. Not only does it make them soft but more flavorful. Trust me I'm Mexican
(I randomly found this video)
No idea if this will help anyone or not, but my local Wal-Mart sells cold roasterie chickens for about $2.5 or less which gives a ton of shredded protein for dishes on the cheap. They are usually in the aisle with the refridgerated sloopy joe stuff.
I love your no nonsense videos. You don't know how many life you are saving. Not in the US, outside of the US as well.
❤
Geewizze, thanks for this, but Government only gives me $23 a month😂😂😂😂😂❤️
Your video is so full of good advice and tips on shopping and cooking. Personally I found that most great value products were of low quality and not worth the few cents savings. But for those on a super tight budget they may be the only option other than starving two days a week.
It’s five dollars for ground beef where I’m at. 2 dollars is so cheap!
Sounds like you are feeling better 💞🙏💕
I have tried both the ground Turkey and the ground chicken. I prefer the ground Turkey. The chicken seems way more watery when I cooked it up.
I noticed some of these meals were vegetarian. I started eating a plant-based (and vegan) diet four years ago and was shocked by how much money I saved by not purchasing meat, dairy products, eggs, or other animal-based products anymore. Added bonus, I lost all the excess weight I had been carrying (75lbs!) and have kept it off easily ever since. I feel so much better and have more energy. I love seeing some great inexpensive meal ideas here! Potato power! 🥔
All that citric acid, yum
With that roll of chicken make your philly steak sloppy Joe recipe!! Made last night yummy!!!
Thanks Donald
Julia, I love your channel. Your meal ideas are always so good and I have made a few of them, they really are yummy. Thanks for sharing all your great ideas with us xx
You can substitute the pesto with green chili salsa and that is a Mexican dish i grew up on
These are the most basic recipes that I never thought of .. Thank you! I needed this. Hate eating the same thing so needed some new recipes with ingredients I already use besides the beans that was a new one so excited to see how those turn out!
I 90% duplicated this trip and my total is $30.05… only 3 months later