Budget Bites: Delicious Meals You Can Cook for Under $10

Five dinners for four people, each one costed to the last onion. The point is a handful of meals known well enough that the shopping decides itself and the bill stops surprising you, without the heroic cheap week that ends in takeaway by Friday.

Every price below is an estimate based on supermarket shelf prices in mid-2026, and prices move with the season and the specials board. Treat each total as a working figure, not a promise, and check the maths is sound: each meal feeds four, the per-serve cost is in brackets, and none of them crosses ten dollars.

1. One-pot veggie pasta

Zucchini $1.00, carrot $0.40, an onion $0.40, two cloves of garlic $0.20, a jar of passata $1.30, 500 g of pasta $1.20, and about $0.40 of oil, herbs and chilli flakes. Total $4.90, or about $1.25 a serve. Everything goes in the one pot, which means one element of washing up and no talent required. Grate the vegetables if the table turns its nose up at visible zucchini.

2. Chickpea curry with rice

Two tins of chickpeas $2.40, a tin of tomatoes $1.00, a tin of coconut milk $1.40, an onion $0.40, garlic and ginger $0.50, curry powder and cumin $0.40, a bag of baby spinach $1.50, and 300 g of rice $0.60. Total $8.20, or about $2.05 a serve. The spices are what the meal rests on, so buy them from the bulk section if your supermarket has one. It freezes well, which is worth knowing before you halve the recipe.

3. Loaded jacket potatoes

1.2 kg of potatoes $2.80, a tin of beans $1.20, cheddar $2.00, sour cream or yoghurt $1.00, spring onions $0.90, and salad leaves $1.50. Total $9.40, or about $2.35 a serve. This is the one that sits closest to the ten dollar line, so it is the one where a special on potatoes does the most good. It is also the most forgiving: whatever is in the fridge can usually be piled on top.

4. Fried rice, built on leftovers

500 g of cooked rice (from about 200 g raw) $0.50, three eggs $1.50, frozen peas and corn $1.40, a carrot $0.40, soy sauce $0.30, sesame oil $0.20, spring onions $0.90, and bacon or leftover roast if you have it $2.00. Total $5.20 without the meat, $7.20 with it, so about $1.30 to $1.80 a serve. Cold rice is the trick, and the wok answers to nobody’s recipe. Use what is left from a roast and this meal costs close to nothing at all.

5. Flatbread margherita

500 g of flour $0.90, yeast, salt and a pinch of sugar $0.25, passata $1.30, mozzarella $3.00, fresh basil $1.50, and olive oil $0.30. Total $7.25, or about $1.80 a serve, and the dough makes four generous flatbreads or eight small ones. The cheese is the expensive line, so use less of it than the takeaway does and let the tomatoes and basil carry the flavour. The dough is also the part to mix in the morning, if the day allows.

What keeps the bill down

Cook the plan, not the recipe. These five meals share a short shopping list: rice, pasta, tins, spices and whatever vegetables are in season that week. When the staples live in the cupboard, the weekly shop is mostly the fresh half of the list, and the fresh half is where the savings are visible.

Then the boring three: shop the season before the recipe, use the freezer for bread and leftovers, and eat the leftovers in the order they will not keep. Cooking this way wastes less as a side effect, and the habits of a zero waste kitchen start with exactly this discipline. A full fridge you will not cook is the most expensive way to eat there is.

Five dinners, one shopping list

Start with whichever meal uses what you already have in the cupboard, and let the list build itself from there. You do not need all five in one week. You need two you can cook without thinking, and the patience to add a third. The goal was never to eat for less because you have to. It is to eat well, for less, because you made a plan, and to have money left over for the things that matter more than dinner.

Sources: price estimates are based on supermarket shelf prices in mid-2026 and move with the season; general dietary guidance is published in the Australian Dietary Guidelines (eatforhealth.gov.au).